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

[AnnaELC]

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

Beautician I work in a conveyancing solicitors and would say that if your solicitor is ignoring you, then it's probably because there is no update or news for you. We have clients asking about indicative exchange and completion dates right from the get go and, apart from being completely unrealistic about timescales, it also severely impacts on the amount of work we can get through. Only when all enquiries are satisfied, contracts are signed and deposit received, will the solicitors discuss preferred dates with you. EA does not have any authority to discuss dates.

thecapitals don't worry about topping up the 10% deposit. The FTB's deposit does technically pass up through the chain and as a consequence is no longer 10% of the purchase price of the most expensive property, however unless a particular vendor is unwilling to accept the lower deposit, it is assumed that all the deposits are held until sale proceeds are received on completion. Solicitors will usually explain this to sellers this and, as you rightly say, will only become a problem if someone pulls out and the full 10% will be payable.

Spickle that explains it then. Thank you for the reply. Contracts have been signed but no money transferred as yet. It's just the radio silence. Nothing has happened for two weeks now but I guess that's the joy of buying a house.

Officially waiting for exchange now. Can't believe we got this far.

Not confident in our buyers at all though!

Hopefully you can report that you've exchanged soon, Camper.

Spickle, that's more or less what our solicitor said but they don't seem to have done much to find out whether the two vendors above us are happy to pass up the FTBs deposit. I'm sweating that I'm going to have to transfer about £15k spread over a bunch of accounts right at the last minute because our solicitor just keeps saying that it will probably be ok.

This thread moves so fast.

We're still sat waiting for these bloody Dorset searches to be done.

When have your solicitors given you approximate dates from?
My solicitor said she can't give me any idea of dates yet but that our sale is slightly further ahead than our purchase. Lots of you seem to know rough dates (at least to aim for) quite early on.

I've never specified when we can/can't move to make things as easy as possible, despite the second half of may being a right royal pain in the ass.

Our sale- we have had queries from searches which I said we'd just pay the indemnity to get them to go away but did remind the solicitor their office dealt with me buying the house 6 years ago so should actually have all of that info in the paperwork I gave them back! She's having one last look through that. Everything else is done though and the paperwork signed.

With regards to our purchase our solicitor has just raised queries (mortgage and survey done).

In my head surely that means she should know roughly we'll be ready in say 2 more weeks? Then we are just waiting for the bottom 3 in the chain? But she will give me no guestimate for dates whatsoever.

lamcheeseman you say your solicitor has just raised queries on your purchase? Two weeks is possible but unlikely. If some of the queries need to be referred to their client (your vendor) or any other third parties (management company, land registry), then they will be waiting for the responses back before they can respond to your solicitor. Similarly, if the responses go something like this: "no, don't know, no, haven't got any paperwork" then you can be sure that your solicitor will not be satisfied and will have to query matters via the seller's solicitor once again.

So, to answer your question - your solicitor cannot give you a guestimate of timescales because they are relying on other people to provide responses and they have no control over the length of time it takes the responses to be provided. When all the responses are in and are satisfactory, then you can talk timescales. The searches too could result in more enquiries being made so a timescale at this point is meaningless.

Thanks spickle that seems fair enough. I just don't want them to suddenly say "right everything is in so we can exchange immediately" and me end up being argh- now need to pack very quickly and stuff in a rush. If they know usually from this point it's less than a month, 1-2 months, longer etc it would help.
We'll be waiting for the Dorset searches a couple more weeks yet I think anyway.
8 weeks on Friday that we had our offer accepted and completed the chain- which I suppose isn't too bad- just feels like longer!

Countdown is from contract package received, not from offer accepted! So, officially it's less than 8 weeks...

Can I just check who I should be talking to to get updates now? The chain is complete, all our completed paperwork is with the solicitor. I want to know how the rest of the chain is progressing, do I ask the EA? Ta

You can ask Stripy, but I am finding that whether you get the truth or not is a different matter!

I've heard conflicting reports about whether you should ask the solicitor or ea stripy and I've been told not to always believe ea.
When I ask my solicitor I only get an update on my sale and purchase. My ea does contact the other agents and solicitors and let me know about everyone but I cam only assume it's true. Sometimes she just forwards emails so I know if the information is wrong it's not her who is lying. The ea of the house we are buying are also very good and every single week on a Wednesday call me to update me having called our vendor and both sets of solicitors. There is often not much to say but she calls anyway.

