Sellers/Buyers roll call Part 4 Keep strong everyone!

[alifelessordinary]

Thought I'd start a new thread as previous one had hit 1000 posts and wouldn't let me reply!

@LookingOptimistic why do solicitors have to be so difficult at times? Hope it gets resolved for you soon.

The indemnity policy came through this afternoon, so we're hoping we might be exchanging sometime next week...unless something else crops up!

@TokyoSushi there's an inconsistency in the lease about the amount of ground rent payable. After much back and forth the buyers sol has said they require a Deed of variation from the freeholder and are insisting on it in order to proceed. Freeholder has quoted this at £1700! I decided fine, it's worth it just to be rid of this. Our sol made an undertaking to the freeholder 3 weeks ago. Freeholder has still not got back to him whether they agree to do the deed of variation.
If the freeholder refuses we have an unsellable property and I guess everything falls apart and we would need some sort of legal proceedings. I may have recourse to pursue the solicitor we used to purchase a few years ago as they didn't notice the lease discrepancy.
If freeholder agrees we will have further delay... according to my sol it's an afternoon's work to do the deed of variation but can work out considerably longer ie months and months.
Our vendors know nothing yet of this complication. The purchase is ticking away and is a couple of months behind the sale (they aren't linked)

Oh no, that sounds just like my garage! I really hope that you get sorted. They are incredibly slow but we got there in the end, crossing absolutely everything for you.

@TokyoSushi I followed your garage story... what happened in the end, did the buyer stick around? Did you pursue the solicitor you bought with?

I'm not sure you'll want to know this but we finally got the garage included in the lease. It cost £4902 and took from just before October half term when it was discovered until completion on 8th March when our buyers solicitor was finally happy with the draft, and happy enough that it would be signed by the leaseholders and the property management company. As far as I'm aware, it's still not completely signed by all parties!

So now, at week 31 from accepting our original offer for our sale we're in the wonderful world of temporary accommodation with a vendor who is dragging their heels with getting out of their house even though all of the paperwork is ready for exchange.

We were so lucky with our buyer that they loved the house so much (it was nice!) that they waited!

I've written to our MP as theres a bit of a leasehold scandal around here anyway, and I'll purse the original solicitor just as soon as we've moved!

Crikey that is a lot of money and time. What a relief it all worked out in the end !

Ours is quite minor in comparison - literally involves changing a '1' to a '2'. If we even get to do a DOV I know it could take months. Worst case is freeholder refuses to do a DOV. Then we will struggle to sell at all which is a terrifying prospect right now.

Gosh it sounds like a lot has been happening since I last checked in! Congratulations to all who have exchanged and completed! We're now 2 weeks after accepting an offer for the 3rd time and the estate agent has finally sent the sales memorandum through to our solicitor. I have no idea why it has taken so long but hopefully everything will start to speed up now. Slightly stressed as DP and I are moving out next week as part of our relocation, so we will not be around for any signing of documents and the new buyer has not yet arranged their survey... I'm staying positive that it can be done within the next week...!

Hi all, looks like I might be joining you!

DP and I both own our own properties, but moved out of them to go to a rental in a market town near us for school reasons 18 months ago. My house was rented out to do so, and we are VERY SLOWLY renovating DPs. Using family members who are builders, so the usual problems have gone along with that. It was meant to be ready in December.

I have remortgaged mine on a BTL mortgage, and we will do the same with DPs as soon as he is finished renovating- hopefully one month away. So we have the deposit/ stamp duty waiting, and half tied up in to his house. However, I'm now pregnant, so things are needing to move a bit quicker!

We have found a family house we love, and have had an offer accepted. The seller hasn't found anything yet, so she's agreed to give us a month to finish the house, while she starts house hunting. She's happy to take it off the market for us.

So now it's all systems go! Trying to renovate while working full time is exhausting, but needs must. We have all agreed to a potential move date of late July/ early august, to fit in with her teaching job, and she has said that she is happy to move into a family members house if she has to, so fingers crossed we can make it work.

Hi can I join you? Stressed and hassled by this horrible house selling process and I need some words of calm and wisdom. I'm selling a property I've moved out of already (due to relocating for work) and really needed a quick sale as I'm paying mortgage and rental payments, two lots of council tax etc which is putting me under huge financial stress. Got a very quick offer on the property in November which fell through just before Christmas as they couldn't get PP in principle for a huge extension, then got another reasonable offer at the end of January which I accepted.

This was off a cash buyer and I told her that I was accepting her offer on the basis of a quick sale. However the woman is moving at the speed of a snail and it is just taking so long to get progress. We're now eight weeks or so into the process and we've sorted out all the initial queries, but then it turned out that her "cash" was equity release, which her solicitor wanted her to actually release before they'd accept it as finance, so that has taken some weeks. Then she decided she wanted a survey after all, and finally got the surveyor round Monday of this week. She's happy with the survey report which is a huge relief.

Problem is she's still not instructed the searches despite telling the EA twice that she has. Her solicitor won't communicate and the whole process is getting really stressful to the point I'm waking up in the night worrying about it all.

I'm really worried about my finances and also that she's not committed to the sale - how does this sound to other people? Should I just grit my teeth and hang on in there? The other option is to give her a deadline and if she doesn't pull her finger out to put the house back on the market, but I really really don't want to do that if there's a chance she's genuine and will get there in the next couple of weeks.

