Ultimata/ultimatums

[globex]

Has anyone had any success issuing an ultimatum during the house buying process?

I'm at the end of my tether and I seem to be completely powerless. The vendor's solicitors seem to be refusing to send over the draft contract. We are not in a chain and thought that he wanted a quick sale but its been six weeks. And he's now gone on holiday.

We're in rented accomodation with a 10 month old and have had to ask for an extension but have no way of knowing when we'll actually be moving..

Its incredibly stressful and I'm wondering if its worthwhile. The estate agent assures us the vendor DOES want to sell - despite appearences to the contrary - so I feel like we're being strung along but I'm not sure why..

We did it with the house we are in now.

The lady we were buying from assurred us that she could do everything on our terms and quickly as she was buying a house with her daughter but could move in to her daughters house anytime.

We agreed the purchase in mid August and we did everything that was asked of us within 24 hours making it clear to everyone we wanted things to move quickly. Our buyers were first timers so we were only a chain of three.

It got to December and there was still no end in sight and the lady whom we were buying from seemed to be dragging her feet in a major way. I suspect her daughter was close to completing and they were angling after the mother being able to move once rather than twice. But as far as I'm concerned, she shouldn't have said what she did before we put the offer in if she wasn't prepared to see it through.

At the beginning of December a house I had previously liked came back onto the market so we threatened to cut our losses and walk away if she didn't complete before christmas. We would have lost a couple of grand but at that point I actually think we would have done it. We did assure our buyers that they wouldn't be affected as my parents had offered to let us move in with them so we wouldn't lose our sale.

She offered us 20th of December as a completion date. I think she was trying to call our bluff thinking we'd leave it until after new year as so close to christmas. However I was feeling so bloody minded at that point that I agreed to it even though we had a toddler who'd just turned 2 and it made for the most stressful christmas!

So to cut a long story short, yes, I do think issuing an ultimatum worked for us!

6 weeks sounds like a really long time to provide draft contracts. I'd give the vendors a deadline and in the meantime start looking at new houses. Have you had your survey done?

The vendor being on holiday shouldn't prevent the solicitor from sending the draft contract, the vendor doesn't need to have signed the contract as this point, it's only draft.

As you're a chain-free buyer the vendor would be foolish to lose you. Remind the estate agent what good buyers you are and that anyone else would be chomping at the bit to get you to buy their house. He clearly isn't doing enough to move this sale along.

6 weeks is too long for a draft contract. But then we're now 3 weeks down the line with no draft contract in yet.

I think we'll probably issue an ultimatum today.

It's just a very strange situation - I don't know if they think someone will offer more money or if there is something else going on. Buti f there's a reason for them stalling then wouldn't it make more sense to just TELL us so we can sort out somewhere to live in the meantime?!

The draft contract did come through - but with pages missing. That was about a week ago and repeated requests for the missing pages have been ignored.

Ergh - I think its back to renting for us!

And another thing - I did call the estate agent who treated me as though I was being completely irrational..
Now I'm starting to get lost in the 'fog of war' and am planning all sorts of reverse delaying tactics..

My total buying time was 10 weeks - quite average I think. At some point at around 7 weeks it seemed that it is going nowhere and it is never going to be completed - and then suddenly I hear from our vendor that they want exchange asap and pushing on a very close ridiculous date. Eventually we completed 3 weeks later with me having rent and mortgage payments overlaping for 1.5 months Not good at all, but at least buying stress is over (moving home stress to come).