Buyer's solicitor not on their mortgage lender's portal

CBrougham21

Hi All, 

It has now been over 11 weeks since we accepted an offer on our house. We are so close to exchanging contracts on our onward purchase, but our purchasers have not yet received a mortgage offer because of initial delays and their solicitor isn't on the mortgage lender's panel and so they had to apply to be on it. 

After chasing and even threatening to re-market, the buyers' solicitor finally submitted the application 2 weeks ago. I know it is like asking how long is a piece of string, as many people dont seem to have come across this issue and they are failing to disclose who their mortgage lender is. But how long do these things tend to take? 

I am starting to get nervous as everything in the process has taken such a long time (apart from the enquiries). We hadn't heard from them for about a month initially, they tell us this is because they found a cheaper mortgage deal (fair enough), it took ages for the surveyor for valuation to be instructed after application, once the survey had been instructed, it took 2 weeks for the surveyor to contact because they had the wrong contact number, a couple of weeks later we find out the mortgage lender didn't have the solicitor on panel and the solicitor had been sat on the application. Now we are 2 weeks later and no update on that application. I have asked the EA as well as our solicitor to chase this up with the seller and their solicitor and mortgage broker.

I have given them till Friday to give me a material answer as to what kind of timeline we are looking at, otherwise we may remarket. I don't want to have to do this because I don't want to be at risk of losing the house we are buying, but I dont want to have to wait another number of weeks for them to find out they have been refused the offer, and be at square one again. 

Also they will not instruct their level 2 survey until they get a mortgage offer, which worries me even more that they are not confident enough. 

We have a relatively straightforward chain and thought we would be near completion now. I'm not bothered if we have to wait a little longer but we need some communication. 
Asking for a bit of advice as to what others would do?

GDB2222

I think you are right to provide a deadline.

propertyrental

Start re-marketing today.

If your current buyer gets their act together, they'll be able to Exchange long before any new buyer you find.

But if the current buyer keeps progressing at a snails pace, or raises an issue post-survey, you will be in a better position to cut them loose.

and the very act of remarketing will focus their minds!

Tiglet2

It would have been much easier if the buyer had changed his solicitor to one which was on the lender's panel.  There is often a reason why some solicitors are not on the panel of a lender and that reason isn't likely to be changed in a hurry.  I'm wondering whether this is some obscure lender, or if a normal high street lender, the solicitor has been previously removed from their panel for reasons unknown.

You are right to be concerned.

user1977

Do you know who the lender is? People here might have more useful experience if you can tell us.

CBrougham21

user1977 said:

Do you know who the lender is? People here might have more useful experience if you can tell us.

I have asked, but they haven't disclosed 

propertyrental

I believe some lenders don't accept sole practitioner (or small partnerships) onto their panels.

May be wrong though.

Hoenir

Personally I'd be concerned that the buyers aren't expediting matters by being proactive themselves. Seemingly wishing to drag matters out. Changing solicitors being a straight forward enough process. 

CBrougham21

Thanks all - what concerns me is that their solicitor is on 95% of lending panels, which makes me think it is an obscure mortgage lender - one they may have gone to due to bad credit maybe? 

I will give till Friday afternoon for them to get an offer.