Would anyone like an 'in a chain' support group?

[thenewaveragebear1983]

Would anyone like an 'in a chain' support thread? We're selling and buying and it's so stressful!! We've found our 'dream house' and had an offer accepted, had an offer on ours within a week which was subsequently retracted. Wondered if anyone else was finding this whole process ridiculously stressful?

Oh can I join.
We had an offer on our house on 25 August and offered on the new house on 27 August.

Our Buyers were sold and they have now agreed a completion date on their sale of 7 October.

Our sellers are moving into rented and want to go asap.

We had our mortgage extension agreed today, the searches are back on our house, but only got sent off for the new house on 12 September, both surveys are done and fine.
Could we be moving in 3 weeks????? Anyone have any experince of how long the searches might take?

Good grief, that seems insanely quick. If your buyers complete 7th October are they going to move into your house then, or do they plan to stay with relatives? Our solicitor has said 6-10 weeks is a reasonable turnaround for searches etc. Although the searches can throw up other issues that then all need resolved which is where the delays come from. Our solicitor says you're only as quick as the slowest link in the chain, so if you're all thinking the same then I suppose it could be pretty speedy. I'm dreading the survey on this house, because I worry that the buyers will try to squeeze us for more off the price and we just can't. I don't know why I'm so worried about this but its really stressing me out!

well we were supposed to be exchanging by the end of this week/early next as our sellers need to have sold before November 1st, as they are divorcing and the husband is off to live on a boat. He will loose the boat and deposit if he doesn't psy the balance by then! Our buyers are expecting a baby mid-November so they also want time to get settled in before the arrival!

but im still waiting for the council to get back to me! I have contacted our local councillor, who helped us out initially when we disputed what work needed doing, so I'm hoping to hear from someone soon!

Other than that, the surveys and searches have all be done, mortgages all gone through...

I wonder if it makes a difference where abouts you are?

I was told a freehold house sale takes 6-8 weeks and leasehold property 8-12

Seems pretty accurate for me so far.

Local Search usually takes the longest and different Councils have different lead times, but expect it to be about two weeks.

Have your buyers actually exchanged and a completion date of 7th October has been set or is this just a "preferred" date that the buyers would like?

Yes our buyers have exchanged but are planning on going into temporary accommodation as they knew we probably won't be ready to go by then. Spoke to our solicitor and she said 3-5 weeks for the local searches. The thought of moving in 3-4 weeks scares the bejeepers out of me

How's it all going?

We are still going round in circles with the council, but still hopeful to exchange next week.

However, I'm feeling very anxious today, about The whole logistics of packing!

Hi everyone! It's been busy here too. Our stuff has gone off to the solicitors and we've paid for searches so they must be underway. Our buyers have suggested they would like to be in by mid October - 4 weeks! Even the EA has said this is unrealistic, but potentially end of October/beginning of November is possible if all solicitors push for it. Eeeek! So I've spent the week getting quotes for removals, arranging a homebuyer survey in our purchase house and, because I can't really start to pack yet, I've been deep cleaning the kitchen and bathroom and sifting out toys and other stuff to sell. Booked a skip for 7th October as well so we can clear our shed and outbuildings. It's starting to all get a bit real isn't it? I don't think I'd really thought it was actually going to happen.

Good luck everyone, it is all so stressful isn't it.

Even tho we have now exchanged I think I am more stressed (what if I don't like the house, what if there is a massive crash, have a I made a huge mistake, maybe living in a 1 bed flat isn't as bad as I was making out, will anyone actually come and stay with me etc etc)

We are just at the waiting stage now. Mortgage approved, valuation and both surveys done. Searches back on this house and sent off for the new house. Our solicitor says end of October is more realistic but might be a bit longer I was hoping to be in by half term.

I'm not in a chain as such (I'm Ftb purchasing an empty property) which should be an easy situation... But it's taken since May to organise and today in a heated conversation with an estate agent I was told I have attitude 😶 I was very shocked, as they seem to think it is me who is holding things up when the main hold up was a review on price when some problems with the roof were identified in the survey. Phew rant over! Good luck everybody else 🙂

Gingercat well when I see how far along you are, our buyers are definitely being a bit ambitious regarding timescales then. We haven't even had searches back, or surveys - and they are also hoping for end of October! So that's not looking likely is it?
So much to do though in the meantime, and everything is so expensive - we've paid several hundred already to solicitor, mortgage fee, removals have quoted 800, surveyor has quoted 500! This is the last time we are ever doing this!!

I know averagebear it's hundreds of pounds every time. Our survey was just under £500 which seems about average round here. The stamp duty, solicitors fees and EA commission are the biggies and they are still to come

How long do searches take? We're at that stage.

lost once I had paid it was done by the next week

Yes the local authority searches and gas mains/water mains searches are done just by looking at records from those companies I believe, I don't think they actually physically visit the property, so they are pretty quick. Once the solicitor looks into the nitty gritty and if you have a homebuyers report done, that's when things start delaying a bit as they have to evidence any work that's been done, access issues etc. And that's what can take the time. It's a good idea to sort out any paperwork and send it. Also if you can, have your boiler serviced and chimneys swept if you have open fires (we do) because these will sometimes be requested. We have British Gas homecare agreement so they are coming to do ours next week. When we bought this house we paid for an electrical safety check and a gas safety check, so are prepared to have to do the same this time for our purchase.
There's also all the indemnity and chancel liability stuff which takes a bit of time too.

