In a chain support thread Sept 2017

[Gizlotsmum]

Hope it's ok to start another one! So we have a week of waiting for surveys etc...

Hi I was on the other thread... we have sold and had our offer accepted in early May but the fucking vendors were trying to buy with friends which inevitably went tits up in august - we were patient and gave them til mid sept to either find somewhere else or start looking at rented to break the chain. We then decided everything was pissing us off so much that we went on a last minute holiday and extended that by 2 weeks to yesterday

So we told their estate agent yesterday that it's time for them to go into rented now... he said they have found something to potentially buy instead but are dilly dallying on it and he'll give them til next week to make a decision or not

I am starting to think that actually even if they HAVE found somewhere I'd still like them to break the chain

We have offered to pay their moving costs as a goodwill gesture for the hassle of moving twice - and it would make them cash buyers as well

god fucking dammit

AIBU?

we just want to be in before xmas

Lubey seems a fair offer.

Ecureil good luck!

Yoga fx

I have decided to think positively so am busy boxing stuff up as if we will have completed on the 20th!

It WILL happen. Plus just realised that only gives me 1.5 weekends to pack due to other stuff going on.. so I am packing and currently ignoring the kids attempting to murder each other.. totally reasonable right ? ;)

yep all seems reasonable to me Gizlotsmum

Ecureuil Eeek, how exciting! Congratulations and I hope it's all going smoothly!!

Yoga good news on the survey and FX that the viewings lead to an offer.

Lubey I think in your shoes I would be telling the agent that you aren't giving them another week - that they have until Wednesday to decide what they want to do. Offering to pay their moving costs is incredibly generous so I think the least they can do is make a decision - it's completely unreasonable to expect you to hang on for months on end.

Giz yep!! Same rationale for us (although no kids) - I'm expecting things to move quickly once we have the go-ahead so I definitely don't want to have to pack in a hurry.

Went and had a neb round our new area - lots of nice cafes and restaurants which is nice. The kennels also look good so I think we will be road-testing them when the time comes.

Lubey sounds like time to cut and run to me, they sound flakey.

Sending you second viewing view Yoga.

I've pretty much given up on the idea of moving at half term. Sketchy updates from the EAs yesterday show that the first in the chain are still waiting for their local search, which is bound to result in enquiries. Also, our sellers' sellers have had to apply for a management pack to resolve a title plan issue. No update given for the top of the chain, they were still waiting for a mortgage offer at end of last week.

Our buyer has signed her contracts though, which is great news, shows she seems committed. And we'll have signed ours on Tuesday.

Gizlot, you are making me feel a bit guilty for not starting the packing yet. I have been mentally doing it, and looking online for tips e.g. for clothes on hangers.

That should have said second viewing VIBES Yoga.

Hi Daily, x-posted with you there. Good advice to Lubey.

Oh Ann that sucks. Seems like there is always something!

Oh Lubey I'd have lost all patience by now in your position. I agree with the others, give them an ultimatum and stick to it. Is there anything else in the area you would be interested in buying?

Thank you all for the good viewing vibes Well our lunchtime certainly turned up because I got back and some lights were on - it had clouded over and rained a bit while I was out. Although while I was retrieving the dog's paraphernalia from the garage she was violently sick all over the floor bleugh! I rang my mother and told her and she said that's a lucky sign (she's the queen of the superstitious but I know she has made that up! )

Ann that doesn't sound great. But it might be that each thing is only a few days from resolution so it could still come right for half term. Fingers crossed for you.

Happy packing Giz - children are resilient, they will survive

Your new area sounds great Lazy and a good kennels nearby is very helpful.

Congrats to everyone moving or exchanging imminently! Very exciting! It all seems to go so slowly then suddenly comes together & there's a rush on to pack!

We're tentatively getting back into looking at our house details / floor plans etc now drains are sorted and we can (hopefully!) look forward to exchange. EA now back on track for a half term move date. Will believe it when it happens!

Had some removal quotes - defo going for full packing service, my excuse is 3 kids getting in my way . Been doing what I call 'de-cluttering' today - essentially throwing crap away in black bin liners.

lubey lean on agent for definite answers... They sound pretty annoying vendors!

yoga fx you get your offer soon

Keep chasing ann - I'm basically daily chasing everyone now, my EA friend says those who pester the most ARE the people who move the quickest. I am officially one of those pesterers

giz I'll join you in some positive vibes boxing up - whilst we're having full packing service, there's some stuff I want to box up myself so I know exactly where it is.

Major. I will be making daily calls to our EA from now!

Question: What do you do about moving your broadband?

We're planning on staying with the same company and having checked it seems we need to give them 14 days' notice. But we obviously can't do this until we have a date for completion - which we won't be able to be sure is actually happening until we have exchanged. As it's usually a week between exchange and completing, then presumably that means a further week of waiting before the broadband gets moved? My work depends on having a broadband connection and there is a limit to the amount of time off I can take for this house move!

Thanks everyone. I was pretty sure we were being perfectly reasonable you know actually wanting to move in to the house that accepted our offer

Thing is there really isn't anything else we want. It's an extraordinary place... our dream home and very possibly forever home. I doubt we'd find anything like it again certainly not for the right price, which is why we were patient. We looked at 30+ houses in five different areas (we both work from home and kids gone to uni now so not tied to any area) and nothing came close to this in terms of being perfect for us and ticking all the boxes. It's a quiet rural area and the only other things on the market are too small or way out of budget, like massive houses with land at 800k+

I'll ring the agent first thing Monday and say we want them to break the chain now even if they have found something to buy. It is in their interests too after all. Our buyer is getting twitchy. We are willing to throw extra money at the problem if necessary to get it moving and solve any problems they may have with this.

