My buyer now has two solicitors. How much more of a delay is likely?

Ballard

I'm now told that this has dragged on so long that the searches may have expired. If that's the case then I guess that an exchange of contracts this year would be unlikely so I've told my estate agent that unless we are in a position to exchange by the middle of November I'm going to take my place off the market. Hopefully that'll give them reason to push for everything to be in place. If not then I probably will carry this out. The chances are that I'd lose my purchase anyway.

Madmel

Sorry it's all dragging out.  I had this 22 years ago whereby my solicitor was not on my lender's panel as she was a sole practitioner.  She recommended another practice local to her who she used in similar cases.  I saved a few days by leaving work early, going to my solicitor's office to collect some files then walking them down the road to the other solicitor, hanging around, then taking stuff back again.  Normally they would use first class post (and charge me for the privilege) so this also saved a few £.

Ballard

I can cope with another few weeks of this but if it turns out to be a couple of months whilst searches are carried out again I've just had enough of it. We agreed in June so I'm running out of patience with the whole thing now. I think that my vendors are understandably getting fed up with it too. If there is a delay of more than a couple of weeks they should really tell me to stick it.

Ballard

All three solicitors are now happy so we are now in the final stages. My buyer has taken the opportunity to demand that I do some maintenance on the outside of the building (hasn’t specified what), get the boiler certified and pay £900 for some indemnity insurance (hasn’t supplied the details).

I’ve responded by saying that I’m not doing any of these things but hopefully it won’t drag in too much longer.

I had the choice of two competing buyers and went for this one. The other party then upped their offer £1,000 but I’d already agreed verbally and am a man of my word. I regret that now.