Tips for pushing a sale forward?

[russ9898]

Hi everyone,

We had an offer accepted on a property around 10th January. The offer was made on the condition that the sale completed on or before 23rd March to avoid the stamp duty deadline.

Weve progressed our side of the sale very fast with a survey being completed on the 15th, mortgage offered on the 22nd. Last week we paid our deposit to the solicitor and signed all relevant paperwork. The trouble were now having is getting the other party to exchange contracts. The limited information we have is that the vendor has yet to secure a mortgage offer, we know only 2-3 weeks ago the vendor hadn't even been to see their mortgage broker which is frustrating at best.

The estate agent is useless (and has been from the start) and our solicitor is chasing the vendors solicitor daily to try and get contracts exchanged. Unfortunately were getting nowhere fast.

Anyone have any tips or suggestions to help pressure the vendor into exchange?

I plan to pop into the estate agents tomorrow (seen as they haven't returned my calls or email today) and give them a deadline to exchange and agree a completion date. However im at abit of a loss as to what else we can do.

Were desperate to complete asap to avoid the £1400 stamp duty, i will also seriously consider pulling out of the sale as a point of principle if they're going to mess me around. Afterall im the one sending £140k the vendors way.

Thanks,

Russ

 

[russ9898]

Thanks for the advice guys.

I have already sent messages via both the solicitor and the estate agent saying that we will have no choice but to withdraw our offer if we dont complete on or before the 23rd.

Just to clarify, the situation is -

Were first time buyers
Vendors were buying from are buying a new property
The people our vendors are buying from have no upward chain

So were in a small chain fortunately, the people at the top of the chain can move out quickly if required. Its all unfortunately being slowed down by our vendors. Ive explained on several occasions the significance of the 23rd March and why we need to complete by then although it doesn't seem to be hitting home.