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

Hey yoga kitkat thanks for checking in! We actually exchanged yesterday at 4pm, we had been trying to exchange for two days but one solicitor was not responding to the rest to make the exchange happen so that was infuriating and possibly even more stressful than I could have anticipated! But its happened and although i feel battered and bruised by it all it is slowly sinkning in its actually happened. We complete on 5th April, I have arrange removals for Tuesday then there are just a few bits to sort and then we start our two day journey on Thursday to the Highlands of Scotland with our cat 😁🐱.

kitkat i really wanted to cross the finish line with you...you feel like my soul twin in this crazy house malarkey! Will channel all my energy and positive thoughts to your exchange now 👌 (I know you are thinking going for exchange is futile, but one thing I have realised solicitors wont put to exchange if they dont think there is a strong likelihood of it happening soon)

That's brilliant news Misguided! I'm so pleased for you!

How are you going to manage a 2 day drive with your cat? Is he / she just going in a big cat basket?

Thank you for all of your positive thoughts. I'm sure we'll get there soon. Just waiting on "rogue solicitor" (as my estate agent calls him!) at the end to get his act together!

Hey kitkat we are splitting the journey with an overnight stay, there is a thing called a pet tube would fit a dog easily, its a completely collapsable tube that fits the length of back seat in car, plenty of room to move around, a small litter tray (incase of accidents) and some water! Then space to pop some food in when we are having a break! This will be her third time doing this journey bless her, she really is (up until now not wanting to count my chickens and all that 🙈) been a really good traveller!

Hmmm rogue solicitiors we should set up a national sport to hunt them down and kick them out of the system 👌

I'm here until you complete KitKat and then I'll bow out gracelessly

I don't blame you stepping back a little this week. The pressure and stress is enormous.

Congratulations misguided I hope you (and your cat) will be very happy in your new home

Congratulations Misguided!

Kitkat I hope you have a lovely weekend despite shenanigans still being ongoing.

Ahh what a good kitty Misguided. I hope it goes smoothly third time round again!

Ahh nice of you to stick around for me Yoga. Hopefully you won't have to hang around too much longer as we finally got confirmation today that the final contract has now been returned. Hurrah! We have started to provisionally look at some completion dates (probably week after next) but didn't manage to get a date confirmed before 5pm rolled around, so hopefully will get all details sorted and exchanged next week. [Fingers crossed]!

And thanks Sausagedogs. I hope you and everyone else here has a lovely Easter break.

Argh, my Experian has just alerted me to a credit search by "Experian Consumer Services" - I'm guessing the underwriter has gotten around to checking my credit history.

This is the bit where I'm crapping myself.

It's not brilliant.

It's fine now but two/three years ago I got myself in a muddle with a credit card and stupidly buried my head in the sand. It's all sorted and paid off now - but it's still there. Mortgage adviser chappy knew all this and I gave him a copy of my credit file so hopefully, given that he still recommended Virgin Money - we should be ok.

Woo! So glad to hear your good news Misguided. And sounds like you'll be exchanging very soon too KitKat Exciting times ahead for you both!

Still not sure what to do here as its 90% a market issue in our case. As soon as other sellers get the idea that they need to reduce significantly rather than just play musical estate agents then whatever we do with our place won't help us going forward if there is nothing realistically priced to buy.

Extending etc was always a possibility, as most of the neighbours have done so, but it would cost about 150k to get this house how we need it & it would be a long job. We'd need to remortgage here. In all honesty, I don't want to project manage & live with a massive rebuild project. I was married to the DIY neighbour from hell for 10 years (now I seem to live next door to them which is another reason to move) & lived in a building site. I hated it & I don't want it. Ive had enough of it for several lifetimes. Silly thing is that if we'd started a project a year ago it would probably be well underway or even completed now & the house would be more saleable!

We have 80k saved for deposit/fees etc, perhaps we should contact Kirsty & Phil on Love it or list it to see what she suggests for that amount? lol. I fear it wouldn't do much though with Surrey prices. Last neighbour I asked said it was 45k just for a loft conversion. No doubt it's more by now. We need more living space too & im desperate for a downstairs loo, so would need a massive extension & new kitchen. Plus at least a new roof to replace the leaking asbestos one on the garage. Realistically a complete rebuild. Nothing cheap...

I wish I knew what to suggest Pixie. It’s so hard to know what to do in an uncertain market isn’t it.

Kitkat any exchange yet?

Misguided good luck with your epic drive.

Any news on your mortgage Ladyflump?

Our vendor has offered on a property so hopefully that’s the chain complete, just waiting for confirmation of that. The draft contract for our purchase has arrived with our solicitor, and been sent to our buyer for our sale. So it’s all ticking along, for now at least!

WE HAVE FINALLY EXCHANGED!!!

And we complete on the 12th (hope to f* I can get the day off work now)!

No doubt the drama isn't quite done yet though. I'll let you know how things go.

Best of luck to everyone else awaiting news. x

@kitkat Eeeeeeeeeeek! Awesome stuff, delighted for you 💐🍷🍾

This was us last week!! We complete tomorrow and all our stuff moved and cottage cleaned yesterday and today! B&B tonight ready for journey north tomorrow! Still doesnt feel real! I am sure everything will go smoothly for you this next week though!

Fingers crossed @sausage that you get confirmation the chain complete soon! 🤞

Congratulations guys, we're getting a few viewings each week but no offers yet. Really frustrating and so fed up with it all!

Thanks Misguided. I hope all goes well with your move tomorrow and kitty behaves herself!

