How long should we wait?

olive84

Hi guys, been hanging around the forum for a while, but this is my 1st post. Need some advice! We had an offer accepted on a 1 bed leasehold flat on 7th Feb. We have been ready to exchange for about 3/4 weeks now. We are at the bottom of a chain of 4 as FTB. When we called the EA to tell her we were ready to exchange she called up the chain to find out about everyone else. This is when we found out that the top of the chain had pulled out of their purchase, and started buying somewhere else, so there was going to be 'about a 3 week delay'.

4 weeks down the line we have had very limited info from the EA about what is going on. She has said that everybody is ready apart from the top, and that his survey was taking place this week. My sol. has said that its all gone very quiet from my vendors sol. as soon as he said we were ready to exchange. On Monday I told the EA (on my sol. advice) that if we don't have a date for exhange by 4th May we are going to start looking for somewhere else (not pull out, just start looking). Since then have heard nothing.

Sorry for length of post, just wondered how long is a reasonable time for the top of the chain to expect everyone to wait? Next week will be 12 weeks since we offered and TBH I don't know if this guy is just wasting everyone's time. What shall we do? Thanx in advance.

prutter

olive84 wrote: »

What shall we do?

Depens on how much you want/like the flat?
Also you need to conisder how much you've invested so far, solcr fees, mortgage arrangement, vaulation etc.

TBH, I think 12 weeks is perfectly reasonable.
We're 11 weeks in now (we're selling a LH flat, and buying a freehold vacant posession house) - and only *just* exchanging (today or monday).

olive84

I've got no problem with waiting 12 weeks, just worried that this top of the chain business is a bit dodgy, as we were told that he was having his survey done one week, then the next week. Maybe I'm worried over nothing, but I've got no confidence that this guy is doing what he says. Also the fact that our vendors sol has gone all quiet stresses me out as well. The whole thing has been stressful really!

prutter

It is very stressful. I know how you feel - this last week has been the most stressed I've ever been (even more so than before my wedding!).

Perhaps your vendors solcrs have gone quiet as they know whats happening up the chain, they know they have to wait, and they've done all they can for now?

I would get your EA to chase at least a couple of times a week. And, if you want to create the impression that you would pull out, arrange a couple of viewings with the same agents to get them worried....

olive84

Yeah, that's def the next stage! I have worried the EA a bit I think, she did the old..'but if you start from scratch it'll take ages, we always add a month on for chains blah blah'! I think I will try and stop thinking about it so much! Its just that when we had a hold up booking our survey (grrr banks) we got hassled NON STOP! We had so much grief. I hope she's doing that to them now!