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

Hope nobody minds me adding in here.
We started the process back in October, had buyers in place but lost the house we wanted. Eventually found another and had offer accepted last week of January. Start of Feb we lost our buyers but were given a week to find new ones by our sellers. Successfully resold in a week. Heard 2 days ago that our sellers have lost the house they were buying so we are back to waiting again, this time for our sellers to find a new house. It's all such a horrible process, relying on so many different people. I just want to click my fingers and be moved! Never again!!!

I think I need to join! I'm a FTB and had an offer accepted end of Jan. there is apparently no chain, the sellers have assured us (twice, to our faces) that they are moving into rented...

we shall see! I've got the mortgage all sorted, survey monday. we now just need to sellers solicitors to get their act together. I made the mistake of googling them and it does not look good, they are a bargain basement firm who are rubbish.

This is so sodding stressful!

Bumble you're in a strong positive as a FTB. Are you currently renting? It was horrible trying to get timing together to move before having to extend the rental agreement for us, so I hope you aren't messed around.

yes we are - our landlord thankfully is great, and has agreed we can give less notice that the two months our tenancy specifies. its not easy getting it all to match up timings-wise. if we need a long period between exchnage and completion so be it. I can just see this dragging because of the sellers sols complete indifference and I am chomping at the bit to get in and get settled.

I've been saving for my deposit for 5 years, so you think i'd be a bit more patient but I am just too excited/terrified.

also my mortgage offer was silent on when I need to make my first payment - I presume its a month ish after I move in? I've read it very thoroughly and I'm baffled.

If I recall correctly our mortgage was first payment up front. Best check it out.
Look at the dragging issue to your advantage, you'll be able to move in over a few days, get the rental tidied to get your deposit back and not exhaust yourself trying to do it all in one day.

Hi everyone, we are having problems with our sellers all of a sudden. We have delayed all our plans for them as the property they wanted to move to was not empty. We then extended that dates to suit them. Now they are really pushing to exchange and complete really quickly and in a time when they know is very inconvenient for us. They are also unwilling to do a pre exchange visit with us and threatening to pull out if v don't agree. They said the agent can do the visit with us but the agent themselves said that they don't have much of an idea of the questions we want answers to. All this after they delayed everything by a couple of months.

Feel like telling them to sod off but already spent money on survey and searches etc. Their complete change of attitude is very blizzare.

see if you can get the agent to shed some light on whats going on? have they suddenly found somewhere? you are in a strong position, presumably they cannot buy without selling first? I'd push back re the timings and go for something to suit you. In terms of your pre exchange visit, can you let that go?

the worst bit is the lack of communications with the sellers I find, it means noone ever knows what the other is thinking/doing and leads to so much stress...

Bumble I totally agree with the lack of communication being frustrating. I haven't heard a thing from our sellers since hearing a week ago they had lost the house they were buying. I could really do with an update.

Sunshine that sounds a nightmare. I was talking to a man from a removal company who came round to give quotes. He said it is getting more and more common for house sales falling through and removal dates being changed as a result. I hope you hear from your sellers soon. The process is so awful.

We are hopefully moving in April. There is currently a tenant in the house we are buying who has only been in there since November. Apparently he has managed to completely ruin the brand new carpets with his German shepherd dog and has been throwing glass bottles on the fire and compost heap. The owner got quite a shock when he went round recently (he isn't local). Fortunately the sellers have promised to replace the damaged carpets, clear up and get it back to its original state before we move there. We won't complete before the tenant is out. I hope there is nothing else wrong. It'[s been 10 months since we viewed the house. Hope it is still OK!

Golden it really is. We are expecting a baby in a week and I could really do without the stress.
Sounds like the tenant is showing displeasure that he can't stay in the house. Hopefully it's all restored suitably for you to move in. Do you get a say in the design of the new curtains? Could be a benefit long term for you.

Just heard from the Estate Agent that my solicitor has sent mail to the house I am trying to buy (which is empty). The vendor just found it. Aaaaaagh! I told solicitor I need to complete before end of March. How often do such daft errors happen???

christ thats awful fangs! I dont know but I would be livid, thats such a stupid thing to do. I have been emailing my solicitors but its weird how they insist on posting me hard copies in this day and age. I'm a solicitor too and I never send clients hard copies that would be totally odd and its so easy for things to go astray.

golden - if I were you I would be get those promises in writing, you dont want a nasty shock when you finally get in!

Bloody hell Fangs. Good job the vendor went in to the property! Doesn't fill you with confidence does it. Hopefully they get their act together now.

I've been emailing our solicitor, and although they have emailed once, they never reply to my messages. I'm working on the principle they are not emailing and therefore not charging for the time spent emailing.

