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

That's a blow @ThomasRichard Is there anything you can do?!

Oh no @thomas there must be something you can do.

Fx @yoga

Glad the move went well @ness

So we have now been in a week ( wow that has flown) and are settling nicely. Still have several boxes to unpack but getting there. I came home today to a package from our mortgage company ( obviously a ‘safe’ area as just left on the doorstep by the postman) containing a welcome pack of tea, coffee, biscuits and popcorn...

Well what a stressful day!!

Removal van was too small! Sale completed on time so had an absolute mad rush to try and cram as much as we could into our cars and a friends car, lost our cat and had to eventually leave as buyers were waiting to get in (cat is now finally with us), delay in getting our payment for our purchase sorted. Only got the keys at 4.45pm! Then my husband accidentally set a panic alarm off and nobody knew the code to stop it. Finally, our vendor remembered what it was but it was 30 mins of alarm torture, But after all of this, we are in and have managed to make the place seem a bit more homely. I never want to go through this process again!!

Hope everyone elses move went a bit more smoothly today! Good luck to everyone else waiting to exchange.

Oh @prehaps. Glad it all got sorted and you are in ( finally) how stressful. Glad you found your cat

Wow perhaps that sounds really stressful but yay you’re in! Hope everything is calm and settled for you now.

Hope everyone who has moved this week has a good weekend settling in.

Lazy I’m terrible at keeping plants alive but have actually managed to keep a little rose bush alive and flowering. But it’s in a shared courtyard keep telling myself that I’ll have moved by xmas

Perhaps that sounds incredibly stressful. What a cock-up by the moving company. Glad to hear that you're in now.

Thomas I bet you're counting the days (us too). It's hard when you have no end in sight. My fuse is very short at the moment. Where we live has been great, but things which were previously only minor annoyances have now become huge issues, because in my head we should have moved by now! I know, rationally, there will be things that irritate me in the new place, but it's hard right now.

Crikey Perhaps, that sounds so stressful! Our move yesterday was very straightforward by comparison - we completed by 11.30, then had until 1pm to vacate. Our removals were ace - we paid for packing and it made such a difference. The minute we walked into our new house I could feel the stress of the past six months seep away. It feels like home already. We're half unpacked (doing a refurb so we don't want to unpack completely) and there is crap everywhere but god, it was worth the wait! Good luck to everyone next week - really hope it's good news for you all.

Lazy, that's how I felt about our old place. Then when it was time to leave I blubbed like a baby, I was bereft!

Thanks all. I'm actually feeling quite calm now that we have an offer we can work with, even though it's low. Positive feedback from those today. I do wonder if telling people there is an offer in place is an added incentive. Anyway fingers crossed for some positive news on Monday

So pleased your moves went well Nessa and Olivia. I hope you will both be very happy in your new homes

Your move sounds hideously stressful Perhaps. I hope you are feeling calmer and more settled today. Best wishes

A whole week Giz - does it feel like home properly now? A welcome box from your mortgage company, how sweet

Oh ThomasRichard that's awful, I'm so sorry. Can nothing be done? Is the charge a substantial amount? Could your ex agree to withdraw it (or however it's done)? I hope you find a way through this

MrsPuss what a petty thing to do I hope you get to exchange soon.

How are you today Bunny? I hope you and DH are over your row and your children are being the beautiful young creatures you know they can be (when they put their minds to it!)

Any news Lazy or are you still just trying to go with the flow? I so hope you get some good solid progress soon

No news at all unfortunately. This week has just been horrific - hence why I've been a bit lower profile. DH and I have been pushed to the brink with the stress of just being left in limbo. I've cried down the phone to our EA and our solicitor. The EA has been fab and has contacted our vendor's EA to read them the riot act about doing more (because they do sweet FA currently).

At the moment I am alternating between feeling furious and tearful, and trying to be accepting and zen about it. The solicitor at the top of the chain is refusing to talk to anyone or tell them where they're at in terms of progress. Being left waiting like this with no news and nothing to hold onto, is very hard.

I think it is safe to say that if by some miracle we can get through this, then the mother of all complaints will be going into the vendor's EA. We were very clear with them when we viewed that we needed a quick purchase and did not want a complex chain. They lied to us.
Worse, left us thinking that everyone else in the chain was ready and that they were only waiting for us - when in fact they knew all along there was this legal issue ongoing.

Hope everyone is having as minimally stress free weekend as possible & those of you in your new homes are settling in nicely. Fingers crossed those close to exchange manage to do so next week.

