5 months after notification of sale & still no firm completion date.

bflare

First-time buyer here so please excuse my ignorance. I put an offer on a property at the end of September 2021 which was accepted after a few negotiations. I was originally told that the vendor was buying a new build which wasn't ready until April 2022. I was then told that the vendor had decided against a new build & had an offer accepted on an alternative property but the vendor of that property was buying a new build which wasn't going to be ready until Jan / Feb 2022. At this point which was in October 2021, the estate agent suggested that I started applying for my mortgage which I did & was accepted. I have had the survey done & all searches. My mortgage offer runs out at the end of March 2022. I have been contacting the agent each week asking for updates. However, I keep getting the same story that they are struggling to get any confirmed dates. Yesterday the estate agent called me & said she was trying to get some dates confirmed from Bellway who the people at the top of the chain are apparently buying from. 

My question is this normal to have no confirmed dates after all this time? I really would like to complete in February but I honestly am losing faith in this. I have this gut feeling that I have been misled all along & the vendor is still looking at a new build with completion in April 2022 as first mentioned. Although this may be just my cynical side.

Are there any suggestions on what I should do? I have considered pulling out if I cant get any firm confirmation but I would feel bad doing this at this late stage. Also, I will have to renew my mortgage offer if I decide to hang on & I am hoping the cost of this will not have increased than the original. 

Snookie12cat

One easy way to find out is to ask your solicitor if your seller is the end of the chain. Their solicitor will know and so will confirm either way.

I think this is really normal btw. House sales take as long as they take and lots of new build developments have been delayed recently due to supply issues. They could very well still not have a date. You might want to move in Feb but you can't speed the process along.

My sister is buying a new build which was meant to be Feb, now it's April and she has been given no firm dates even now. 

Tiglet2

If the new build is not structurally complete, then you are very much waiting for the developer and their timescales.  Pulling out if you don't get firm confirmation won't hurry this up.  If you threaten to pull out, be prepared to go through with it.

Would the people buying the new build be prepared to move out to facilitate the chain?  Perhaps ask the EA to enquire about that.

bflare

Tiglet2 said:

If the new build is not structurally complete, then you are very much waiting for the developer and their timescales.  Pulling out if you don't get firm confirmation won't hurry this up.  If you threaten to pull out, be prepared to go through with it.

Would the people buying the new build be prepared to move out to facilitate the chain?  Perhaps ask the EA to enquire about that.

Just before Christmas the EA said that the people at the top of the chain were willing to break the chain if not complete by February. Then just after Christmas the EA said this would not have to happen as February looked good. Yesterday the EA agent is back to saying they are finding it difficult to get any confirmation. I feel like I am been strung along. 

bflare

Update: Just had an email from my solicitor who has said that the vendors solicitor has given them the following information:

"No completion date as yet, we await our client's mortgage offer on their related purchase and shall let you know once received." 

I have no idea what is going on now! 

GDB2222

They are clearly working to a completely different timescale than you. Essentially, you were conned by the EA into getting your mortgage etc back in October. 

Whether you should now pull out, I don’t know, but it’s definitely worth looking around to see what is on the market.  There’s no point pulling out until you find something else you want to offer on. Even then, you don’t have to formally withdraw your offer.

Thrugelmir

bflare said:

My question is this normal to have no confirmed dates after all this time? 

There's no fixed timescale for completing the build a new house. Too many variables. Confirmed dates can only be discussed once there's certainty. 

Snookie12cat

bflare said:

Update: Just had an email from my solicitor who has said that the vendors solicitor has given them the following information:

"No completion date as yet, we await our client's mortgage offer on their related purchase and shall let you know once received." 

I have no idea what is going on now! 

I would be concerned by this now as the mortgage may not happen, how long have they had to arrange this now? 

Doozergirl

bflare said:

Update: Just had an email from my solicitor who has said that the vendors solicitor has given them the following information:

"No completion date as yet, we await our client's mortgage offer on their related purchase and shall let you know once received." 

I have no idea what is going on now! 

I know it's an uncomfortable
situation to be in, but it sounds pretty normal to me, in the fact that we all spend the whole time in limbo.  

A developer will give 14 days notice of the house being ready to move into and for completion to take place.    They won't do much communicating if things are going to their own plan.   This is daily business for them, not a lifetime-first of a few like it is for you, Bellway are going to be blasé about it from your perspective.  

I don't agree that you've been strung along.  It's possible that you didn't need to get your mortgage so early, but I've been trying to remortgage my own house since the beginning of October and that still hasn't gone through, so there's no argument against you getting prepared.   

Every single purchase is different - yours, your vendor's, their vendor's.   It's pretty common for the FTB to be ready first as they only have one transaction to deal with.  It's also quite common for FTBs to get a bit tetchy and impatient when they're ready and no one else is.  

You're this far down the line with a chain that is still complete.  You may want to enquire in the next couple of weeks about an extension to the mortgage offer, but I think you can be as certain as you can that things are progressing.  As it is, it sounds like your own vendors aren't quite ready yet anyway.  That isn't their fault, it's just how it goes. 

You might want to go and view the house again and meet your vendors for a general chat.  Sometimes it puts your mind at rest to get their story as it can complete the picture a little more.  

dunclane1980

We sold our house on the 15th October and had offer accepted on our purchase on the 23rd October.  We are still awaiting an exchange date and we were hoping to be complete by 11th Feb but that's looking more like the 25th now.

As previous poster said it's pretty normal.

p00hsticks

I accepted an offer in September and my solicitor delivered the draft contract pack to the buyers solicitor soon after. There's no chain either side and we're still waiting to get an exchange / completion date, with no clear idea of what / where the hold-up is, despite chasing up the estate agents and solicitors several times.....