do builders ever pull out of sales?

kingstreet

When did you reserve?

When did you apply for your mortgage and when was your offer issued?

When did your solicitor receive the draft contract from the vendor's solicitor?

When were searches requested?

DominicJ_2

6 weeks is a *very* tight timeline.

We managed a little over that for a family sale, at an actually discounted price, and using one solicitor, who we hounded relentlessly.
I phoned him at midday, asked what the delay was, he told me, I harrassed my partners parents, they answered his question by 2pm and at 4pm phoned him asking what the delay was, then told me, I answered next morning and we repeated the cycle.

You need to ask "why" a lot.
Why cant you exchange till mid January?
Is there some law that says you cant? Clearly not, you are waiting for a question to be answered, or a piece of paper to be faxed, find out what that is, where it is, who needs to be phoned, and phone them.

If you are paying by the hour, your solicitor will be quite happy to spend an hour at on phone waiting in a queue to get the mortgage redemption figure, if you are paying fixed fee, he wont.
He'll write a letter on monday, post it on his way home.
RM will pick it up on Tuesday and deliver it on Wednesday, mortgage company will deal with it Thursday, post it back, and with a bit of luck, the solicitor will read on Friday.

tuftyclub

Well it blew up earlier

(point of interest paid reservation a month ago, mortgage docs and survey completed 3 weeks ago and still no sign of any contract for me to read. . Week between me paying for searches and them being requested. Despite me pushing

Builder emailed this morning threatening to pull out as my solicitor refused to speak to their solicitor - as too busy, and I then made 3 or 4 calls to him this moring but could never get a reply or a callback.

At my wits end I escalated to their partner? and requested a new conveyancer.. Got one allocated very quickly and this effort on my part calmed the builder down to say that they would accept my offer even if it went into Jan

It probably will be January - but with a better attitude from the conveyancer it might have been at least a christmas exchange.

Quick chat with conveyancer2 told me that he is working til the 23rd, While conveyancer one told me the office closed on the 20th!