I hope you get an offer soon Happyclownjuggling.

Thanks Sausagedogs Got DH's photographer friend coming over tomorrow to take some new photos & EA is allegedly coming over on Saturday afternoon to "talk tactics". If she turns up. The only tactic I can see working is ripping down her board & starting afresh with a new agent. We do have a viewing this weekend, but its from someone not on the market yet. Why oh why do people view when they're not even on the market?

Wooooo! Congratulations KitKat. Almost at the finishing line now. All this will soon be a distant memory.

Good luck with the move tomorrow Misguided Do come back & let us know how it goes.

I feel your pain Happyclown. Its so utterly frustrating. It is a year from the date on Saturday of our open house with our original agent. We had 10 people come to that & I was so hopeful for a quick sale. Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine we'd be in exactly the same position a year later, having had our lives on hold all this time. It really takes the piss when we've done everything we possibly can to sell it!

Woo-Hoo KitKat awesome news! I am so pleased for you

I hope the move goes well today misguided

Fingers crossed for an offer soon Happy

Oh Pixie I feel for you Such a lousy situation. I can understand why you don't want to go through the stress and expense of extending your current home. A change of agent sounds like a good idea. Best wishes

That's good news Chipolatas, hopefully you will have a nice smooth and easy run to completion now!

Congrats to everyone who has made progress! Misguided that cat tube sounds excellent, we have two cats who might make use of that in the future. They're currently at my mum's so they're out of the way while we pack.

So we have started packing! But no word from the solicitor on whether the surveyor has been back in to check the cellar yet. We do have an electrical certificate and the signed off certificate for renovation work a few years ago. Still waiting for extra documents. But the estate agent told us that the vendor is now working to our suggested completion of May 17th. We'll see! Still waiting on that leasehold info too, surely it shouldn't take this long to get the titles?

Ten weeks and counting since offer accepted ;-;

Thanks everyone. Feeling quite stressed now as trying to sort stuff for the move on Thursday whilst also trying to juggle work and the kids and it's all feeling a bit hectic.

How did your move go Misguided?

Yasssssss! Formal mortgage offer arrived today.

However, I called our solicitor to ask how everything was going as it's been nearly a month since she was instructed with no communication at all to be told she hasn't even had the draft contract yet and hasn't applied for any of the searches yet either!

So frustrated! STILL haven't heard from the solicitor re: update, we've been calling every day and she is always unavailable.

So, it's three weeks since the surveyor didn't go into the cellar and we told them to arrange going in. That still hasn't been booked apparently. Vendor said the electrician has gone in to do the report. But the cellar thing is worrying me again, it just feels like someone is actively avoiding it being looked at. Everyone still hoping to complete in mid-May despite the slowness right now, doesn't look likely to me! The cellar issue has just gone on way too long for me not to be suspicious about it.

I think you just need to get in touch with the vendor direct or the estate agent & say that you need access to see the cellar before you are prepared to go any further katzensocken. In all honesty, you shouldn't of spent a penny on this transaction until you'd seen the entirety of the property & were happy with it. The secrecy surrounding the cellar is a huge red flag. Please don't spend any more money until this is addressed!

@pixie, we've been in touch with the vendor! The cellar hatch has a piece of furniture on top so no one has bothered to move it as yet (surveyors not moving any furniture as a matter of course). When we first viewed with the vendor, he said 'I would say go and have a look but we'd have to move this' but we said we'd look next time. Next time we haven't arranged yet because we wanted the survey done first. Solicitor agrees surveyor should look, but don't seem concerned themselves. The thing is, we will make sure we see it before proceeding, but to me it's already tainted by the delay around it. DH just says 'they will check it out and we will check it out and it'll be fine' but I will still worry there's something wrong if that makes sense.

@pixie, I also meant to say we didn't know there was a cellar when DH first viewed and put the offer in. They use it as storage and the agent didn't know. I found out because the old rightmove listing mentioned it and I asked the vendor about it.

katzensocken it is up to you to have the survey done, the solicitor is not involved in this part of conveyancing.

You do need to get the surveyor (or another surveyor) to go in and look at the cellar. If the surveyor is concerned about anything, then you need to raise it as an enquiry to your solicitor, who will then enquire of the seller's solicitor and may also need to refer it to your lender, if you have one.

The fact that the vendor appears to have hidden the cellar from viewing would ring alarm bells, but no-one can say for sure unless you've taken the appropriate action with an inspection and survey. I would get this done as a priority before spending any more money.

Oh how frustrating LadyFlumpalot. Why have they not started the searches yet?

Katzensocken can you do another viewing in the next couple of days so you can see the cellar for yourself before you spend any more money?

As for us, packers have been today and everything is in boxes! Bit stressed (not helped by someone driving into my car today and putting a big dent in it...) but excited for tomorrow!

Bit of progress today! @spickle, all our conveyancing has been organized through the solicitor thus far, it was part of our package. DH went in today and pressed the issue, they understand we're not making any further commitments til then. We've already paid for the first survey which was done so they're not charging us more to send the guy back.

The vendor has explained, finally, that the cellar hatch doesn't have a handle or any mechanism for ease of opening, so it's extremely heavy. Previously the vendor's partner with small baby has only been around and she can't move it herself (I'm tiny and weak myself so understand this). The vendor will let my DH know when he's available so DH can go and visit again and have a look.

We don't have anything we're scheduled to spend for at this stage, all the other stuff has been done or is in the process of being done (we got the leasehold info through at last) and this is the last thing.