Home Buyers' Support Thread, Part 4

[BeaufortBelle]

Here we go.

Good luck everybody x

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/2139089-Home-Buyers-Support-Thread-Part-3?pg=40

Mind if I join in before I go ballistic. Basically there are 4 in the chain (we are no3) & top of the chain are moving into a empty property that is going through probate.
Our buyers, us & the people we are buying from were all hoping to exchange this week with all agreed to complete next Friday, with just waiting on the first time buyer to finalise his mortgage valuation and everything good to go.
Then yesterday my EA has just found out the first time buyer has had his mortgage offer withdrawn & is in the middle of sorting out another mortgage through his broker.
Broker has assured our estate agent that it looks like the offer will be approved.
No 2 (our buyers are in bits apparently) have been advised to put their house back on the market just in case No1 can't buy the house.
No 4 (the people whose house we are buying) are nearly in tears as the probate people have said that if no completion next week then that house is going back on the market.
I'm already to go round and punch the first time buyer (only I don't know where he lives luckily). All the offers on all houses were agreed in the middle of March, all paperwork including searches done.
I am so angry because for the last week first time buyer's solicitors assured everyone it was just a technical hiccup not that the blooming mortgage offer had been withdrawn due to some bad credit marker from a few years ago on his credit file.

We'll know more tomorrow. Though for us it's probably a bit more stressful as DH has changed jobs & we are moving about 100 miles away. At moment DH is staying with friend during the week & back at weekends. (Been going on for months). We have a relocation package but there is a time limit on that.

I am praying, wishing, hoping & crossing fingers, arms & legs that everything gets sorted out & that we move in the next week or two.

Thanks for reading my essay & is it too early for a glass of wine?

Oh dear, MrsEdinburgh, how completely awful. It is never too early for wine in such situations - if only I weren't pregnant, I would be downing it by the bucket-load!

I don't think it is unsalvageable however, if he has a broker working on the case, he probably will get a mortgage, just not at a very favourable rate. At this late stage, he'd be stupid not to just swallow that and look to change in a year or two when his credit rating will improve. He is an absolute arse though to not be more honest with people.

It's also usually quite quick through a broker, but a week might be pushing it. I guess it will take some begging for the people at the top of the chain.

Our latest news is that our total arse of a vendor has now pulled out. After looking at two cottages (she's now ruled out flats because of the leaseholds not allowing pets ), she's decided she won't get enough for her money. Apparently it is a huge surprise to her that a beautiful period 2 bedroom cottage in a sought-after town centre is not massively cheaper than her poorly maintained, 3-bed, 70s box on the far edge of town.

We paid 25% towards a structural engineers report and told her that we felt she should return the money as she has royally messed us about by not doing her research better before accepting our offer and letting us get surveys etc done. She said no as she is very disappointed to have lost her sale too. You didn't lose the sale, you pulled out of it you moron!!!

Well, the good news is that my dream house haas come on the market today and at a push, we can afford it. EA says it is chain-free, however, looking at the furniture, I would guess another retired couple down-sizing. Having had three chains collapse due to such vendors, I don't know if I can do it again, but will press the EA for details of who, why and what!

hi mrs Edinburgh. surprised that your house is going through probate but they are letting you complete. I have just bought a probate house and the solicitor couldn't complete until court sent the probate papers. I was told 6weeks but in fact it took nearly 3months.

Tremolo that's awful. Hopefully everything will go to plan with your dream house, though I bet Mrs PITA vendor withdrawn will suddenly change her mind now you've found your dream house!

Benjiman6 sorry I meant a probate sale not going through probate.

Anyway latest on ours is that No1 in chain is sorting his mortgage out with a specialist lender who are valuing his vendors house (No2 in chain) on Monday. So fingers crossed it all gets back on track.

So sorry for everyone today. It's been a real shit set of updates hasn't it!

I don't understand any of it about the mortgage. It doesn't make sense really.

We got a mortgage in principle but it seems they don't really look into much and really aren't worth the paper they are written on. The mortgage is still not fully approved over two weeks later. Searches have been paid for etc etc and money spent on something we don't know if we will definitely be accepted on. Can't they look into it all and say a max amount and then you look at houses after?

Golden - have you and your agents talked about an open day? We sold our house from an open day as did my neighbour! We had around 35 people that day with around ten offers! Worth a thought, as we didn't want to have to deal with keeping house tidy with an 13 month old in tow lol!
We sold ours end of March to a cash buyer and have only just had our offer accepted but the seller still needs to find somewhere! To be honest our negotiations with her have been tedious and long so we are just relieved that we had an offer accepted!
During this time we have viewed several properties and made offers but was massively outbid, the market has gone crazy. We were lucky that we had the patience with this house/seller and it paid off, hopefully!
Will be joining the thread

Oh god I seemed to have killed the thread and not for the first time

Argh I'm furious, you may recall we were waiting for our search to come back, it came back this week, yay! However today we have had an email from the solicitors saying that the info we provided to him re the source of our deposit isn't the same as the broker put on the application form. Well we told the broker the exact same info but they are now going back to the mortgage lender and if santander decide they don't like it or we have been dishonest then it's game over. The week we thought we were going to complete. I feel sick.

