House Purchase Delays

[romeogolf]

We're purchasing a home and the agent is Purple Bricks, so it's all contact via the vendor, not anyone at Purple Bricks.

Our offer was accepted 15 Jan, solicitors instructed 30 Jan and the paperwork they sent us with TR1 etc was sent back to them by 2nd March.

I've followed up with our solicitors on the 6 March who said they were waiting for responses to queries from the other side. I then contacted the vendor on the 8th along these lines and he replied on 10th March that he had sent these responses so things 'should start moving'.

Having heard nothing else, I contacted our solicitors on the 14th March who informed me that the replies received were incomplete and they're now chasing for complete responses. Our mortgage broker followed up on 16th March and received the same response.

I'm not really sure who else to chase and we're moving closer to the date we may need to leave our (rented) flat and have nothing confirmed. We were hoping to complete in mid-May, and thought 4 months was plenty of time.

Is this sort of delay normal? What else can we do to move things along?

[romeogolf]

outnumbered said:

Is there a chain (i.e., where is the person whose house you are buying, moving to) ? That will have a big impact on how long things take.

No chain on either side. We're moving out of rented, and they're moving in with family.

[romeogolf]

Steve Evil said:

Road2Ruin said:

It took you 15 days to instruct your solicitor, a month and two days to send paperwork back and you are complaining about someone taking their time...;)

I was thinking the same.

Hah, we only received TR1 etc on 21st Feb and were away that week, so sent them back the day we returned. I think the date I have for instructing them is just the date they wrote back to confirm rather than when we first contacted them which would have probably been a day or two after the mortgage offer was returned (19 Jan).

[romeogolf]

digimeistter said:

I completely fail to understand why you are having to chase the sale yourself, why are Purple Bricks not doing it?

After all! aren't they 'real estate agents, you just don't pay commission'

I think it's an accepted balance that you pay less, but get a lower level of service. They don't assist with the sale, they just advertise it, taking good photos (well, debatable) and producing a floorplan etc. To be fair, it's been quite nice so far to deal direct with the seller, it's just a bit frustrating as buyer knowing that there's no one else waiting for their money who might have an incentive to work for it.