In a Chain Support Thread Nov2017

[YogaDrone]

Congrats to those who have exchanged and are moving soon.

Fingers crossed to those hoping to exchange soon.

Come vent your property chain based frustrations and joys here.

Previous thread is HERE

Sat...waiting. EA says they know nothing, solicitors will tell them when...asked solicitors to call our buyer's solicitor to put the pressure on and call me back... Spoke to our buyer who texted her buyer (the problem) and he says he hasn't heard from his dad yet so doesn't know if money there. I can't do anything, I have a really bad feeling about this.

😭😭😭😭😭

Nessa Let me know how your day ends! You're right, it's like very specific holiday planning - school clothes, PE kit, sports club kit, change of clothes, snacks for activities...
I'll feel better when my overnight bag is packed and in the car out of the way!

Nessa Had to laugh at your DH's shoes being packed! I did read on another thread someone's mum had to move in their slippers because she forgot to leave shoes out! How long has the packing taken?

Good luck to everyone still waiting for news and I'm really sorry to hear you lost the second house Honey. I hope you find something else soon.

Sorry to hear about the house honey
We lost out on three houses before finding this one. One in hindsight I'm really glad we didn't get, one I think was good, but not as good as the one we've got, and one would have been just as good. So basically don't worry! There will be another lovely house out there for you

The packing is done! We escaped to soft play and just got back. It's bizarrely bare! My mums coat got packed One thing I very nearly forgot - cleaning stuff! To clean empty cupboards out etc. I'd have forgotten, but our cleaner came to do a last clean, and I realised there was nothing for her to clean with! We also forgot to empty the clean dishwasher, so that stuff should have been packed and wasn't!

I think heading off somewhere tomorrow while ours is packed is a good idea Ness. I've been going round putting Post-it notes saying "Don't Pack" on certain things - off to do the cleaning bucket now!

Exchange #1 is tomorrow

I am now tasked with finding our rental

Good luck with the search SellMyFlat

Well done Nessa!

Bunny FX for good news for you...?

Great news Lubey! How long is the wait until the next exchange?

So the promised money didn't arrive today. It's a private sale so basically there's no one official pushing him along, and he's already living (rental) in the flat he's buying. He doesn't give a fuck. I feel utterly helpless.

Sorry I'm so self-absorbed, I can't believe we're waiting on one arse hol buying a shared ownership flat to produce his deposit. I'd fucking pay it fir him if I could 😥😭😪😥😭

WhatWouldOliviaPopeDo - not sure RE: exchange #2 - our vendors survey on their onward purchase (no chain) has only just been done yesterday - so much for them all 'understanding how long we've waited and pushing for a 6-week completion' yeah right. 4 weeks to even get the survey done - fucks sake.

Anyway

We are looking to rent til the end of Jan so long as it's by mid Jan I'm happy. Don't tell them that though

If for any reason their onward purchase falls through then we are going to find a stepping stone house with no chain and buy a forever house in a few years instead

Bunny that is crazily frustrating you poor thing

Congratulations to those who have exchanged so far this week. Bad news our end.. Our buyers buyer has pulled out because they literally can't get a mortgage. Our buyers text me earlier on saying how sorry they are & there wont be any hard feelings if we decide to re-market. We have already waited for them since July & 2 or 3 previous buyers who pulled out, so I think this time we may need to.

Much as we love the house we were hoping to buy since we originally saw it 6+ months ago, the sellers have consistently lied to & mislead us about the size of the chain & other things. The chain was seemingly changing on a regular basis so we hadn't the faintest idea what was going on.

It seems that despite our best efforts, & doing nothing wrong ourselves, we are back at square one, just over 8 months down the line from starting this farce!

Do I win the prize for shittiest day?

Sorry that your having problems pixie and bunny. Hopefully, they will be resolved soon.

We are packing hell. Everything has taken longer than I thought. We only have tomorrow left and still have such a long list to do!! I am panicking a bit!

Pixie & Bunny I really feel for you. It's the lack of control and being totally at someone else's whim that is particularly maddening. It took me a year to finally exchange and as others have said, looking back it has all worked out for the best.
I am drinking coffee and feeling nervous about the packers coming this morning and what there is to do even if I am not doing most of it. I think I will relax when it's all over this afternoon and all that's left is to wait for the keys tomorrow.
How are you today Ness?

pixie that's awful, the whole system is so ridiculous, including the fact that it is impossible to know for certain that your mortgage will definitely be approved before you make an offer! I am at that point myself...mortgage is with underwriters, I called the bank yesterday as it is a week since I went through the application and I am keen to get surveys started so my vendor knows I'm serious and they said there's a backlog and it takes 7-10 days for the underwriters to check off affordability. So that means that next week they could still come back and say I can't get the mortgage even though I did everything I could to secure it (got decision in principle before making offer, requested application the day following offer being accepted etc.).

