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 Honey I really feel for you. Our last purchase fell through on the day of exchange for very similar reasons (complete batshit intransigence on the part of the selfish twat at the top of the chain). The only advice I can offer is to get onto the EA for your vendor and tell them they need to read the riot act to the EA for the twat at the top. It's not acceptable at this late stage to introduce a new purchase and refuse to exchange when the property he's selling is already empty!

Pressure, pressure, pressure. It's all you can do. And get your solicitor to lean on the solicitors further up the chain as well. Hopefully between the two you can get some traction.

It totally sucks. Been there - got the t-shirt and lost the money on legal fees and surveys! Really hope that you manage to get further than we did - FX.

Oh that's crap Honey, I'm sorry this is happening to you. Some people are just totally oblivious to the shit they dump over everyone else. I totally agree with Lazy; you need to put pressure on your EA and vendor's EA and your solc. Your vendor needs to do similar. I can't believe someone is willing to let a complete chain collapse because they can't be bothered to put some furniture in storage - totally unbelievable. Fingers crossed for you.

That's terrible Honey - stupid man Yoga - that's a shame but I know what you mean about at least knowing where you stand.
We have finally exchanged and we move on Friday! Yesterday was an awful day - I made numerous phone calls (whilst at work ) but finally it happened at 430. My advice to anyone is to ring the solicitors every single day in the last few weeks - nothing will get done otherwise. Good luck everyone x

Well done Mollie - you must be feeling very relieved!

Our solicitor is probably enjoying the peace and quiet right now, because I have nothing to chase her on at the moment. In the run up to the last purchase I was ringing 4-5 times a day

Good news Mollie Best of luck with your move on Friday

I'm not ringing my solicitor at the moment because they just seem to be waiting for the council to provide info. I am going to jog her though as yesterday she said she would follow up some points today and I want to remind her she promised that!

Has your valuation survey happened yet Lazy?

Thanks all, I have no idea how I am still sane 9 months in but OH has decided that he wants this house so he is going to fight for it. And obviously then so am I. I do love it but really don't want to be disappointed again.

Today's update - cheeky old git at the top of the chain has declined OH's offer of £400 to cover 1 months storage and has asked for double. Our vendor, who is buying his house has agreed to match our offer so it means we can all go ahead. The contracts are with the solicitors and it looks like a completion date of 19/01 but we still need to get an exchange date from Cheeky git. FX it all works out.

Thanks for the advise yesterday, I honestly needed somewhere to turn and this thread was it. Mollie huge congratulations, I love seeing others cross that exchange hurdle as it means the end is in sight - always a little pick me up for the rest of us.

How is everyone else doing?

@HoneyB123 - your vendor sounds like a nightmare and needs a kick for being such an awkward so and so. Glad it's all sorted now though. Wishing you a speedy exchange. You're almost there...

We've been told we're not going to exchange before Christmas due to buyers solicitor sending through 28 enquiries 10 days ago. Apparently our Solicitor's not had a chance to look at our file yet as she has been busy with other exchanges/completions. She's called in sick today with the flu so God knows what's going to happen next or when. What I want to know is where the deposit(s) for the exchange comes from? Is it from the bottom of the chain? What happens if we're then short with our deposit for the upwards purchase? So, for example, if the bottom chain pays us £100 which is our 10% but we need to pay £150 as our 10% for the purchase above but our equity is tied into the successful sale of our property and we need that money to pay the remaining deposit and amount for the place above- hope that make sense!
Because we've now received and accepted a much lower offer than we were expecting, we're having to dip into other funds that'll come from the sale of shares. However, we're reluctant to sell shares until we've actually exchanged- is that possible? Sorry if I'm not being coherent- my sleep deprivation and stress levels are through the roof atm.

Fuck me, £800 for storage!! What size of bloody unit does he need?! Cheeky twat, he's clearly trying to make a penny out of it. I know in the grand scheme of things it's a case of pay the money because £800 is a drop in the ocean compared to the costs of everything falling through, but how fucking annoying! One can only hope that he ends up on the receiving end of a vendor who is as charming and co-operative as he is...

