Would anyone like an 'in a chain' support group? (2)

[AnnaELC]

Seems we reached 1000 messages so I've started a new one!

apples I know what you mean about ups and downs. Over the course of today the Estate agent is convinced that the the vendor has the necessary information to resolve our planning use issues so has put a rocket under the vendor's solicitors. We've checked with the removals and they could do the 21St, so as long as we get everything sorted and exchange by the 14th, we could be completing in 12 days! Agh! All this after I said I wouldn't move in the hols! I do still have a sneaky suspicion that our buyer's solicitor won't really be ready, and that they were trying to lay the blame at our door. Who knows what will happen if we can't exchange by the 14th? Maybe the chain will collapse? I don't know how I have got through this process!? And to top it all I'm back on anti-biotics as my tonsillitis is back 🙁

so after being told our buyer wanted everything under the sun checked, she apparently wants our extension electrics checked (had booked a whole house EICR) and the chimney swept. That's it. Didn't mention a boiler service but have one booked in anyway.
It's funny that we have been so so desperate to move to a bigger house and she has been trying to force us to pay for checks etc and act like she has the upper hand. I suspect her next move prior to exchange will be try to get money off somehow.
The funny part is us spending the last few days thinking that we like where we live so could, without needing planning permission, spend £100k on our house, save ourselves £180k and get an extra bedroom, bathroom and big living area. All bargaining power she had is gone as we quite like our Plan B!

We were hoping to move today. But two weeks ago we found out that the people at the start of the chain - our buyers buyer had decided to go with another mortgage company instead of the original one as the payments or interest etc was better. I can understand why they would do this but it's holding the whole chain up while we wait to see if they get offered a mortgage. As of today, a week on from them putting their application in no-one in the chain has heard anything yet and we're all in limbo - not knowing. All the legal paperwork is complete so we all wait ...........

Good for you flown seize back the power!

That's tough Nell hope you get some answers soon

We had an email this morning from our buyers telling me exactly what he said last week that his buyers have put their mortgage application in and they're expecting to hear about a survey on their house. Frustrating - teeth gnashingly frustrating!!!
Our EA is the only one who seems to be trying to do anything to get this chain moving again and she's talking about needing to take the reins and override our buyers buyers estate agent as he never seems to return calls or do much apart from being "in meetings" she is talking about making contact directly with them the buyers - I hope she does asap. Otherwise I'll be trying to track them down myself.

we are waiting to sign contracts, and accepting that we wont move before xmas. It is all so frustrating having to get ready to move and having to live a full on life before we do- we are moving long distance so giving up jobs and everything. I'm self employed but wife has had to hand in her notice, so that we can go quickly when date for completion set. All very scary. A bit depressing- have to remind ourselves that we are in good health and have one another and this is minor compared eith stuff other people are dealing with. Still. not the easiest situation. hard being at the mercy of other people who take an age to do their job.

Gosh it's quiet on here, hope everyone is ok? We're just waiting to exchange now to satisfy our pushy buyer. We're waiting on our vendor ironically, as it is them that's been pressuring all along. If we don't exchange by Weds it wont happen before xmas and our buyer may pull out, but I hope she's bluffing! Stressful couple of days, how much do I dare pack?

smallone surely your buyer must be bluffing at this stage- you are almost there and it would cost everyone money to pull out now- really hoping all goes well and you will be in your new home before xmas. We were hoping for this too but we haven't even signed contracts yet so its not going to happen is it?

We were convinced it wasn't going to happen before xmas, only got our property report and contracts last week, then all hell broke loose. Depends how long you need before exchange and completion. Our lenders need a week's notice, so Friday would be the latest if you have the same scenario (and can get removals, on the 23rd)

our solicitor stops doing legal completions on Fri 16th- this Friday so there is no way we are going to get everything done by then.

Doesn't look like it joy but at least you can relax over Christmas. I know it's dissapointing when you wanted to be in, but it's better than the uncertain limboland.