Can anyone advise me on something that came up yesterday? I got a call from countrywide saying they've been instructed to carry out a survey on my flat and wanted to arrange a time. They said they can only do it between 9am and 2pm on weekdays...I'm a teacher so I have no way of being at home during those hours, I'm single with no family in the UK currently and all my friends work AIBU to not be able to do those hours? I don't want to be awkward about it as obviously I do want to sell the flat but I really don't know what to do! Do people usually take time off work to allow the survey to take place?

Usually - that's rubbish. It depends on the availability of the surveyor for the area. On the first(!) survey we had done, the surveyor was working on a Saturday morning - so some can and do work outside of 'normal' hours.

Go back to the survey booking team and explain that you're a teacher and you can't just take a day off because it doesn't work like that. Give them your availability and if the regular surveyor for that area can't do it, then they'll need to bring someone else in who can.

Oh Pixie that is so so shit after you've waited for all that time. If your buyers keep losing buyers, then it probably is time to cut and run. You may find your sellers will want to wait for you though, if they're locked into a chain. FX it works out for you in the end.

And you have my sympathies Bunny - we were in a similar position having to wait for our buyer to sort funds out and it went right down to the wire. But it was worth waiting in the end, however frustrating and stressful it was - I'm sitting here waiting for the packers to arrive and we move tomorrow!

Usually, can't your estate agent let them in?

2 packers are boxing my house up to be collected tomorrow. It's all real and not a dream!

Usually that is easily solved. Get the estate agent to earn their money & do it. Its pretty common practise tbh. Mortgages seem like a complete minefield. Twice our buyers buyer got to the stage of having a survey done before the lender discovered that there was something they didn't like. First time, they found out there had been a defaulted payment previously, so refused to lend. Fair enough! Second lender was for high risk applicants & spent 4 weeks dicking about wanting to know the in's & outs of a ducks arse before even agreeing to do a valuation. You'd think at that stage that they had everything they wanted, but no.. during the survey it was discovered that the flat is above a commercial premises (you can see there is a Vets underneath in the pictures ffs) & wont lend on that basis! FFS!

I think we do need to try to find new buyers tbh. Could work out for the best as we accepted a stupidly low offer in order to proceed & have been more than patient with them. Plus I really don't want to sell through Cubitt & West. They've made what is always an incredibly stressful situation a million times worse with their supreme incompetence & bad practise. I wouldn't use them again if they paid me.

We have one of hubbys friends coming over tomorrow, who happens to be a local agent for Purple Bricks. Got nothing to lose in putting it on with them & trying to sell it myself, & potentially thousands to gain, or the option to reduce our price by another 6k & still break even on what we would of been paying the idiots at C&W! Its a bad time to sell though, so who knows what will happen!

Congratulations to everyone who’s exchanged/moves since I last posted!

Exchange #1 is happening as I type and we are off to look at a short-term rental at 4 pm

However, via the agent, we have talked the landlord into a short-term thing and he's happy with that BUT has just put it on with another agent too who have just put it on Zoopla so we need to view and sign up for it today. FX for that to go smoothly. If so then we are sorted and have kept our sale and can comfortably wait it out another 3 months if need be for our purchase. Hoping that won't be necessary though and that our purchase speeds up a bit too!

FX FX FX

Hey folks! Moving day is finally here, I can't quite believe it. We've completed on sale, just hoovering and waiting to hear when the purchase completes so we can get the keys! I'm sat in our very empty bedroom feeling a bit emotional. It's been a fab house 

Good luck with packing today @WhatwouldOliviaPopedo and @SerialGoogler ! Another item I've realised I forgot to keep out - instruction manuals that are being left behind, boiler/oven etc! The hoover nearly got packed, and the cool box to empty fridge into did get packed, but luckily my mum brought one up with her!

Hello to everyone else, sorry I haven't done a full update, but I'll catch up soon! X

Congrats Ness

We are inching closer to exchange. Survey through all clear, queries have been replied to but not quite with us. Last search through so theoretically once we've seen the latest answers to the questions we are ready to exchange....

The rest of the chain sounds Like it's getting there too. They were waiting on one search same as us so hopefully that should be through soon. And then they need their mortgage offer to come through but as far as I know there is no issue with it just waiting for the final confirmation.

BUT I'm sure there is something to bite us on the arse around the corner.

Then it's into the world of moving schools. We're seeing two on Monday, one of which has spaces in the right years the other no idea. However the one that has spaces also had someone look around with children in the same years so a bit nail biting to see if they will take he places. Stress levels through the roof even though it's going relatively ok at the moment!

Great news ness really glad moving day seems to be going well

Congrats on exchange #1 Lubey! And good luck with the rental viewings.

Glad moving day is going well Ness. I'm currently hiding in the front room while our life is packed up around us. We've never used packers before and I'm finding it very, very surreal!

Good luck switching agents Pixie - it really sounds like you're doing the right thing.