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.

I understand your frustration and stress. The estate agent has absolutely no place advising you of a completion date given that they are not handling the sale and have no insight into where the legal processes are to to!

I have recently left conveyancing due to the stress but was my job for 20 years. I'd never ever advise a client of a completion date until all stages of the process were near to completion.

The average time frame is usually 12-16 weeks but obviously the boundary issue has delayed matters.

Personally I'd be looking at other properties and making it known to the estate agent/rest of the chain that I was doing so to give them a kick up the behind and chase whoever needs to be chased!

And how does this comment help the OP exactly?

The reason for the delay is clearly set out in the OP- a boundary issue on her sellers onward purchase and awaiting the mortgage to be signed off

You have to be prepared to walk. Our vendors, our own solicitor and the estate agent dicked us around and we, as naive first time buyers, nearly ended up homeless because our solicitor allowed us to set a completion date without telling us that contracts had not been returned.

Don’t engage with the estate agent. Instruct your solicitor to send a letter to theirs that unless contracts are exchanged and a completion date is set by whatever timeframe suits you then you will pulling out. This was the only thing that worked for us but they pushed it right to the wire.

It doesn’t but may help others in that situation reading this. I wish someone had told me this.

if a landlord gives notice and you're moving into a purchased property you can negotiate with the landlord to extend the tenancy until you're ready to move. The landlord has no option but to negotiate (it's not really a negotiation, but it's polite to call it that rather than just inform the landlord you won't be leaving)
Anyone who voluntarily leaves a rental before their property is available to move to is shooting themselves right in the foot.

My boundaries took ages - I did feb to June waiting

I've been in similar situation and I understand how stressful it is.

What i did was call up the estate agent and complain ask them what the hold up is and then if it's still the same story you threaten to pull out if it goes on any longer even give a deadline or say you have no choice but to now look at other properties hopefully it will kick them up the ass. As five months you should be close to exchanging contracts.

I wouldn't of given up my rental but that's done now you can only do what you can moving forward.

Conveyancing takes ages now.
I had an offer accepted at the end of August and didn’t complete till start of March. This was a cash purchase of an empty property so no chain whatsoever and didn’t even have a survey.
I sold my previous property to first time buyers and that took over five months - again with no chain.

A boundary dispute alone can take months to sort out so yes on usual case I'd agree 5 months should be close to exchange or have already exchanged, that's not really applicable here. OPs conveyancer should have explained that at the outset and the estate agent shouldn't be making false promises of dates to strung them along to keep his/her commission.

This is one of many reasons I'm about to quit conveyancing and take a pay cut just to get out. Totally unethical and unfair on the OP!!

This sort of thing is not uncommon when buying a property, and Estate Agents will tend to be optimistic in order not to lose the sale. We had a situation once where there were delays on a property we'd made an offer on, so we found somewhere else - turned out to be much better!

I understand completely re boundary issues We had it with changing from leasehold to freehold but five months is a long time as you say yourself. Funny tho when I threatened to pull out that it kicked them up the ass lol.. Sorry to hear that you're leaving because of that but I'm sure whatever you do will be less stressful (hopefully). Selling, moving and buying is so stressful for everyone involved. I've moved three times and tbh Im put off moving again lol.

Sale Agreed in February... Completed in JULY. It's not that unusual especially if there are any issues that come up in the survey. We did a rolling tenancy so we only had to give a month's notice to move out having given notice we were planning to move. Luckily they were fine with that. It sounds like things are finally moving. You can speed the process up by having Exchange and Completion closer together. I had a month between and I wouldn't recommend doing it on the same day but a week would be fine.

An average purchase is approx 2 to 3 months, a boundary issue can take months to sort out, so yes and no, five months is long for a "normal" purchase but it isn't that long in these circumstances if that makes sense and it could drag on for months more, hence my suggestion to tell the agent they're considering other properties.

Yes the whole process is extremely stressful for clients and staff alike and has got much worse since lockdown, people are leaving the profession in droves which then has the knock on effect of slowing matters down when firms are short staffed 😒. It's also the lowest paid area of law to practise in and also the area with the highest proportion of unqualified staff/low cost factory firms which doesn't help anyone except the estate agents paid backhanders, sorry referral fees to recommend them!

I worked 6.30am to 6.30pm today and could easily have carried on longer!

I am also put off moving even though I would like to as just cannot deal with the thought of it (plus the packing and unpacking) just no!!!

Do you have a direct contact with the vendors? We were in a similar situation and only by communication with the vendors directly did we manage to complete after 6-7 months, it was hell but unless you want to start all over again, you should just arm yourself with patience. I hate the buying/selling process in this country with a passion.

Well you know your stuff. I don't blame you at all especially if someone pulls out last min I've been through that and it was awful

Hello
I had a buyer last August. They lost their buyer in November and I waited for them as they wanted the house. I still showed mine but I liked the fact that they really wanted my house. I didn’t get any interest over the Christmas period and then in March they found a buyer and I was under offer again with them. I hit week 25 last week. We were meant to exchange last week and completion 17/10 and every day I went through the process to exchange, it’s a chain of 3. Both my buyers and their buyer reapplied for better interest rates, but everything was in so everyone was ready. On Wednesday my buyer had given authority to exchange as had I. Their buyers solicitor had the afternoon off! Nothing happened again on Thursday. Then everyone was ready on Friday. I received a call at 3.30pm to say my buyer was having second thoughts. She has a solicitor she works for acting for her. He’s semi retired and has taken a week to answer questions and respond to enquiries.

I lost my husband last summer and this summer I have been packing up my house. I have put a deposit on a new build and it took those solicitors 10 weeks. Here in Ickenham it is week 26 on Monday and if my buyer decides that since August last year they don’t want to live here in my house, there is nothing I can do.

Has anyone ever been this long in a chain and it fell through?

These things can take forever.
I was also a FTB. Agreed to buy a property at the end of April, and we didn't exchange until almost 5 months later.
Your mistake was giving up the rental. I had the same issue in that my lease was up in mid July, but I just moved to a month by month agreement. I didn't give notice until the day exchange went through. Even if that means you have to pay another few weeks on the rent, you've got that security.
If this house falls through, you'll have to get another rental place.

Personally, I'd start making "cross noises" at the estate agent and the solicitor. 5 months with nothing is definitely crossing over into the realm of "piss take".