Buyers gone silent

Mumofsonanddogs · 2025-10-07T08:06:06+00:00

Has anyone else experienced this? My son and his girlfriend excepted an offer on their house in early July, their buyers seemed keen for a quick sale, the house my son and girlfriend want is vacant so no chain that side The buyers had a survey and sent some questions via their solicitor which have been answered but that was over 5/6 weeks ago and now nothing 'silence' my son has rung his solicitors weekly for an update and nothing!! This can't be normal, why silence ? has anyone had similar? What should we do? I think we should contact the estate agent and ask them to give the buyers a courteousy call? What would you do in this situation If they don't want the house they should just say and we can bag it straight back on the market before winter comes

InSpainTheRain · 07/10/2025 09:31

If it was my DS and his GF I'd butt out unless they are asking you for advice. However, if it was me I'd give the buy an ultimatum via the estate agent saying they need to respond by 13 October (or whatever date they pick) otherwise it's going back on the market. I'd also advise the solicitor that I'd done that.

whatshallidowithyou · 07/10/2025 13:13

Are you saying the solicitors are literally ignoring your son’s calls? If so threatening to put a formal complaint in might get them communicating again

FuzzyWolf · 07/10/2025 13:15

It’s hard to know what is really going on but if the buyer and their solicitor isn’t responding to requests to communicate then it’s time to put the property back on the market.

Lennonjingles · 07/10/2025 13:21

I would ring the Estate Agent, they will have direct contact with the buyers. You would have thought that by now, the mortgage company and surveyors would have done their survey by now. My DS purchased a flat earlier this year with no onward chain, it still took 14 weeks to complete, the Solicitors on both sides, instead of working together were making issues where there shouldn’t be.

wyrather · 07/10/2025 13:27

They're probably waiting for searches to come back. But it's never a bad idea to enlist the agent to check in every few weeks and make sure everything's on track. (Always use the estate agent for this, as far as possible, when selling house, rather than your solicitor, as it can increase legal costs.)

HangryBrickShark · 07/10/2025 13:41

Yes our sale took 9.5 months to go through, we found a buyer almost immediately. It was a shared ownership but the buyer was in rented accomodation and we have moved to the family home bequeathed me by my parents so no chain.

We were beginning to lose hope of ever moving but finally exchanged and completed on the same day. When we went to the Estate Agents to drop off the keys we were told any further delay the buyer would have pulled out. What delayed the process was the ineptitude of both the buyers and our solicitor. Paperwork issues - the TR1 and Contract sent to us with two different sale prices, 7 weeks from our answered enquiries being sent to buyers solicitor without our solicitor chasing them to ask if anything else was outstanding. Being chased for information when we were away on holiday which according to the housing association had been sent to our solicitor three times!

On the day we completed our final account showing an incorrect sale price yet again! Never any apologies for the mistakes mind you. Not one.

What really irked was that the solicitor we started off using saw fit to pass our file to a legal assistant who hadn't a clue what they were doing. We all have to learn, but during that process we should be mentored. This wasn't happening. I used to be a legal assistant and I made mistakes, sure I did. But any mistakes I made were rectified by the Solicitor I worked for before the letters I typed up or produced myself were sent out. This is how you learn.

I hope you hear some news soon OP.

If it wasn't for my knowledge of the conveyancing process and my 'dog with a bone' consistent pushing attitude, we would have lost our buyer and would be remarketing our house now. We still had to pay £850 for the privilege of such crap service!

Original poster

Mumofsonanddogs · 07/10/2025 17:20

InSpainTheRain · 07/10/2025 09:31

If it was my DS and his GF I'd butt out unless they are asking you for advice. However, if it was me I'd give the buy an ultimatum via the estate agent saying they need to respond by 13 October (or whatever date they pick) otherwise it's going back on the market. I'd also advise the solicitor that I'd done that.

Thanks for your help and yes they are asking for my advice on the situation

OP posts:

Original poster

Mumofsonanddogs · 07/10/2025 17:22

whatshallidowithyou · 07/10/2025 13:13

Are you saying the solicitors are literally ignoring your son’s calls? If so threatening to put a formal complaint in might get them communicating again

They just keep saying they will chase the others solicitors

OP posts:

Original poster

Mumofsonanddogs · 07/10/2025 17:25

HangryBrickShark · 07/10/2025 13:41

Yes our sale took 9.5 months to go through, we found a buyer almost immediately. It was a shared ownership but the buyer was in rented accomodation and we have moved to the family home bequeathed me by my parents so no chain.

We were beginning to lose hope of ever moving but finally exchanged and completed on the same day. When we went to the Estate Agents to drop off the keys we were told any further delay the buyer would have pulled out. What delayed the process was the ineptitude of both the buyers and our solicitor. Paperwork issues - the TR1 and Contract sent to us with two different sale prices, 7 weeks from our answered enquiries being sent to buyers solicitor without our solicitor chasing them to ask if anything else was outstanding. Being chased for information when we were away on holiday which according to the housing association had been sent to our solicitor three times!

