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

Oh gosh Pixie that’s a complete mess. and in lieu of anything stronger, you do indeed win the prize of the completely incompetantly ridiculous estate agents, buyers and sellers replete only in their own fuckwittery.

Is the house you would like to buy really fantastic? I hope so, there has to be something worth the pain of the process. Very unmumsnetty hugs x

Hi everyone, sounds like it's not been a good week so far, but I'm excited for even a chink of good news for you Lazy! Fx for more to come...

Pixie - what a complete balls up! At least if you have no intention of going back to that EA or buyer then they can waste their time as much as they like chasing the feckless ex-buyers! Are you tempted to pull out all together and remarket in the new year, or do you love your purchase house too much?!

Fivemore We were in the same situation, but when our vendors purchase suddenly because urgent due to mtg offer expiring we ended up bargaining with our rentaL FTBs and us and our vendor both put some ££ towards their rent so that we could complete straight after exchange. Worked out well for FTBs as they got 60% or so of rent paid and now have a two month crossover to do some work and decorate before they move in.

Helpme Sounds like you're talking the right tough talk, just keep strong and don't be afraid to adjust your offer if they're fucking you about with a new chain. They may suddenly decide that it's not so important to join them after all

Yoga Once again your LV deserves a medal! Hope that you get another offer from second viewing people!!

MrsPuss I'm guessing you were expecting the 90% red Will you be doing any bargaining or do you just want to get it done?

Lubey Thank god for sensible vendors eh! Hope you get exchanged soon - good that you're now experts in the local rental market!!

Sell I think many of us here know that FTBs do not necessarily mean a quick or easy sale because so many of them are clueless idiots a little naive about the process. You'll find somewhere soon We offered on three houses before getting this one accepted, and it's been worth the wait.

Five days in, loving the new house We had a blissful Sunday exploring a local walk and having Sunday lunch in our new local. DH said to me 'I'm so glad we moved here!' which considering he's doubled his commute really made me feel like it's definitely been the right decision!

In other news, 5 week old DD just slept through (11-5!!) for the first time. My boobs are agony and I've leaked all over the bed, lol, but it's sooo worth it for the amazing nights sleep I've had! I can't tell anyone on my postnatal group or many of my RL friends as many of them have terrible sleepers, but I thought I'd burst if I didn't boast somewhere

Best wishes to all for a good news Wednesday...

five I think that's fairly standard for ftb renters. They're often nervous that it'll fall through before exchange and will end up homeless. Tbh I'm refusing to give notice before exchange for similar reasons.

Thanks help, ness and lively. I’ve put the suggestion to DH and we’ll see what plays out. TBH I would want to wait to exchange as I too wouldn’t want to be homeless. However, if I was a rental person I would expect to take a bit of a hit as I wouldn’t want to hold the whole chain up. I wouldn’t expect people to wait two months. I see some negotiating and compromising needs to be done soon. I thought all that was over 😓

We need a month between exchange and completion as we need to give notice on our rental but also to apply for school places. We've been abundantly clear about this from day one. The thing that really gets my goat is that out vendors solicitor has just sat on stuff and not dealt with queries or issues for weeks with no explanation. It is her conduct that is making the whole thing an issue. If she had sent stuff into turned things around promptly then we would have no problem getting a month beteeen exchange and completion. If the hold up had been searches or mortgage offers I'd be a bit more understanding but basically we have to take a hit on overlapping rent and mortgage because someone isn't doing their job properly! (And breathe)

DH sent an email to the vendor solicitor last night.

He's not supposed to do that... really hoping it doesn't backfire today.

Morning

Oh Pixie that's horrendous. All the EA's in your ex-chain definitely the win the fuckwit of the day crown. Probably fuckwit of the week.
They really are total shits. If I were in your position I think I'd be tempted to pull out of everything, lay low until the new year and then re-market with a totally different EA and new for a new purchase. I hope you get this sorted soon

A full 6 hours sleep Nessa - fantastic. Little Nessa is really getting the hang of this sleep lark! So glad to hear that you are enjoying your new home

I agree Five a month would be reasonable, two is pushing it a bit. But if you could spread out the cost of the months rent across the chain it might work out best for everyone. Good luck, fingers crossed for you.

