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

Can I join in?
We’re on the market, have an “agreed price” on the house we want and have “agreed a price” for ours with people who haven’t sold their shares ownership flat. It’s a nightmare.

Good luck today Kitkat! Hope all goes smoothly and you settle into your new home quickly.

Katzen, that makes a whole lot more sense now - if they’d just said in the beginning the cellar issue could have been sorted weeks ago. So frustrating.

Mango, is it that your buyer hasn’t sold their property yet, or are the HA faffing around? Any chance of keeping your property on the market in the meantime?

Nothing happening here. Waiting for searches to come back on our purchase, have sent buyer draft contracts on sale. No one wants to move until the end of July so we have a while. Vendor still looking at properties though...

Can I join in too please. I was on the In a chain support thread but dropped off after our chain fell through for the third time and we lost the house we wanted to buy.

We are now back in the position we have been in three times before (it has never been a problem with our house causing this) of being told exchange in the next couple of weeks. No completion date suggested yet though.

I am so desperate to get this house sold. We will go into rented and then start looking for a new house as we can't bear to go through the hassle of losing a house we want again. At the end of the month we will have been doing this for a year.

Hoping finally for some positive news.

Good luck today KitKat I hope everything goes smoothly. Sorry to hear about your car though

Welcome back Artus fingers crossed for exchange this time

Hi. Just briefly checking in. Been a hectic couple of days. Got up at the crack of dawn yesterday, packed our old house up, and were out at 11.30am. All monies cleared by 11.45. Result we thought, we can all get in early and get as sorted as possible before we had to pick our DDs up from nursery at 5.30pm. Our movers went over to the new house whilst we went and dropped our keys off at our estate agents. Got a phone call from our removers at 12 to say that they had turned up to the new house and 10 minutes later saw the removers for the vendor had only just turned up. Yep, the vendor had done nothing all morning and didn't even start packing up until lunchtime. We then had to spend 2 hours sat on the street outside the house with quite a few 'tense' words had between us and them. They finally let us in at 2pm whilst they were just finishing clearing out, but still hadn't cleared out the garden (and our vendor had about 8 million pot plants and ornaments) so had to come back at 4pm and clear the garden out so it all felt very tense and uncomfortable with them hanging around most of the afternoon, and it did rather taint the excitement of the whole day a bit.

BUT, we're in!!!! Finally!!! And once the vendor and her removers had all buggered off it was amazing. We had a Chinese and the sofa and we're just like 'oh my God, this is our house'! Have been unpacking like a mad thing all day (and still only half unpacked) and I really love this house. There's a couple of minor niggles which DH has raised with our solicitors (where the vendor left in a rush in the end they literally just cut off some off the lights from the electrics leaving a load of exposed wires, which is really shit of her). But, I love the house and I'm so pleased to be here finally!

I hope everyone else is having some luck. This has literally been once of the hardest, most stressful processes I've ever had to drag through, and sometimes it's really hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, so sending great sympathies to everyone else on this long and stressful road.

So pleased you are in and loving your new house KitKat

I really think people should be charged some exorbitant rate for every hour past completion they are still in the property, it's really crap of her and I hope you get some come back for her leaving bare wires, that's not acceptable.

All that aside, I hope you, your DH and your daughters are very happy in your new home

Your story (despite the bad bits) gives me hope that we’re doing the right thing by starting this process off. Congratulations on your new home KitKat.

sausagedogs our potential buyer hasn’t sold yet, but has to advertise with the HA for 8 weeks initially. I think our estate agent feels they’ve “found a buyer” and are taking the foot off the pedal. I’m going to talk to them about it next week. We honestly can’t see anything else in the local area other than the one house that would be worth buying (for us) so it’s all rather tense!

We've just came out the end of 2 horrendous buys/sales

We were living in an apartment and saved a deposit for a house. We went through a IFA who suggested we could purchase a decent house in our price bracket we wanted and still keep the house - we would just be required to have the extra stamp duty but this would be returned for refund when our apartment sold. This put us in a better position - we were essentially chain free in both the sale and buying of separate properties.

We found a house - the EA was rubbish. The owner wouldn't even entertain us ( I know we look young and are essentially saying we could afford two houses) but for whatever reason even though we put in an offer of full asking price the owner rejected. Wouldn't entertain us. As far as I am aware that house was still on the market even after we had moved into our new house.

