Estate Agent won't give us details on chain

DRP

hazyjo wrote: »

Your solicitor can find out.


Eight weeks?! You'll be lucky! I aimed for four once and it took five months! Quickest I did (first purchase) was five weeks. Average is 12 weeks.


If some are pretty much starting from day one, I would allow 12 weeks from when their offer was accepted.


Is the chain definitely complete now?


Good luck!


Jx

As Jo says , the minimum information they should give you is about the chain being complete.

The fact they are reticent suggests it is not.

You need to be firm and clear about the information you want, and what will happen if you don't get it!

Mary_Muddled

Thanks for your responses guys.

To answer some of your questions, despite having asked this question more than once, the estate agent will not tell us if the chain is complete or not, nor will they tell us what stage the other buyers/sellers are at.

If the chain is not complete at this point and we are look at 3+ months to move, I think we may seriously consider withdrawing from the purchase. There have been a few price reductions in our area, and this coupled with the fact that we are due to be paid a bonus and have bumped up our savings recently means that houses which weren't within our reach when we originally started house hunting, are now affordable for us - we both earn well, were borrowing way within our means and the only limiting factor was our deposit. The house we are/were hoping to buy is in need of a lot of work and was therefore competitively priced, but as other house prices around it fall, it's going to become less attractive.

csgohan4

Mary_Muddled wrote: »

Thanks for your responses guys.

To answer some of your questions, despite having asked this question more than once, the estate agent will not tell us if the chain is complete or not, nor will they tell us what stage the other buyers/sellers are at.

If the chain is not complete at this point and we are look at 3+ months to move, I think we may seriously consider withdrawing from the purchase. There have been a few price reductions in our area, and this coupled with the fact that we are due to be paid a bonus and have bumped up our savings recently means that houses which weren't within our reach when we originally started house hunting, are now affordable for us - we both earn well, were borrowing way within our means and the only limiting factor was our deposit. The house we are/were hoping to buy is in need of a lot of work and was therefore competitively priced, but as other house prices around it fall, it's going to become less attractive.

Long story short, if the EA is dragging their feet, give them an ultimatum, the ball is always in your court.


At the end of the day if their not bothered why should you be, more so now that you can look at houses that weren't in your price range when you offered.




But don't pee off the EA, just do it politely, as they might be the one you offer on your next house.

DRP

csgohan4 wrote: »

Long story short, if the EA is dragging their feet, give them an ultimatum, the ball is always in your court.


At the end of the day if their not bothered why should you be, more so now that you can look at houses that weren't in your price range when you offered.




But don't pee off the EA, just do it politely, as they might be the one you offer on your next house.

^Yes this.

Don't get angry, just tell them you need clarity and for that reason you will be looking at other properties. I wouldn't muddy the waters by mentioning the brexit/bonus thing at this point.

csgohan4

don't burn your bridges as you might need them later, only once you have exchanged can you let it rip and rage all you want

eddddy

Mary_Muddled wrote: »

To answer some of your questions, despite having asked this question more than once, the estate agent will not tell us if the chain is complete or not, nor will they tell us what stage the other buyers/sellers are at.

My guess would be 'incompetence' rather than 'conspiracy'.

I would suspect they haven't been able to find out how long the chain is, and perhaps haven't put much effort into finding out.

If you're being very assertive/aggressive with the EA, you might find they are more open if you are friendlier instead.

To a great extent you and the EA have the same goal - you both want the transaction completed. So try to work together, rather than fighting each other.

stator

Many solicitors take part in an information sharing scheme so everyone in the chain knows how many other buyers and sellers there are. So it's worth asking your solicitor to check

Surrey_EA

stator wrote: »

Many solicitors take part in an information sharing scheme so everyone in the chain knows how many other buyers and sellers there are. So it's worth asking your solicitor to check

I must admit I've not come across this. The solicitors in my area tend only to speak to the solicitor immediately above them, and immediately below, with not a great deal of interest shown in the wider chain, should there be one. (There are of course exceptions to this)

Is this a formal scheme, or more of an informal arrangement operated locally?

Mary_Muddled

Spoke to solicitor this morning who doesn't have information on the whole chain, they only deal with us and our seller. Progress is being made on our side and they are going to be sending us paperwork to review at the end of the week. Apparently the estate agent had rung them this morning to chase up!

We certainly aren't being overly aggressive or assertive nor are we constantly badgering. In fact, when I did point out they weren't replying to us, they said that we could email them five times a day for updates if we liked and they would reply, even if it's to say 'no news yet'!

I've just checked my email history - we asked about the chain a week ago (length and if it was a complete chain) and still have no answer to this. We sent a follow up email on Thursday night which they replied to, but completely avoided our questions. Very frustrating!

DRP

Mary_Muddled wrote: »

Spoke to solicitor this morning who doesn't have information on the whole chain, they only deal with us and our seller. Progress is being made on our side and they are going to be sending us paperwork to review at the end of the week. Apparently the estate agent had rung them this morning to chase up!

We certainly aren't being overly aggressive or assertive nor are we constantly badgering. In fact, when I did point out they weren't replying to us, they said that we could email them five times a day for updates if we liked and they would reply, even if it's to say 'no news yet'!

I've just checked my email history - we asked about the chain a week ago (length and if it was a complete chain) and still have no answer to this. We sent a follow up email on Thursday night which they replied to, but completely avoided our questions. Very frustrating!

An EA may not want to pass on this information in writing (could be used against them!)

Have you actually spoken to them? That's the best way imo. Give them a call.