On the day we completed our final account showing an incorrect sale price yet again! Never any apologies for the mistakes mind you. Not one.

What really irked was that the solicitor we started off using saw fit to pass our file to a legal assistant who hadn't a clue what they were doing. We all have to learn, but during that process we should be mentored. This wasn't happening. I used to be a legal assistant and I made mistakes, sure I did. But any mistakes I made were rectified by the Solicitor I worked for before the letters I typed up or produced myself were sent out. This is how you learn.

I hope you hear some news soon OP.

If it wasn't for my knowledge of the conveyancing process and my 'dog with a bone' consistent pushing attitude, we would have lost our buyer and would be remarketing our house now. We still had to pay £850 for the privilege of such crap service!

Edited

Thanks for taking the time to share your experience, I wish the process was more transparent, it should have been a quick sale between 2 parties no long chain

OP posts:

Original poster

Mumofsonanddogs · 07/10/2025 17:29

Lennonjingles · 07/10/2025 13:21

I would ring the Estate Agent, they will have direct contact with the buyers. You would have thought that by now, the mortgage company and surveyors would have done their survey by now. My DS purchased a flat earlier this year with no onward chain, it still took 14 weeks to complete, the Solicitors on both sides, instead of working together were making issues where there shouldn’t be.

Thanks I think that is what we will do, they just want an answer either way
Good or bad news

OP posts:

PigletJohn · 07/10/2025 17:38

If the buyers have gone quiet, they might have changed their minds, they might have found another home they prefer, they might have calculated that they can't afford it.

You can't rely on them, or the agent, telling the truth. You want to see a mortgage survey, and their solicitor sharpening his quill and doing some searches.

You can put some milestones in place, and say that in the absence of progress, it will be going back on the market.

WonderingWanda · 07/10/2025 17:42

Surely they are just waiting for the solicitors to get back to them with searches. Ours were taking ages but then it turned out the solicitor had emailed dh a link to pay another company to conduct the searches...only it had vanished into his inbox and not been paid. No one from either the solicitors or the company reminded us and it's pure chance and very lucky we realised. Then our solicitor has lots of queries for the vendors solicitors and that too forever. Whole thing took 5 months. It's normal for not much to be going on at times. If they were pulling out then you'd know about it.

Original poster

Mumofsonanddogs · 07/10/2025 17:43

Lennonjingles · 07/10/2025 13:21

I would ring the Estate Agent, they will have direct contact with the buyers. You would have thought that by now, the mortgage company and surveyors would have done their survey by now. My DS purchased a flat earlier this year with no onward chain, it still took 14 weeks to complete, the Solicitors on both sides, instead of working together were making issues where there shouldn’t be.

Thanks they had a survey well over a month ago, but never heard anything about it?

OP posts:

StewkeyBlue · 07/10/2025 17:56

Get the EA on it.

It is the EAs job to progress the sale, not just find a buyer. They should be doing regular updates too.

The EA can talk to the buyers solicitor too - which you cannot.

Original poster

Mumofsonanddogs · 07/10/2025 18:08

StewkeyBlue · 07/10/2025 17:56

Get the EA on it.

It is the EAs job to progress the sale, not just find a buyer. They should be doing regular updates too.

The EA can talk to the buyers solicitor too - which you cannot.

Thank you for your advice

OP posts:

DrySherry · 07/10/2025 20:44

I smell a hidden chain... happens a lot.

Original poster

Mumofsonanddogs · 07/10/2025 21:29

DrySherry · 07/10/2025 20:44

I smell a hidden chain... happens a lot.

That's high on my list of possibilities

OP posts:

TheWordWomanIsTaken · 08/10/2025 12:30

Even if the survey was a month go they would have waited about two weeks to get it back.

One of my adult children is currently buying a house and the survey is 110 pages long - combine that with the searches and the caveats in the deeds, there is a lot to get your head around in terms of enquiries, costs for potential work etc.
I think your estate agent should put in a call to ask for an update from them.

housethatbuiltme · 08/10/2025 16:42

Searches take ages and nothing can be done while waiting (except survey but thats been done).

Tagalogalog · 08/10/2025 16:45

Yeah could be a chain. Our seller was allegedly simply buying a new house except it turned out that to buy their new home they had to sell a second property they owned!

Estate agents simply lie. I would say you want an email from the buyer solicitor stating reason for delay otherwise house goes back on market on Saturday

Mumlaplomb · 08/10/2025 16:59

Ask the agents to speak to the buyer. We were trying to move last year and our buyers apparently couldn’t speak English and were silent for three months. We couldn’t get them to communicate timescales for exchange etc and in the end when there were problems with our onward purchase we just called it off as we weren’t convince the buyers were going to proceed.