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

Still plodding on here. The sale of our house is all done (hence the buyers wanting in as soon as possible!) the purchase of our new house is ongoing. Contract pack issued, our mortgage offer is in so hoping it won't be too long now... I have been hassling the Ea and she seems to have stepped it up this week at last. Just want a date!

Good luck to all those hoping to exchange soon. We are desperately hoping our buyers buyers house resells this weekend and we can salvage our chain. Apparently they had several viewings booked. We may then be able to persuade the developers not to remarket the new build we have set our hearts on. I hate being at the mercy of other people!

Happy Monday everyone. May the solicitors be helpful and the sun shine on surveys. Anyone due to exchange this week?

Hope you get some good removal quotes that don't break the bank PickAChew

That's not great Frescoed. Can the finish be changed to meet the regs? If the works weren't really included in the price hopefully your buyers will be understanding. Have they come back to you yet?

Fingers crossed for you Stormy and you too Zoe.

Good luck Mollie hopefully you'll be able to exchange soon.

Any news from the weekends viewings yet Artus? I guess it's a bit early to hear but fingers crossed your buyer's buyers get a decent offer today.

I'm ever hopeful that Lazy will exchange this week MrsPuss

Good luck Artus hope this morning brings a prospective buyers buyers buyer into view. Sorry to hear about your challenges stormy and zoe, hope you get some progress soon. And you Mollie.

Where are you up to Yoga - is it the new buyer now progressing stuff?

Well, crossing everything and permanently touching wood here as we don't really know if our issue is a very big deal, an irritating medium-sized problem that might take a bit of time and money, or an easy fix - I think it probably depends a bit on the attitude of the buyers, their solicitors and possibly the lenders. In hindsight I think we've been naive, but we didn't expect to be selling so lessons learnt and all that jazz. Still waiting for a response, trying not to just hit refresh on email!

Hello. Can I join you? Never been in a chain before (current place was new build) and in a way it’s comforting to read this thread and know our chain isn’t totally atypical.

Our solicitor has had a lovely letter from our seller’s solicitor in response to questions about unregistered land within the garden, extensions and conversions with no trace in planning, etc which (and I paraphrase only slightly) reads:

1. Seller doesn’t know.
2. Seller doesn’t know.
3. Seller doesn’t know.
4. Can you send us the contract please.

Morning all. We are still waiting for our buyer/EA to get moving. Our solicitor hasn’t had deeds of sale or any details of our buyer’s solicitor yet. Makes me nervous even though it’s only been a few days. We are holding off applying for our mortgage until there’s progress. We went to see the house we are buying over the weekend and I’m trying to avoid planning all the decorating!

@EgremontRusset we also bought new build last time so all new to us!

Fingers crossed for you @Artus and @StormyIsland

EA has details of buyer’s solicitor and said docs are ready to go out today. And then immediately followed with another email saying they want to view again. Really hoping this isn’t going to fall apart...

me, me, me - I'm hoping to exchange but with the most uncommunicative vendors solicitor in the world I have no idea if it will happen or not.

We are ready and just need confirmation of the amount of deposit they will accept. But the vendors solicitor just doesn't respond to anything. They are totally holding things up, whether they are stalling or just shit i don't know. DH has threatened to report them to the law society as they are breaching conveyancing guidelines by not responding promptly but no idea if that will do anything or just put their backs up. Its just ridiculous for example it took a week for them to send on supplementary queries to our vendors who turned them around in 24 hours then a further six days for their responses to get back to us even though the solicitor didn't do anything to the queries apart from cut and paste into a letter.

Last we heard was that the emails had been printed out and put on the solicitors desk ready to review (!!) but that was on Thursday afternoon. I mean wtf?

Checking in and present for duty.

We've already had the conversation with our solicitor this morning. I've also caved in and sent a short but firm email to the vendor's EA suggesting that he may want to contact their vendors directly. Seeing as their solicitor is still refusing to talk to anyone - despite the fact that the update they eventually provided last week said that we'd be exchanging this week...

