buying a house taking much longer than expected?

so1990

We had an offer accepted on a house on the 29/05. Almost 5 months later we are no closer to actually buying the house then we were when we had the offer accepted.


We've done all we can in regards to getting a solicitor, mortgage offer is sorted etc. We've paid for searches and surveys and these have been done. Our solicitor received the fixtures and fittings forms a few weeks ago which had only been signed by one of the sellers, and so now we are still waiting for the other person to sign the forms.


Im getting a bit fed up with constantly chasing my solicitor for details of any progress and there being none to report. This is our first time buying a house and although I assumed it would take some time, I didn't think it would take this long. My question is, is there anything we can do to hurry them up, or are we going to need to eventually admit defeat and start looking for another property? We rent currently, and our contract is now over meaning were in a rolling contract that we have to pay extra on top of our rent monthly for, and we really want to be out of here as soon as we can be.

[Deleted User]

What is the status of the house you are buying? Is there a chain?

so1990

We were told there was no chain, although its a couple splitting up so i think that has played a part in the delay as there doesnt seem to be much communication between them.

[Deleted User]

So what did they explain by 'no chain'? That they were moving into rented?

so1990

When we looked around, the woman had already moved out, and we were told the man had somewhere else to go, although the house is around the corner from us now and I know he is still there so im not sure that was entirely true. Its the woman who's not signed the forms though.

nidO

It could be worth starting to look for somewhere else. Sales with people splitting up seem to be ones that can take the longest as you've got 2 people who're likely contentious with each other having to move along the sale at the seller's end.
If your sale hasn't moved in 5 months and doesn't imminently appear to be about to you could carry on waiting for a totally unknown amount of time likely to stretch into forever.

Just to address another point:

so1990 wrote: »

We rent currently, and our contract is now over meaning were in a rolling contract that we have to pay extra on top of our rent monthly for

Why?? Did your letting agent tell you there was an additional fee in order to be able to be on a statutory periodic contract? If so they lied to you, i'm afraid you've been had here.

so1990

We were told we had to pay to renew our contract, or if not, wed go onto a rolling contract which is 24 pounds a month. We've rented for 6 years and its the first i've ever heard of it too, at the time we were in no position to buy so didn't think that far ahead.