Sorry - just posting in disappointment really.. Buyer wanted a check on the electrics and roof - both have come in at needing totally redoing - BUT - day to day we have no trouble..
Roof doesn't leak, a local roofer said that we could stand to replace a few slates but that it's basically okay..
Electrics work fine - I understand that they do need to be updated and happy to pay for that..
But they're going to pull out aren't they? And we're not going to be able to sell it unless we pay someone to totally redo the roof and rewire the place..

Hello!! I've been waiting for a new thread to start before posting, but missed it!
We're in a small chain of (I hope) just three, our buyer doesn't need to sell and we think our seller is moving in to rented. Actually I need to chase for confirmation of that.

I'm a bit worried about porting our mortgage. We're not changing the amount at all, but in theory we will definitely fail the affordability checks. The bank have said to me verbally that that's fine, we are living with this mortgage and paying it and don't have debt, so that will be taken into consideration and it won't matter that we fail the paper checks. But I'm worried that it won't be as smooth as that sounds in reality! We just submitted the last information to the bank today so waiting to hear what they say now...

cringe at that link you posted Apples, that's awful!!! I definitely think the sellers wrote it themselves!

scortja It might not be as bad as all that? Our survey had "budget to replace" after practically every feature and that's just what you have to do on houses, DH and I aren't worried. Were things flagged as urgently needing repair or is it more like "update in line with current safety standards"?

Good luck with your mortgage Giraffes.. its all so bloody stressful isn't it?

Our buyers seem really nervy - the same things came up in their survey that we had when we bought it.. the roofer/electrician the buyers have brought in for quotes are really (in my opinion!) hamming it up and I suspect they will pull out..

We'll see though, we'll see.. all the waiting to see what will happen is such a bastard..

giraffes we were told we could do that, didn't in the end tho because our finances improved enough to get a bigger mortgage. Good luck!

scortja unless it's terrible I would be surprised if they pulled out... They may try to haggle down though?

Waiting for news on exchange, we have to by tomorrow and our vendor's solicitors have been like asthmatic snails, and our buyer's, after dropping this short notice ultimatum on us, have gone silent. Dh is driving me potty. Keeps going on how he's going to get his m and d to come down (they live 2hrs away) to entertain the kids. I don't want this, what would they do with them all day? Its winter, they're not going to last long at the park, we live in a tiny market town so not a huge amount to do, and they don't have the money to take them to the cinema or whatever. Then they'll want to have a nose at the new house, and I'll feel like I have to feed and water them and make conservation, when really I'll just want to collapse in a heap and have our new place to ourselves. Told Dh that they can come and stay for new year, or help this weekend while we're still packing / dismantling and we'll put the kids in holiday club for a few days next week but he just doesn't get it. Agh!

Unlurking due to stress of last fortnight. We have been waiting to exchange since the 2nd. Everything is definitely ready to go but our seller's solicitor is not doing anything. We have contacted our solicitor, our sellers and our sellers EA and there is nothing we can do. The EA said that this firm had a poor reputation and it seems all we can do is wait and wait and wait.
Giraffes - we ported our mortgage and it wasn't as scary as it sounds. We did have to go through costs of bills and outgoings etc but it was all done in the initial paperwork and they didn't come back and question anything so hopefully yours will go through smoothly.

Unbelievable stress! Our chain is more complicated than we had been led to believe- we thought our buyer was selling his house to an investor, and assumed, wrongly that no mortgage was needed. It turns our that there is a buy to let mortgage involved, and the offer still not in place because our buyer needs to get council sign off on a recent extension. FFS! We were hoping to exchange before xmas. We are scared our vendor will pull out. The real frustration is that if all the solicitors and EAs had kept everyone informed it woukd have been plain obvious we couldn't exchange before xmas!!!! So fed up at being at the mercy of people who work soooooo slowllllyyyy!!!