Oh and did I mention that our solicitor has gone on annual leave for 2 weeks, not bothered to tell us and handed the file over to her assistant - whose existence we knew nothing of until last Friday?! I absolutely understand that people have holidays to take, but to not mention it seems a bit off, no?

oh lazy are you in my chain????!

what is wrong with these people? why do they not operate by normal social and work related standards....!!!

Afternoon all. Thank you for all the sympathy, hugs etc. Sorry I did a bit of a disappearing act. Been licking my wounds after our disastrous chain breakdown & conflict with our ex estate agents.

The house we want to buy is still showing as sold online, which is really encouraging. As is the house that the vendor is hoping to buy. I have the lady coming round in an hour from Purplebricks to take some photos of our house with the intention of instructing them & going live a week today when our 14 days notice period expires.

The way I see it we can't possibly do a worse job than ex agent. I used to work in estate agency many moons ago & have bought & sold far too many properties over the last 20 years so I'm confident that as long as we're priced correctly then we've got as much chance of selling as with a high street agent, but with the added bonus of being able to reduce our price another 6k if necessary because the fees are so low. Everything crossed anyway!

Good luck to all those hoping to exchange this week. Comisserations to those in the same boat as me. I hope you find a new buyer soon so you can pick up where you left off with your chains!

Hi All

Been out of the loop this last week but so glad to com back on and see that at least some of us have exchanged/completed - congratulations to you all xx

Raaraa how frustrating! hope you hear back soon.

MrsJ hopefully it will all work out. Perhaps they just want to come in for measurements or assess for changes they would like to make once in? This is what we plan on doing, just to give us a head start on ordering furniture etc.

Welcome Egremont so annoying that you cant get any answers. How do they expect you to make informed decisions?

Not got long on my break to read all the comments so hope the rest of you are moving forward, even if at snails pace.

Just a quick update, we saw a house that we absolutely loved, it was the first time I got "The Feeling" when viewing a house. Having lost out on 2 houses already we offered full asking and it was accepted. The vendor had just lost her buyer so is eager to move quickly too so that the chain could stay intact - the offer was accepted, we then contacted the previous buyers solicitors and they still have in date searches!! So we have gone with them. Our mortgage is being transferred from the the last property we lost (bit higher so hope its approved). Its all going really well so fingers crossed!!!!!

Hope it doesn't just go into radio silence now - been here twice before and really trying not to get excited.

Have a good day all xxx

Best of luck Pixie - you sound as if you have a plan and I really hope that you manage to get a completed chain again ASAP.

Raa - fuck knows!! I have gone beyond incredulity, fury and am now firmly in to being resigned to it. In all my years of work - which involves dealing with legal stuff - I have never come across such a lack of care. The entire system needs a complete shake-up and I can't help thinking that a good 50% of the bullshit and stress is caused by solicitors and EAs not talking to each other. The ego of the firm at the top of our chain is breath-taking; they literally could not care less that the rest of us are losing time and money and that our chain is in real danger of falling apart because of their intransigence. As far as they are concerned they'll update when they are ready and not a moment before.

I can't get my head round why the vendors at the top aren't reading them the riot act. If I was receiving desperate calls from my EA for updates because my solicitor wasn't talking to anyone, then I'd be going batshit at the solicitor - on the basis that I'm the one paying them to handle this shit. You couldn't make it up!!

That's wonderful news Honey. I do hope all goes to plan now. Seems like it was meant to be with this house perhaps?

I feel your pain Lazy. There always seems to be one solicitor, agent or vendor throwing a spanner in the works!

@HoneyB123 I know they might just want to have another look - we did that this weekend. But delays make me nervous! Emailed EA for reassurance but he hasn’t replied and I’m endlessly refreshing my email.

Well done on getting the offer accepted!

@LazyDailyMailJournos that is so frustrating! Does the vendor at the top know what’s going on?

Hello hope no one minds another person posting here.

We are in a very small chain - we are buying with nothing to sell and the vendor is happy to move in with his dad for a bit if necessary.

