House moving nightmare... Now trying to agree completion date!

Mdr

Hi this is my first thread on here but I always get my advice from here so thought I would join!

Quick background story:
We are ftb, viewed the house in March and put our offer in, seller and I are both chain free and he said he's ready to move into his family's house asap. Great news! We are ready to move too, so everything was going smooth. We got our mortgage offer straight away and got things going. We gave all our paper work to the solicitors by the end of May.

The sellers solicitor has delayed us up until now, not responding to enquiries properly, not replying to emails or anything. I had to ask ea to chase and seller to chase numerous times.

As a result of this we have had to continue to rent the property we're in, we've sold most of our furniture and furnishings and missed out on cash back offers with Halifax twice!

The process has taken so long that we have considered pulling out but this week the ball started rolling again and we signed our paper work and my solicitor proposed a completion date of 21st July, great we thought! She tried to call the seller solicitor twice introit of us and he wouldn't answer, still hasn't answered two days later.
I've chased and chased to the point where my brain is ready to pop. I text the seller to ask him to contact his solicitor and ask for a response, he then replied that he is sorry for the delay of everything and he is planning on putting a complaint In against his solicitor. I asked him if he's happy with the 21St and he answered that it may be a problem due to him needing to find storage for his furniture and that the week after may be better. (he said he's had it dismantled for a couple of months) Now.....tell me if I'm being Unreasonable here but I don't see why this should effect our moving date. We have waited and waited on this and we're sick of it. Every week delayed is an extra week of frustration and the more we're waiting the more we want to drop out.
I have told my solicitor that if he can't do 21St then we are going to renegotiate the offer as we're losing too much money as the weeks go by.
Do you think this is reasonable? does anyone have any advice for me please?
I don't see why I should be delayed another 2 weeks because he wants a weekend to find storage, we are taking time off work and this guy told us he works from home most of the time!!!

Argh I just hate all of this!

Mdr

Also can I just add that we found out he is purchasing another property but he has told us this doesn't effect his moving date as he will be living with friends in the interim.

My solicitors have said that simple requests to his solicitor which take a day or so, have taken weeks of chasing and them not coming back to us!

kirtondm

I suspect that the problem is him not his solicitor. He wants to tie the 2 purchases together so has been instructing the solicitor to delay things.

He will be vague until his end is complete

Or maybe I am just cynical. I have also been in a chain since March and we were due to exchange for 21st now just been delayed for the 3rd time to Aug 11th.

Could issue an ultimatium but have to prepared to follow through. You are probably looking moving in just before xmas if you start again and he will know it.

Agree bloody fustrating

Mdr

This is exactly how I feel! I definitely don't feel confident with the seller- I think there is more to the story. The seller has just text me saying that his solicitor is still chasing up one last document that my solicitor asked for, my solicitor asked for this early last week! And he has told his solicitor that we are happy to complete on the 28th, nowhere did I agree that I was happy with the 28th, infact i'm definitely not happy to delay until the 28th because our mortgage offer ends in August and with the way things have gone i'm not happy to risk going into August!

I am absolutely fuming, I think we may need to renegotiate our offer or possibly just sod it off. I'm happier in my flat. This whole process has given me anxiety, I can't sleep and I'm constantly stressed.

Slinky

I feel your pain. We're wanted to complete next Monday. Vendor hasn't cleared the property yet (probate) despite accepting our offer last week of March. We're still 6 weeks from exchange and 8 from completion.

Trouble is if you pull out, you're not going to move anywhere else any quicker.

Mdr

I basically said that I'm not happy to exchange on 28th as it is so close to August and our mortgage offer ends and we have agreed for 24th. Hopefully, this goes through...but I'm not getting my hopes up.

I know if we pull out it would be a shame we've wasted money and energy, but I probably wouldn't bother looking for a house again for a few years as this whole experience has put me off majorly.

Slinky

Mdr wrote: »

I basically said that I'm not happy to exchange on 28th as it is so close to August and our mortgage offer ends and we have agreed for 24th. Hopefully, this goes through...but I'm not getting my hopes up.

I know if we pull out it would be a shame we've wasted money and energy, but I probably wouldn't bother looking for a house again for a few years as this whole experience has put me off majorly.

You need to make sure your COMPLETION date is before your mortgage offer expires, otherwise you could exchange and then be unable to complete.

G_M

You have 3 options

* accept the house-buying is always frustrating and slower than expcted

* pull out

* play hardball. Give seller a deadline snd also go and view another property with the same estate agent. And make sure the EA knows you are also looking at prperties with other EAs. The EA will rapidly put pressure on the seller once they realise their commision is at risk........

But decide what to do if the seller calls your bluff and misses the deadline.

Mdr

I have definitely given the seller a dead line today, I have said it needs to be done by 24th otherwise I am changing my offer price as I'm incurring costs. The seller has agreed 24th is fine, but what a surprise....trying to get through to his solicitor to finalise the date is a nightmare...3rd day my solicitor has tried to get through to confirm!

Marvel1

Out of curiosity what costs are you incurring?

Hopefully it gets sorted soon.

Thrugelmir

Mdr wrote: »

I have definitely given the seller a dead line today, I have said it needs to be done by 24th otherwise I am changing my offer price as I'm incurring costs. The seller has agreed 24th is fine, but what a surprise....trying to get through to his solicitor to finalise the date is a nightmare...3rd day my solicitor has tried to get through to confirm!

Ring the EA and say that you want to view other properties. Book an appointment. Message will soon get relayed back to the seller.