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

In our case the RM alerts are always for stuff that isn't right. The house we are now trying to buy is very much a compromise - if we could wait until next Spring then I've no doubt we could find something better, but we need somewhere now.

Valuation booked for next week. I have FX that everything will be OK.

Hope everyone else has had a good and productive day today!

I'm sort of with your dad actually MrsJW, unless something is blatantly missing, or damaged it's not going to be something that visible. How extensive is the water staining? If it's not too large and has dried out I'd be tempted just to keep an eye on it and take more action if it gets damp, or the stain gets larger.

You sound much happier Raaraa , I hope the other school is as good a fit for younger son as the today's is for your eldest.

I switched off the alerts for my area jober, although I still get them for the area I actually wanted to move to (but was overruled by DP and DS!) I did have a Rightmove "accident" the other day but there is nothing as lovely as the place we're buying.

I hope your compromise house ends up suiting you and your family well Lazy. Fingers crossed for the valuation survey next week!

Good news on the mortgage Honey

Oh no, Mollie, did your solicitor give you a reason exchange didn't happen again? How bloody frustrating for you

Hello everyone, popping in to wave at you all from the other side of completion - we did manage it all, completed mid-morning yesterday and were unlocking the door by lunchtime. Thank you very much for thinking of us yesterday , the support on this thread’s been great at a really stressful time

Removals guys were great, stuff in and wardrobes/beds rebuilt by mid-afternoon. There’s still loads to do - unpacking but we’re also without a washing machine (which we knew about) and the shower doesn’t work (vendor is paying to get it fixed). We’re all knackered, but as relieved as can be to just get it all done. I will catch up with everyone a bit later, but I hope you’re all making some progress, especially everyone who wants to be in by Christmas.

Congrats Fresco - wishing you many happy years in your new home

Congrats Frescoed you must be so relieved its all over. Wishing you all the best in your new home. X

Congratulations Frescoed!

Congrats @Frescoed! Wishing you lots of happy years ahead!

So, I've literally stalked our solicitors the last 3 days and requested a callback re: an update when I've not been able to get hold of someone. Did they call back? Like hell they did! Our EA sends an email this afternoon and a reply pings back almost immediately to say they're now in receipt of 28- yup, 28 initial enquiries from our buyers solicitors and are working on answering these! What could they have asked?! How long will it take? Aaaaaaargh! Our solicitors should have everything ready as we were so close to selling last time.

On another note, buyers coming over tomorrow. Not sure what to expect other than what we've been told via EA re: them wanting to find out what we'll be leaving/taking with us. Is there any way, I can be polite, friendly but firm and tell the buyers that had they made us a higher offer (as our last buyers did) we'd have been more inclined to leave stuff behind for free but since they're getting a big reduction, we'd like to charge for stuff left behind? I've read the Greedy Sellers thread and that's not me. I'm not out to make a quick buck. We've been in this flat a little over two years and have invested a lot of time and effort to get it looking good with the best we could afford and we'd need to make a little bit back on what we've spent to make affording the onwards place easier. Any suggestions, tips or ideas for our buyers visit tomorrow from you lovely people? I'm not usually a nervous person but I'm not looking forward to them coming over tomorrow.

Haha Jobergamot! I actually turned off my Rightmove alerts to prevent getting my head turned by other houses, but I have been weak and looked on the website a couple of times. To be fair, I think the house we have put an offer is probably still the best out there on the market for us right now. It was a compromise purchase though as it's not in our first choice of location, but there was literally nothing suitably for us in our first choice of location, so we've gone with our second choice town. My heart probably will ping a bit though if a nice house comes on in our first choice of location. But we've made our decision now.

Oh how frustrating Mollieben. Fingers crossed for Monday!

Catspants. Could you have a list pre-written for when your buyers come around? So for example when they start asking for what fixtures and fittings they want, say 'oh yes, me and DP/DH spoke about that before and have written a list for you with some prices on for key fixtures and fittings on' and hand the list over. That way you haven't got to get into direct discussions with them about prices? If they push and ask for them for free / less I think you just need to be honest and say 'we're really sorry, but because we've already significantly dropped our asking price for you we're not able to include this stuff for free'. I think you're very brave personally. I'd hate to have to deal with face-to-face negotiations with our buyers / vendors.