Hand holding and calming words very welcome

@OhWesternWind that sounds hard, I feel your pain! It's so difficult when you are under financial pressure to do things quickly and no one else seems bothered. We are also selling an empty property though at risk of falling through after 4.5 months. It's a similar situation with the double council tax etc and it's crippling us. In your shoes I think I would try and hang on with your buyer although I don't know much about equity release, have you been given a timescale ? If she has paid for the survey she must expect that she can stump up the funds? No excuses re the searches though.

2 weeks ago we had a call from our solicitor to say all paperwork is done for purchase just waiting for buyers.
An hour later another phone call that our buyers pulled out. House straight back on the market. Only 1 viewing but they offered on Wednesday. So it’s all back on. Luckily the owners of the house were buying were ok to wait for us to get another buyer so we are still on track there.
I feel very apprehensive about it all though and feel like something is going to go wrong again!

Oh thanks so much for replying @TiddleTaddleTat. Sounds so stressful for you too - and for loads of other people who are on here too.

Sorry, I wasn’t clear about the purchaser’s finances - she’s done all the equity release stuff now, which is great news, but it’s been a lot more complicated and time-consuming than being a straightforward cash buyer.

I actually felt a lot better after posting - got a bit of perspective . Looking at it calmly, she’s shown a fair bit of commitment - she’s gone through the hassle of equity release, paid a good few hundred for the survey so really all that’s left is the searches. It’s just so bloody slow and she seems to be going at it all arse-backwards, instructing a survey eight weeks in and not getting round to the searches yet.

I hope either she doesn’t want to do them or she’ll get them fast-tracked. Fingers crossed the EA can talk to her soon and get to the bottom of it all.

OhWesternWind it does sound like she is committed though and hopefully the searches wont take too long. Ours came back in a week but I guess it depends where you are.

Sparkle789 hopefully you'll have better luck this time. Selling our house was a nightmare and affected my sleep. My hair has also started to fall out and I'm sure it's just the stress of everything. Hang on in there!

@MrsPatmore very reassuring that this might only hold things up a week or so

This is such a horrible process to have to go through. I woke up at 4.30 am this morning worrying about all this. There’s got to be a better way. I’ve bought and sold four other houses and this has to be the most stressful one yet, I think mainly because of terrible lack of communication from the buyer and her solicitor.

@OhWesternWind: our solicitor sent off searches this Weds and they were back today! Not expedited, so it doesn’t have to take forever.

@Sparkle789 - gosh how stressful but great that your vendors have hung on for you. Hope it goes smoothly this time

TiddleTaddleTat I had a similar case with the garage of the house I was buying. The lease title plan and deed for the garage were alright (the house itself is freehold), but there was a discrepancy in the description of the lease demise. In the end the matter was referred to the lender. The lender then took a week to decide that a indemnity would suffice. The seller paid £150 for the indemnity.

@tenapenny2018 thank you , oh how I wish an indemnity policy would be sufficient! The freeholder is now aware of the error so it's too late to get an indemnity... our solicitor flagged it to them hoping that their word about how the lease should be read would be enough for the buyers solicitor. It was not.

Paid for searches for the second time, informed mortgage broker of the amendment to the mortgage needed. Told our estate agent who wasn't entirely happy as he was also selling the bungalow, do he knows it'll be a difficult sell now. Although he's happy it's no chain that we are buying.

We are going to look around today again I'm going to take lots of photos. My mum is also coming and we are going to explore the village.

What a shit fest. Went to the property in much better lighting today and you can see patches of mould and drip marks from the ceiling. The roof of clearly absolutely buggered.

On brighter notes the bungalow we loved.. We have been told that the artex ceiling doesn't have asbestos as it isn't artex but textured wallpaper. What a fantastic valuation man we had!! Not.

Us pulling out have the vendor the nudge needed and she has dropped and agreed her price to be on par with the valuation of the property. So all back on with the bungalow!

Ah wow @WBWIFE what a rollercoaster ! Do you lose the money you'd just put towards the second property or was it early enough to go back on it? Glad you are going ahead with the one you love

@TiddleTaddleTat no, luckily they hadn't sent them off yet so it will just come off our final bill thankfully!

Can I join please?

I put my house on the market just over a week ago and had a very acceptable offer the next day.

I viewed a house last week which I like very much (viewed a few, but only one 'spoke' to me) and am viewing it again on Monday and I'm 95% sure that I'm going to put an offer in.

It's all very exciting and it's happened very quickly - not that I'm complaining lol.

Would love some company as we go along this rocky road.

@WBWIFE - sounds like the vendor got the shock they needed. With a bit of luck they'll play ball from now on.

Still waiting to hear from our FTB about their finances. They sound very keen and I like them but nice can't buy a house. They have been keeping in touch though.

DH thinks that even someone who likes our house just won't offer at the moment given the political uncertainty. I think there is some truth in that as where we live there are lots of finance and city types and Europeans who are very twitchy at the moment.

@nevermovinghouseagain56 - hello! Welcome to our gang. Great to get an offer so quickly - are your buyers a good prospect? Any changes n?

Any chain I meant to say!