16 weeks and no move in date. Told may be 24 weeks

Housebuyer1991

We put the offer in on the property mid-september and we are still no closer to receiving a move in date. We are first time buyers and there are only three of us in the chain with the last couple moving in with their parents before moving abroad.

Several times now we have been given a move in date week, but when it came to that date we would contact our solicitors who hadn't heard from the other solicitors at all. There seems to be a lack of communication going on between all sets of solicitors and tenants, bar us who always seem to be chasing every one else.

We were told that the we would definitely be in for Christmas so began to buy/order our furniture only to have no where for them to go. This has resulted in our bedrooms being full and parent's garages being full. We had also saved a week for moving into our house, which my partner was not allowed to carry over to 2014, meaning 5 days of his annual holiday were completely wasted.

We were informed on the day we went to sign the contracts in early December, that there was supposed to be an issue with the final property in the chain inregards to the garage turning out to be leasehold and not freehold. However, we were told at the most this issue would take up to 60 days to resolve yet they are saying it is still ongoing.

It is now the 21st of Jan and we are no further forward and have even been told it wont be until march now which will be 24 weeks. Our solicitor never rings us either, we never find out anything unless we have done some chasing to find it out. We even have rang the estate agents who don't seem to be too phased by the situation. We even tried the pulling out tactic which got us no where and we cannot actually afford to pull out anyway as we would lose too much money.

So stressed. Any advice would be great please.

Panda78

I know how stressful this is. Are you in contact with your vendor? I'm in a similar situation myself - wasn't getting anywhere with solicitors and EA - so i put a note into my vendor's letter box, just giving them my contact details and said they could ring anytime for an update directly from me. Try to agree a completion date with the vendor directly and ask them to do the same with their vendor. Then update your solicitors with what has been said/agreed.

Once solicitors realise everyone in the chain is talking to each other, they tend to move quicker.

If they know it won't be until March, push everyone to exchange contracts now, just so you have a fixed date for moving.

kingstreet

The OP has started this thread;-

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4874495

which has more responses, so suggest we continue over there and ditch this one.

Housebuyer1991

Hello,
There are two different threads because these can be seen as two separate issues. I wanted a land registry representative's opinion on the second thread and the rest of our issues wouldn't be relevant to them.

We are in contact with the vendors but they blow hot and cold. One day they seem to really want to move out and hurry things along and the next day they are saying no sorry we haven't bothered to contact our solicitors to see what's happening, even though they are free during the day to do that, whilst we both work full-time.

I do like your idea of agreeing a date though and with there being three of us in the chain it shouldn't be hard to organise that, I would hope!!!!! I think once we have proof of the change of date with the land registry, then it would be sensible to arrange to to sit down with them, rather than going through the solicitors. Solicitors seem to massively slow the process down, as they clearly don't rate our houses as a priority on their list.

honey_badger_3

i really feel for you, I'm a FTB and the process has been ridiculous. EA's have been useless and we've constantly been chasing - and even telling them what questions to ask the vendor and their solicitor. Our solicitor has been great, offering updates.

Just chase and chase them - don't worry about making daily phone calls to get an update, i think if we hadn't we'd still be at week 8 waiting for the forms to be signed (vendors are separated and battling each other, they got repossessed during the sale) - we're 6 months in with no signs of moving yet!

Sorry I can't offer more advice, no-one is ever clear on the process and it doesn't look like there's any hard and fast rules. It's a wonder houses sell at all.

Good luck

Housebuyer1991

honey_badger wrote: »

i really feel for you, I'm a FTB and the process has been ridiculous. EA's have been useless and we've constantly been chasing - and even telling them what questions to ask the vendor and their solicitor. Our solicitor has been great, offering updates.

Just chase and chase them - don't worry about making daily phone calls to get an update, i think if we hadn't we'd still be at week 8 waiting for the forms to be signed (vendors are separated and battling each other, they got repossessed during the sale) - we're 6 months in with no signs of moving yet!

Sorry I can't offer more advice, no-one is ever clear on the process and it doesn't look like there's any hard and fast rules. It's a wonder houses sell at all.

Good luck

Hello, thank you for your comments. It is an awful situation to be in and it is nice to talk to someone who understands the stress it causes. I would hate to be in a situation where the vendors were battling with eachother also, it is hard enough trying to battle all the other things.

I think your right, I have started to feel like should i really be ringing them again, but if we dont, we wouldnt get any further.

Please let me know if you get a move in date or some progress, it would be great to know there is light at the end of the tunnel!

honey_badger_3

Housebuyer1991 wrote: »

Hello, thank you for your comments. It is an awful situation to be in and it is nice to talk to someone who understands the stress it causes. I would hate to be in a situation where the vendors were battling with eachother also, it is hard enough trying to battle all the other things.

I think your right, I have started to feel like should i really be ringing them again, but if we dont, we wouldnt get any further.

Please let me know if you get a move in date or some progress, it would be great to know there is light at the end of the tunnel!

you'll get there, you'll just have to become a pain in their !!! to get it sorted out.

I'll keep you posted - let us know the outcome of your situation too