Everything crossed...

Lubey I think it's more than fair.

Be firm with the agent - remind them you have been generous and offered them their moving costs. Point out you have been waiting since early May and that they have had more than enough time to decide what to do. Emphasise that you feel it is rather unfair (and I would specifically use that word) that they seem to think it's acceptable to keep you hanging on for almost 6 months!

Tell the agent you want a resolution to this within the next 72 hours. That you need to know what is happening, because although you love the house and want to go through with the purchase, your offer was based on you getting the opportunity to actually move into it rather than being strung along month after month!

lubey so sorry to hear you've been hanging on for ages but we are in pretty much exactly the same position! Was starting to think I was deranged for hanging in so long. But there is nothing that ticks the boxes like this place and the cost of stamp duty means we can't just move somewhere in the short term and then move again.

We had our offer accepted in early March. The vendor spent five months looking for somewhere (they were supposedly down sizing to a particular location). They finally found somewhere they like but it's not smaller at all! Hey ho they finally agreed a price in early September and also with the place they wanted to buy. Great we thought but no. Vendor at the top dicked about for a couple of weeks then pulled out. So now there are three of us in the chain but no end in sight.

Fed up with it all and not sure what to do. We're in rented so no buyer to lose as we broke the last this time last year for various reasons. But after a year in a rented place with three children and no storage and no end date, I'm starting to lose my mind.

LubbyBubby, can you pay my moving costs too?!
I would snatch the offer off of your hands if I were your vendor.* Good luck with the agent call.*

LazyDailyMailJournos, I would give them a call and explain.* We are in the same position. We are moving (hopefully), just up the road, and want to keep the same providers. And we will tell them once we move exchange and have a moving date.*

YogaDrone, sending you some positive viewing vibes.**

YogaDrone & MajorClanger123, I have had a few quotes now the packing service - quotes in picture attached. I think I will do the packing service as well, but not the unpacking as that will only be to flat surface for all the quotes I have had. Which is a shame as it would have been nice to walk into a house with kitchenware put away already.

We accepted on our house! They improved their offer, and we accepted.
We are now ready to exchange, on our side, but I don’t actually know if the top of the chain is ready yet - I am chasing EA tomorrow. Our buyer has also not had their mortgage offer through yet - apparently the lender has apologised to them for being slow. We are still hopeful of being in before end of November but exchange, which we had hoped for for next week, will now not happen.
Arrrrrghh!

Let’s hope and keeping our fingers crossed.

Keeping fingers crossed for everyone.

Fialor how are you getting packing costs? I am getting a price per box but have no idea how many boxes will be used 😣

LOVE that spreadsheet fialor, shamelessly copying that this morning .

giz we've had a couple of removal quotes - last one coming out tomorrow (so 3 in total) and the 2 so far seem to vary enormously in the amount of information they give us. The first one gave a packing price but didn't specify the number of boxes, the 2nd one did it the other way round - price per box but no specification of how many boxes. They were both ballpark £1.6k-£1.8k in total so I'm assuming that's what the average cost is in our area.

Don't want them to get half way through loading and say "ah too many boxes, we're not taking any more"

I’m struggling to even get people out to quote at the moment. Removal costs seem lower than yours and fialors so fx it will be reasonable. I am boxing up bits to feel like I am doing something.

Thanks all. Having slept on it I'm thinking of making the offer of paying moving costs only valid if we can exchange by say... end of November/early dec.

That's enough time for them to find and get into a rented place isn't it?

Afternoon all. I disappeared for a week as our chain broke down but it's back together again as of this morning, yay! Selling this house as part of divorce proceedings (which are all nearly finished now, decree nisi in 3 weeks!) then I'm buying a new build apartment which is pretty much ready. Our buyers had originally secured FTB but they failed mortgage checks (wouldn't you ensure you could borrow before making an offer?!) so we gave them 2 weeks grace to sell their house again. Viewings yesterday and they've sold to another set of FTB who delivered a letter last night offering the asking price and confirming they've got a mortgage agreed in principle- good signs hopefully?
I've been cracking on with blind optimism and sorting the house out, took 9 bags of rubbish from garage and 8 bags from my wardrobe to the tip plus I've packed some things I don't need into boxes. 4 weeks to exchange now chain is back together eeeekkkkk!
Congrats to everyone who's exchanged and getting closer to exchange, struggling to name check as on my phone but I have read all of your updates

MajorClanger123, copy away! I hope it is useful.

Gizlotsmum, only two have included a box limit in their quotes - Bryceland (max of 100 boxes), Eezermovers (max of 160 boxes).**

They all came out to see the house and quote based on volume.* Though not a lot of clutter, we do have large pieces which means that the volume required will be quite significant. They all talked about having an 18tonnes plus a 7.5 tonne lorries.*
For size comparison the house has 11 rooms (bedrooms, kitchen, reception rooms, etc), a garage, a shed, and standard garden furniture in the garden.**

I hope it helps.**

yoomoo great news that you are back again - I totally understand about taking time out, sometimes you have to just hide because the whole thing is so stressful! FX everything goes through smoothly from now on and you can move forward into the next chapter of your life

Sorry! I just realised that the last part of my posting was in bold, I did not mean it to be.

@lubey we sold last year and went into rented. From offer to completion was 6 weeks.

Thank you lazy I'm so looking forward to moving on with my life and feel like a weights been lifted now the chain is closed again. It's all so stressful but by Christmas I should be settled in my new place and I hope you are all too