Put an offer in at the beginning of October which was accepted. Attempted to sort out mortgage with online broker which was a mistake as despite seeming useful to begin with they actually weren't. Should have gone with the mortgage brokers our solicitors suggested in the first place. Which we now have and have our mortgage offer. Took a bit of work to get the vendor to sort out the valuation but that happened at last.

So what happens now? Has been a while since either DH or I did this - have both separately owned houses before but not for a while.

Want to complete in January and have some stuff done to the house and then actually move in February. Will be very nice not to rent any more (although will be in smaller house)

Stormy your posts have caught my attention - I've been lurking here because every bloody house we try and buy is cursed, including the latest, which I adore. Mortgage valuation fine, but our survey came back and mentioned a potential flying freehold. We're 95% sure it isn't one (only possibility is if there is a cellar on the neighbour's land that no one, including the neighbour, knows about. However, this means that the title plans don't reflect anything like the reality on the ground, which is that 2 historic extensions appear, on the face of it, to be on next door's land. Our solicitor is hung up on the flying freehold issue still, we're not sure where we'll stand with a mortgage on a property that differs from the title plans and the clock is ticking super loudly, our buyers have been saints but can't wait much longer. Who are you borrowing from?

Spoke to a wonderfully helpful lady at the council this morning who said turnaround time for searches is 15 days. Spoke to solicitor, searches were requested 17th Oct (19 days ago) so went back to council - they didn’t get the request until 24th Oct from a 3rd party and results are being “collected” on 21st Nov. Talk about delaying tactics!
Oh and the Vendors solicitor haven’t replied to any enquiries yet.

Will I or won’t I be giving notice on my rental on 30th Nov???

Anything yet Frescoed? Can building control clarify what the issue is and what it would take to fix?

Welcome EgremontRusset that letter is awesome. talk about abdicating responsibility!

We're in the same position MrsJW. We've not yet had the buyers memorandum of sale from our EA. Although we've had the one from our vendor's EA. When chased our EA said a few days was normal . Hope you get yours soon.

We have had our mortgage offer confirmed this morning though, so that's something.

I'm half expecting a second viewing request to accompany the memorandum of sale too. We did this when our offer was accepted and we had no intention of pulling out. I'm sure it'll be fine but fingers crossed for you.

Are they a firm of Tortoises Raaraa? I hope they speed up their act soon.

I'm not surprised you finally broke Lazy. Any progress on that possible chink yet?

Good luck Pixie - hopefully PB will drum up some viewings and a quick offer. Fingers crossed for you.

hi Miranda that sounds like a good position to be in. Have you got a solicitor engaged yet? Had survey and searches done?

Hi tentative that sounds complicated. Is it a Victorian terrace you are trying to buy? I have never heard of a flying freehold before! I hope it gets resolved quickly for you.

WTF MrsPuss - how long? Surely your solcs want the searches back as quickly as possible. I don't understand why they'd delay like that.

We've got a solicitor (got them before getting the mortgage) and have had our own survey done. Not sure about searches - presume they'll be next

I think if you want to complete in January you should look to get the searches initiated soon Miranda as they can take 3-4 weeks to come back. Once these have been done your solicitor will put their questions and queries to your vendor's solicitor. Only once this process is complete will you exchange.

Hope everything is going well for everyone!

@MrsPussinBoots - your solicitor might use a search agent rather than applying direct to the council (my firm do this as it's much much quicker than applying direct in my local area) which may explain the delay between your solicitor ordering them and them actually being requested from the council, and the mention of the request coming from a third party.

If this is the case your solicitor is probably oblivious to the delays their search provider is causing and it may be worth bringing it to their attention!

Utterly shit day today. I'm going to have to step back for a day or two because I cannot live, sleep and breathe this anymore.

@tentative3 your solicitor should be able to contact the surveyor to ask where the information as to the flying freehold has come from. They're most common in semi detached houses where one bedroom "flies" over the top of a lane owned by the neighbouring property rather than in a Victorian terrace as you describe. Very odd!