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

Lazy There is an A road at the bottom of the street (about 20 houses down) to the house we are buying. You can here the buzz of traffic in the distance but it not like it would disturb us when we were out there. Small price to pay for all the positive things about the house. The most important thing to us was that the noise was not going to be annoying from the inside of the house. We couldn't hear it there at all.

frescoed FX its good news today xxx

The mortgage valuers are around today. Hoping it goes well and we get our mortgage approved ASAP. Didn't sleep much last night, DH says I am worrying over nothing but you never know - we have the small issue of the outbuilding being built with no planning. We know this could be covered by indemnity but for the bank its weather the house is worth this without it!

We didn't even know the building was there until the viewing! Hoping for good news!!!!

sorry got struck down by the lurgey after finally exchanging last week.

big fat hairy balls to all the twatty vendors out there. special bejazzled ones to lubey's vendors. What is wrong with people????

I think road noise is really subjective and totally depends on your previous experience. We had really bad noise pollution in our last house and so are hyper sensitive to it. but i realise that dh and I are a bit mental about it - fortunately we are the same kind of mental and agree on the levels that we would find a deal breaker!

on the other hand we used to live in london somewhat under the flight path into heathrow with a plane going over every minute. not in west london with rattling windows but still enough for when we moved in DH to be ranting around saying we would have to move within a week. we stayed there 5 years - you do just get used to it and tune it out. so in a round about way, if the house is good and the garden secure and hte noise doesn't bother you then go for it!

Good luck with the mortgage valuation today Honey. Hope you're recovering Raa do you have a few weeks now until you move?

Well, it's clear as mud here. Vendor's solicitor seems to think we should be able to exchange today, our solicitor says probably not but perhaps in the next day or so. Hmmmm.....

frescoed we complete on 14 dec and move on the 22 dec

So upset. After our chain found a new buyer at the bottom and everything got up and running again I finally allowed myself to believe this move was actually going to happen. We were hoping to exchange before Christmas and move in February as agreed with all parties. Heard today that an adverse possession issue has now been raised lower down the chain and this now has to go to the Land Registry to be sorted out.

We are buying a new build but the developers have already waited for our last broken chain to get going again. No idea if they will wait for this to be sorted out. No idea how long it will take or why nobody has realised before now. Want to shout at somebody but nobody to shout at...

I have read all the updates but apologies, response will be brief (a good thing probably!)

Lazy - the house I grew up in was on a busy A road in West London. I can safely say you get used to car noise! I'm glad you found something you are considering. Perhaps visit again at the height of rush hour and see what it's like then?

That's shitty Artus is there no way the developer would buy your property in part-ex? They do that a lot around here, it's definitely something which attracts people to new builds.

Hope you exchanged today Frescoed!

You still sound superhuman to me Stormy! Good luck with your research projects and I hope you get them submitted on time

We had two companies come in to give removal quotes today. One tomorrow and another Thursday AM. By luck, the second company actually moved our vendor out of the place we're buying and so know it's narrow windy staircase and low flung doors well. Providing their quote is competitive this would certainly give them the edge.

Lazy, the house we are moving out of has a road at the bottom of the garden, and the house is slightly sunken compared to the road level.* It is a fairly busy road, but unless one is at the very end of the garden, one does not hear the car noise. There are a few noise break trees between us and the road so the noise is minimised.*

One can hear the noise of drunken teenagers going home, shouting at the top of their voices at 2am, if one is up at that time of the night.**

I would say go for it, if the noise is not noticeable from inside the house if you like all the other positive things.**

Yoomoo, how are you getting on with your packing? My packers are starting tomorrow so they can be certain they have time to finish before Thursday. They think one day will be enough but just in case they cannot, then they have Wednesday to complete.
What time do you have to vacate the house/hand over keys?

Frescoed, were you able to exchange?

Sorry! Last post was a total failure in technology!

Lazy the noise wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me especially if the rest of the house and garden ticks all the boxes. I’ve lived on a fairly busy road and you do just get used to the noise and not hear it anymore. Good luck, I hope this one works out for you!

fialor have attached a picture of my current view, dining room is the same and then there’s more boxes and bags of clothes upstairs! I am pretty much as packed as I can be, as mentioned before I don’t have any furniture to take (except 1 mattress) so it’s only personal belongings and kitchen stuff really. I want to put the dogs in a box but have resisted they are off to the lady who has them while I’m on holiday for a week on Wednesday, just gives me a proper chance to get settled in new place without them under my feet and being stressed by it all.
My contract says we have to be out by midday, due to that I’m going to collect my rental van on Wednesday so that I can load up non valuables on Wednesday evening meaning there isn’t much to do Thursday morning. Cleaners coming at 9am so I need to have house empty by then. I’m doing it all by myself but am 99% confident I can do it 💪🏻 Who needs men eh?!
Let us know how it goes with the packers tomorrow, will be thinking of you! What time do you need to be out?
I also finally had it confirmed today that I can definitely move into my new build on Thursday, I am on cloud 9 🍾 and for everyone!!

