how long would you wait to exchange?

DVardysShadow

LadyLawyer wrote: »

Sometimes a formal deadline/ultimatum is counter productive whereas being firm about your requirements can be seen as more helpful by the other party.

I would have to agree with this. You have a couple who you can only speculate are at war with each other and don't see the problems they cause for other people. A hard deadline with an ultimatum is just part of their own games with each other probably. I would be inclined to give them a little longer to exchange, being clear about requirements and probably, I would go down the route of dropping the offer on a sliding scale. It is no good rushing them or pressuring them for quick action, communication will not be the best.

Also, a message that after a certain period, you will start looking for other properties and the offer could be withdrawn without notice may focus minds. But whatever message you sned, yoou need to leave some time for it to sink in.

penguingirl

I really feel for you- we were in this position a year ago (complete with divorcing couple) and I remember it being really stressful and upsetting. We went through the avenues of putting pressure on through solicitors, ring EA every couple of days, suggesting potential exchange/ completion dates and our vendor just stopped returning everyone's calls! We ended up starting our house hunt again and actually had an offer accepted on another property- so went back to the EA and told them we were withdrawing our offer, they tried to tell us the sale was still on so we gave them 48 hours to exchange (after much umming and ahhing about which house we actually preferred) and they did it in 72 (typical!). It was absalutely horrible and I regretted messing the second vendors around for a couple of days (although they were another divorcing couple...)

So my advice is hang in there, keep talking to your solicitor and the EA (be firm but not rude) and think about looking again. Don't make empty threats though, in hindsight I definitely wouldn't have been as happy in the second choice house. But there came a horrible point with us when we realised that the sale might never happen (I think it was about the 4/5 week mark).

azkaban420

Swipe wrote: »

I was in a chain free purchase/sale and exchanged and completed in less than 6 weeks since date of my offer accepted.

Yes, agreed, when it is a relatively simple purchase/sale it can be pushed through quite quickly, but as Bananamana suggested, it can easily be dragged out longer...so many seem to be going this way

Az