Buyers sellers roll call 17 - the one where everyone finally completes

[gingerninja1]

Last thread is now full so started another one so the mutual support can continue

@paranoidandroidmarvin
@takeyourfinalposition
@getyourassoffthatquattro
@shineysides
@blacklilypad

[gingerninja1]

@getyourassofffthequattro
@tweenwrangler
@finova

[TweenWrangler]

Thank you everyone for your empathetic and kind responses. Sometimes it's so helpful to tell someone who knows.

So it was a horrible afternoon. We were very low key when we arrived, only telling the previous owners that we'd take a look around the garden while they 'finished up'. (Could see then that it would take much longer than their estimate of 1pm) Even then the seller could have saved it by being apologetic but he responded to my statement (we will be looking around the garden) as though we'd asked permission. We owned the property by then so not asking. No apology.

I waited until 12.50pm (contract said 1pm) and then went into the front yard. I asked the removals if they thought they'd have enough space for everything I could still see needed loading and one of them snarkily said 'yes madam we are professionals' so I said 'and in the next 7 minutes?' Because clearly that wasn't true. And he kicked off immediately - rude, abusive, swearing, homophobic (my sister was with me and he kept saying you and your little husband need to fuck off). I went into the house and told the previous owner that hie needed to stop his removals abusing us and get out. Could we just be reasonable? No, I said, I bet he wished he'd been reasonable when we'd asked for eg a carpet fitting measurement. It was now my house and not his. Now I see that he didn't want anyone to see the state of the place...he tried the argument that the longer we wasted time arguing the longer it would take them and I pointed out that I was paying our (competent, productive) removals to do nothing whilst his (inept but cheap) removals pissed about smoking. He then spent another hour putting individual items in his car whilst pretending to be on the phone so he didn't need to talk to us. We went to have a look around and found the most disgusting house I've ever seen - seriously.

Our cleaner arrived and I've never been so pleased to see anyone. She removed a basket of dirty laundry from the utility room to his car (!) and then we decided to start cleaning even though he hadn't left yet. She and I picked up 2 black bags of rubbish including an apple core that had mummified and a toast crust that had seen a different season. The living room was covered in a thick layer of detritus, food, dust and black filth. Unflushed toilets. Food still in the fridge and freezer. Blood on the walls. Unspeakable things.

The carpets are so bad that we have a carpet shampoo booked for tomorrow even though they are being replaced in a week (another long story about how our sellers couldn't compete last Friday thus allowing us to replace carpets on Monday because they absolutely had to have these amazing removal company- your know the ones who weren't out on time, moved really slowly and abused us when we turned up.) and my 66 yo mother literally scrubbed the utility room for an hour before we could put anything into it. Also power sockets broken and hanging off (and a whole room not working) mould and limescale everywhere, broken toilet seat, chipped sink, locks that don't work. All the bins overflowing, fixture and fittings included in the sale removed... I could go on for ages.

By the time I read your lovely responses and we'd made a dent in the cleaning we were beginning to remember why we'd fallen in love with the attached 1.5 acre on which we plan to build, but given we need to live in this house for the at least 18m it takes, it was hard to manage. I sincerely hope none of you have anywhere near the same experience.

[Starseeking]

Thanks for the new thread @gingerninja1. I was hoping not to have to join Thread 17, but here I am. Hopefully this will be my last, then I can move on to the extensions thread!

Congratulations on completing @TweenWrangler, that "welcome" to your new home sounds horrific, I can only imagine how you must feel. In 6 months time it'll be a dim and distant memory, but it's rubbish for you now, which I can sympathise with.

[Paranoidandroidmarvin]

My last move was bad as well. Got there and the place was filthy. And they had left a ton of stuff in the shed which we had to get rid of. Joke was on them though they left a dog cage thing that turned out when we went to stick it on eBay was worth £1000. Which we actually got more for and it paid for our holiday.

I’m so sorry about the state of the house.

[Starseeking]

I don't understand why people behave like that @Paranoidandroidmarvin, it puts a dampener on what should be such a happy occasion.

When I sold my house I had the whole place cleaned by the professionals as I knew I wouldn't have the will. I paid £200 for a deep clean that lasted 8 hours (2 ladies came for 4 hours). It sounds a lot, but they were asked to do everything including inside and outside all kitchen cupboards, and inside and outside windows etc etc. When they finished, I half wanted to move back in!