Those boxes make it so real Yoomoo!

Go you! Who needs men eh?! (Just thought odd time when it requires brute force!
You must be so excited. New house, new start. And yes! to being able to move into straight away.

It has turned out to be quite a busy love period for us - not sure how the gods planned it

I am in a queue waiting to board, off to the continent again!, for work. DH is off work tomorrow till we move so he is supervising the pack, then I take it over when I come back tomorrow night. Hopefully all will be completed tomorrow so we can clean on Wednesday. Then my DD has her nativity play in the middle of the move on Thursday morning! Thankfully we are all off till next week Monday so we will manage somehow between us.

Seeing as I am paying for someone to pack for me (lazy me!), I could not justify the cleaning cost while I was also on holiday, so it's cleaning most of Wednesday for me. It helps me manage and assuage my "oh my God, that is too much money for packing!" guilt.

The solictors have helpfully said "lunchtime" for vacating time, which could be 12 noon, or 1pm. So I have asked for clarification. And hope it is 12 meaning we will be able to get into the new house while it is still daylight outside.

Have a safe trip fialor I can’t wait to shut my work laptop down on Wednesday evening knowing the next time I’m at work I’ll be in my new place! So exciting.
The oven has been cleaned today and it looks brand new, I’ve bought microwave meals for the next 3 nights as I don’t want to mess it up
I’m going to do one more load of washing tomorrow while I’m working from home then the machine can do it’s clean cycle with a bottle of stuff I’ve bought. I think I’ve thought of everything but am bound to have forgotten. Will pack up by iMac computer tomorrow and most of the wardrobe then it’s just last minute bits on Thursday morning.
This thread has been so lovely, I will continue to hang around after I’ve moved if that’s ok as I’d love to keep up with all of your moves

Long enough to get packed I guess Raa are you feeling excited now? Sorry to hear that Artus , I hope that your purchase will wait for you - that's really difficult when it has nothing to do with you, but completely scuppers your plans. Sounds like you're tee-ing everything up Yoga hopefully it's full steam ahead now! Good luck with the packers fialor you're practically in touching distance now! Yoo I am super-impressed with your packing and cleaning, congratulations on your Thursday move date!

Well, perhaps unsurprisingly we didn't make it over the finish line. Apparently the vendor's solicitor spent all afternoon chasing our solicitor, in the belief that we could exchange today. They seem incapable of remembering that they've sat on queries/decisions and paperwork (some of which delivered Friday, some today and some not yet) for more than a month, and that several items needed to be referred on to the lender but could only be done so once they'd actually provided what was required. So, they still need to confirm something; and our lenders need to come back and give us the green light (if they don't, I'm not really sure where this leaves us).

Reluctantly, I think I'm going to write to our removals firm and 'release' the date we'd booked, and to our childcare and see if we can add another week. Apparently if the lender came back promptly tomorrow morning, it is possible that we might be able to request a faster release of funds (and our buyers could attempt the same) and we might still make Friday, but it's feeling like a distant dream. I am generally a bit tired and pissed off with the whole process now, so I'm inclined to wait for our solicitor to let me know when the lender comes back rather than spend another day ringing everyone I can get hold of again.

Lazy I grew up in a block of flats overlooking a bit where a dual carriageway turned into a motorway. The noise on the balcony was awful but inside the house we never noticed it and the flat was sooo lovely. I never thought I could cope with not living in a city. Now we live totally rural and I wouldn't tolerate traffic noise anymore. All I can hear tonight is an owl. But then I do at times envy people who live in cities. Biggest envy is meeting like minded people though. Whenever I've been to a playpark near a biggish city I always talk to lovely, interesting people. Here when I take my kids the playpark there might be a pheasant. So I suppose it's just always weighing up pros and cons.

Frescoed what happened in the end?

Honey surely an outbuilding won't change the value much unless it provides extra living space. Fx the valuation comes back without issues.

That's rubbish Artus. I think Yoga's suggestion sounds good though. I've had a friend who's just done a part exchange when they couldn't sell and it was so fast and smooth.

Good luck with the move fialor and yoomoo!!

I had a rubbish day at work. Have started making mistakes and I'm sure it's just because of not much sleep and too much going on. Then got an email of vendors EA saying their solicitor suggested completing on 14th to our solicitor and they think it should hopefully be doable. Really really hard not to get hopeful and excited! Hoping our solicitor will reply tomorrow.