As for those of us in car crash house buying/selling land, hope things improve soon! Can't get any worse!

Thanks for all your good wishes. We had a very nice lady from Purplebricks come over today. Figured we have nothing to lose & everything to gain by using them. (About 6k in comparison to our terrible ex agent.)

We have been reassured by our lovely PB agent that she will chase the remnants of our chain next week & see what is really going on! She is coming over Tuesday, weather permitting, to do photos & floor plans. We will market at a realistic level in order to sell & hopefully end up with more money than the aborted transaction would of given us. Should we lose the house we want it will enable us to look elsewhere. Fingers crossed!

I'm sorry to hear you've not had any progress this week Lazy. I finally got round to completing the government consultation survey the other evening and I plagiarised used your excellent points from the last thread and included that I thought a time limit on enquiries should be implemented to limit the time a chain could take to complete. It completely outrageous that you can be left in such a limbo state. And for the vendor's EA to lie about the chain must breach their standards. A complaint would definitely be in order.

That sounds like a good plan Pixie and you sound very positive about the situation. I hope all goes well on Tuesday.

So, it seems that offers may well be like buses: we have offer 1 from Friday (low, but a FTB and we know lovely [minted] Vendor is flexible on price). Also viewer 1 from yesterday has told the EA that they are "pretty sure" they will make an offer on Monday - they just need to do their sums. I'm not sure on their position though. We haven't heard from Mr & Mrs 40min. In this situation I'm assuming no news = no offer.

I have reservations about the FTB who has offered as he works for our Vendor's EA and I feel it's a little incestuous, as though our purchase and our sale are being conflated into one deal. To this end DP has told Vendor's EA that we are going to leave it to our EA to deal with Mr FTB and we will be fully open with him in his role as our Vendor's EA but not in his role as Mr FTB's line manager. To me this gives a clear demarcation between our sale and our purchase. We shall see what Monday brings.

Have a restful Sunday all

Hi Yoga I think the only advice I would give, would be to insist that your EA does very careful and full due diligence on the offers. Establish exactly what position each buyer is in, get evidence of liquid funds for deposits and copies of MIP - and importantly that they are planning to go with the same lender for their actual application. I'd also be putting caveats in place to say that surveys and searches must go off ASAP. Given that you've waited so long, I'd be concerned about ensuring that the buyer is genuinely motivated and able to proceed!

It's such great news though that you have finally got some offers - hopefully once you have one accepted you can relax a wee bit.

Thanks Lazy. Yes I will insist on this. Mr & Ms FTB spent Friday morning with their IFA and, whilst it's not an official agreement in principle it does imply they are able to fund the purchase. With them it's the amount they can offer that could be problematic. They have also stated that they want to move ASAP as they are currently living with Ms FTB's parents.

My EA knows both Mr FTB and Vendors EA (small town and the offices are literally 20 metres apart!) and we've kept him up to date on everything that has been said to us. I've asked EA to ask if Mr & Ms FTB feel they could move by Christmas. We are in place, vendor is in place and we have 6 weeks. It may be difficult but would at least focus their attention.

I'm not sure about relax as I have a little understanding (thanks to these threads) of the stresses those of you in a chain have been going through, but it will be nice not to have to keep the house looking like a show home 24/7

Sorry for the radio silence - it's been a stressful couple of days!

My buyers had been chasing me since about 10.30 on the move morning even though I hadn't had confirmation. And I didn't want to leave it filthy. They had a campervan of stuff and I had a lorry load.

Finally got the keys at 3pm and had the lorry unloaded by 5pm so not too bad. Now have a box mountain and many more to unpack - my kitchen looks like a storm has hit while I work out where everything should go. I also couldn't figure out how the heating worked until about 11pm so it was a chilli first night!
Had a nightmare ordering white goods as my bank was convinced I was a fraudster - it took 10 calls to the bank and many more to the retail but they're coming today - including the much coveted chest freezer!
Neighbours have just brought a bottle of wine and some cupcakes, so far so lovely.
Managed to get some semblance of internet while I wait from my landline and broadband. Couldn't face two weeks without any and neither could my children!
Discovered the shower is rubbish so need to look into that. But I am clean...
Love the house though, it has such a nice feel - which I had when I first put an offer in.
Catching up on all the other updates now!