[Ruralbliss]

Thanks for the thread.

I've been gazundered on the eve of what was due to be exchange of contracts.

Waiting to find out if we're going ahead as originally planned or whether I'm scrapping the sale to stay in my much loved home for the winter and maybe try again next year or humping the many packed boxes into the garage and allowing the estate agent try to find some new buyers...

We'll see.

[Getyourarseofffthequattro]

I'm so sorry @TweenWrangler. Why are people such tossers?! And how do people even live like that. Gross!

We have never had a really filthy house but our first house the owner didn't live there but there was clearly someone staying there. They left us an Addams family record, a mortar and pestle, a playboy book with the pages stuck together (not envy), some crystal glasses which were actually nice quality and worth some money so I sold them, and a dead bee in the bath. Absolutely bizarre.

Our last house was empty but the gas fire had been turned on presumably since they had moved out around a year ago!!

[Getyourarseofffthequattro]

We are supposed to be getting an update today.

Still no word on the log burner. Why does it take a week to send an email?

How will we ever complete if they just don't fucking respond? I'm permanently angry.

[finova]

I booked cleaners @Starseeking
2 ladies for 4 hours, but they cancelled on the morning they were due to come. Decided to do it myself as tome ticking on and new carpets due.
Feel like I should be enjoying this but more, still feels lots of hurdles to jump. Very grateful to now own though- took 23 weeks in the end.

[Starseeking]

@finova

I booked cleaners *@Starseeking*
2 ladies for 4 hours, but they cancelled on the morning they were due to come. Decided to do it myself as tome ticking on and new carpets due.
Feel like I should be enjoying this but more, still feels lots of hurdles to jump. Very grateful to now own though- took 23 weeks in the end.

Congratulations on your purchase @finova, 23 weeks is long, but you got there in the end. I'm on week 15 of my purchase. It's moving very slowly due to my vendor being very elderly, so I'll be very relieved if I complete before the end of November!

It does take a while to settle into a new home, my Dad was saying that when I do eventually get in I should take a few weeks/months to "see how the house lives" before making big changes, which is a different perspective. You'll have a great time making the place your own, whatever you decide on how to improve.

[beguilingeyes]

I am in the middle of the process. My solicitors are amazing and we don't really have a chain. Our buyers are FTBs and our seller is moving into rented. BUT..we're dependent on the sale of my husband's old house before we can complete.
His house sold a month or so before we started so theoretically his should be done first, but it's giving me stress.

[Ruralbliss]

I'm regretting spending hard cash on getting the double oven and all carpets professionally cleaned for new owners now they've pulled this unethical stunt at the last minute.

Grrrrr!

Puppy did a poo on the patio yesterday so I told my kid I'd leave it for the new owners if they do pull their finger out and go ahead after all. Was going to buy prosecco and nice card!

[Paranoidandroidmarvin]

I’m slightly concerned that I have not got rid of enough stuff for the new house. We now have two vans. So I’m guessing not. We may be in but not be able to move around the bungalow

[Elephanttrunk]

@TweenWrangler that sounds horrendous, guessing it wasn’t like that when you viewed it? Gosh I hope our vendor keeps the place nice.
Hopefully in a few weeks it will feel like a distant memory

[TakeYourFinalPosition]

Hi all!

@TweenWrangler That sounds like an absolute ordeal. I'm glad that you're starting to come through the other side!

@Getyourarseofffthequattro Seconding Paranoid from the other thread, vent away I wish I had better advice.

@Ruralbliss What?! I hope you hear soon!

@Paranoidandroidmarvin Two vans I'm so pleased all is progressing well!

We're still in limbo. Apparantly nobody can stand in for our sellers' seller for exchange, so we either exchange tomorrow or simultaneously exchange and complete the week after. Our buyer is out of the country after that; and our seller's seller's mortgage offer expires a few days later.

Our buyer has been in touch today to say his solicitor thinks the 5th is fine but won't review anything until tomorrow, so I think exchange tomorrow is off the cards. Our estate agent has said it's not her job to chase the solicitors; so she won't. She said his solicitor will tell her to F off if she calls.

So; we're all in limbo, and I'm on the labour ward waiting for a scan. I don't think baby will come today but I don't think it'll be weeks and weeks, either, according to the midwives... so I'm going to have to draw a line in the sand. There's only two of us, Covid is going mad and we just can't be moving with a newborn.