Thanks for the suggestion re part exchange Yoga and Stormy. We will ask again but our developers only consider part exchange for properties under £300k. I guess we will try and find out how long the Land Registry are likely to take but if it is months rather than weeks we will have to put the house back on the market - for the third time.

Lazy the situation with the road you describe doesn't sound like something that should be a dealbreaker tbh. Unless you're used to living in the sticks, or have really old double glazing that wants replacing, you won't notice the noise!

The house we're hoping to buy is on a small gated community of 6 houses right behind a row of houses infront of a dual carriageway, albeit not a major dual carriageway, but it does get pretty busy at rush hour. The house is probably about 100-150ft from the road but has another house between, which buffers out noise a bit. You can still hear the noise outside pretty clearly, but once inside you can't hear a thing because it has great double glazing! Im more bothered about the bloody plane noise tbh. I've lived on a flight-path from Gatwick for 6 years now & NEVER got used to being woken at 5am by planes, & this house is closer!

No news much our end anyway! You may recall, our buyer lost their buyer so we gave our awful agent notice & have gone on with Purplebricks in the hope of getting a quick sale & continuing with our purchase. Been back on the market 6 days now, had 4 viewers already. First lot we've had no feedback from. Second lot seemed keen, but then decided they wanted to be nearer the station. Third lot had really done their homework, looked up plans for next doors building work & actually said that they wanted to replicate it. However, they need a buyer on their house first. Fourth one had apparently tried to look when our old agents were playing silly buggers, & we refused to let them bring anyone round. She seemed keen & our house is cheaper, has more potential & in a better location than the place she's offered on already, (whose vendors are now dragging their feet about a pre Christmas completion) but would probably be more agro than its worth if she wants the house coz the old agents would try to stick their oar in! Another viewing tomorrow, tourists without their own house even on the market. No offers as yet but promising start!

How exciting Yoomoo - just two more sleeps to go Those boxes are very impressive - have you considered a career move towards the removals industry? I think you could be a natural!

Hope you arrived safely Fialor and that when you get back those boxes will have been packed!

It could still happen then Frescoed. How much notice do you have to give the removals people? Fingers crossed for you

It can't hurt to ask Artus if the developers have come this far with you they may prefer to bend their rules rather than potentially lose your business. Around here the part-ex rule is that the house you are selling has to be at least 70% of the value of the house you are buying, but there's no upper limit. Good luck.

That sounds like a promising start Pixie - viewings 3 and 4 sound particularly promising. Fingers crossed your new buyer is just round the corner!

Moving is such a stressful time at the best of times Stormy let alone with 3 young DC a full time career and research work on top. I'm not surprised you aren't sleeping well and are starting to make the odd mistake. Is there anyway you could get a few hours off work to concentrate on the papers?

We have another removals company coming this lunchtime to quote. But the best thing is that we went to see our new house yesterday evening and it's gets more perfect every time we see it I am actually starting to mentally move our furniture in now. I've been trying to resist doing this in case it goes tits up again, but thinking about removals and going back to see the house for the first time since September has opened that mental door for me.

We've also agreed with our lovely vendor to buy some of their dining room furniture as it's rather more in keeping with an 18th century property than our contemporary Ikea stuff.

Good news on your viewings Pixie fx that the one today might be a winner! Glad your new agent is turning out already to be better than the last.

Good luck with the Land Registry Artus it must be so frustrating to have no control over the process.

Hope you get a positive response this morning Stormy I know what you mean about it taking over everything.

Beginning today with renewed optimism (presumably shortly to be dashed by no news or crap news). Our buyer has been in touch to say that they have to out of their property by mid-December, so we are now facing the possibility of going into rental for a period to get the sale done, and whilst the purchase chugs on. Whilst it's not ideal, I'm attempting an 'eyes on the prize' attitude today. Let's see how long it lasts!

Dropping in on here as my chain is doing my swede in!

First of all - lazy - traffic at the bottom of the road is quite soothing for me unless it's a motorbike or boy racer with a huge exhaust. I used to live about a mile from a m/way that was separated from my house by farmers fields, but many a night I was soothed to sleep from the gentle noise of the vehicles on it. It's something you will get used to.

Anyway, back to me. Why can't people just fucking get on with things?

Offer accepted on my property 13 October
Vendor accepts my offer 16 October

Within 9 days of having an offer accepted my mortgage was finalised, sols instructed on the sale and purchase and the initial forms sent to the buyers solicitor. Everything has been answered by us the day we get the post / email and hard copies if required returned that night first class.