Cats you need to have your deposit ready to pay in order to exchange. So if you need to sell shares in order to make up your full deposit then you'll need to have these funds ready (i.e. shares sold) in order to exchange contracts, because it's at that point that your deposit is paid across. Your solicitor should be advising you on this. If she's off sick then ring the firm, ask for the manager or person in charge and ask them who is managing your file in your solicitor's absence. It's not acceptable that it's just left - at the very least an assistant could be ticking things over.

oh Cats how annoying. Dont get me wrong I know solicitors are human too (only just lol) but sometimes it does feel like they take off at the most inconvenient times - surely someone else in the office should be getting started on the 28 enquiries 28 are your serious while she is away? and yes as Lazy said you will need the deposit upfront.

Lazy £800 for storage!! is exactly what I said. My OH just want the stress free Xmas and exchanging means we can have this! I think he would have paid the lot if our vendor hadn't offered the other half. I get it, I really do see his point but yes I certainly hope old git gets whats coming. Where are you with your exchange?

Why do people turn ugly when they have something they know others are desperate for? I would never dream it.

cats depending on the difference in 10% between the price of the bottom of the chain and the top, it might be possible to ask your vendor to accept a lower deposit than 10% so that your buyers deposit can be passed up the chain. 10% is the standard but it can be lower. it all depends who'll agree to what.

I think the key thing is that it is enough money to compensate for any silly buggers if anyone pulls out post exchange and i imagine anything over 10,000 will be enough but your solicitor will advise

Honey we've had our valuation survey this week, so I have everything crossed that it's going to come back OK. Once that's back we'll get the search requests sent off.

We've held back on them simply because this will be the third lot we've paid for, so I don't want to waste £220 again if there's a problem with the survey. Searches in our area are coming back quite quickly at the moment, so I am hoping that we can have queries raised with the other side by the 22nd. We already know roughly what they are, so assuming that all is OK with the searches I'm hoping we can exchange by the very end of December/beginning of January.

However we have been down this road twice before, so at the moment I'm not even planning yet!!

@LazyDailyMailJournos, @Raaraaboonah and @HoneyB123 - thank you all for your input. I really don't want to sell shares until we can get some kind of reassurance that these buyers aren't going to mess us around. They've so far come across as pedantic and non-committal. A tiny percentage of the shares are tax-free, the remainder we'll be taxed at 40% with additional NI contributions. We'll see if our buyers come good or play games as the process continues... our last failed sale has put the fear of God in me that it'll happen again 😭😩

I have had a look online and some people have said the shortfall in their deposit wasn't questioned by their vendor/Solicitors and/or was made up by their mortgage. Will have a word with our solicitor once she's back (soon hopefully) and see what she says. I know Solicitors are human but what annoys me is that when I rang last week to chase, I didn't get a reply to my emails/calls from them. Then the EA checked for an update on Friday and got a reply almost instantly telling us that the Solicitors were working on answering the 28- yup, 28, enquiries- raised by the buyers solicitors. Today I call up and the assistant to the Solicitors tells me our enquiries haven't been dealt with because other cases had to be prioritised?!!! I asked her if everyone was cooperating so far in the process and she said they were which means the delay is at our solicitors end 😡 I've been through how my health has been affected by this process and how both my husband and I have a busy start to the year at work and we need to know what we're doing. I feel like no one is taking any notice of us, or me since I'm the one doing the chasing. I feel like going away somewhere and hiding until everything is sorted 😤😖

Oh how frustrating Catspants. I do agree that sometimes it feels that no one bothers to communicate with people in this process and it's so frustrating.

Hope the valuation survey comes back okay Lazy.

Your vendor is such a cheeky git HoneyB. But at least you've held the chain together so I guess you just have to look at that and think about the positives. Hopefully karma will get him in his next life.

And as for us, well we finally got confirmation today that we have a complete chain as our vendor's offer on the probate property she wanted has been accepted. So there will only be 3 houses in the chain, so not too bad. I've provisionally got some time off work the last 2 weeks of March so I'm going to push for completion then. Do you think that's realistic?

fuck knows kitkat it depends if everyone in the chain and their solicitors and probably their estate agents have their shit together and aren't dicks

chances of that happening for everyone in the chain are remote it seems. You might need to start playing spot the dick now so you can head off much dickishness in the future.

sorry

p.s. can you tell i've royally had enough this week and i've already exchanged....