The second house we saw I fell in love with. It was meant to be chain free. We had really good solicitor who did most things via a secure online portal (they were based in leeds). On the last week the seller was dragging their feet and it turns out they weren't chain free and we found ourselves in a chain. Thankfully we didn't have a specific time but had negotiated a price based on the fact they were chain free so I was ridiculously annoyed. On all the solicitors forms they had written they were chain free so I felt really irked but loved the house too much to do much about it.

The selling of the apartment was a nightmare on the other hand. EA seem to treat sellers much worse than buyers.
The sale took around 6 months. The guys solicitors wanted outdated ancient land information ( had had been superseded by other regulations in the 90's) and took an age to track down.
Then the day of exchange the seller said he couldn't afford the fees to transfer the deed (around £300ish). we'd already gone under what we wanted since he was a first time buyer but couldn't risk losing the sale in this market so had to pay ours fees and his fees.
The market is so stagnant the original house we looked at is still on, as well as 3 others in the same street as ours that went on at the same time ours did. My advice would be if you get any buyer run with it as you can't even guarantee that your chain free buyers are chain free.

On a second note if you can do it the way we did as buying a second home I would thoroughly recommend it as we got the extra stamp back very easily

Hello, I am joining in due to the chain collapsing and need to vent with some shoulders to cry on I hope.

We have a FTB, prop1, prop2 (our buyer), us, prop4 who is moving out regardless so she is end of chain. All was well until 5:30 last Friday (the 13th natch!) when our buyers buyers pulled out due to our buyer not providing some important bit of info for their buyer (not sure exactly what but see EA on Monday to get the details).

Told agency to put it back on the market and fair dos they came up with 2 viewings on Saturday (yesterday). I am looking at the various chain-break schemes that lop 10% off you property, bridging loans at 1%/month + 1% fee etc. I am with a conveyancing firm that give me 2 goes so 1 life left on that but our buyers (now departed) are with a local solicitor so they will have lost quite a bit of cash straight away. They wanted to hang on to ours but we thought what are the chances of them finding a buyer and completing the legal side if it has already failed.

Really pissed off with the whole thing and it seems 1/3 of chains break down.

I see some folk earlier on had 3 chains break!

Total silence from everyone last week. Estate agent sales progression team ignored three emails. I guess I will chase everyone up again tomorrow if I don't get an update today.

With our past history of getting this far and the chain breaking down we have not packed all our stuff and now I am worried that if we do get an exchange date they will want completion immediately whereas we want three or four weeks. We feel that as our buyers have messed us around since the beginning of October we should have some say now.

Good luck to everyone else and congrats to those who have actually moved in. It can happen!

Well, I'm an epic example of perfect timing we've just found out that my mums cancer has come back with a vengeance. Not what is needed at any time, let alone in the middle of a house move.

Sorry to hear of that news LadyFlump, puts my trivial problems in perspective.

Lady, that's terrible news, I'm so sorry to hear. Sending best wishes to you and your family.

Kitkat, excellent you're finally in, thumbs down on the vendors taking their time moving out though!

Solicitor is still playing hide and seek with us, though we spoke to vendor's estate agent today to discuss concerns about doing things on time. Obviously they don't work for us but they do want their commission, lol. Everyone still saying we can get completion by May 17th! Not setting my heart on that. No word on signing contracts or exchange date. Still waiting for documents (I know the vendor has applied for certain certificates and things we still need).

Big news regarding the cellar - SOMEONE has finally seen it! Not us, not yet. Trying to coordinate schedules. And I need to yell at the solicitor about where the goddamn surveyor is. BUT, the electrician went in to do a full check and test. He checked appliances and actually went in to the cellar! Says it isn't damp or wet down there on the floors or walls, no signs of corrosion on the wiring or pipes. Obviously he can't say much about the timber but told us the place looks in okay condition, there is lighting down there, just lots of stored stuff and boxes currently so can't see much else. Fuse box and everything is up to standard. So this has been a slight weight off our shoulders. Got some more chasing to do tomorrow!

Thank you. Hope everyone is having a productive week :)

Unbelievable! Apparently there has been a problem lower down the chain and exchange delayed til mid May. So frustrated.

Can I join? I'm in a weird not quite a chain but nearly a chain situation!

We have 2 buyers selling their properties and moving in together to buy ours, whoever sells first can proceed....it's a private sale through close family friends. The property we like has been taken off the market but they've told they will sell to us when we can proceed.

So just sitting around waiting for our buyers to sell, so frustrating. Considering putting ours on the market soon but our private buyers are paying our full asking price and won't cause any problems near exchange so worth hanging on for...but how long?! haha, I'm so impatient!

Hi there...

Marking my place and hoping to share some of the stress and angst!