And finally, massive congratulations Frescoed!

No news here on whether our vendors offer on the house she wants has been accepted or not yet. Am hoping we may hear something today. I'm guessing if there are a few family members involved in selling the probate house though every decision will take a few days.

Congratulations to those of you who have moved in - feeling envious!

Our buyers application to the Land Registry re the adverse possession issue has been submitted and our solicitor is trying to find out how long they think it will take to sort out. Buyers are out of the country for six weeks from early January but have made arrangements to exchange in their absence. So far the developers for our new build purchase have not put the house back on the market so we have fingers crossed that if the adverse possession matter can be sorted out early next year our move may still be on.

I am swinging between gloom and optimism and trying to resist looking at soft furnishings on Pinterest.

@KitKat1985- thanks for that! Did what you suggested and wrote a list of key points we wanted clarity on (eg. rough idea of exchange/completion dates)/items we'd be willing to leave behind, etc. Our buyer came round with our EA and had his wife with us via Skype! I found he was the more reasonable of the two- she was tough, brusque and more demanding than he was. They had a look around EVERYWHERE and asked us millions of questions throughout. We were a bit taken aback by this railroading approach but remained polite and friendly and were as honest as we could be. I'm not sure where this'll go- they both sounded vague and non-committal- but we've reiterated (again) that we want to exchange ASAP and can wait for completion. He said he'd have a chat with his wife in private and get back to us with some answers. Here's to another weekend of waiting and expecting the worst!

@Artus- stay away from Pinterest!!!

I had a phone all today from my solicitor.

The buyers solicitor has come back with more questions (groan) and want building regs carts for a wall that has been removed.

The best of it is it's a through lounge diner like all the other houses in the terrace and the arch is decorative to separate the two areas. There was also a question about the chimney breast (it's an enclosed soil pipe going through the diner part of the room). The house wasn't even built with a fire....

My sol has responded on the back of my answers so hopefully that's enough and the vendor won't now want a full structural survey to prove my responses adding yet more time to the purchase....

The best of it is the solicitors have asked these questions themselves from the brochure / Rightmove photos as the buyer hasn't had a survey done to highlight the 'missing' wall and saw the house so knows the soil pipe is a soil pipe. It won't be the mortgage co asking the question as their valuation surveyor explained to me how they build my type of house.

Give me strength and scotch!

Just wondering what you all think if the survey on my property was done by my buyer's surveyors on 28/11, would I have heard from them by now if they wanted to negotiate on price because of issues? Said surveyor was in my house about 6 minutes, and didn't venture near loft... could this have just been a valuation rather than a HB report?

I have to say, I know there is a bit of roofing/guttering that needs doing and I'm going to get this done as it is only a £300 job.

If the surveyor was only there less than 10 mins then this was a. Aluation survey jobergamot so won't pick up anything unless it affects the price of the property such as its missing it's roof.

Your buyer may want a homebuyers at a later stage, but most people upgrade the valuation to a homebuyers as it works out cheaper for them if the bank is paying for the valuation survey.

Morning all, just wanted to wish everyone who is still waiting good luck. I hope we all get some answers and/or movement this week xxx

Any news from your buyers today Catspants?

I'm passing you some virtual scotch fromtheshires!

Jobergamot I was also going to ask if it was a valuation or more detailed survey? Rehardless I would have thought if they wanted to renegotiate price you would have heard by now.

Thank you HoneyB.

Still no confirmation yet on if our chain is complete or not yet. Our vendor put an offer in on Thursday on a vacant property (probate sale) which would mean that would also be the end of the chain. But no news yet on if vendors offer has been accepted. My understanding is that there are several family members involved as beneficiaries of the sale and the offer has to be agreed by all of them. Sigh. But they've had all weekend now to discuss it so surely they've got to give our vendor an answer soon?

