5 months since we sale agreed on a property, no completion date in sight

[SugarandSpiceLatte]

I agreed on a property in mid December and there is still no sign of a completion date. There was a boundary issue with the sellers ongoing property which has now been resolved and they are now waiting for the bank to sign off the mortgage but there still has not been any timelines. We were initially told by the estate agent that everything would be completed by end of March then this popped up. The estate agents then told us that the sale would be completed mid may and there is still no sign. We are frustrated as our tenancy agreement was up at the end of March and we had to move in with family who are making hints that they want us out so we are essentially homeless. We have no idea what to do and are feeling very stressed.

Never give notice on your letting until you get to completion. I also learned this the hard way and we had to find a short term let for three months as our purchase (as FTBers) got delayed and delayed due to problems higher up the chain. We were trying to save money and it backfired massively.

Also never pay any attention to what the estate agent tells you. They don’t know what might arise during the process and yet merrily go around telling people when things are going to happen. I’ve seen memorunda of sale with exchange and completion dates on them, which are just made up by the agents. No dates are certain until contracts are exchanged.

Start looking at alternatives

You need to ask your solicitor, they ought to know what’s going on in the chain.

Sorry I meant exchange, not completion. You’re on safe ground at exchange.

@SugarandSpiceLatte I fully understand how frustrating the wait is, but you have waited so far, I suggest you wait for the exchange date which will happen. Yes you should not have given notice on your rented property until you had exchanged, but it is done now so if you are able to stay where you are for a time more, I would wait.

Do not believe anything the EA tells you, ask your solicitor how the purchase is proceeding.

Once you have the keys and have moved in, enjoying your new home, the stress of the delay will be forgotten very quickly.

To be fair, we don't know if OP gave notice or if the tenancy was due to end anyway due to Landlord's reasons.

OP what reason have the Solicitors given for such a gigantic delay?

We moved to a cheap Air BnB 'for a month' which turned into much longer between selling and buying. It's stressful enough without living with family and so being careful and you need your own space. We got a very small Airbnb and extended monthly.

The only thing you can do is chase the estate agents and the solicitora, put pressure on, tell them you need to complete asap due to your situation. In my experience solicitors especially will not rush themselves, you need to be on their case all the time to get anything done, felt like we were doing their job for them most of the time. I would like to say we just picked a bad one, but I hear others having similar experiences all the time too.

You need to constantly be emailing and calling your solicitor and the estate agents either side.

i mean daily, if you’re not getting updates or progressing you need to push and make it happen

Tell the EA that unless you complete by the end of the month you are going to resume your search. You are in a very difficult position but someone needs to get a move on.

The estate agent is working for the vendors. They will say anything to keep you on side as a potential buyer. When we were in a similar situation I told the estate agent that if we didn't exchange in the next two weeks then we were pulling out and would buy a new build with no chain. Things then moved.

We had similar issues as ft buyer we were told August as it was a vacant property so no chain we didn’t exchange until the week before Christmas. Email your solicitor and she if they can give the seller’s solicitor a nudge.

Don’t give up hope! We agreed our sale in December and only completed last week and only had 2 houses in the chain. It went from nothing happening to exchange on Thursday and completion on Tuesday. Contact your solicitor and ask what is outstanding and when can you expect to exchange

Tell the chain you now want exchange and completion within six weeks as you'll be homeless at that point, and if now signs of it happening a couple of weeks before that you'll have to consider commiting to another tenancy. You're not saying you're pulling out, but that should ruffle a few feathers.

Are you sure the boundary issue has been resolved if they have to make changes to the deeds with the land registry that can take forever
my son offered in June
everything was ready to go by Sept
but the sellers purchase had solar panels and they couldn’t get this sorted out
it dragged on till Nov when the sellers pulled out of their sale and bought a house in the same street without solar panels

even with no chain - only my son & the sellers buying a house it still took from mid December to mid Feb to exchange & complete

