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

Raa, it is a bit of a minefield moving area & schools. Depends on your location as to what proof they accept before you can apply. When we moved here, my girls were yrs 6 & 8. We'd applied for the local comp for the following September for our youngest from our old address & the LA needed proof from our solicitors that we'd moved by a deadline date to make any changes. We literally moved house on that day, which was also the last day of term. I was screaming at my solicitor to email the LA to confirm we'd moved. It finally got done an hour before they shut.

As to the year 6 & 8 places, we were told we couldn't even look until we had moved & we had to wait till school went back in January. My youngest had the choice of 2 local primaries, no probs. My eldest couldn't get into our local comp for love nor money. The neighbouring comp had a bad reputation & I was worried, thought of doing home ed until a place came up etc. In the end I went to look at the school & was pleasantly surprised & very impressed. M ended up going there & did incredibly well. Her sister went to the local comp with the great rep & also did well. I see both schools as equally good.

My advice to you would be to go for the nearest school with spaces, because its hard getting 2 kids into one school & you may wait a long time for a place to turn up at your preferred school, if it ever does. Talk to parents with kids in the school. Reputation isn't everything. I suggest you go & see any school that has places when you have moved & take it from there. Situations change quickly in admissions so until you're in a position to apply all you can do is research!

Another option you have of course is sending both kids to different schools. As I said above, I had to do that. 2 schools in different towns. Was an absolute nightmare but I managed it!

One of DS friends was an in-year transfer when he joined and his elder sister had to go to a different schools. The had the children on the waiting lists of both schools and eventually a place came up for the sister at DS school. It was a huge relief for the parents as they had real difficulties getting between the two schools for drop offs and pick ups.

So unless you are confident you can get your boys to the different schools for as long as it takes for your younger son to get a place I would go for the school you can get both your boys into. You can't guarantee that a place will become free either. DS is Year 5 now and the class is still the exactly the same as it always was - no turnover at all.

As Pixie says, reputation isn't everything and your boys may thrive at the non-preferred school.

I feel for you though. I really wanted to move further out (into the next county) but it was the thought of school changes that put me off in the end.

knitted that is bloody ridiculous of your buyer. Especially the amount he wants to knock off. Hope he sees sense asap.

raaraa the school stuff sounds sooo stressful. Hope it works out well for you. My BIL and his family had loads of drama with that when they moved. They were buying a house where all the schools were full and could only get their kids into a school 20minutes away with rubbish Ofsted report. Their buyer then pulled out at the last minute and they ended up buying somewhere else. In the end it all worked out ok and they managed to negotiate with a school and get all three in the same (lovely) school.

Knitted what an awful buyer you've got. Hopefully you've made him panic and return groveling on Monday. 27k is a ridiculous amount to ask to reduce unless you're selling a house worth 800k or something. :D

Fialor fx for exchange on Monday. I think it's unbelievable how people can just disappear on day of exchange. I'd be making such angry phone calls.

Yoga good news about the fittings!! Our sellers are leaving us a dish washer which makes me so happy it's a bit sad. My DH hates dish washers so I would have had to go through such a battle to get one.

No news from me really. Got all the certificates last week and we're ready to exchange with the sale. Buyers solicitor has sent the transfer of land to land registry I think and has expedited it so hopefully will hear something next week. Getting a bit nerve wreckingly close to Christmas now.

Doing the fixtures and fittings stuff today. Any thoughts on what sort of price you'd expect to see for washing machines and tumble dryers? And also curtains? I'm assuming we'd leave the curtain/blind rails etc as that's easier than taking them!

Hi MrsJ People rarely charge when they leave stuff like that tbh, & if they did I wouldn't expect it to be much, baring in mind its all secondhand. We offered to leave all white goods, garden furniture, 10ft trampoline with enclosure & even kids cabin beds if required. Didn't ask anything for them. Less hassle on our part to leave them than try to sell for a hundred quid if we were lucky. I was actually gutted that they didn't want the kids beds coz it mean't dicking about with free to collector or dismantling & tipping them lol.

Yoga, Stormy, thank you.

Here is to hoping for better news this week.
Raaraa, I hope you are* all sorted to exchange week.*

Knitted, I hope* that you hear back from a contrite buyer. Otherwise I say good riddance.*

Sitting on a plane now hoping that by the time I land all** would be sorted, and we would have exchanged, fx.

Well we are all ready, vendor and their vendor are apparently sorting the final issue and we should be ready to exchange on Tuesday/Wednesday.

To be honest I'll believe it when i see it but hey ho we're in the mix for it this week at least.

Thanks to yoga pixie and stormy for your thoughts about schools. its the bit that has stressed me out so much but after a really good chat with DH on Saturday I think we have a plan of action that we are both happy with.

fingers crossed for everyone today and this week.

