4 months with no sight of exchange - what to do now?

PasseySam

Hi,

We have been trying to purchase a house for the last 4 months and don't seem to be getting anywhere. We've had our survey, searches, enquiries etc. all sorted and are ready to exchange for about the last 5 weeks but nothing seems to be happening! In about mid-may we were told that our vendors purchase was going smoothly and there should be no problem with us being in by mid-June which was great for us. But then mid-june came and it transpired that our vendors hadn't even received contracts yet as their vendors hadn't even instructed solicitors! As we are currently renting (having sold our property already) we relayed to everyone that we needed to exchange before next week as we have to give notice on our rental or sign up to a new tenancy, that was about 3 weeks ago and no response.

Despite numerous phone calls via my solicitor to the vendors solicitor, and the EA to both the vendors and their solicitor, still no word - not even a yay or nay to exchanging next week.

To cut a long story short we're pretty cheesed off with the whole situation, facing our mortgage offer running out, signing up for more rental costs and having our belongings strewn around the country in various places to store them until we move. We asked them if they would consider moving into rented to break the chain but they wouldn't (even though at the start we were informed they would if the buyers needed to move in quickly). So over the weekend we had a look around and have started viewing other properties, which I informed the EA of today and asked him to relay to the vendors.

I don't want to act unreasonably or overreact so just wondered if there was anything that we could do to remedy our current purchase and make it go through quickly?

On the other hand I have seen a property today that looks great, going back for second viewing with OH tomorrow so we'll see (trouble is it's more expensive). There are quite a few houses around that would probably suit us and many have no chain which is very appealing! So my second question is what are the implications if we decide to pull out from our purchase and buy elsewhere?

I know we'll be out of pocket for surveys and searches already done on our existing purchase, and will probably have to do our mortgage again if we decide on somewhere more expensive, but are there any other implications or costs that we should consider?

Thanks for any suggestions as to how to get moving, one way or another I'm thinking we should walk and find somewhere else but don't want to do anything rash so wondered what the consensus was in this situation.

Bananamana

Get a fix in your mind as to how much more you are prepared to wait and then give them an ultimatum- set them a strict timetable.

Obviously you will need to consider lost survey, valuation, solicitors fees and searches.

G_M

Either wait, or
walk away, or
give them a time limit (say 1 week, 3 weeks, whatever) and stick to it.

PasturesNew

On the renting front - don't sign another contract. They can't force you. If you don't sign, you will go onto a "periodic tenancy" and you can give just one month's notice (that is one month from rent dates), the landlord can give you 2 months' notice on that.

Jojo1daffy

Come and buy my house! I would move out tomorrow for you!

verytricky69

You'd also loose the lenders mortgage valuation fee. The solicitors fees are usually the most expensive loss.

I agree with the others give them a time limit and see what happens. keep an eye on the market (as you are doing) for other places.

kmmr

You aren't the other side of the transaction with this idiot are you?
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2585937

If you are, he has been given a clear message that you can't expect a purchaser to wait forever!

And if not, this may give you an insight into the level of selfishness that may be going on on the other side.

PasseySam

Hi


Thanks to everyone who replied - I know it's not the end of the world or a major problem compared to some that people post on here, but it's nice to get a second opinion on these things! Very much appreciated!

We did give the vendors a time frame - that we needed to exchange by the 19th July because of our need to sort out our tenancy. We held off on giving an ultimatum as at that point we were not sure we would stick to it and walk away if we needed to. But now it's gone on even longer with no response back for the last 3 weeks I think we're more ready to walk away than we were before.

I've spoken to our solicitors and they said we only have to pay the searches but not legal fees if the sale does not get to the point of exchange/completion, so at least that's something. So mainly the lenders valuation and survey fees, plus searches I guess (plus stress and heartache of it all!).

I guess I just needed some reassurance that I'm not being unreasonable or overreacting to walk away. Should we put all this in writing via our solicitor, that if we haven't exchanged by X date then we withdraw our offer? Or just pull out if we find somewhere else before we've reached the point of exchange?

Thanks again

Salz

kmmr wrote: »

You aren't the other side of the transaction with this idiot are you?
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2585937

If you are, he has been given a clear message that you can't expect a purchaser to wait forever!

And if not, this may give you an insight into the level of selfishness that may be going on on the other side.

:rotfl:This was what I was thinking. I would give the vendors an ultimatum - 3 weeks or you pull out. Let them go into rented and have their stuff in storage for a while.

PasseySam

Hi Salz and kmmr - I hope not! I don't think so as the problems with our purchase seem to be further up the chain than our vendors, although it doesn't make it any easier.

The reason why I am feeling a little bad about all this is because to date our vendors have been fine and always responded quickly to queries that we have asked about the house via the EA. We have all the answers to our solicitors enquiries too with all the building regs certificates and everything so things were going smoothly up to a point. Then it all ground to a halt because the vendor further up hadn't done anything! If we were on the other end to the person in the other post that you linked to, I'd have no second thoughts about pulling out! Although all my info has come via the EA and solicitor so I'm not 100% convinced I have the full true story about all of this - house buying and selling makes you not trust what anyone says, I've found!

Salz

Can you speak to the vendor directly? I always have in the past, and have found them much more truthful. Stress to them that you need to move soon, and can they send the threat of the 3 weeks or pulling out up the chain? Hopefully someone will decide they can rent/ lodge with family for a bit.