In a Chain Support Thread Jan2018

[YogaDrone]

New thread as ours is reaching max.

Old thread here In a Chain Support Thread Nov2017

THE place to vent and share all property chain based information.

Welcome all

@kitkat fingers crossed it all comes good for you 🤞 i think you can exchange anytime up to 5pm on a given day but don't hold me to that!

We have no-one speaking to us at all today...I have no hope of exchanging today, if it happens in the next year I will be amazed! 🙈

Misguided. I really hope we both get some good news soon.

@KitKat1985 and @Misguided101 - I wonder if you are in the same chain?

Had an e-mail from estate agent and a call from my solicitor. No news about the missing contract and no clarification yet from end solicitor on when this is arriving (!)

My solicitor will try and contact the end-solicitor AGAIN and try and let me know at the end of the day if exchange is at least likely to happen on Monday. If not I guess we're going to have to try and agree a 3rd completion date.

This whole week has been an absolute farce.

What a nightmare you’re having, Kitkat and Misguided. It surely shouldn’t be this difficult in this digital age!

I'm really sorry to hear that you both haven't managed to exchange KitKat and misguided This system we have to use is just not fit for purpose.

Thank you Sausagedogs and Yogadrone. It's looking very unlikely at this point that this contract is going to arrive on Monday, and therefore it's likely our requested mortgage monies are going to have to be cancelled (hopefully before we pay a huge fine). I was actually quite upset earlier (not helped by poorly DD2 crying in my face most of the day) but I'm trying to remind myself there are worse things in the world and we will get there eventually. But yes, a big glass of later methinks.

Can I join. I'm stuck at the bottom of a chain with a solicitors that don't pick up the phone. My sellers are slow and don't want to answer any enquiries and all I want is an idea of when I'll move. Raar. The worst bit is I'm a conveyancer myself and I can't even push it through.

Oh dear Scoogle. Does it not help at all that you are a conveyancer and 'speak the lingo' so to speak?

It helps in that I understand what's happening , but also I can't pick up to the phone to the other solicitors as I'm the buyer and it would be a conflict. Also we know all the things that could go wrong

Hello everyone,

Mortgage adviser chap said don't worry about the tax credits thing - so I'm not worrying!

Called the agents we are buying through to find out roughly how long they reckon it will take as I need to in year transfer DS and DD is due to start this September so her application is already with our current county so I need to find out how to sort her school place out.

Agent says we are still in an open chain as top of the chain so far hasn't found somewhere to buy yet (messy divorce forcing sale). Does anyone have experience of being in an open chain, does it cause problems? To be honest, as long as we are there by September for the new school year I don't really mind how long it takes!

Hope everyone is having as good and relaxed weekend as possible, sorry to read about all the problems

Basically just waiting today to get the official confirmation from our solicitor that we're not able to move on Thursday now due to the contract fuck-up at the end of the chain. I'm quite resigned to this now. In fact I've been mentally planning what else I can do this week (I've got the week off work).

Hoping everyone else gets some good news this week.

LadyFlumpalot - Being in an open chain means things might be a while. There's also a potential the end chain might be quite long. Fingers crossed you are in by September though.

So holding our solc accountable using email correspondence now...as of friday mid afternoon...allegedly there has been a whole week of no updates and nothing they can chase as will only speak to the solc either side in sale or purchase. So i have told them to send my questions of why there is a delay to buyers solicitor and then ask them to obtain an update from bottom of chain to send it right back to the top where we are. Then our EA calls us later on Fri...sellers EA has called him which is no mean feat as our EA has been calling them for nearly 4 weeks solid trying to get a reply. Seems the authority from HA was received (our solc never divulged this to us) and now there is a piece of paper that needed signed by buyer at bottom and returned to their solc and that will allow us to exchange...today with a view to complete on Thurs! Taking it all with a pinch of salt as nothing official from our solc yet, until then its all just words.

kitkat hoping lines of communication start to flow for you guys a bit easier now and an exchange with completion date can be reached pronto!!

ladyflumpalot hoping your chain closes soon and you can start progressing also

scoogle can your EA not chase up the chain solc's on your behalf? Also might be worth turning up at solc office to speak with them in person if they are failing to be courteous and respond?

Ooops when i say seller EA..I actually mean buyers EA for their sale! 🙊

Fingers crossed for exchange today, Misguided.

Still hopeful for you being able to move this week Kitkat but understand why you’re resigned to planning something fun instead.

We’re awaiting a decision on our full mortgage application and subsequent survey on our purchase, and have instructed our solicitor to do the searches so things are slowly happening. Our vendor has two second viewings this week so should have their onward purchase in hand by the end of the week, with luck.

No exchange from my end, turns out bottom of the chain posted the form back only today 😣 it will hopefully be a pre-easter exchange for us and a post easter completion now! @kitkat any joy your end?

sausage its all looking ok, aslong as things moving on a forward direction that a good result!

Who else has been waiting for news action?

