What are my options here?

MaxiRobriguez

Morning all.

First time buying a house as part of a chain and can now understand why some people avoid it like the plague!

For context:
1) Our 6 leg chain formed in June.
2) We were all working towards completion dates in mid-October, but there was an issue with the top two of the chain which was delaying things indefinitely. 
3) Because of this, the vendors we are buying from decided to break the upwards side of the chain as they had enough money in the bank to buy their house outright.
4) We are now de-facto top of a 3 way chain as our vendors have moved out already and will agree to exchange/completion as soon as possible.
5) The remainder of the chain set a completion date of the 14th, with exchange a week prior, but the bottom of the chain missed the exchange deadline and then (according to our buyer's solicitor) strung along the rest of the chain saying they would still be ready for 14th completion, but then promptly failed to meet that as well, despite both us and our buyers loading up vans on the day thinking it would come through.
6) After this, we set new dates of exchange this Friday (21st) with completion on 26th, which again the bottom of the chain vocally agreed to (according to our buyers solicitor) but we're almost at exchange deadline and we're hearing that bottom of the chain lender is asking for additional searches before committing to release funds.

It feels like we're being strung along here. I just can't believe that their lender is genuinely asking for more searches almost three weeks on from the initial agreement of exchange/completion, and I've not got any confidence either that either that solicitor or our buyer's solicitor is giving us the full truth.

I'm trying to work out if it's possible to break the chain downwards but I don't think we can. We have combined earnings of £100k p/y, an existing mortgage of £97k (of which the fixed period ended last month) and the house we're wanting to purchase is £480k. Even if we could find a lender to stretch to 5.5x earnings we're still £20k short despite taking money from savings accounts & once factoring additional stamp duty, and even if we could close the gap we're at a large risk given mortgage liability would basically take up all our post-tax income and we'd only have up to six months of savings to fall back on. 

So - not sure what we do from here if tomorrow's exchange deadline comes and goes and bottom of the chain is still... doing.. .something?

Any advice? Would you try keeping the chain ongoing and pray they come through at some point? Re-market? 

Just feel stuck and could use with experiences of people who've dealt with similar situations previously. 

THANK YOU!

Tiglet2

Have you asked your solicitor for their advice? It sounds as though you've all agreed exchange and completion dates without actually confirming with all the solicitors that the legal conveyancing work was done.

When the solicitors for every person in the chain confirms that their work is concluded, that's when exchange can take place and a completion date set. Solicitors also act for lenders in a conveyancing transaction, so any extra searches required would be on the recommendation of the solicitor, therefore that solicitor had not concluded the necessary work.

I'm sure you already know, but until exchange takes place, nothing is legally binding.

Bigphil1474

Not sure you can blame the people in the chain or can deduce that someone is stringing you along - from what you've said, it's a lender who needs some additional info before lending. Not that uncommon. Realistically, you can either stick with it until it's sorted or pull out. If you pull out, you're likely looking at a few more months to get back to this stage. 

MaxiRobriguez

Tiglet2 said:

Have you asked your solicitor for their advice? It sounds as though you've all agreed exchange and completion dates without actually confirming with all the solicitors that the legal conveyancing work was done.

When the solicitors for every person in the chain confirms that their work is concluded, that's when exchange can take place and a completion date set. Solicitors also act for lenders in a conveyancing transaction, so any extra searches required would be on the recommendation of the solicitor, therefore that solicitor had not concluded the necessary work.

I'm sure you already know, but until exchange takes place, nothing is legally binding.

The bottom of the chain solicitors confirmed the dates, apparently, and the "additional" search that came to light late last week was for a search on my buyers property which his solicitors have already provided to them, as it's an immutable one. 

And yes, fully aware that until exchange takes place nothing is legally binding - this is why we're trying to assess options as we feel completely powerless. It's not just being in a chain, it's being in a chain where there is zero transparency and we don't know if we genuinely are just waiting for solicitors to get their act together or if there's an actual problem somewhere and there's delaying tactics done. 

MaxiRobriguez

Bigphil1474 said:

Not sure you can blame the people in the chain or can deduce that someone is stringing you along - from what you've said, it's a lender who needs some additional info before lending. Not that uncommon. Realistically, you can either stick with it until it's sorted or pull out. If you pull out, you're likely looking at a few more months to get back to this stage. 

Thanks, was hoping I was missing something clever and that my options weren't just limited to stick it out or go back to square one, but if that's all it is then at least I can make an affirmative decision.

And it'll have to be stick it out, given we're heading into November and market is quiet, and our vendors have already sold and won't want us going back to square 1. 

user1977

MaxiRobriguez said:

Tiglet2 said:

Have you asked your solicitor for their advice? It sounds as though you've all agreed exchange and completion dates without actually confirming with all the solicitors that the legal conveyancing work was done.

When the solicitors for every person in the chain confirms that their work is concluded, that's when exchange can take place and a completion date set. Solicitors also act for lenders in a conveyancing transaction, so any extra searches required would be on the recommendation of the solicitor, therefore that solicitor had not concluded the necessary work.

I'm sure you already know, but until exchange takes place, nothing is legally binding.

the "additional" search that came to light late last week was for a search on my buyers property which his solicitors have already provided to them, as it's an immutable one. 

What sort of search is it?

MaxiRobriguez

user1977 said:

MaxiRobriguez said:

Tiglet2 said:

Have you asked your solicitor for their advice? It sounds as though you've all agreed exchange and completion dates without actually confirming with all the solicitors that the legal conveyancing work was done.

When the solicitors for every person in the chain confirms that their work is concluded, that's when exchange can take place and a completion date set. Solicitors also act for lenders in a conveyancing transaction, so any extra searches required would be on the recommendation of the solicitor, therefore that solicitor had not concluded the necessary work.

I'm sure you already know, but until exchange takes place, nothing is legally binding.

the "additional" search that came to light late last week was for a search on my buyers property which his solicitors have already provided to them, as it's an immutable one. 

What sort of search is it?

It's a transfer of accountability for the drainage from the original housebuilder to the local water company in 1997.

user1977

MaxiRobriguez said:

user1977 said:

MaxiRobriguez said:

Tiglet2 said:

Have you asked your solicitor for their advice? It sounds as though you've all agreed exchange and completion dates without actually confirming with all the solicitors that the legal conveyancing work was done.

When the solicitors for every person in the chain confirms that their work is concluded, that's when exchange can take place and a completion date set. Solicitors also act for lenders in a conveyancing transaction, so any extra searches required would be on the recommendation of the solicitor, therefore that solicitor had not concluded the necessary work.

I'm sure you already know, but until exchange takes place, nothing is legally binding.

the "additional" search that came to light late last week was for a search on my buyers property which his solicitors have already provided to them, as it's an immutable one. 

What sort of search is it?

It's a transfer of accountability for the drainage from the original housebuilder to the local water company in 1997.

In that case I agree there's no need to renew it.