Just read through the thread with some nervousness. We're at the early stages, has been a fortnight since we had an offer accepted and three weeks since we accepted an offer. All seems very quiet, have sent reams of forms with our solicitors, waiting for the mortgage and the building survey. Oh, and we have a removal firm coming round this afternoon to give us a quote. I'm a bit worried that our buyers don't seem to have had a survey done and I'm not getting any info from the estate agent who are being a bit slow returning my calls. On the positive side it's a short chain, FTB one side, probate on the other, so assuming everyone is sensible and the probate doesn't cause issues it should be OK. Though reading the horror stories on here makes that seem a dim and naive hope!

How's it going, sunshine? Hope you're now awaiting your baby's arrival in your new house! Fangs that sounds crazy, lucky it was found. And I second the idea of getting those promises in writing, Golden.

Jess congratulations on your sale and potential buy. The process whilst causing anxiety, can also be tediously slow. We are waiting for our buyer to get to her solicitor to sign the contracts. They work at snails pace! I expect then we'll have to do everything as of 'yesterday!'

I get the buyers to do their survey ASAP, if anything is found to be wrong it could delay the whole process. Good luck.

we have just our survey back. we did it separately to the mortgage valuation. its 55 pages of what seems like mostly disclaimers .

to be honest, unless it came back saying it was structurally unsound we are happy to proceed. silly question - I presume I need to send it on to the solicitors?

BumbleNova No, you don't need to send it to the solicitors. There is a bit at the end of the report which you can refer to your solicitor (the legal part), but the rest of the report about the state of the house, whether there is damp or repointing to be investigated is not something your solicitor will get involved in. This is where "buyers beware" comes into play - it is for you to decide whether to proceed or not.

That's good to know, Spickle. Bumble, I'm hoping that's good news, did you get a homebuyer or building survey?

So I've made a bit of progress today with a few general chasing calls - think I managed to persuade the mortgage company that the documents we hadn't provided because they didn't exist actually didn't exist, as they could have seen from what we did send them, but heigh ho. And apparently our surveyor said to the estate agent that there weren't any major issues which is hopeful - fingers crossed the report will follow soon and confirm that. Plus our buyers have got their mortgage application in so hopefully their survey will follow soon.

Thanks JT - fingers crossed the snails pick up speed soon!

we got a full building survey. It was only a couple of hundred quid more and it seemed silly not given the cost of the house. Its also a victorian property so I thought it was best to get it checked. it all sounds fine, something about needing to check the gutters have been cleaned recently and that the external walls need repainting but other than that, no big issues.

i need to poke my solicitor for an update too, I am going to read the survey will a fine toothed comb at the weekend.

hmm so our survey has come back with something serious that needs fixing. arrrgh. apparently one of the chimney's has failed? there is water seeping into the woodwork in the roof and into the brick work.

I am glad we had the survey now! we will need to do other remedial works too, since it looks like the sellers have done zero maintenance in the last few years - outside render/paintwork, all new downpipes and gutters.

is the best thing to do to get a builder out for a quote to fix it and try and negotiate a drop in price from the seller?

Sorry to hear about your survey Bumble , annoying but at least you know and it all should be straight forward, if costly, to fix.

I'd definitely ask for a reduction in price, as it will come up on any other surveys.

Our buyers are now have ditched the snails and are now galloping towards a completion date in the first week of April. Removers booked!

The house we have just offered on ( more than we wanted to pay ) has another offer, so the vendor is considering who is best placed to move quickly. Fair enough, I'd do the same. An Edwardian house, looks smart, but we will also have a full survey.

How's everyone else? All progressing, I hope.

First time on this thread. Our flat just went on the market yesterday and we have been viewing houses for the last couple of weeks. Have a second viewing for somewhere tonight, just not sure if the downstairs area is too small. I'm sure if it was open plan we wouldn't think that.

Also a query over whether or not we could extend in to the loft if we wanted to at some point. No one else in the street has

Starting to get excited about our house move! It is only a month away. DH won't have a survey done on the house we are buying but is taken our trusted builder around instead and looking at everything. He completely renovated our current house and we have known him and his work for many years. Fortunately we also know our vendors well too.

One thing that is worrying me though is the current tenant who is due to move out of the house we are buying. I found out he is using the house to run a mail order business. He has referred to the house as his 'warehouse' and shop for his business. He's only been there a few months and knew the house was being sold. I am probably worrying unnecessarily but our new address is all over the internet. It turns out he wasn't honest with the letting agent. He also has a scary looking huge dog! Current owners had no idea. Hope it will be OK as don't want random people turning up demanding to know where there orders are. We won't exchange until he has moved out.

Well turned out the agent was lying to both UA and the sellers. Apparently they are selling two other properties in the chain and they told the sellers that we didn't want to move till a month later and told us the same about the sellers. They also lied that the sellers were threatning to pull out if we didn't agree to the completion date which the seller told us they never mentioned. !!

So unprofessional.

Golden it might be wise to ask your solicitor to check that there are no outstanding debts associated with the property.

Coldest how awful, but at least you know now. Have you got the phone numbers of everyone in the chain?

The mantra is true "trust no one".