pre-exchange limbo - What to do?

Full_of_angst

Not sure what to do so I'll try to be concise in the hope that I get advice/opinions on my dilemma.

-My buyers want to complete on the 12th August;

-My vendors have agreed to this completion date

-Buyer has received their mortgage offer but their solicitor still waiting for their copy/version. (and still don't know if the valuation tallied with the agreed price but I would think something would have been said by now If it didn't?).

- My solicitor is still waiting for answers to queries he raised with my vendors.

- EA and solicitor say that exchange is unlikely to happen for at least a week but 12th August completion is still possible.

My dilemma: It's my buyers who want/need the 12th August completion; however, until I know for certain that the sale will go through (after reading all the horror stories on here I am not assuming anything and my heart skips a beat whenever the phone rings!) I don't want to make any plans. I need to get sedation for my pets to travel the 300 miles to new house; I need to book them into a cattery; I need to make arrangements for my disabled son to be cared for; I need to book time off work; sort out utilities; - BUT none of these things can be arranged until I KNOW the date it's happening (or even that I can be sure it's going to happen).

Stupid question I know - But is this normal? It looks like, if all goes through, I may have less than a week to arrange all of this from exchange to completion.

Feel like I'm going out of my mind with anxiety. My buyers don't seem to appreciate any of this. There's only the 2 of them and they will have already packed and moved out of their rented house by the time we complete so it's so much easier for the.

I suppose I should just demand that we have a clear 2 weeks between exchange and completion - but I know this will cause them problems.

moneyistooshorttomention

But then your buyers should take into account what will cause YOU problems too.

I get where you are coming from on this and think it will basically be down to the firms providing services for me (rather than my buyers, myself or my vendor) as to how long is necessary between Exchange and Completion.

I always suspected that to get all my "firms I need" on track that it would be down to that conventional 4 weeks gap and it looks like that is indeed the case.

My removal firm tells me they are highly unlikely to be able to do a shorter than 2 weeks gap and really need that 4 weeks to be sure they will be available when I require them and I certainly don't regard it as reasonable to be forced into an "any old removal firm regardless of their standards" will have to do position to suit someone else. They wouldn't be the ones picking up the pieces from a careless (or worse) removal firm...I would be..

I know that many British firms simply aren't efficient enough to be able to manage to do whatever-is-required with less than a 2 week gap minimum.

Right at this exact moment in time, there are many areas of the country where the "balance of power" between buyer and seller is in favour of "fair treatment" for both (rather than either of them regarding themselves as the one in Pole Position and therefore entitled to have things all their own way and blow the other person concerned).

With that...then acknowledge your buyers concerns and also tell them of the practicalities regarding your own position and how much notice you (or, to be more precise, the firms you will be using for various jobs) require and expect them to take that into account as well.

I do get the impression that many FTB'ers don't fully appreciate what is involved for us "second timers" to move on towards another house and how would they in fact? (as they've not yet been where we are...).

It must be so much easier to have only one transaction to do and an FTB amount of possessions to get moved and not be aware of just how much yer average British firm can keep you waiting/muck you up rather than doing "what you want/when you want and to an efficient standard".

Full_of_angst

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

But then your buyers should take into account what will cause YOU problems too.

".

That's what I am beginning to think. Many thanks for your reply