Who's with me for exchange this week?

fialor - anyone else?

Fx fialor and Raa

I’m just waiting this week. Solicitor says he’ll get searches back on Friday and email the whole contract pack to me Friday evening ready for exchange on 30th Nov. I haven’t seen or signed anything yet. This week is going to drag while I try not to spend the deposit money sitting in my account!

Morning all, just been catching up with everything.

So sorry about your awful buyer knitted it kind of feels like perhaps he always intended to gazunder (especially if it's not the lender/sol making the requirements) . I'm crossing my fingers that he had a road to damascus moment over the weekend and has come back to say an indemnity policy is fine.

Glad to hear everything is ticking along with Yoga, mollie and others. Your wood store is indeed a prize Yoga, well worth having!

Good luck and fx to fialor, raa and perhaps stormy for exchange this week.

We are going in to sign contracts today. The sale is ready to exchange (building control cert arrived end of last week, hooray!); however, our purchase seems stuck at answers to queries/unresolved land issue. I chased the vendor/their solicitor via the EA last week and again today, but I wonder if we're starting to cut it close to be wanting to complete at the end of next week. It's not the end of the world if we can't, but it would be so convenient to be able to do so. So maybe we'll exchange this week, maybe not....

Fingers crossed for exchange today Fialor and later this week for you Raa

I'm glad you and DH have found a good way forward to the school issue Raa

Your DH hates dishwashers Stormy? I'm glad you are getting a dishwasher, they are the most wondrous of kitchen appliances Good news that the certificates have arrived and the land registry issue is being expedited too. Onwards and upwards towards exchange now!

MrsPuss wow, that must be tempting, especially with black Friday fast approaching I guess you'll just have to step away from the internet and the shopping malls for the week - good luck

Excellent news on the building control cert arriving Frescoed. Fingers crossed the land issue will resolve, not much else you can do bar chasing I guess

Any news knitted and Lazy? I'm thinking of you both

Goodness me. Some wool are just arses. Vendor is utterly unable to say yes to anything. Including things that they actually said yes to 2 weeks ago that suddenly now the day before exchange they are now refusing to do.

If they had just said this 2 weeks ago we could have looked into it and figured out if it was an issue or not. But that is probably the point, isn’t it?

And in other fun news after some miscommunication with the removal firm, it now looks like we’ll be moving on the 22 dec. oh holy Jesus. But this does give us a useful overlap of rental and new house to do some decoration and sorting out before everything is moved in. But not ideal on many levels!

MrsJW I second pixie that people don't tend to charge for things. Our sellers are leaving us fridge, microwave, dish washer, three garden sheds and a massive wardrobe in the master bedroom.

Fialor have a great trip! Must be quite nice to get away from it all. And hopefully it'll all be sorted by the time you're back.

Fx for puss, raa, fialor and frescoed! Could be a lot of exchanges this week. Count me out though!

Yoga my DH hates all kinds of things but he liked washing up and listening to the radio. Probably just to get a moment of peace. Our house is so small and with 3 dcs it gets a bit much.

What was the problem today raa? 22nd is still before Christmas but I get it that it's not ideal. At least you've got a date though and are out of the limbo in that sense!

We're just waiting. I contacted EA who said he hasn't heard from anyone since Thursday when they were chasing signatures. So it might not even be at the land registry yet. But work and kids are keeping me so busy time is moving fast. Will email solicitor tonight to ask again whether she's ready to report to us and whether we have to wait for land registry to be ready before exchanging.

Hi all, can I join? After one lot of buyers dropping out at the last minute, we’ve had a nightmare getting decent offers on our property. Finally have an offer from a couple that we think we can make work but it’s £25K below asking price. We did ask them to increase this by another £7K but they refused as they have a property abroad and will have to pay the higher tax rate. I need your advice please re: the fixtures and fittings: we’ve got a gorgeous 2 year old flat which we moved into when it was newly built. It’s light, spacious and airy and has integrated appliances. The people who’ve put the offer in will be getting everything in almost mint condition (I have OCD). We’ve had customised blinds fitted which cost us almost £2.5K (we have 9 windows of various proportions). Clearly, with the much lower offer made, I don’t want to leave these blinds behind for ‘free’. We will sell to buyers but not sure how much to ask for them. Any ideas? We are having to borrow some money from family to make up for the shortfall from their offer so are hoping to recoup some money from the blinds to pay family members off. Is that fair? What would be the right thing to do?

Raaraa, any update? Are you exchanging tomorrow? Has the issue been addressed now?

Thank you Raaraa, Yoga, Stormy.

We have exchanged!
Nearly had a heart attack though as our vendor's vendor wanted to delay the completion date by 8 days. Thankfully our vendor said no, and that was that.