2 weeks in to the process. Our buyer has a first time buyer, we are top of the chain - not too difficult I don't think??? But I have no idea, this is my first purchase (not DH's).

Expecting to exchange end May and complete first week of June - anyone else?

We finally saw the cellar today!

Interesting day all around actually. DH had an appointment with the solicitor so talked through some stuff. Few enquiries we're still waiting on replies to and some paperwork. But we also got a big stack of pre-exchange documents so that's good. This afternoon we visited the house and did some measuring up and yep, went down the cellar hatch which was lifted ready for us. Very steep stone steps, the cellar is a small front cellar with a fairly low ceiling but enough room to stand etc. It felt cool and breezy in there due to the air vent and exposed brick but no visible signs of damp and no smell, it smelled very fresh, just dusty from all the junk still stored in there. I had a bit of trouble getting back up the steps but there is no hand rail yet, we plan to sort this out and have the cellar converted eventually. The surveyor still needs to go in but we feel more confident now.

It was nice to see the house in the sunshine as we've also seen it when it was very cold and it felt cosy. It felt warm in there but not scorching, warmest room was the front attic bedroom with Velux windows but one was open and there was a nice breeze.

Vendors have a house in mind but obviously we want to complete in either a month or two months and they can move in with parents if there is a gap. They're seeing another house with no chain next week. Hopefully we can exchange and get a completion date set in stone soon. They said they'll know what they're doing before the end of the month (which is when we will decide how long to keep our rental contract going, but we won't sign anything saying so until we have exchanged).

Had a nice walk around the local area too and felt quite happy on the way back into town. Maybe a good omen, we'll see?

Are solicitors generally slow at doing this stuff? I'm an administrator with a lot of important project critical admin tasks passing over my desk - not unlike conveyancing in a way. I ALWAYS manage expectations, doesn't take two minutes to send a quick "hi, just to let oh know I've received the draft minutes from xxxxx, I'll have the final version on your desk on Tuesday." Would it be too much to expect a solicitor to be able to do the same?

Called them up last Monday (9th April) to ask if all going ok? Yes yes, all fine. Called Tuesday 10th to confirm the mortgage was offered, yes yes all good. Emailed copy of the homebuyers survey on the 16th - no response. Letter from them yesterday saying they had a query over the deposit. Letter is dated the 13th. The 13th!!!

Just. Pick. Up. The. Phone and ask me! One phonecall from me to them and query was sorted. Everything is now a week behind because of it.

Arrggghhhhh!

On the plus side we went to look around the school in the area (DS going into year 3 and DD starting reception) and we both loved it. DS has not got a diagnosis of anything but is clearly not 100% NT and struggles at his current school as they don't offer much support. The school we want to send them to seems to be very up on support for any child who is struggling whether they have a statement or not.

Wow, that was a rant.

And I'm back, really sorry on your mum, Lady-just what is not needed at any time but a house sale definitely doesn't help.

We have accepted an asking price offer on ours, hope to exchange end of may and complete july (buyer on holiday through june).
We've offered on one and had it accepted - tenant in it at the moment so no real chain but is going to be pretty close to hs2 - but same for a lot of houses on the area we need.
Some progression at last but, like Artus, been here before so feeling nervous rather than excited...

How is everyone doing?

It feels like nothing is happening here, although I think that’s probably just a lull in the process. We’ve been waiting for the right time to move for years so it’s quite surreal to be at this point!
Waiting for buyers searches to come back so we can exchange soon, working towards moving in early August (it’s a short chain, our buyer is a FTB and all parties are happy with that timescale.)

Hi everyone, can I join?

We're in a chain for the first time. We have a cash buyer for our house, then we're buying a house from a couple who are buying a house in the country and the chain ends there.

We got our survey done on the house we're buying yesterday, we're waiting on the report. Our buyer is having a survey done on our house on Friday.

I have no idea how the contracts thing works. I'm in Ireland so I think it's done a little differently, I don't think we all exchange on the same day.

I'm very anxious about the whole thing.

Hi everyone,

I joined a couple of weeks ago, at the start of our process.... things seem to be moving ok, everyone has had surveys done and mortgage offers in place - does that mean we just wait on the last few searches to come back before we can exchange?

There's also some back and forth on completion date, I'm pretty flexible but know I'll get anxious the longer it's left after completion.... how long is too long? And is it really all sewn up pretty much at the point of exchange?!

Checking in - how's everyone's chain going? Ours is still going, slowly..... still no mention of target exchange dates! Grrrrrr