I don't even think everyone in the chain has communicated their deadlines to each other; so the solicitors are probably all totally unaware. Ours had no idea that our sellers' seller was away next week.

[Momniscient]

Hope to join in a bit more on this thread... our place just went on the market and we have the first viewings being booked already. We haven't found somewhere to move to just yet but have high hopes for one we're viewing this weekend.

@TweenWrangler that sounds horrendous. Hopefully that's all the "bad blood" out and you'll only have good people from here on out!

[Getyourarseofffthequattro]

Hallelujah. They're going to pay for the log burner. But they want us to have the work done and they'll transfer the funds when the sale goes through. Fine by me! Still no word on the mortgage so may be entirely pointless.... EA is supposed to be getting back to me on that today.

[TakeYourFinalPosition]

Welcome @Momniscient! Good luck with the viewing.

And good news on the log burner, @Getyourarseofffthequattro! Did you hear about the mortgage?

We got an email from our solicitor just before 4pm saying she’d heard from our buyers solicitor, who hadn’t confirmed that enquiries were complete, but had suggested completion on the 12th, which is when our seller’s sellers’ mortgage offer expires, and 5 days after our buyer goes abroad… we went back to say that was too late, but she’d then turned her out of office on until Monday

Our seller then emailed to say that his solicitor has been told that there’s issues with our buyers mortgage again, and that’s why he can’t complete until the 12th. His seller has said that they need to draw down funds by midday tomorrow to be able to complete on the 5th… which we passed on to our buyer; who has said he hasn’t heard anything from his solicitor today and wants to complete ASAP.

It’s like a particularly painful game, at the moment. I’ve spent today at the hospital, and I think the baby might come before the house, at this rate. I really don’t want to wait until the 12th, but my husband doesn’t want to pull out so close to the end… it’s all so stressful.

[Getyourarseofffthequattro]

Oh lord @TakeYourFinalPosition it sounds like the world's most high pressure game of Chinese whispers. I hope you get a straight answer soon.

No, we didn't hear about the mortgage. Tomorrow apparently. Tomorrow never comes tho does it.

[shineysides]

Thanks everyone. Busy unpacking and shopping 😂 the sellers have left us with a broken hot water tank which is a bit crap but hopefully it's quickly sorted

@TakeYourFinalPosition that sounds awful and so stressful. Hope you get an answer soon

[Thurlow]

Hi all, can I check in? We've had a nightmare getting to this stage - first sold in April, now on our second buyers and our third purchase. This one is looking more likely, in theory we're about to hit the stage where we can start talking exchange dates (just the three of us in the chain) but our first time buyers have been panicked by a pretty average survey on a 100 year old property and we've just had to pay for a drainage and asbestos survey to keep them happy - at this stage I'd rather drop another £500 to keep them happy.

I've started to loose all the excitement for this and it feels like it will never happen. Even though its a nice house and I'm certain the buyers will leave on time and the house will be in a perfect condition. I can't even imagine actually moving now. Such an odd situation.

To the PP with the horrible house move I'm so sorry, I hope the house comes together soon.

[Paranoidandroidmarvin]

I’m am excited nervous and sad. My boxes and furniture are going into the vans as we speak. I am going to miss living here so much. Got very upset yesterday. But as my son can barely walk up the stairs some days we have to move.
My new bungalow is lovely. And I am excited. But sad.
Fingers crossed the solicitors that have been dealing with house we are moving into don’t mess up.
They exchanged and completed last week without telling the people whose house it was they were doing it. Their house purchase was nowhere near ready so as of today they have nowhere to go. Can u imagine. How bad is that. Just agreeing to a date without even asking.

[Getyourarseofffthequattro]

Oh god @Paranoidandroidmarvin that's terrible of them. I hope it goes smoothly for you

[Paranoidandroidmarvin]

Luckily we have been chatting to the people buying this. We are going to have to do two runs. And they are being really lovely about it. I currently don’t own any houses 😂😂😂

[Getyourarseofffthequattro]

@Paranoidandroidmarvin

Luckily we have been chatting to the people buying this. We are going to have to do two runs. And they are being really lovely about it. I currently don’t own any houses 😂😂😂

Ahhhh I hate the bit in the middle!