And once again, situations like yours Raaraa are why there need to be KPIs or similar for the conveyancers to stop unnecessary delays and hold ups and have some transparency over where the delays are and what is causing them . I hope your vendor's solicitor is understanding.

Our situation hit a new level of peculiar last night when a hand written note came through the door with an offer Someone who hasn't even viewed but liked the look of it on RM!

I spoke to my EA, who spoke to Mr Note and transpires they have already offered on a different property with our EA (which probably explains why they didn't go direct to the EA!) The amount they were offering (even assuming it's serious) is only £5k more than Mr & Ms FTB so at the moment we're sticking with them, or, if today's 2nd viewing people offer a lot more and are in position to move quickly (as required by LV and desired by us) then we'll accept that instead.

Really hoping that possible chink expands today Lazy - best of luck

Tentatively joining. We accepted an offer on our flat yesterday, and have had an offer accepted on a house. We are the only link in the chain - our purchaser is a cash buyer, and the property we are buying is empty. Fingers crossed that means it's not too painful (hollow laugh)

Wow, Yoga - peculiar indeed!

Nessa, well done to you and BabyNess on the sleep!

Complete idiot FTB alert. I’ve forwarded the survey to my solicitor but should I highlight all the bits where it suggests clarification eg certificates, building regs etc? Or do I trust him to read it? To be honest I have no idea what he’s doing and am only guessing from what others have written here.

No searches back yet but got my offer this morning! Whoop!

Hello MrsJW! Good to see you in the chain gang

MrsPuss They should read it, but personally I'd also email them with you own list of enquiries that arisen for you when reading it. Your solicitors won't know what your personal concerns are regarding the property, so won't know what will bother you IYSWIM? So for example our survey brought up some non-standard electrical work. This is something which I was already concerned about following there being no installation certificate. The solicitors deal with the legal portion, so they had already arranged for the vendors to provide an indemnity for there being no certificate, whereas I'm concerned about the living aspect of the damn electrics working, so I insisted on them also providing evidence of a recent full electrical check. So I told the solicitors that, they passed my request to the vendors, and there could have been haggling over who paid for the check, but actually, the vendors just sorted it.
But my solicitor on their own would not have been arsed I don't think!

And yay for your offer!!

Thanks Ness! That’s what I was thinking but didn’t want to patronise the solicitor or anything. Honestly don’t know what I’d do without the help and guidance here.

Thanks all

Onwards and upwards. I'm going to see two more houses later today ... before any FTB's get their claws in so fingers crossed

Joining this thread with a g&t in hand to settle my nerves...

Quick back story, house went on in March, accepted an offer 3 weeks later, surveys/enquiries done, then the sale fell through as our buyer lost their buyer. We gave them 4 weeks (I work for an exam board and it was during the marking period so suited us) to find another buyer, sadly they didn't. House was put back on the market and we got another offer within a week. Chain was just us, our buyer and their investor BTL buyer. Surveys/enquiries and date for exchange sorted...then their buyer pulled out on the morning of exchange!! Awful day.

We went back on the market just under a fortnight ago, had an offer from a couple who hadn't sold which we declined until they could actually proceed, and then had someone turn up on the doorstep at 3pm today asking if they could look around!! Caught me totally off guard and the house wasn't exactly at it's best, but they offered asking price later that afternoon. They are currently under offer with a FTB. It's all very early on in the process but I'm hoping this sale sticks, third time lucky surely?

To add to the nerves, we are actually emigrating and had near enough booked/sorted everything last time which then had to be put on hold.

*yesterday - Obviously there is no time travel element to this where our buyer showed up today!

Hi can I join !! We are currently mid chain and it’s all a bit stressful!! Having thought that we were going to complete mid Dec and exchange this / next week. We’ve been told our buyer has now an issue with their mortgage offer this is the first time of me doing this so hoping the sale doesn’t fall thru ! Fingers crossed

We are in a very similar position to littlepenguin. The most frustrating thing is that no one lower down the chain is answering the phone or returning calls so we can't find out what is going on. We will probably lose the new build we have reserved.