It is absolutely not the case that you should be paying for Chancel Repair Liability Ind Ins these days.

Likely you're working with a conveyancing factory and they have an unqualified "property lawyer" (scoff) who has a lot of boxes to tick before the file is sent over to their "conveyancer" to be signed off...but as a solicitor I can categorically say Chancel repair isn't an issue and the law society have issued practice notes about it.

I had to check the date of this thread before I answered that. It's not been an issue on conveyancing for over a year.

I hate it when I get one of these factories on the other side of one of my matters. I have to do my job and school these idiots too.

8 completions on Friday alone, can you tell?! 🍸

We did discuss chancel liability up thread, and that was the general gist. When we bought this property we paid £16 for chancel liability insurance so, while I don't like lining someone's pocket, it's hardly worth it. It was still one of the questions on our information form, so it will undoubtedly come up again. We will likely have the issue with our purchase property as its on the next road to us!

How's everyone doing? Any developments?
We 've found our removals firm of choice and she is going to bring us some boxes at the weekend! Also we have arranged our hb survey on our house to buy which will be done next week. It's all quiet from solicitor and bank so hoping that's a good sign. Pretty dull really!

All the searches etc are back.

We are just holding up the chain with all our lease issues grrr!
We are Still waiting for our amended Bill from the council (they reckon it was posted last week)
And now we have an issue over our dropped kerb, as there is no record of our application! So I see another indemnity policy heading our way!

We have 3 removal companies coming to quote for packing and move. Still waiting for the searches but generally just flipping waiting!!!!

Haven't been on for a while and haven't wanted to jinx this but I think I'm safe to say - 7 months after accepting the offer on our house almost to the day - that we are moving tomorrow! We exchanged last week, under threat from our buyer that they would pull out if it wasn't done that day :/ Packers are arriving today and we anticipate getting out for 11:30 tomorrow, and hopefully getting our keys around 1:00. Our chain is only 4, only 3 money transfers, so hopefully should be straightforward! This is now the 4th date we have had hence not wanting to talk about it till now in case it went away again. Will let you know how it goes - I don't think I have processed it!

Yeahh Olaf thats fantastic news - I hope its all going smoothly for you!

Our update: well we had the survey done - we had a full structural done as the house is really old, it had a few "3's" only one of which we have asked to be done by the vendor which they are having done today. Mortgage offers all in and searches applied for last week.

When do you all think I should start asking for a completion date - the removals company are coming to do a quote on Saturday and he said he could do with an idea, as we are getting closer to the dreaded Christmas movers (i take it everyone whats to be in for Christmas)

Hi all, we accepted an offer on our house from a cash buyer over 6 weeks ago now. We then found a property to buy, sorted out mortgage, surveys etc, all fine. This week we heard from our solicitor we are ready to exchange on the house we're buying. Our buyer had her survey done, and searches etc, all fine.

Our solicitor got in touch with our buyers solicitor and said we are ready to exchange, are you....?

We hear nothing, then hear from the estate agent the next day that our buyer would like a roofer (friend of her son) to check the roof. Even though her surveyor found no issues.... So I said yes, that's fine.

This roofer then finds £1200 of repairs that he recommends. Just to note, we've spent £2000 on the roof, it doesn't leak, and the repairs are covered by 10yr guarantee till 2022.

She now wants £1200 off the price. But I have a couple of issues with this, one the surveyor found no problems, two this is a mate of her sons, so call me cynical, but not a neutral person and conveniently coming up with problems where there are none.

We refused to give her money off because of my cynical suspicions.

24hrs later, she said she was happy to proceed.

24hrs after that, her solicitor sends my solicitor a letter saying that she's not happy to pay the price due to the roof repairs that are required.... And that she's not happy that the roof repairs are handwritten (albeit on headed paper from the company).

I've sent this correspondence directly to the estate agent as its not the solicitors job to renegotiate price.

Am I being unreasonable to say I'd like a final answer by 5pm tomorrow whether she's proceeding or not? If I don't hear, then we're out. Even if she came back on Monday and said she wanted to proceed, it would still be a firm no from me now I think.

I'm 6.5mths pregnant, I'd be upset to lose the place we're buying, and I know in the scheme of things £1200 is not a lot, but we'd have to go back to Natwest and get the extra, which is hard enough as we're at the limit, but it's also the principal of it and work her surveyor didn't pick up, but her sons mate. And to reiterate... The repairs he recommends were carried out in 2011/12 but the receipts and guarantees do not satisfy our buyer.

Am I unreasonable to want to back out now?? Are pregnancy hormones clouding my judgment!?

I am so sorry that was so ridiculously long!