I have found my people. My first experience of a chain. We are in a chain of six, with us at the bottom. We have sold outside the chain and are currently living with family (there were financial benefits for doing this). We had a four month old bsby when we started the process (the bloody negotiations took forever - not in our favour). We never intended to sell our current house, things happened and opportunity was taken. We are purchasing a larger house.

About two month ago, the top of the chain pulled out. We all agreed to wait until they had found a new property. The vendors estate agents are awful communicators. In the meantime, the process continues. Fast forward two month to yesterday, the top of the chain has still not secured a property and some of the chain (not our vendor) have started to look at other properties. Fine. Whilst not over the moon to wait, we are quite comfortable where we are and we do love the house we are purchasing.

Until about 15.00 yesterday when we received an email from our solicitor. The house benefits from a large two storey side and single storey rear extension, which basically make up half the house. Searches demonstrated that there was no final building regs completion certificate. Vendors Estate Agents and Solicitors confirmed that inspections had taken place, it was just a case of the final certificate not being issued, despite the extension being about five years old. Fine. Waiting for certificate.

Yesterday our solicitor advises thy at it appears no building control inspections gave been made, either by the Council or a private contractor. Vendor is offering indemnity insurance.

We are not taking the indemnity offer, which would only cover us if Building Control decided to take enforcement action. It would not cover poor workmanship. At this time, this house is no longer a dream if it presents a safety or financial risk in the future.

We have told the Estate Agents and vendors solicitors that out vendor either applies for retrospective building regs or we withdraw our offer

Despite getting the much better end of the deal in the negotiations, the vendor is pretty petty. I'm sure that she is not going to consider applying for retrospective building regs, but I can't see how it would benefit her not to. We are all a long way in the process and she would have to start again, which could take longer than getting a retrospective building application.

Its December. There is nothing on the market. We are gutted at the time we have lost.

I think he must be storing his furniture at the Ritz for that money Honey But, it's one of those "this too will pass" moments for you and I'm glad you've got a resolution that allows you to progress

Fingers crossed for the valuation survey Lazy! I'm not sure about exchanging at the end of Dec. We were told we'd have to exchange by next Friday as the solicitors then all bog off to the Caribbean on a joint holiday for 2 weeks and don't open again until after the New Year(I may be joking). Yours may be different of course.

Catspants - that's rubbish. Definitely ring the solicitor's and get someone else to pick up the enquiries while your solicitor is off sick. S/he should at least have a conveyancing assistant who could deal with most of the queries.

You know, I've not even thought about the deposit. Each time I've moved I've sold for less than purchase but have never had to find any funds to plug the gap at exchange. I've just assumed it's covered by mortgage and sale price Certainly the contract we've signed says that funds for purchase are sale of current property plus mortgage - no additional funds are going in. I think you should check with your solicitors (or their manager in his/her absence) though.

Good news on the complete chain KitKat I don't see that end of March should be too difficult to achieve. Fingers crossed as always!

Welcome Radio Goodness what a saga. I must say, as impartial observer I'd say start looking at properties again in the New year. Your chain sounds like it's barely hanging together and the place you are buying is not ideal if it doesn't have building regs. I think you are completely correct to say that you are going to pull out if the vendor doesn't get the retrospective certificates.

We emailed our solc. last night to ask what is outstanding and re-iterating that we want to exchange before Xmas but our solc. has replied that she still isn't satisfied with some of the replies from vendor's solc. so she can't say that we'll be able to exchange pre-Xmas and so it's still up in the air

Thank you for the welcome and advice yogaDrone! Sorry to hear your woes also!

How long are you all expecting between exchange and completion? Ideally I want 2 weeks ... im not intending to pack anything until I've exchanged but what's usual?

Tilly it varies. Usually a week but it can be any period you want as long as mortgage offers don't expire before the completion date!

We'll be looking for a week only because we want to get on with it! But I have a friend who had a month between exchange and completion.

