Mortgage approved (yeah) but sellers seem a bit too leisurely...

[Greenfairydust]

I had my mortgage approved this week and about to drop the final paperwork at my solicitors office for them to start the conveyancing process.

So next step will be a full structural survey.

But I am getting a bit concerned about the sellers lack of urgency. I was told by sellers and estate agents when I made my offer that they had just found somewhere to buy that was vacant so we would be in a small chain. I got the official letter from the agent confirming that my offer had been accepted.

I initially wanted to only offer on property that were already empty but this one was the nicest I saw so I thought a small chain would be fine.

Since I have updated the agents of my progress in past 2 weeks but so far have not heard anything about the progress of the other side.

Am I being paranoid? I am tempted to drop by the estate agency tomorrow and ask whether the sellers have instructed solicitors and their purchase is progressing.

Or should I leave that up to my solicitors to chase from now on?

I would be seriously annoyed if it turned out that their purchase had fallen through and that no one had informed me because it could mean delays and my offer was made based on the promise of small chain already in motion.

Thoughts?

have you received the memorandum of sale? As that will have the sellers solicitors details and therefore you know they have instructed them.

@Lcb123

No, all I got a letter from the agents confirming the offer was accepted subject to contract and that they had written to both solicitors with confirmation of the transaction. Nothing since.

I'd not be worried at all - apart from the fact your EA should have issued you with MoS directly (it sounds like this went to your solicitors but you didn't get your own copy) there's really not much you should be expecting to hear from your sellers about at the moment - what is it you want to hear? All comms will come when your solicitor starts requesting information. You have barely begun your side and there was no need for you to wait for your mortgage offer before starting a survey or conveyancing so you've already held things up your end!

@EstherHazy ''so you've already held things up your end!''

I didn't. It took the solicitor secretary a week to send me all the paperwork to complete.

I did my mortgage application in the meantime. The mortgage broker advised not to book the structural survey before the mortgage application was approved. I kept the agent informed throughout.

So, no I did not hold anything up...

Fair enough - nothing significant but plenty of people get a survey underway while the mortgage application is in, that was all really.

Good luck with it all!

This sounds quite normal to me. Are you a first time buyer? I think you might be quite shocked at how slow things can be and how long you’ll go without hearing anything. I don’t mean that to sound patronising and I’m sorry if it does - I get that it’s a nerve wracking process. Honestly that’s why people get so stressed with it. I recently sold to a first time buyer and was constantly asked for price reductions because of how slow it was going…it went as fast as any other sale / purchase I’ve done before and there was nothing I could have done any faster.

If you haven’t received the property information and fixtures forms within 4 weeks then I’d chase it (this is a form which lists what is staying and going, info about boiler etc).

Yeah sorry it takes ages. We had an offer accepted in Feb and didn't get a moving date until July. Extreme but not uncommon. No chain our side

Just to add - their mortgage offer was valid the entire time. Otherwise I might have been more understanding about the reduction requests. But they just wanted us to subsidise their rent costs.

Are you a FTB? The whole process takes an eternity and is an absolute pain in the backside as everybody seems to move at a glacial pace! Yours seems to be so far, so standard, good luck!

You didn’t hold things up. It’s sensible to get your own mortgage offer confirmed before doing a survey or searches, in case there’s any issues with getting the mortgage. It does take ages unfortunately!

Thanks everyone for the feedback!

Went to the solicitors office this morning to provide a bunch of documents and also stopped by the estate agent to catch up. Everything is going fine so it looks like I got worried for nothing for now.

I am not a first time buyer but my previous properties were a new built that was very quick/straightforward to purchase and an inherited property that I sold, so I have more experience of selling homes rather than buying and being in a chain which explains the nerves...

I am going to set up the structural survey next.