I wouldn't bother discussing with the EA - they don't really know enough and all they will do is call the solicitors to ask them (and solicitors hate EAs and avoid their calls).. I'd speak to your solicitor, ask to have a phone call and ask them specifically what is missing, how long it might take and if anything can speed it up. If the thing missing is the mortgage then you will just have to wait but you can normally ask the bank for an estimate of how long mortgages are taking and it shouldn't be too long.
You need to take control and push the solicitor, tell them you need it to move fast now, ask them to chase the other solicitors and start suggesting dates.
If you just sit and wait it takes forever. My parents did this, just sat back, and 5 months in had enough so asked their solicitor to push for a date - the answer "oh actually we are short of the money right now". Their buyer had spent their deposit and was just coasting through the process till they had enough saved back up. They'd never have known if they hadn't chased and pushed for a date and they immediately pulled out when they realised the money was missing. When you start pressing for dates that's when they'll start moving

Definitely solicitors need chasing. We did my late father’s empty and vacant property to a cash buyer with no chain other side and couldn’t believe how long things took. It was partly the speed of the solicitor who was actually a family friend as well which made things worse. He was just being slow at completing paperwork. We ended up hassling him daily and suddenly for a call today it was exchanged and completing the next day after months of nothing. The main reason I was harassing them was that the sale money I was inheriting was paying off my own mortgage which was due to pretty much double on a certain date when my deal was finished and I was going to struggling financially from that point until I got the money through. It was literally this time of year as well.

I would take anything the agent says with a pinch of salt. Boundary issues can cause chaos on conveyancing because understandably no one wants to buy a property with a boundary dispute and inherit that problem! Not to mention that may well the need to be squared away with the Land Registry who for context are still processing some of my applications from 18 months ago. You can request they expedite if it’s holding up a sale but it can still be a bit slow, especially if there’s things missing from the application or they have more questions.

Most residential conveyancers I know have huge case loads which means they can’t always be as responsive as quickly as they’d like, not to mention it takes time to throughly go through the title, raise enquiries and ensure there are no issues for the lender and the buyer - they’ll also want to minimise their risk of a negligence claim if they miss anything from rushing to meet deadlines!

It is a slow slow process, even when it’s straightforward, but just phone your solicitor and ask for an update - explain your position and that you just need to know where the rest of the chain is at. You could always set a deadline but I would always advise against making a threat you’re not willing to follow through on!

If its soliciors:
phone yours every two days and ask for what /who SPECIFICALLY the delay is.
you can then liaise with sellers and use a pincer movement with them to get the solicitors moving. I caught mine lying about waiting on the sellers ... twice 🙄

If its sellers:
You can also put a clock on it.
When we bought the sellers were slow so we agreed a completion date and advised the sellers the price would drop by £2.5k every week they were late. Quelle suprise they met the exchange and completion on time..

yes as above, our solicitors gave us a completion date all of a sudden then we exchanged two days before. It's a bizarre process as everything goes mad, then suddenly quiet then mad again. it's such a roller coaster. We agreed sale at the end of Jan and completed at the end of April.

couple of years ago the house i was buying took 8 months, lost the will to live they picked a tortoise slow solicitor who took 2 weeks to check their id mine did mine in half an hour,in the end my solicitor was emailing every member of staff in their company to try and get movement,you pay a set fee to buy a house using a solicitor its shocking how slow it is, try upping your game phone estate agent daily phone their and your solicitor daily, be a pest ,fingers crossed for you i feel like i aged 10 years ,then it happened really fast at the end,the final straw for me they left the house i was moving into filthy i was fuming

I think where you went wrong was giving notice on your rental. Never do this until exchange has happened. 5 months is a long sale but tbh not I heard of. My brother had one that was 9 months!

You can start putting pressure on the agent that you are getting fed up but if there are still issues to resolve then it may take a bit longer.

If your family want you to move out then I’d explore short term rentals like holiday cottages or air bnbs. This time of year though there may not be much around.

You need to kick up a fuss basically. We were stuck for months until I complained and then it was all magically sorted 4 weeks after then.

I don’t really understand why you gave up your rental. If your original term was up you should have been able to go onto a rolling monthly contract. If this purchase falls through you will have to find another rental.

You need to ensure you really are near the finish line and waiting for the mortgage to be rubber-stamped, or they’re just stalling.