I'm pretty much resigned to my purchase falling through. Seller's solicitor has ignored solicitors email regarding covering my additional costs but has said they will have everything they need to exchange tomorrow. Funny that, they said "tomorrow" daily since last Friday and I know they've told the estate agent they can't check the paperwork until tomorrow so would only be able to exchange on Friday (and only if paperwork is ok). So, my solicitor has told them if they don't exchange by 1pm tomorrow my offer is pulled.

I've already booked some viewings for the weekend.

Please don't use Premier Property Lawyers. I've never had to deal with anyone so useless before.

Hi to all and welcome to new joiners - wishing you all smooth and hassle-free completions!

Yoga wow - your offers are coming in like buses!

Pixie Yep, you definitely win the twunt of the week award.

Help really sorry to hear about all the hassle you're having. FX it all works out.

Raa don't worry too much about it - I ended up contacting our vendors' solicitor directly. I got a bit of a telling off, but it did help move things along a bit so it was worth it.

Ness congrats on the full night's sleep!!

Hi all,

I'm a long time lurker and also a conveyancing solicitor - just felt the need to wish you all luck and promise that we aren't all bad!! Some of us do really genuinely care and understand what a stressful event moving house is for our clients.

Best wishes all of you!

Therealreason you can come and join the MN Honest Estate Agency as our trusted conveyancing solicitor

In fairness our firm are OK. But I suspect they have done a rack em, pack em, stack em approach to marketing their services this year - and as a consequence they now have too many cases and not enough resource. Which means it's an absolute nightmare trying to get an update! I suspect our file handler has my picture on a dartboard in her office...

@LazyDailyMailJournos Haha I would be honoured!

I'm glad my boss drummed into my head as a trainee "give regular updates to your clients, even if it's to say there is no update". It's so much easier to work in that proactive way and it stops clients feeling anxious that they don't know what's going on.

I can't believe that some solicitors mentioned on this thread promise to update by X time on X date and don't we're all busy, but that just isn't on.

therealreason can you be the conveyancing solicitor for us all please?

Welcome MrsJW - I hope your path to completion is smooth.

I agree with Nessa, MrsPuss - if there is something you specifically want then point that out.

What a horrible time you've had Timeforheroes - third time lucky I hope

Fingers crossed it comes together for you all penguin, help and Artus

We have seen the mortgage adviser and he's on the case. He's confident that we won't have an issue getting our mortgage changed to reflect the new sale and purchase prices despite us creeping over over the LTV limit very slightly. He "knows someone" at the bank apparently, so we're leaving that with him. It's reassuring to hear though as it means that tomorrow we can (finally) go back to Mr & Ms FTB and accept their offer. I'm trying not to count my chickens [but I am really] but hopefully tomorrow I'll be telling you all that we are FINALLY in a complete chain again Hallelujah!

I think that conveyancing is very much in the pay peanuts get monkeys category. We did go to the cheaper end of the quotes we got, but our budget and numbers were so tight that we didn't have much choice.

However the solicitors for the top of the chain are costing £££ by all accounts. Top of chain people are buying a very expensive house so I suspect their conveyancing won't be cheap. And this is the firm who categorically refuse to respond to enquiries from the rest of the chain as to their progress, bearing in mind their last minute issue is what's holding the rest of us up . So just goes to show that the cost doesn't necessarily guarantee a better service!

We have ended up in the slightly bonkers situation where the solicitor is so determined not to be 'client led' that the estate agent rings the vendor, who rings the solicitor and then comes back to the agent - who updates the rest of the chain! I can't believe the vendor is putting up with it TBH - if you were paying the bill wouldn't you be on the phone to the firm reading them the riot act about why you're having to field calls because of their intransigence? Madness!

Fabulous news Yoga - I am so pleased for you. You've had such a roller coaster time of it, so you were well overdue for some good news!!