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

I know! But in the same vein I don't understand how it takes weeks to respond to legal queries - so I suppose it's not just broadband that takes time... .

Anyone else fed up with feeling like people they have never met are currently in control of their lives?

The whole thing is a joke, totally agree with you about having no control over your own life. That’s exactly how I feel at the moment, relying on people I don’t know to do things in a speedy manner and not throw up any last minute issues

Morning all - another day breaks over the In Chain Support Thread.

The outlook is cold, frosty and clear.

Phones are charged and we all await 9am before dialling the well worn numbers for our conveyancing firms, in the hope that someone - anyone - will please just tell us what's going on...

Morning Lazy. It’s a cold and frosty one here.

Good luck to all with your exchanges this week.

Serial, I have the same issue with Sky. Because our sellers have cancelled their Sky phone they can’t even process my reconnection until the day after we move in and then there is a wait of ‘up to’ 14 days while BT Openreach activates the phone line. I assume Sky’s contract with them says they will do it within 14 days so they have to quote that.

What is this EE myfi thing? Can it give my household temporary internet while we wait for Sky?

Ann I've just had a quick google and found this

Looks useful, although the pedant in me wants to shoot the copywriter who created the content; my particular favourite being "similar but very different"

Solicitor was meant to answer all enquiries on Friday and email me to say they had been sent but h didn't so I guess they haven't. Waiting to call him and remind him to answer the enquiries. It's come a time now where I dread weekends as nothing happens. I'm sick of living in boxes and in limbo

That's weird, we rang on Weds last week to tell Sky we were moving and wanted to move our Sky telly and broadband. Our vendors had Sky previously, but were currently with Virgin Media, but they said if there was the right connection at the other end we should be able to plug the telly straight in and it work, which it did!
For the broadband they said we'd have to pick a day to cancel it at our old address, and the next working day they'd turn it on at the new house, so ours should be going on today. So why is it taking 14 days for you guys?!

It's come a time now where I dread weekends as nothing happens. I'm sick of living in boxes and in limbo

^^ This. Oh absolutely this times one million!! You've pinned down exactly how I was feeling at 4.55pm on Friday last week. I used to really look forward to the weekends - not any more. Now I spend my time anxiously counting the days left before Friday rolls around again, because when the weekend arrives everything grinds to a halt.

I look forward to Mondays now, because I start the week with a faint ray of optimism that this week could be 'the week'...

Fingers crossed for a productive Monday everyone - let the solicitors be easy to contact, and the enquiries few!

Ness IDK, but when I look on my provider's website that is the notice period they say that they need. I am clinging to the hope that they can do it sooner though!

As you say, maybe they go for the 'under promise, over deliver' plan, and say the longest it could take?! Hope so... two weeks without broadband is torture!! It's been 4 days here, and I've used 2gb of my 3gb allowance! Breastfeeding in the middle of the night whilst watching You Tube videos will do that

Ouch! Can you ring your mobile provider and buy a data bolt on? I'm with Three and I can buy a one-off data add-on to my plan for all you can eat data for a fiver. Might be worth looking into?

Fingers crossed Yoomoo

If they can't do a BB switch immediately then it should really be treated like the other utilities and not cut off. Isn't BB considered a life essential by the government now?

Knitted and Lazy fingers crossed for a really productive Monday

I'm itching to ring the EA and find out what's happened to Mr & Ms FTB. We went back to them Friday lunchtime so surely there should be something by now? Also, Mr & Mrs 40 mins and Mr & Mrs "Pretty sure we'll offer". I'm on tenterhooks but trying to work.

I hope you feel better soon Bunny, you're really in the wars at the moment!

Nessa - step away from You Tube Hope you get your BB and mobile data sorted today.

If anyone has any tips on how to get their solicitor to reply to a chaser then I'd be very grateful!! I never get spontaneous updates - things only happen after I've called 3764385 times and she finally caves in and talks to me - at which point I find out that the thing she'd promised to do, hasn't happened because she's been 'caught up'.

I know she's busy, but the problem is that she says she'll call me by X time on Y date - and then never does. And then being told that she's not done something despite promising that she would, leaves me feeling that I have to chase her if only to make sure that she does do what she needs to. AAARGH! I know she's probably being driven insane by me calling, but bloody well ring me when you say you will!!!

Lazy I got so sick of waiting for calls that I devised a method and found when dealing with these people the best tactic is to ask when they expect to know the thing by, or expect to have done the thing by (delete as appropriate) and eg they say 'oh by 4 pm' say to them 'ok I'll call you at 4:30 pm then' if they say they don't know, still pick a time to call them anyway and tell them you'll be doing so. They have to know you won't ever remotely let up or let them call you. The beauty of this is it can be done so politely but doesn't allow anyone to slack off without implied levels of shame. I am evil.

Hello! Looks like we’re jointing the never ending headache of house buying again!

We’ve moved twice in 4 years and the house is on the market, 1 off market viewing so far and 3 regular viewings booked for the next few days.

We need to sell ASAP as we’ve found somewhere already and offered but heading into negotiations as it’s vastly overpriced.

Any suggestions to get us under offer quickly? The house was renovated by us and is immaculate and keeping the kids clutter at bay but I’d welcome any top tips..

Lubey I hear you! Every time I leave a message or send her an email and she says she'll call back by X time, I make it clear that if I don't hear from her then I will call - and call, and call. It still doesn't seem to make any difference

I have said to her before that I don't enjoy being a PITA and that I do have better and more exciting things to do with my life, than spend it constantly on the phone chasing for updates. This is the bit that I really, really hate - and that I will not miss when we are finally done.