Mortgage lender does need to know the source of your deposit. Is it coming from a parent for example? If so, mortgage lender will want a letter signed by the parent to say that the money is a gift, that they will not be expecting it to be repaid and that the parent has no interest in the property (i.e. charge on/ownership of). Due to money laundering rules, monies should not come from a third party account only your account. Don't worry, Santander just need to satisfy themselves that no dodgy money laundering is going on, highly unlikely it's game over but any discrepancies in information has to be checked. Your solicitor acts for you as well as the mortgage company.

I know, but what I dont understand is why we told the broker the same as we told the solicitor and she put down that the money was wholly from savings. Looks like we've lied and we didn't.

Oh no, sounds like you guys are having real headaches.

We exchanged (part ex deal against a new build) at the end of April. Completion date in contract of 22 June.

Developers have told us the house we are buying wont be build complete till at least 29 June so hopefully sale completion 3 July.

I've informed our solicitor by email and within minutes he was on the phone to me in a flap saying this had a real impact on the contract!!! Eeek!!! He's contacted developers' solicitor to put an addendum on the contract. I'm worried now.

Is this normal with new builds? Are they taking the piss and delaying because our house hasn't sold yet (as mentioned we have part exchanged with them)?

Please reassure me someone.

I'm wishing good news to everyone waiting. Fingers crossed for all of us.

Crikey - I think it's quite common with new builds, it usually says that the developer wants exchange with a flexible completion date. As our house was so close to build complete we insisted on waiting for a fixed completion date.

Thanks crafty. I am having a wobble thinking they are going to keep me waiting because we have exchanged and we are pretty much at their mercy. I don't want to get pushy though cos I want them to finish our new house properly and not rush. Argh - this was supposed to be the easy way to do it.

Meant to say that we had similar worries about part-ex. They seemed to start dragging stuff out and I thought it was because our house wasn't selling but it wasn't. Our solicitor told us it's a bit slower when you part-ex as I think it all goes through another department or something so takes longer.

We found out today that another developer would have refused our house for part-ex and that they would have offered assisted sale at 3k less than we got. He said we'd got a very good part-ex deal.

Oh yes, I wondered that too. Was glad that the house was quite a way through the build when we offered (kitchen/flooring ordered) and by the time everything was lined up for exchange we were only a few days from being able to set a fixed completion date so we were able to insist on it.

Thanks. I think we got a pretty good deal on ours too and although not sold yet masses of viewings so I don't expect them to have to wait too long once we are out.

My solicitor scared me a bit with his 'concern' that there was a completion date in our exchanged contracts that wasn't going to be met. I don't fancy being homeless even if it would only be for a few weeks.

Waiting to hear back from the developers as to build stage and whether 3 July is still a go. Hope so, I'm starting to forget what the new house looks like (and am surrounded by boxes!)

ARGH!!! After getting a zero valuation on a property we were buying last week we have now found a new property. It's a repossession which is making it all so complicated. Unfortunately, as we are ready to exchange on our current house we don't have all the time in the world to wait and play it cool.
The estate agent has been pushing us to increase our bid, saying the bank were saying its not enough. I have had enough now and withdrawn our last bid. No one else is interested in the property. Hopefully that might give them the incentive to secure us as a buyer.
This is a horrible game :(

Oh and whilst I'm hogging this thread - are you in your new-build yet crafty? Did you have much to snag?

Well, I still have a fixed completions date of the 25th had hoped for exchange last week but the developer has suddenly decided they want us to do an electrical test (part ex) the earliest I can get it done is the 15th. I'm worried they'll use anything negative as an excuse to move the goalposts and try and change there offer at the last minute.

Oh honey :(. We had to have the electrical cert and gas cert done before our developers would consider exchange. Luckily my sister's partner's company did the gas cert (not him, one of his employees) and we got an electrician really quickly who did it with a few day's notice. Unfortunately, there were a few issues but again luckily he could fit us in to do the work within a week and it was only a few hundred pounds. Fingers crossed for you.

Oh and to put your mind at rest, they simply wanted a 'pass' certificate. They didn't change their offer but we did need to do the work to get the cert.
They also asked for a damp and wall tie report following the survey but this cost £50 and didn't show any issues.

We move a week today.

We also had to get gas, electricity and some energy rating certificate thing pretty much as soon as the process started. Developers recommended a company that do all 3 and they come out within a couple of days. We had to rectify a couple of small electrical bits but they did that quickly and cheaply.

How exciting crafty! We are 4 weeks today (unless they put it back again). I so hope not.
Happy moving.

The reason I'm annoyed is I had the gas cert and epc etc; basically the surveyor they sent was terrible, his planning and time keeping held everything up. He got shirty about the fuse box as he couldn't find it, then stated he would note it was old so the builders could update it and increase sale value.

He did not understand how pet ex worked and would not be told either.

So at the last minute they have flagged it as a problem.

and it's really hard to get a leccy who can get it done short notice as they're all employed by the developers at the moment