My solicitor only tells me about our sale and purchase. My EA is useless and I'm usually the one giving him updates but the EA I'm buying from seems to be in contact with the agents further up the chain and has been letting me know how it's going. He could be lying but he sounds so pissed off with other people in the chain faffing around that I tend to believe him.

It also helps that I made a spreadsheet to log all interactions with EAs and solicitors so I can refer back to previous calls to detect any inconsistencies. I'm sure they all love me!

Just spoke to an EA and completely lost it. Put the phone down and started crying. Argh!! I am SO fed up with their condescending, sarky attitude.

I think the house selling process has broken me

What's up now camper feel I am suffering with you having followed you over the last month's. Brings back bad memories of my house sale. Hopefully won't be doing that again xxxx

Ugh. We asked our solicitor for an update and got a long waffly reply that basically said nothing so I have no clue how far along we are! Angry

Well I just got a call from our EA to say our buyer rang in, she has signed her contract but we are to sign later today so not sure if that affects things. Basically she drove by and saw something she wasn't happy with that would cost maybe £500 to put right (something that was the same 12 years ago when we moved in, we never saw it as a problem). Don't want to put too much detail in case she is reading haha!

The EA just told her it wasn't picked up on survey and she is under contract now.

We have been so good to her, we replaced all the grubby blinds, are leaving all curtains and curtain poles and the cooker which is 6 months old for no cost and we marketed our house at a very reasonable price compared to others on the market.

Should we be worried? I don't really understand at what point 'there is no going back'. Also does she have any comeback, are we responsible for things like that after we move? The house we are moving into as a few similar things that need done (only more urgent) that we noticed ourselves and we just accepted it, didn't occur to us to raise it.

There's no going back once you've exchanged... or at least not without very heavy penalties!

Up until then they can pull out at any time...

Ok thanks. So her signing the contract doesn't tie her in as yet then I assume? I imagine exchange will be tomo as we sign this evening. Will be a long sleepless night ahead!

Missduke we are in exactly the same position as you with our buyers being picky over low value things. We haven't exchanged yet though and we are unlikely to. I think they'll pull out.

I can honestly say that I completely regret ever trying to sell the house. I wish I just tried to live with it.

It has been hell & expensive

We're at the point of exchange now... I can't wait. But I feel so uncertain about the whole thing, it just doesn't feel like it's going to happen!

Oh campervan I don't want to imagine how stressful this has all been for you.

I'm now stressing about money. Having had to spend nearly a grand on my car this month I've just put all of the moving figures into a spreadsheet and we will now have to be very careful to even have a penny to our names when we move
Getting through to the end of may when I get double pay would be quite handy!

Mary fingers crossed for you, brilliant news!! Hoping I can say the same tomorrow!

Camper, sorry to hear that :-( I hope it continues for you. I am fed up too and really we have had it easy compared to most I think. I haven't heard anything back so hoping we are still exchanging tomorrow. I had bought a card and wine for the buyer, I no long plan on leaving it for them tbh.

Cheese I know what you mean, I just got the green light to reduce my hours in work too and am wondering what the hell I was thinking........

Can I join, please? Beyond stressed at the moment! We have accepted an offer on our flat from FTBs who are very much doing everything one step at a time (no survey before mortgage offer, no solicitor instructions until survey results back) but want us to work to their rather tight timescales.

Offer accepted almost two months ago and they've only just had the survey done. They're now arranging for roof, damp and tree specialists to come round to inspect further. Am convinced they're going to pull out.

We put in an offer on a house ourselves which went to sealed bids - we won, but vendor stalled for a few weeks and then it turned out they were no longer in a position to proceed. Found another house and had an offer accepted on that but have had a tip-off from someone who knows the property that there may be an issue so are hot footing it back for a second viewing before instructing surveyor. It's all so stressful!

Oh dear I hope everyone's stress turns into happiness soon

We are completing tomorrow... exchanged yesterday so barring disasters it is all sorted. (((hugs))) to you all -- yes I know this is not allowed but what the hey.