OK , 6 weeks today since offer accepted. NO sign of an exchange. Should we act?

[faraday]

We're buying (those who follow this Topic will know all the shenanigans therein!).

6 1/2 weeks ago we offered on a property. 6 weeks ago the vendors accepted.

We have done a survey and apparently all the searches have come back as OK.

We finally, after much harassing, received a 'Contents' inclusions last Tuesday which we have amended a little. But have had no response yet.

At what point should we be drawing a line in the sand re Exchange?

We returned from hols 2 weeks ago and were dismayed to have NOTHING waiting for us from the vendors in advancing the house purchase so I said Sod This, we're back looking. I called another local agent re a property I saw on Rightmove(already sold, sadly!) BUT he called us back an hour later to enquire whether we had an offer in on a given property?? Transpires he'd just shown OUR vendors around a house which THEY'D the offered on (successfully). All fine and dandy.

That was over 2 weeks ago and apart from the Contents list we have heard nothing since. We would have expected our vendors to be hot-footing it to Exchange with us now they NEED our money...BUT DH called the other agent (ie the bloke we have no direct dealings with other than the coincidental phone call I made to him post holiday about another house!) today who tells us the top of their chain is holding things up. So yes, our vendors ARE once again stalling on us and 'may need more time from you'. Well, we already GAVE them 12 weeks upon offer acceptance BUT seeing as we rent, yes we COULD give them another month BUT THEY NEED TO ASK US! (with the caveat that they DID say upon accepting our 12 week based offer, they'd RENT if need be!!- changed their tune there!) AND if they want that from us, we feel it's not unreasonable to offer another month based on us Exchanging in no more than a week, if not by this Friday! We feel it's about time they wore some of this 'risk' as they are obviously holding out on us to see what happens at the top of their chain.

What do you think? OK, it's a risk in that they may say no to a week's exchange but that would tell us that they really don't intend taking any risk thus we might well choose to walk away; they seem to be under the impression their house is ever rising in value (their EA has encouraged that belief BUT be aware this is God's Own School Catchment and houses DO go under offer at asking or even above price- however, our vendors are also buying in this catchment AND our accepted offer was surely also related to our chain- free, cashed up and renting status). Finally, we know they're trading down so there MAY be some money issues there.

PS our Solicitor is useless so we are having to take matters into our own hands in calling both agents ourselves!

It'll be no consolation to you but our offer was accepted in early October. We exchanged in late February so 6 weeks doesn't sound too bad to me. Sorry! Maybe a kick up someone's arse might help things along though.

You could suggest exchanging immediately with a delayed completion, where you both agree a later completion date. So e.g. you exchange next week and agree a drop-dead-you-have-to-be-out-of-the-house date.

We're doing this on our house, we've agreed a delayed completion of end of Oct or earlier by mutual agreement and we're looking to exchange sometime this week.

That will also put us in a similar position as a "chain-free" buyer when we find a house we want to put an offer on.

If we don't find a house by the end of Oct then we'll rent.

Yes, I think that's exactly what we're looking for- not necessarily an early completion at all- as late as Nov 1st ('or earlier') is a pain in the a* as obviously we want to get on with our lives, out of rental but financially we're bound to this house for the full 6 months of the tenancy- but some CERTAINTY would be nice.. ie EXCHANGE!

What we think is going on is our vendors want to keep all their options open ie for them NOT to be in the position of a legally agreed completion date via exchanging with us so THEY can make it all a movable (if not cancellable!) feast IF the top of the chain person does dick about for too much longer. Whilst I understand they're jockeying for as much certainty as possible.. aren't we all? It's who blinks first and I can feel my eyes getting ve-e-e-ry sleeeepy!

Just spoken to the vendor's EA who tells us she doesn't expect exchange to happen before the end of September as all parties (4 in the chain) need to exchange on the same day...wtf?

We'd originally agreed via the price that we'd be IN the house by Oct 1st.

When all exchange, you can complete even the day after. Oct 1st still sounds viable date. With 4 in the chain for me it sounds quite fair (unless the vendor is breaching your agreement re completion date).

You certainly don't all have to exchange on the same day. We didn't. We exchanged with our buyer as he was showing signs of getting cold feet and we provisionally agreed a completion date. We were prepared to move into temporary accommodation had we not exchanged and completed on our purchase in time. As it was we completed on the sale on the Monday and on the purchase on Tuesday but that was fine as we were able to keep our stuff on the removals van overnight adn stay with family before travelling to the new property.

You definatly don't need to exchange on the same day but its better for the chain if you do. TBH I think 6 weeks is fair for a 4 people chain and patience (something that I'm terrible at!!!) is going to be required. Its so frustrating because you just want to get into your house but so does everyone else in the chain and it does sound like what is going on has nothing to do with your vendors and there is nothing they could do at the moment.