Purchasing delays - 8 weeks for contract pack, is this normal?

demeggy

Hi all,

We're first time sellers, and we've pretty much all but completed on the sale of our house - but we still haven't received our contract pack and protocol forms for our onward purchase nearly 8 weeks into the process.

It was discovered 2 weeks ago that the house we're purchasing is still on the Land Registry for the current owner and his seperated ex-partner. This was allegedly supposed to be handled by his divorce lawyer, but they forgot to submit the Land Registry application.

My solicitor has asked for his solicitor to expedite the change (as the sales traction is now reliant on it), but it turns out that the seller had different solicitors for the seperation. The Estate Agent has allegedly chased the sellers solicitor, to chase the sellers divorce solicitor for the expediting of the land reg changes, but as of Friday, my solicitors could see that the land reg change application had still not been picked up on some sort of land reg portal.

Still with me so far? If so, thanks!

To compound issues, both the sellers sale solicitor and estate agent have awful reviews across multiple platforms (trustpilot, google, facebook), which explains why things are taking a million years.
When I've tried contacting the estate agent (an independent seller), they never respond to my calls or emails, and exclude me from alleged chains of communication.

My mortgage offer expires in September, my buyer's offer expires in October (thankfully she's in no rush, having explained the situation to her via my sales estate agents).

So far, the only fees I've paid for are searches on the property. We're wanting to book a Level 2 survey for the house for which we have a surveyor and quote ready, but won't do that until we have contractual confirmation it's in the bag (as much as can be, bearing in mind they can pull out right up until the last second).

A million concerns are running through our heads right now. Can anyone advise on any of the below, and has anyone else been in this situation and can offer any comforting advice?

- Is it possible they have accepted 2 offers on the property and are stalling to give another buyer some sort of opportunity? (ie another buyer has a higher offer, but hasnt sold yet). If so, would this have to be disclosed to us?
- Who do I trust here? I'm constantly questioning the motivations of the Estate Agent, the Seller and the Sellers Solicitors.
- And the big one. What do we do? We've threatened to pull from the chain, but they called our bluff on that one (as so much in as didnt acknowledge my threat and just carried on being incompetent).

Signed, stressed and sincerely

housebuyer143

- Is it possible they have accepted 2 offers on the property and are stalling to give another buyer some sort of opportunity?  I'm not sure any solicitor would do that and not tell you. When we wanted to run two sales simultaneously as the first purchaser went AWOL, they would only do it if both parties involved knew it was a contract race.

- Who do I trust here? I'm constantly questioning the motivations of the Estate Agent, the Seller and the Sellers Solicitors. - where are the sellers moving to? No contract pack in 8 weeks isn't normal. Your solicitor can't do anything without the contract pack so essentially nothing at all has happened on your purchase - I'm not sure they will even order the searches without having had this. 


- And the big one. What do we do? - you can give a real ultimatum and pull out, or just look at new properties and then if you find one withdraw your offer and proceed on the new one. 

demeggy

housebuyer143 said:

- Is it possible they have accepted 2 offers on the property and are stalling to give another buyer some sort of opportunity?  I'm not sure any solicitor would do that and not tell you. When we wanted to run two sales simultaneously as the first purchaser went AWOL, they would only do it if both parties involved knew it was a contract race.

- Who do I trust here? I'm constantly questioning the motivations of the Estate Agent, the Seller and the Sellers Solicitors. - where are the sellers moving to? No contract pack in 8 weeks isn't normal. Your solicitor can't do anything without the contract pack so essentially nothing at all has happened on your purchase - I'm not sure they will even order the searches without having had this. 


- And the big one. What do we do? - you can give a real ultimatum and pull out, or just look at new properties and then if you find one withdraw your offer and proceed on the new one. 

Thanks, I had a suspicion the first might not be a possible thing without us being made aware, I'll raise it as a question to my solicitor tomorrow none the less.

We're keeping an eye on the market, frustratingly there's nothing else that's grabbed our fancy/requirements so far (it's been weirdly stale in my area of the country, despite the alleged boom in the housing market).

Glad to know that 8 weeks isn't normal though.

BarelySentientAI

Sometimes things go slowly.

Hanlon's razor usually applies.

BlueVeranda

You've indicated the vendors are divorced/divorcing and having bought from vendors in a similar position that probably goes a long way to explaining the delays. Everything has to be agreed twice. Paperwork has to be passed from one to the other. One or both of them may be responding slowly on purpose to frustrate the sale.

And then there's the land registry issue which is an additional complication that we didn't have.

What can you do? Keep chasing them via the EA and your solicitor, knowing that you'll be the one pushing them all the way along to completion, or pull out and look for something else that may be simpler to buy.

We chose to keep pushing and ultimately we're glad we did, but our vendors (or one half of them anyway) were difficult at every step and almost caused the chain to collapse at the last minute. September seems a long way away now, but I can assure you it's very much possible they could drag it out that far.

EssexHebridean

First thing to do is to ask the selling agent to contact the seller and get him to ask his old solicitors (the ones who lodged the application) to request an expedition of the application on the basis that the property is now being sold. That should be a formality, and as long as there are no requisitions, that could then go through in a matter of days. 

The second thing I would do in your position is to get your solicitor to contact the seller’s solicitor and demand to know what the delay is. There are two options there - they can request an urgent response on the basis of professional courtesy in order that they may report to their client (you). The other option is that you agree that they can give an ultimatum - so contract pack by close of business on Friday (or whatever day you choose) or you will walk and find another property. If you go the ultimatum route though you must mean it - don’t view it as a bluff, you do need op to be prepared to walk away. 

demeggy

Cheers folks, I've heard from the Solicitor that they still haven't heard back from the sellers solicitor, so I've emailed my estate agent (after attempting to call) asking for her to urgently look into this and to come back to me.

It could very well be that it's just a complicated and slow chain, but my gut instinct is telling me something is off, and I'm not sure what.

They do say that buying and selling is one of the most stressful things you can do in your life, but that still doesn't prepare you for it!

pjs493

8 weeks does seem a long time. I instructed my solicitor three weeks ago and they contacted me today to see if I could chase the estate agent to ask the vendor what the hold up was. In my case it’s simply down to someone being on holiday and was quickly cleared up. But given what you’ve said about a divorcing couple, your answer could lie there. 

demeggy

Cheers all. Slight update, the seller's solicitors finally got back to my solicitor with a bit more info; turns out they're still waiting on the seller to complete the contract pack forms.