Some (more) advice please?

Cuddlybearman

Hi - wont go into the saga that is this house process i'm in but i wanted your opinion on something that might have to do:
I am in a chain of 4 and chains 1-3 (me being 3) are ready to exchange. My immediate buyer (number 2) is frantically looking to complete on the 12th March or he's going to pull out.
My seller (number 4) was originally all ready to go way back in 24th Jan when my solicitor told me all the paperwork was done. Now i'm being told we need one document which could take a few days to sort. Also my seller doesn't want to complete until the 22nd March.
If crunch time really comes what do you guys think about me going through with everything now with my buyer (exchanging and agreeing 12th March) and then "hoping" that i can sort a separate exchange with my seller between now and then and still hit the 12th March date?
Situation is that my seller's property is empty (hence i reckon i can move him to the 12th March) - i have already started putting stuff in storage and will continue to until i move. and there is just two of us and a dog (kids are at Uni)
Any suggestions, pitfalls, positives etc - i dont really know what to do but if i lose this seller then i'm done for.

Cuddlybearman

I'm not sure if i explained properly. I'm proposing that i sell my house before i buy my new one (ie i'm the one who could temporarily be homeless)
Seems like a gamble - but the longer i put off agreeing to exchange with my buyer the gamble is that he could pull out completely.
Does that make sense?

seradane

Of course you could. Just consider the worst-case scenario. You sell your house fine, then your vendor pulls out for whatever reason, so you are now in need of temporary accommodation for 6+ months while you find a new house to buy. Would that be a problem? Would that be better/worse than having to start the sale process over again, but at least you are living in your own home?

Keep in mind that a lot of rentals won't allow dogs, so it might be difficult to find somewhere. And of course holiday-let style accommodation gets very expensive if you're there longer than a few weeks...

seradane

Also, why doesn't your seller want to complete until the 22nd March? Be good to know what reasons they may have for that, as that may impact your ability to convince them to move to the 12th. Are they aware the whole chain might collapse if they don't complete earlier?

Titus_Wadd

OP you don't have to be the fixer, that makes the chain work!  It's going to be a compromise for everyone in the chain.  Be flexible about dates but if someone is threatening to pull out for the sake of  a week or two they sound unreasonable (to me anyway). 

getmore4less

If you can cope with the completion gap you can still go for exchange at the same time to secure the transaction on both  places.

what doc is delating the exchange on your purchase?

Cuddlybearman

getmore4less said:

If you can cope with the completion gap you can still go for exchange at the same time to secure the transaction on both  places.

what doc is delating the exchange on your purchase?

Funnily enough I just had some info last night from the sellers solicitor that the Deed Of Covenant which came up is actually a Post Completion Document and therefore doesn't need to hold up the exchange. So good news (although I don't know why my solicitor didn't know that)
The next problem I have is just trying to get my solicitor to focus on my case.
They have been (for some reason) putting off replying to my buyer on 3 simple enquiries that they have had the answers for since last Tuesday. My buyer is going crazy.
Not getting any responses (except for being told they will look at it "when ready")
I'm the one that actually did all the work to source the DOC, find the replace solicitor and find out the infomarmation.
I've sent so many emails simply begging for them to look at this. Been nice, angry, firm, pleading - nothing works
My EA has been escalating to Legal MDs and Panels etc etc - doesn't do any good.
If they were to just look at this today and sort it we could be setting exchange an completion dates now!!

Seashell517

Cuddlybearman said:

getmore4less said:

If you can cope with the completion gap you can still go for exchange at the same time to secure the transaction on both  places.

what doc is delating the exchange on your purchase?

Funnily enough I just had some info last night from the sellers solicitor that the Deed Of Covenant which came up is actually a Post Completion Document and therefore doesn't need to hold up the exchange. So good news (although I don't know why my solicitor didn't know that)
The next problem I have is just trying to get my solicitor to focus on my case.
They have been (for some reason) putting off replying to my buyer on 3 simple enquiries that they have had the answers for since last Tuesday. My buyer is going crazy.
Not getting any responses (except for being told they will look at it "when ready")
I'm the one that actually did all the work to source the DOC, find the replace solicitor and find out the infomarmation.
I've sent so many emails simply begging for them to look at this. Been nice, angry, firm, pleading - nothing works
My EA has been escalating to Legal MDs and Panels etc etc - doesn't do any good.
If they were to just look at this today and sort it we could be setting exchange an completion dates now!!