@KitKat1985- after chasing her up relentlessly this morning, I got a text back from our EA that the buyer is wanting to do some research on the land surround our building to see if there are plans for new buildings going up (isn't this what surveys are for which they've already paid for and requested?!) and that he also wants to do some research on our managing company as he's read terrible reviews about them online- this despite us saying we're home owners and not social tenants (the managing company deals with both sides). Granted, they're not the best but we've never had any problems with them- or problems that weren't ever resolved- and neither have our neighbours. Oh well. We've given the EA and the buyer (via our Solicitors) a deadline to exchange before the 20th of December before we withdraw and take our property off the market. I have wasted too much of my life already involved in the toxic process of selling/buying and don't think I can live in foreveruncertainland for much longer 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Ps. Hoping you get some good news at your end soon. It's the not knowing that's the real killer. Keep hassling and badgering whoever you have to to get some answers. X

So our solicitor is now in possession of the mortgage offer. She has also had a date from the vendor and the rest of the chain but no contract. So apparently the mortgage is in "reflection" which i believe is a seven day period for us to review and commit to the mortgage. We can choose to waive this period - which we want to do.

The date she was given was the 20th December, she is now saying this is not enough time and she would advise us to complete in the new year. She has also not given us the details for a bank transfer. I dont understand why she is being so negative. OH has sent her a follow up to say we want to waive the reflection and she has just come back saying the lenders internal processes will probably take another 48 hours anyway so we may as well wait!!! - the last thing we want is to mess the chain about!

Surely she should be doing what we want within legal limits of course! I need wine and lots of it!!!

Our solc. is also saying we won't be able to move before Christmas as the buyers solc. hasn't confirmed they are ready to exchange and our solc. has had replies from our vendors solc but they are "unsatisfactory". I'm now wondering if it is possible to exchange without an agreed completion date? I'd like to at least exchange pre-Christmas if possible.

In a way I'm a bit relieved to just know where we stand. It means that we can put up some decorations and start thinking about Christmas rather than try to split our focus between moving, Christmas, DS' Christmas social life(!) and the post-operative dog!

I have spoken to our removals and postponed our booking and cancelled the leave I'd booked in the week before Xmas. I'll save this until January instead.

KitKat I've heard that probate sales can take a while to get agreed simply because, as you've found, the world and their hamster has to agree to the sale value etc. Fingers crossed your vendor gets good news soon.

Cats your purchasers sound bonkers. What did your EA say and do during their viewing on Saturday? The local search should give the information about local planning applications - that's part of it's purpose.

to all who need it (but mainly Honey who also gets )

Yoga my understanding is that you can't exchange without an agreed completion date because it needs to be written into the contract.

Thanks Lazy, I suspected as much.

Actually not suspected but feared. I'm not that bothered - January is January so we can fit around any dates and the removals company say they have availability through the month anyway.

It's to make the vacate date and time legally binding - i.e the point at which the house is legally yours (obviously subject to the purchase funds clearing!). In our sale contract our vacate time is midday. No idea what it will be in the purchase contract - it's normally somewhere between 11am and 2pm.

Well my day definately got worse! The vendor at the top of the chain who has retired and moved abroad has now decided that he is not ready to exchange as he now wants to buy a flat so he has a base to visit the kids in London. His house, which my vendor is buying is unoccupied but still contains some furniture. He refuses to budge as he says he will be wasting money by putting goods in storage. My OH has offered to pay for 1 month of storage so that the chain can stay intact but we need some surety that we will exchange soon - the last time we were due to exchange we sold ours to get the deposit and then the vendor pulled out. I feel so deflated. This is our 3rd attempt at buying a house in the last 9 months. We are effectively homeless as it is. We are currently on borrowed time in our current accommodation as its our friends place which is due for development but this is running late. My vendor is not saying a word and it seems like we are the only ones trying to look for a solution.

I am at my wits end, do we just chuck it in and go rent. I just want a home dont care if its not ours anymore. Open to suggestions x