What’s the longest you’ve known it take between offer accepted and exchanging?

[Forgottenmyphone]

The house we’re buying is in a chain. What’s the longest you (or someone you know) have waited between your offer being accepted and actually moving in? I’m feeling impatient!

We were around 10 months from offer accepted to completion.

Yep, you've asked for worst case scenarios OP but we recently completed on our purchase exactly 6 weeks to the day after putting our offer in. Not everyone will have to wait months and months

Our first flat that we bought in 2010 took 18 months. It was a repossession and it took so long as the legal side was so difficult to wrap up. Completely worth it in the end and it scrubbed up really well but it felt like it dragged on forever at the time.

Put our place on the market Jan24. Offer accepted within the month from a FTB couple who turned out to be nervous time wasters, constantly wanting additional surveys, they pulled out the week of exchange in July.

Back on the market, sold early September and everything going well until the bottom of the chain (buyers buyer) dropped out early December. So now we wait for the chain to complete again...

I have moved around 5 times as an adult My first place took 8 weeks (1979) from offer accepted to completion. The last house I sold took 7 months from offer agreed to completion .

Would have been at least 8 months if mortgage company hadn’t forgotten to get a survey and we hadn’t exchanged and completed on the same day.

Although I bought current place at auction for cash and that took 30 days

We agreed to buy the house we live in now, and to wait until the vendors found a house they wanted to buy. It took them almost a year to find something they liked, but it did all go through very efficiently once everyone was ready. We spent four days in a local B&B between selling one and buying the next, which was like a minibreak in your own area. But it was pre-kids.

27 weeks. I was buying an empty from a local authority so I couldn't see why there was such delay. The solicitor acting for LA just took about 2 months to fill in any paperwork due to being off work sick then same person dealing with case went on holiday for 2 weeks so more delays.

@Forgottenmyphone how is it going? Have you moved yet?

A year is an extreme example. 16 weeks from the chain being complete is the average I think.

Is your chain complete yet, or does your seller still need to find a new house? That’s the first hurdle.

nearly 14 months for me in my eventual move last year. Chain of 3 with me in the middle. All the problems were with the house I was buying / my sellers, fortunately my buyers were keen enough on my house to wait. So it was the same entire chain that got there in the end but it was still painful!

My sister currently 15 months and counting. Expecting exchange at the end of this month. She's a FTB purchasing an empty house from a landlord, no onward chain. Absolute joke from the start. I'd have pulled out 3 months in if it were me.

What ?
5 months is very, very standard.

To answer the OP, the longest amongst family and friends that I remember was 16 months.

9 months for a FTB purchasing an empty property I figured was pretty bad! Vendor lived in Hong Kong and was incredibly slow at responding to enquiries, my solicitor was useless, completely out of her depth with our lease and seemed to think that because she worked part time, it was okay that everything took twice as long!