Our cash buyer has decided to get a mortgage - only 15% of purchase price but still frustrating. Mortgage val happened on Tuesday. EA knew I'd be home but still handed keys over to the valuer who was surprised to discover me plus sleeping baby at home! I hate EAs... Meanwhile, we are having issues with the roof on the single story extension of the house we are buying. Our home buyer survey showed clear evidence of a leak, but vendor swears they haven't had one and that it's normal wear and tear. So now we are trying to find someone to inspect the roof and let us know what they think. If it's going to be an expensive job to repair we will have to start haggling on price. But I'm not sure how much chance we have of getting this sorted pre Christmas.

Honey the guy at the top of your chain is taking the p*ss. £800!

Cats that is so frustrating!

Hooray for a complete chain kitkat. March sounds reasonable if it's all fairly simple, I think.

Radio what a nightmare. Sounds like it's time to start looking for other properties. Apparently (according to something I read this week) lots of people list after Christmas Eve as people spend their time off over Christmas browsing rightmove. So hopefully something will come up soon.

Hi All

Very nerve racking day for us yesterday, was so exhausted I actually had a full nights sleep!

Lazy I hope everything comes together for you. This is our 3rd attempt too so fully understand the pain of all the wasted fees etc. FX

Cats have you had any progress?

Kit march is totally doable - especially seeing that the average time frame is supposed to be 6-8 weeks.

Raaraa I hope you are feeling better hon x

Radio welcome x I do hope you get things sorted. Trying for retrospective planning may be the best thing but as I am sure you already know it can be a time consuming process. The market should pick up after January x

Lazy FX for your pre xmas exchange, there is still time x

So since my last post, we have received the contract, hubby drove 3.5 hours each way so he could sign it (he's working away) and have just literally received the call to say we have exchanged!!!!!!! We can only complete on 19/01 as this is what the old Git at the top of the chain wanted but I'm not phased. I am so revealed its unbelievable. The end is in sight. xxx

Help!!!! I literally don't know what to do. I made an offer on house A, a 3 bed house with character in sept. they obvs accepted highter offer and it went SSTC early Oct. Its up with purple bricks and they send you "alerts" when something happens on a property you save. It's back on the market so I guess sale has fallen through. So I'm the meantime i have got offer on mine that is proceeding and I've made offer on house B, 4 beds but less "character" and a very slightly less desirable location. I loved house A when i viewed it. Would you go see it again or just stick with the purchase I'm proceeding on? Have spent £1200 on survey/solicitor etc...

@HoneyB123 - congrats Honey!!! A stressful process but you got there! Wishing you an easy move to completion. 

Yoga, Lazy, Mrs- waiting for the solicitor to come back from being sick and pick up our file (sigh). There is an assistant at the office but she sounds quite young and not very experienced/proactive? Oh well. Nothing more we can do. EA called DH (not sure why since I'm the one that's been handling everything) and said since exchange isn't going to happen this side of Christmas, they've alerted everyone up the chain and that they're happy for a Jan/Feb exchange. I'm glad he didn't call me as I'd have gone ballistic. DH has asked me to try to stay calm and not hassle the Solicitors, EAs or anyone else until after Christmas. Thinks they should be chasing us, not the other way around. I hate to admit it but I think he's right...

@Tillymintsmama- tough one but you must've seen something good in house B as well for you to have got so far? If you have the finances, you could always try house A again but I'd personally struggle to trust the vendors of house A as there'd be nothing stopping them walking away from your offer if they got a higher one later on (as they did the first time).

@RadioGaGoo- have you made a decision as to what you're going to do?

Tilly you need to have a long hard think. £1200 is a lot of money - but in the grand scheme of buying a house it's naff-all. This is a big purchase and it's important that you make sure that it's the right place for you - and that if you are making any compromises, that you are happy with them.

My concern would be the reason why the sale has fallen through? And question number one on my list would be was it because of adverse survey or search results which have identified a costly problem? Be aware that not all EAs will be as truthful as they should be - remember that they don't get paid if the sale doesn't go through, so it's very much in their interests to 'encourage' a buyer.