Buying a House

[dispenser]

I made an offer on a house which was accepted so at present the house is sold to me subject to contract. My problem is we have been at this stage for a few months now and when I ask their agent when we can proceed they say when she finds a house to move to. I was advised by another estate agent who has sold my house that my soliciter should sort this with her soliciter. My soliciter says I should get their estate agent to deal with it. Please has anyone any idea what I should do? I would be so grateful for your help. Many thanks

[buildersmate]

I assume you in England/Wales.
It is no-one's job specifically, but since you are the one that wants to get moving, either you could start getting assertive with the seller, or get the estate agent selling your house to work for his money. Estate agents get nothing out of these deals until the sale actually goes through and are also on a fixed percentage fee (so their price to you doesn't go up for their work of phoning and hassling people up and down the chain).
Buyers are in short supply at present in most parts of the country so if you have a closed chain below you, you should be able to exert pressure. The basis of the discussion ought to be, either the seller agrees to exchange contracts by say end of January with a long-stop completion date of end of February, or the whole deal is off. Should focus their minds a bit.

[Postdog]

I was in this situation (sort of) last year, where I accepted an offer on my house, and, once I knew what was available money wise, found a house to buy. However the people whose house I was buying seemed in no hurry to complete (hassles waiting for them to let the survey be done, left waiting for them to respond to solicitors letters and phone calls). I wouldn't have minded so much for the fact that they were moving to rented rather than buying, and that it was them who needed to sell rather than me needing to buy that particular house.

To cut a long story short, I contacted their agent many times about these delays, and got nowhere until I gave them notice that unless I had some positive feedback of when I was likely to move, I was withdrawing the offer to buy. That did work.

[dispenser]

Sorry I haven't replied sooner but I have been away for Christmas. Many thanks for your helpful replies. I really appreciate this information because I wasn't sure where I stood but now I get tough. After all I am a cash buyer with no chain so that is as you say a strong position. Many thanks