Sorry you also haven't managed to exchange yet Misguided. How irritating the bottom of the chain only posted the form back today. Hopefully you can at least exchange before Easter as you say.

So as expected for us the contract for end of the chain never materialised and so we can't exchange and completion Thursday has had to be postponed. Can't organise anything again as until contract is returned it's not even worth discussing other completion dates. Our solicitor is hoping we can at least try and exchange this week too bit I'm dubious as the bank seem in no rush whatsoever to return the contract, and obviously we can't exchange without it.

I'm glad to hear things are slowly progressing for you Sausagedogs.

Hi all, sorry been AWOL for weeks/months now. Couldn't face reading about everyones progress, slow as it may seem to you, at least something is happening, whereas we are still at square one.

It will be a whole YEAR on Saturday since we started this farce. In that time we found a buyer, spent months proceeding before it fell apart. We remarketed end of November & have now been waiting 4 months to get an offer we can work with. A month ago the house we were buying was remarketed & they found a new buyer. Considering now whether to change agents, but we already spent thousands on photos & agents fees (Purplebricks) because someone who was supposed to be a "friend" convinced us she could help us, when in reality when it came tothe crunch she was incapable of negotiating a deal. Reluctant to spend more money though when the market here is stagnant & houses like ours are not selling.

The biggest kick in the teeth is that our neighbour, dead opposite (house different to ours as its been extended & had loft converted) sold his house within days through our old estate agent! I bet they're laughing their arses off! Lucky I'm not prone to depression or id of topped myself by now. The stress is beyond belief. Here we are a year in & in EXACTLY the same place we were this time last year!

Oh PixieDust I'm sorry. Is it worth speaking to Purplebricks about what more they can do to garner interest? Personally I'd seriously think about putting another agent on as well. I'm afraid I have been told before that because Purplebricks get most of their fee upfront they aren't as motivated as 'traditional' estate agents to complete sales. Do you have any scope to drop the price to get some additional interest?

So sorry Pixiedust I can only imagine how stressful the last year has been.

@pixiedust 😣😣its so tedious isnt it. I must admit i have heard mixed reports for purplebricks...in Scotland where the commitment to buy is cemented in the first couple of weeks they work well, but in England where there is no commitment to the very end (and lots of buyers work that system) they dont fair as well. I wholeheartedly am convinced that with our EA we would definitley not be at the point so close to exchange as we are now. We are on our year anniversary and this is our 4th sale attempt. Thats a lot of work that the EA has put in for us! Can you get recommendations of really good hard working EA's in your area? It might be the break you are neeeding?

Thanks all. Half the problem I am finding with Purplebricks is that they & their clients are in part a victim of their own success as they are far too busy & simply don't have the time to spend on houses that don't just fly off of the shelves. Our friend, the local advisor, seems to be working 24/7 & is selling houses in a neighbouring cheaper area. I don't think she has barely the time to eat or go to the toilet even. No way can she continue like this. A few weeks ago she was supposed to visit us but didn't turn up because of a sick relative. This appointment was rescheduled & again cancelled at the last minute for the same reasons. In a traditional agent they would have someone else to cover, but these local advisors are self-employed so it's not possible. We had so many promises & the agent of our previous buyers said they wouldn't work with her because she is dishonest. I'm beginning to wonder if there may have been some truth in it now as she's hardly proved trustworthy in her dealings with us.

The price thing is so difficult because pretty much everyone else is so overpriced, whereas we very much priced to sell to start with & have reduced it significantly again. Other agents are suggesting we do a guide price with the current price being the bottom end of the guide. There are ex local authority houses being put on the market for more than our place. If we were to reduce again we'd no doubt sell it, but have literally nothing to buy. The sensible thing to do would be to pull it & wait for the market to level out tbh. But.... I don't really want to do that because im sick of having half my stuff in the garage & our cars because there is literally nowhere else to put it, so I can't find a damn thing. This house was never big enough when we bought it with 11 & 13 year old kids, now they're 17 & 19 so its 10 times worse!

I'm sorry to read your updates KitKat, Misguided and Pixie

Pixie is extending, or doing a loft conversion a possibility in your current home? When we were in your position I started thinking about putting the £50k it would cost to move towards an extension and/or loft conversion instead.

Have you heard anything more about whether you'll be able to exchange this week KitKat and Misguided?

PixieDust I'm sorry you've had such a hard time of it. It does sound like new estate agent might be a good idea. If nothing else maybe putting another agent on the case with Purple Bricks may spur them on a bit?

Hello Yoga. Nice that you are still around. Not much going on here. My estate agent e-mailed yesterday saying the chain were pushing for exchange today, but given that this end contract still hasn't turned up, I can't even begin to understand how that would happen. Realistically I'm expecting answers next week and am trying to focus on having a nice few days off with the DDs over the Easter break. In all honesty I've decided not to chase it this week because I was so stressed and upset about it all last week, that I've realised I need to step back a bit from it for a few days.

Any news with you Misguided?