>> I hope you're on a no-sale-no-fee contract with them? If so then they do
>> have a lot to lose (ie their entire fee plus the costs of any
>> surveys/documents they've already purchased on your behalf). At any
>> point you could just walk away - it's in their interest to make sure you
>> don't do that.
>
> Basically, the estate agents get paid commission

I assume you are talking of the seller's estate agent, in which case 
they are not working for you so it's not surprising they never get back 
to you - these guys are very far from charities. Even if you were 
selling a house and had employed an estate agent they shouldn't really 
be involved at this stage, their job is solely to find a buyer not 
complete the sale (if they fear losing the buyer they might help chase 
things up on behalf of the seller).

> They have already received all of this money - regardless of
> whether I ever get me house or not. As far as I can tell, there is
> literally no profit in it for them if the sale completes.

If it doesn't complete they will not get their fee from the seller 
(which is likely orders of magnitude bigger than any commission payments 
for recommendations to potential buyers) and will have to repeat the 
whole process of finding a buyer. They'd rather spend the time and 
effort doing this process on a different property and get another £x000 
than have to repeat it on your one.

> As far as my end goes, I've paid a small up-front fee.

To your solicitor? Yes that's normal - but what happens if the sale 
doesn't complete, do you get that back?

> so much; I'm just tired of waiting, that's all. More than that, I
> wouldn't mind waiting if the processing takes too long, but I object to
> waiting when nothing is actually happening because nobody gives a fig...

Your solicitor is the only one working for you, all your contact should 
be with them at this stage, they will in turn contact whoever is needed 
to complete the sale (the seller's solicitor, government agencies, 
banks, surveyors etc). They should be able to tell you exactly what is 
going on and chase things up for you - it's quite normal to be calling 
them even every day at this stage. Have you discussed a target date yet 
for completion? If not tell them you want to complete on a certain date 
(eg 1st July), they will inform that to the seller and see what reaction 
you get. It helps to be working towards a target date.

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