So we have exchanged, I have booked our packers and movers, and we love the 30th of November.
Raaraa, any update? Are you exchanging tomorrow? Has the issue been addressed now?

Thank you Raaraa, Yoga, Stormy.

Catspants, usually curtians are included in the fittings and fittingd

I just realised that ok was really tired when I posted before (double posting)
I have been up since 3:30am the night before with a long business day - God I was so tired! I wanted to update before I slept B
But I am still so excited that we have exchanged.

Stormy, keeping my fingers crossed for you.

raa I'm in the same position as you 22nd December (but just got offer accepted). Stormy, keeping my fingers crossed for you too.
We are now committed to another property (made a snap offer during the weekend after viewing of £15K below OIE price, and the seller accepted it after a few negotiation). We both want to complete 22nd December, that's mad, but we hope to be able to. If the seller is honest (or if the EA is honest) then they lost their buyer 2 weeks before exchange (they supposed to complete mid December), hence all the documents should be very up to date, the same as us. Confirmed Halifax about the new property & price, they don't charge us again the mortgage application fees (old mortgage roll number is still valid, they just change the property details), and the valuation that we paid on the old property they will refund to us after completion of the new one. I think we made the right decision to change, save us a lot of monies by not renting somewhere for 6 months. Although it's in different areas (one of the two areas we originally wanted), but still very sad because after several months spending time wondering about around the old property, we like that area a lot. But the new property has garden, freehold, and in a very good school zone.

Great news Fialor congratulation - such a relief to exchange!

We are aiming for 22nd Dec completion too - fingers crossed!

I think this new place sounds like a winner Zoe, lots of good positives.

Catspants if the buyers don't want to buy the curtains and blinds then you'll be stuck with having to take them down and make good. Or new buyers offer was low too but I can't see the point in trying to charge them for custom made blinds as they are of no use to use at the new house. I know it's galling but we're just focussing on the good stuff - we're back in a chain and looking to complete as soon as possible on our "forever" home Good luck, I hope your progress to exchange is problem free from here

I love the idea of your DH taking refuge in the kitchen from a busy household and washing up Stormy but now he'll be able to take refuge and load and unload the dishwasher: treat it to regular rinse aid and salt top ups, give it the odd clean out. I'm sure that can be just as therapeutic

Hoorary fialor congratulations! Almost home and dry now, I hope you've caught up on some sleep too.

Fx for raa and stormy, it's kinda within touching distance now I guess. Hats off to everyone heading for the 22nd December moving club, we've moved twice before in December but usually a bit earlier than that! cats I think others are probably right, you can always list a cost for leaving the blinds but a buyer may be unlikely to offer to pay it, in which case you're faced with the prospect of removing and making good (and taking with you made-to-measure blinds for a property you no longer live in). I think we are leaving all blinds which are window specific, as it were, but probably taking our curtains with us.

Contracts signed yesterday, and our solicitor seems to think it's only the vendor queries/land issue still to go - she anticipates our lender should be content with an indemnity insurance policy on it, so I'm hassling the vendor/vendor's sol via our EA to see if they can do their bit, and perhaps if we're lucky we might exchange this week rather than running it to the wire next week. Hoping to complete on 1st December. Spent this morning tee-ing up insurance, and I suppose I probably need to start doing some other things now it looks like it's really happening.

Catspants we are having the same debate. We also spent about £2.5k on our blinds/curtains and accepted a lower offer. We want to charge something for them, I wonder if £1k is reasonable given that they are 5 years old. But maybe too much? The interior designers who made them for us will be doing curtains for our new place, and if necessary we will reuse these I think.

Catspants and MrsJW15 - we are in the position of our vendors asking for £1000 for a fitted oven. They have no chance of me paying it I'm afraid. I would tell you to take your blinds and curtains sorry. If they are made to measure I think they should be included. Course it is up to you but I wouldn't hold out too much hope. Maybe you could enquire whether they would be interested in buying them before specifying a price?

Not much of an update from me - waiting for solicitors to return my call, haven't heard from the ea for 2 weeks... I just want a date!!!!

@Mollieben that’s what we wanted to do. Our vendor has gone via EA to ask what we are interested in. We asked our EA to do the same and they said no!

Our buyer contacted me to say their sale had fallen through!!! Third time this has happened!
They’ve said they can still proceed but need to supply the mortgage company with further documentation as part of the deposit is now being funded by their parents, rather than the sale.
Have said that our solicitor would like proof that she can proceed (new mortgage AIP I guess) by next Friday, otherwise it goes back on the market.
On one hand if she can proceed without selling hers, then it could be a quicker process for us, but we have been burnt a few too many times now to not question EVERYTHING anyone tells us!