I know what you mean Joy, our chain was going really well and we were congratulating ourselves on how smooth everything was, we were aiming to exchange and move on 9th December, until we found out that our buyers buyer hadn't got their mortgage sorted out!!

Today not being able to stand the stress and frustration any longer I went into their estate agents - it's just across the road from us - and let rip: why they let our buyers accept an offer from people who didn't appear to have the funds available, why they let things go so far with these buyers without informing people, etc etc. They tried to blame it on us!!! I think they thought I was the mad woman especially when I told them I couldn't believe a word they said and that the chain will collapse if they don't start chasing things up.

Later on this afternoon I got an email from our buyers saying the survey is being done Friday for their buyers mortgage - at last - coincidence or what? Then our estate agent rang to tell me about the survey and I told her what I'd said to their estate agent and she laughed and thought I'd probably shaken things up a bit.

Nell15 well done for stirring it up. Most of the frustration is in feeling powerless and not able to put a rocket under anyone. Also- everyone around you is getting on with their normal lives and you are in limbo land! But I hope you move swiftly to completion now.

pop your seller's solicitors sound like our seller's solicitors. I think they just swan about at the top of the chain and don't bother doing anything till everyone else is completely ready.

Nell do you think their offer expired? Ours only lasts 90 days so have been on at our broker to make sure he renews it if we get close to that.

I am shamelessly using my EA to do my bidding. Stops me feeling like I am nagging the solicitor's. Also planning to drop a box of mincepies off at Solicitors, just for an extra bit of bribery!

AGH! Today is d-day for exchange, yesterday my solicitor emailed to say documents from our vendor were still outstanding. EA then emailed to say he had chased vendors and documents now sent. No word from our solicitor since, just emailed for an update and an out of office reply bounced back - she's not in til 2pm today. AGH! This is not helping me stay calm. Trying to convince myself that she put an out of office on because she's so busy working on our file and wants to keep others at bay.... am I clutching at straws?

Smallone I hope you get some good news - it's so frustrating not knowing.
I did wonder if their mortgage had expired but when we spoke to our buyers he said that since July when they accepted these people's offer on their house there hadn't been a survey done and they were under the impression that they were buying the house with family money. It's only this month that having returned from seeing their family they decided to apply for a mortgage, so my guess and it's only a guess is that having discussed it with family a) they have decided to use all or or part of this money for something else therefore the sudden need for a mortgage or b) the family money isn't available.

At least the survey is being done. On Friday so we're getting a bit closer

If they get their mortgage offer soon - before xmas, how feasible is it for us to exchange and complete say by 6th Jan, bearing in mind that all the searches and contracts etc have been completed. I'm going to ask our solicitor to contact all the solicitors in the chain to say that this is what we want

Thanks Nell chewing my arm off waiting for news! with regards to you completing by the 6th, assuming everything else is ready, you'd all need to have contracts and transfers drawn up and signed, and the bottom of the chain's deposit cleared and be able to book removals etc to agree on a date. Our lender wants 5 working days to guarantee the funds will be available on the day of completion, which would be 29th Dec. Then you have to check when all the solicitor's are closed over xmas, ours are closed 23-3rd so if that was the case you'd need to exchange before then. Tight but possible as long as everyone is ready.

Hello all, no news here. We are all (7 of us) still waiting on the bottom of the chain to be ready. Who has engaged the slowest solicitor known to humankind.
Over the last coupe of days I have drunk the nice bottle of wine that was meant to be for Christmas, as I thought the situation merited it.

Oh unlikely 7!? We're having enough bother with 3 Solicitors.

We haven't exchanged today, so no pre xmas move for us . If I ever meet our seller's solicitor I will not be responsibile for my actions! Still hoping to exchange before Christmas and then set a date for completion in the new year. Apparently our buyer wasn't threatening to pull out, she just wanted to know if she needed to make alternative arrangements for over Christmas. Ffs!