Can you speak to a senior partner Lazy? I guess your solc. is hoping for updates from your vendor's solc. and isn't getting them and doesn't want to come back to you without news. There's so little you can do to effect a change in the situation though

Well from being really optimistic I'm back in the doldrums. I can't go into specifics but I'm feeling rather manipulated by Vendor's EA and Mr FTB who works for vendors EA. We are now in the uncomfortable position of our would-be purchasers going back to our [lovely] Vendor and telling him that we've had an offer at £X (hopefully 'fessing up that he has made that offer!) which we can only accept if Vendor accepts our new offer of £Y . Seems contrived and feels so dodgy.

I had a long convo with my EA earlier and he said that whatever happens we (us and our EA) are acting ethically. Our new offer is exactly the same uplift/price difference as the offer we put in with our previous buyers (if that makes sense). We're not trying to claw anything back for ourselves.

It does mean that if [lovely] Vendor accepts that we will need a new mortgage offer as this blows our LTV on the offer we have in place. We would save a little on EA fees and stamp duty though.

I have no objection to the purchaser and no concrete reason to feel that it's shady - in fact as they have nothing to sell they would be perfect, it's just the situation that feels uncomfortable. Still I guess estate agents have to buy homes too!

Mr 40 min has disappeared and Mr & Mrs "pretty sure we'll offer" aren't returning calls

Hi Orchid - welcome! I have no tips I'm afraid. We lost our buyer and have been having viewings for the past several weeks. All our feedback has been that the house is beautifully presented and they can't fault it - the issue is that it's a buyers market at the moment! Good luck.

There is a viewing, listing and offers thread here too - you might want to try posting on there for some other tips? Viewings and Listing Thread

Can i join?? We are 6 weeks into our house sale/purchase. Having heard nothing for weeks, I rang our solicitor on Friday to tell them we are keen to get moved by Xmas. Today solicitor rings to say our buyers want to move in now and do we have anywhere to go??!! Um yes, to the house we are buying when it goes through... Buyers wanted to know if we could go into rented!! Rang the ea who agrees it is a bit soon to be putting the pressure on. I knew it was all too quiet....

I hope everyone is making progress, I kind of am..turns out our buyers are questioning the small patch of land immediately outside our cottage that just holds a small car immediately on the other side is the main road...seems on titles from 1998 it was part of the cottage yet when OH bought in 2006 this small patch was missed off... 😣 now waiting to find out if this can be sorted quickly...I guess this is something we should have noticed but not really sure how as its such a tiny piece of land on a small boundary map however I am sure we are not the first and wont be the last to have mistakes like this on land searches! The great thing is there are no neighbours involvement here and the council have already said that they dont maintain the land itself. On a lighter note everyone else in the chain have exchanged for a week now.....just us left in our own little island! 😊

Yoga I don't seem to be able to speak to anybody. I've just spent another day ringing and waiting for a call back which never came. Bearing in mind that what I am asking her to confirm is that she's escalated this to the senior partners - which I requested last Thursday! This is what is so soul-destroying about it. Another day's gone past, nothing achieved, no further forward, no information and no update.

I can only presume from the silence that we are supposed to sit here like good little clients and just wait until our buyer gets fed up and pulls out. Nobody else seems to be remotely bothered about actually moving.

Hello everyone, on holiday but just catching up with all the movers, shakers and definitely-no-sign-of-any-moving-ers yet.... Congratulations to Ness, Serial, Olivia and perhaps on making the move! Hope you're all blissfully enjoying new houses and still wandering around a bit disbelieving that it's really yours! Sorry to hear about the van cock-up though perhaps, what a mess....

Thomas so sorry to hear about what happened, that's completely pants. Bunny hope you feel better, food poisoning is very nasty. Yoga sorry it's getting so complicated for you, I know what you mean about feeling it's all a bit funny - I'm sure it is okay, but connecting your buyer and your vendor probably doesn't give you much control. Pixie good luck with the new EA, fx for some quick viewings and offers! Yoo congratulations on almost being at exchange, good luck shuffling this to the end - you're within touching distance, even if it is on your mum's sofa... Sympathy and more to Lazy and Knitted - is it worth just camping out in the solicitors office in person?! I can't believe anyone thinks it's a professional way to behave. Good luck with the land issue Misguided sounds like you're almost home and dry otherwise. Welcome Orchid and Mollie.

So, we are still waiting for the building cert for our loft but just picked up a cheerful message from our EA saying that otherwise our buyers are ready to go and are planning to go in and sign contracts later this week. Let's hope building control don't screw us over at this stage.
The owner showed us round our purchase again on Friday, and told us about the land at the back which has been added to the garden about 40 years ago. We're still to get to the bottom of what we will need to actually do about it to complete the purchase.

I've just told our solicitor that if the firm for the party holding us all up won't respond, then I will contact that party directly. I know the address of the property they are selling so it's easy enough to write or visit them in person. I'm so absolutely done with this now.

Good for you Lazy. I hope this produces some results for you.

Fingers crossed Frescoed I hope building control sort the certificate quickly and between you all you can resolve the added land issue.

That's a strange one Misguided, you'd have thought they use the same land registry documents and maps at each sale. I hope you can get to the bottom of it and catch up with the rest of chain.

Welcome Mollieben. How peculiar. Why are your purchasers contacting your solicitor? I hope your EA has set them straight. What is your chain like other than your purchaser - assuming they are first time buyers?