Yoga 6 weeks is not unachievable if you and your vendor are all ready to go - as in files signed off and you're just waiting for your buyer to catch up. The key area is going to be searches, but this time of year tends to quieten down for house purchases, so as long as they get their search requests off ASAP they should come back reasonably quickly. How long queries will take will be anyone's guess, but you can help as much as possible by making sure you have all of your paperwork ready. Electrical certs (if you have them), FENSA certs for windows if you have had any work done and cert and service paperwork for the boiler.

Serial happy to hear you're in and getting sorted! What have you done for internet? I'm already worrying about this because our current provider wants a minimum of 14 days' notice before they can do anything. I work from home so broadband is essential and I'm already pondering what I'm going to do when I go back to work - as I can only take a week off for moving.

Lazy Same as you, I couldn't organise until I had exchanged so we've got a gap in services. It was a bit of trial and error but I ended up in Curry's and got an EE myfi (apparently the fastest) with a monthly rolling contract which I will cancel when I and up and running. It works better upstairs but I am on my laptop upstairs, my son is watching you tube somewhere else and my phone is connected and it's pretty solid. I haven't tried to upload or download anything yet which I sometime need to do for work when I work at home but I am so relieved to have some connectivity. I think the package I got was 30gb and it cost around £30 initially. I was so frazzled by that point I would have paid almost anything!

It will only be our buyers searches, survey and subsequent enquiries Lazy as we've already provided all of the guarantees and certificates, land registry docs etc. to our solicitors for our previous buyers. Our house is only about 20 years old so I can't see anything coming up on the survey that would be of great importance or cause delay.

Christmas would be perfect as DP has two weeks off and I have almost that much so it would give us a good amount of time to get settled - and sort out the broadband situation. We are worried about that too. DP is an IT developer who needs really good upload and download speeds in order to work effectively (he works from home 90% of the time and I work from home a couple of days a week too).

Is broadband like gas and electricity? Where you have to take the previous owners supplier for at lest a couple of weeks?

Assuming we can get a chain together again next week DP is going to ring BT (current provider) and find out what options we have. I'll report back!

The joys of a new home Serial I hope you are warmer now that you have found out how the heating works and that those boxes
are gradually getting unpacked! There aren't many things (apart from my kitchen) that I will miss about this current house but the shower is one of them - it's fab.

Crossed with you Serial. Thanks, that's good to know.

Evening all. Congratulations to those who moved before the weekend, I hope you are getting there with the unpacking!

After my epic shit fit last week I disappeared for a few days and have now calmed down enough to update
Contracts for our sale and my purchase arrived on Thursday, immediately found a witness who could sign with me on Friday! Dropped all the paperwork back to my solicitor at lunchtime so I’ve done everything I possibly can.
Ex and I have agreed we do not want to pay the December mortgage payment (especially now base rate has gone up, since we thought we might split we had it on a tracking rate!) so we’re pushing for an end of November completion. Think I’ve mentioned before but I’ve got a mandatory 15 days between exchange and completion (new build) so in order to get in by end of November we need to exchange this week! The sales lady who works for the developer I’m buying from has been chasing the FTB’s at the bottom of the chain and has told them we need to exchange by Wednesday. Keeping everything crossed we can achieve that!!
If not though I have agreed to move out of the marital home and stay with family while the 15 days is up, so we’ll let the house below us and ours complete then I can complete on my purchase once 15 days is up!
I honestly have no idea how it’s going to go and whether we’ll exchange Wednesday or if I’m moving onto a family members sofa for 3 weeks and putting my dogs with the dog sitter will keep you all updated!

FX Yoo

Yoga - no I believe that the contract for BB terminates as soon as you move out, which is a PITA really. I'm not sure why it needs to take 14 days, but that's what TalkTalk wants. I'm praying they'll be able to get us connected sooner, otherwise I am going to have to sweet talk my work IT department to lift the data cap on my work mobile phone so that I can tether my laptop to it.

Hi all,

No proper post from me, got food poisoning from a dodgy paella.

Hope you're all doing ok x

Oh Bunny poor you. Lots of fluids and rest. I had food poisoning a few years ago - I have never been so ill in my life, it was awful. There are few things worse than not being able to move from the loo whilst simultaneously being sick into the washing up bowl on your knees!! Lots of TLC and I hope you feel better soon

Oh no Bunny !

I moved with Sky and was under the impression I could be connected immediately but then I looked under 'track your order' and it said 17th Nov. It's the landline connection that causes the delay I think. Not sure there is a way around that but am going to call them tomorrow to see if they can get a shuffle on.

I find it incredible that in 2017 it can take WEEKS to get broadband up and running! We can send people into space but can’t get internet activated in a few hours?!