Chain of closings

We are in a chain of closing on our purchase of a house. We are first time buyers, contracts all signed and closing date is tomorrow 6th of April - however we were just informed today that the vendors are buying a house also and that the person they are buying from lives abroad and so their solicitor has to send the docs from their country and didnt send them out in time and now we will be delayed by a full week.

Our issue is that - we are ready to close, we have jumped through hoops the whole way along this stressful journey and our solicitor has the deeds etc and everything is in order - so why cant we just close and get the keys. The vendor can close on their sale whenever, to be honest its not our problem so why do we have to wait now ?? Surely they would be out of the house now and have all belongings gone etc as sale was always set to close tomorrow …so where is the problem? Or are we missing something here??

Anony2022 said:

so why cant we just close and get the keys. The vendor can close on their sale whenever, to be honest its not our problem so why do we have to wait now ?? Surely they would be out of the house now and have all belongings gone etc as sale was always set to close tomorrow …so where is the problem? Or are we missing something here??

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What did your solicitor say?

They are probably not out of the house though if they thought the sale would close tomorrow and the solicitor/post has delayed them. If same day selling/buying works then vendors move on the day, not everyone has somewhere to stay for a week or two or three plus their stuff.

Just reading a very similar thread on another forum about the logistics of this.

Anony2022 said:

The vendor can close on their sale whenever, to be honest its not our problem so why do we have to wait now ??

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It's rarely that simple.

In many cases, the person you are buying from doesn't just have another property they can move to for a temporary period while waiting for their purchase to close. Even if they did, they won't want the hassle of packing up everything and moving twice in what they hope to be a short time frame.

It also happens more than it should, but sometimes deals get delayed for many months, and sometimes never close at all. So it would be a foolish vendor who would close the sale of their current home until such time as they have the keys to the new one in their (or their solicitors) hands.