My vendor / vendors sol who is the one pushing for a quick sale to meet the builders end of year figures has dicked about and only returned the initial contract paperwork to my sol at the start of last week so god knows how long it will take them to answer my sols queries as I have none of my own at this stage.

I can't physically do anything else right now and hope all my buyers queries have stopped as then that's the bottom of the chain ready.

My problems fall into insignificance when all other posts considered, however just needed to have a wee rant as my oh is so laid back he is horizontal and I have to do all the running around / logistics / stressing.

Hi all! Moved into our rental yesterday. No internet and I hate trying to do stuff on a tiny screen so I'll update you all properly in a couple of days. Still actually waiting for some proper answers too actually. Thank you raaraa for the bejazzled hairy balls to our vendors they bloody deserve them

welcome fromtheshires - such a bloody frustrating process

Good to hear from you lubey - hope you get settled into the rental quickly!

DP has just spoken to our solc. and the only thing stopping exchange is our purchasers local search which isn't back yet. She is going to propose w/c 18th Dec to the other 2 solcs in the chain. DP said that the individual parties were all keen so it would just be the solcs. holding us back if we don't (no pressure!) She thought we should exchange (providing local search comes back quickly) next week - woo-hoo!

Quick panic update. Although have to say woohoo to yoga. Sounds so promising!!!

We're due to exchange this week or next and complete hopefully on 14th. Our solicitor got searches back a MONTH ago and has just sent the results back now. It says our house is moderate-high risk for subsidence. We've not had a survey done and I'm panicking now. Why didn't she report this to us a month ago when there was plenty of time to arrange a survey. Sounds a bit bad to me! It's basically saying the material of the ground around is that kind that can cause the land to move and might cause subsidence and damage structures of the house. The farm has been there for a loooong time and ours is a conversion of half of the massive farm. I'm tempted to just close my eyes and jump. But what if...

Are you buying with a mortgage Stormy? Assuming you are - I'd guess they wouldn't have approved it if they thought the subsidence risk was that great. Have you tried to get building insurance quotes yet?

Really lousy on the part of your solc. though - why wait so long to tell you?

You may have time to engage a surveyor if you need to though. Or perhaps talk to the council's Planning team? They must know the area reasonably well.

Having said that - is it going to change your mind about the property?
If not, then you have nothing to lose by moving forward as planned and you can investigate preventative measures (?) once you are in and settled.

We've had two removals quotations now and they differ by £1,200 (yes, twelve HUNDRED pounds sterling ) Thank goodness I'm getting four quotes! Had another come round today so I'll see where that one sits in the cost scale soon - smack in the middle probably!

That’s great progress Yoga your buyer has been very prompt. Gosh Stormy that sounds a bit scary - I don’t know why solicitors sit on things so long. I think if the house has no history of subsidence and there is no evidence of subsidence, you shouldn’t have a problem with insurance but it might be worth talking to an insurer or two (I did very early on because of the issue on our purchase). I guess beyond that you have to think about how much certainty you feel you want before you buy?

It’s the despairing empty sound of tumbleweed over here, no news but a promise from our solicitor to chase everyone tomorrow. Humph...

I've calmed down a bit 😆..

Pixie it's really promising you've had so many viewings in such a short time and such good feedback too. Fx no3 sells fast it's no4 ditches their purchase.

Shires yes welcome to the land of frustration where nothing ever goes to plan, nobody seems to be doing anything or communicating what they are doing to anyone. You need one competent EA or solicitor who's always kicking everyone to move! And I share the frustration of laid back DH when it comes to all of this. Sometimes it's good though.. would be awful if we were both constantly flapping and on the verge of nervous breakdown.

Lubey hope your rental is lovely and the rest of the chain starts moving now. At least you're now ready to go once your vendors get their finger out.

Yes we are getting a mortgage - a humongous one. And now that I've read about it and calmed down. The subsidence risk is for the whole area, not the house specifically. So the same as on a seaside road all houses would be built on sand and would all have that risk the area on this area the material of the land itself has subsidence risk. I'll ring the solicitor and maybe ask a surveyor or someone for advice. We would back out only if the house would already have structural damage from subsidence.

Hello everyone. I am sorry I have not been able to catch up on all the updates. I hope there has been some progress for all.

Lubey, I hope your internet connection is sorted out soon.

Yoga, that is a lot of progress in a few days. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Yoomoo, move day mate! I came home today to lots of boxes!
Today I felt a little apprehensive of the move, thinking "am I doing the right thing?" I am both giddy with excitement, and a little "scardy" cat at the thought of leaving my beautiful house, and lovely neighbours.

But I feel a lot better. My DD was excited about the boxes, and move.

My house (every room), has boxes.