Are those 3 replies the last things that need to be done? I suspect that they may not be, and the solicitor is waiting until everything is done before replying. They don't work on a 'here's one bit of information, pass that on' basis. They wait until they have a bunch of stuff and then do it all together, to be more efficient. (You also don't know that the solicitor doesn't have 5 other cases 'that if they just looked at it today, dates could be set' that were ready before yours. Plus Friday is generally completion day, so try not to get too worked up if you don't get replies today.)

Cuddlybearman

Seashell517 said:

Cuddlybearman said:

getmore4less said:

If you can cope with the completion gap you can still go for exchange at the same time to secure the transaction on both  places.

what doc is delating the exchange on your purchase?

Funnily enough I just had some info last night from the sellers solicitor that the Deed Of Covenant which came up is actually a Post Completion Document and therefore doesn't need to hold up the exchange. So good news (although I don't know why my solicitor didn't know that)
The next problem I have is just trying to get my solicitor to focus on my case.
They have been (for some reason) putting off replying to my buyer on 3 simple enquiries that they have had the answers for since last Tuesday. My buyer is going crazy.
Not getting any responses (except for being told they will look at it "when ready")
I'm the one that actually did all the work to source the DOC, find the replace solicitor and find out the infomarmation.
I've sent so many emails simply begging for them to look at this. Been nice, angry, firm, pleading - nothing works
My EA has been escalating to Legal MDs and Panels etc etc - doesn't do any good.
If they were to just look at this today and sort it we could be setting exchange an completion dates now!!

Are those 3 replies the last things that need to be done? I suspect that they may not be, and the solicitor is waiting until everything is done before replying. They don't work on a 'here's one bit of information, pass that on' basis. They wait until they have a bunch of stuff and then do it all together, to be more efficient. (You also don't know that the solicitor doesn't have 5 other cases 'that if they just looked at it today, dates could be set' that were ready before yours. Plus Friday is generally completion day, so try not to get too worked up if you don't get replies today.)

Yeh 100% that is the last of the replies. My buyer is so frantic (his wife is expecting in 3 weeks) he's been sending me what his solicitor is saying.
I get they are busy - but the problem is that these replies have been answered since last Tuesday. I know that, the buyer knows that, the EA knows that as well. 
And what makes it worse is my solicitor told me last Thursday she had sent all the replies back and "my sale paperwork is complete" but my buyers solicitor says that's not true and he never got these replies.
Same with my sale on the 24th January I had an email saying "you purchase paperwork is complete" but obviously it wasn't and now we've had three days of panic chasing around a document that actually in the end doesn't really need to hold anything up.
Just exhausting.....

Seashell517

How do you know that it's your solicitor lying about sending the replies and not the buyer's solicitor lying about not having received them, though? Or just a case of crossed wires and no one is lying at all... I get that it's frustrating, I have something very similar going on myself, but getting wound up about it makes it more exhausting. All you can do is sort out the things that you're in control of. Chasing after the rest on a two hourly basis will only make you ill. 

On the point of 'my solicitor says it's done but then the buyer's solicitor says it isn't'. It's the buyer's solicitor that needs to say it's done on your sale side. I suspect your solicitor thought it was done, but then the buyer's solicitor came back with something else. That's not your solicitor's 'fault'.

Cuddlybearman

Seashell517 said:

How do you know that it's your solicitor lying about sending the replies and not the buyer's solicitor lying about not having received them, though? Or just a case of crossed wires and no one is lying at all... I get that it's frustrating, I have something very similar going on myself, but getting wound up about it makes it more exhausting. All you can do is sort out the things that you're in control of. Chasing after the rest on a two hourly basis will only make you ill. 

On the point of 'my solicitor says it's done but then the buyer's solicitor says it isn't'. It's the buyer's solicitor that needs to say it's done on your sale side. I suspect your solicitor thought it was done, but then the buyer's solicitor came back with something else. That's not your solicitor's 'fault'.

I guess you never know the full story - but based on what i can see the facts were that there was three enquirers the buyers solicitor made. One was clarification of a fixtures form, and two were questions about a sewer cover and a drain cover (all just yes and no answers). I was sent by the buyer a copy of his solicitor email to mine asking for these to be answers. I then sent my answers to my solicitor so they would have them. 3 days later my solicitor said that she had replied to these and we were done. Straight away my buyers solicitor said that they did not have an email from my solicitor at all and hadn't done for over a week. My solicitor has never addressed, replied, responded to this in 10 working days. Not even a reassurance email - or acknowledgement

I would love to think its some unknown issue and all is forgiven - but i'm sorry they are just not looking at my case. I know there are other cases but i'm about 50/50 that if my buyer doesn't get a firm date of completion by the end of the day, come Monday he's either going to break the chain or pull out completely - and it will entirely the fault of my solicitors lack of communication.