Sellers/Buyers Roll Call No 5...,

[sandybayley]

Starting new thread. Calling all the regulars...
@TiddleTaddleTat
@WBWIFE
@Allhallowseve
@BeauticianNotMagician81
@crispysausagerolls
@dimmu
@Fleabag123
@Farontothemaddingcrowd
@Frogqueen13
@Glitteryfrog
@MrsPatmore
@Smart123

Thanks Sandybayley! Easter adds a whole lot of other pressure I think and lots of solicitors firms seem to close a bit early. Best of luck to those starting out. I too would love to know what the German system of house buying is. The whole system in England needs an overhaul- it's too unwieldy.

blog.mygermanexpert.com/2018/08/14-Steps-to-buying-home-in-Germany.html

Hello everyone. I wasn't a regular poster but had been trying to move for a year.
We finally gave up at the end of March as there was nothing on the market. Now looking to
Build an extension!

Good luck to everyone

WBEIFE the German system seems to be almost as complicated I think.

German system is easy. We've bought a house and a flat there. The house, mortgage free, went though in 10 days. The flat was a new build and that was the only constraint to completion. The mortgage was arranged via a phone call to our bank.

We took a mortgage in Germany to buy our UK house, the whole buying procedure is more complex here, we were helped by using a friend to handle the legal side but, even so, the back and forth of questions was a pain.

Jumping onto the thread. We put our house on the market on the 18th March and had two offers within a week, one at asking and one a little over. We accepted the higher offer but then they pulled out almost immediately. So we went back to the other offer and luckily they were still happy to proceed. They're ftb so that's good.

We've just found somewhere ourselves and should get final acceptance today after some toing and froing about timescales. We're moving for school catchments so obviously need to be in by the end of the year.

Anyway, this is our first time buying and selling simultaneously. I already have a nervous twitch in my eye so it's going to be a looong few months I think!

Congratulations to everyone who has recently exchanged/completed.

@Smart123 any news on your exchange yet?

our buyer has said he is still not satisfied with the lease, or the examples of identical leases, or the freeholder's confirmation that the lease is fine.
He has demanded the original cost of the DoV off the purchase price before he will exchange.
My solicitor wanted to just say no.
I said just pay it , if it means we can exchange today. I am desperate and am a fool and I hate my buyer!!

Just had the survey back on the property we want. Biggest problem seems to be a potentially-asbestos-containing garage roof which needs replacing. We're going to talk to the surveyor later for more information.

If you've had survey red flags, how did you proceed? Not faced this problem before!

@TiddleTaddleTat it sounds like your buyer stopped listening to advice a while ago. I'd probably do the same in your shoes though - there just comes a point where you want it done. Fingers crossed the exchange goes through today

@Tiddletaddletatt oh I don't blame you, that's how I was re this chimney repair.
It's all quiet here, there is only three more days it can happen now.
It's a funny thing in a way their greedyness has prolonged it as we are now having to wait for change of paperwork, revised mortgage, all down to them, so if we had been staying at original price we would of been done by now and they could of come at easter, maybe a little touch of karma there, and I'm still the decent person as I've left them the prosecco🙄

Hi All. I've been watching for ages but not said anything yet but feel now is the time to properly join you all...

We put our house on the market at the beginning of February and it sold in 4 days with a couple of offers- great news! We were holding out for a new build but it got delayed numerous times and so we started looking on the market. Found a beautiful 4 bed detached house with double garage all on our wish list. Downside was garden was small (10x10m ish) and the house needed a fair amount of mainly cosmetic work. New boiler, new kitchen, replastering etc new bathroom eventually. It was under our budget so we definitely thought great we can do the work etc etc. Now we have a toddler and maybe were being a bit optimistic! We were happy with the house.

Everything was going well, homebuyers highlighted issues but mainly known and nothing we weren't happy with. Our vendors found a house quickly too and did their survey and small things gave us a nagging feeling they weren't in a massive rush.. long story short 3 months later they pulled out of their onward purchase, refused to view anything not on with their agent but found another property quickly. We had lots of promises of doing things quickly but alas it hasn't been quick. The property they wanted hadn't had probate granted and here we were 5 weeks later and it turns out there is someone else on the will who has not submitted paperwork.

Now the new build came back in to play last week and gave us a real headache over what to do. We tentatively asked our buyers if they would wait for it to be built and it was a no so we either had to remarket or stick with what we had. We seriously considered other options and the more we looked around the more our original house just wasn't right.. and so overpriced for the work needing doing..

We decided to take a risk and put it to our buyers that we didn't want to stay in this chain and would remarket. Before we could though a new house came onto the market on a Sunday.. ! It was BEAUTIFUL. On paper it had hardly anything we thought we wanted but actually everything we wanted.

It has a HUGE garden, perfect location, one less bedroom than we hoped for but potential to extend and is an old house with lots of beautiful features. We knew it would be popular so we got a viewing first thing Monday and made an offer straight after we left. There were multiple people there viewing...

After putting it to our buyers that we wanted to pursue this and would remarket thankfully they have decided to stick with us. Like us they know it's the right house

We didn't mess around, full asking price and it was accepted and all other viewings cancelled and off the market.

Now our new vendors haven't found anything yet so we are hopeful they do soon and we can start properly professing (again!)

I've felt so sick I think I've been running on adrenaline. I wasn't as stressed with house one which I think reiterates why house two is so perfect!!

@ABingThing that's not a deal breaker. Many garages in our area have possible asbestos roof, they are like corrugated iron sort of roofs. Like sheeting! Fairly simple to remove but needs to be done safely.

You dint actually have to remove if it's in good conditions ie. Not broken or damaged as the asbestos is only dangerous when broken. W ehaveit on the garage in the new house we are buying. It's a lot easier to be rid of in a garage roof than inside a home. Artex contains asbestos and most people just plaster board over and skim. It's fine if untouched.

Oh tiddletattle it's just never ending. You are so reasonable and sensible, just think you don't particularly need to clean for this buyer, in the past I've left flowers and the like, but I wouldn't be for your buyer! It's going to be so epic when you exchange!

bingthing The asbestos roof only needs replacing if damaged. There is no risk otherwise. This has come up on our buyer's survey, although they'd been told ahead of it about the nature of the roof, and that its' standard construction (and low grade asbestos in these type of buildings), and I've said they're welcome to look into replacing ,but on no condition will any money come off the sale price because it's fine, they have no evidence at all it's damaged! When I was trying to buy earlier in the year, the survey basically showed the garage (unattached) was falling down and even then I didn't ask for money off, it's not part of the house after all and these things aren't expensive.

The survey on ours also came up with possible damp but they had a full damp survey yesterday, and it found no problems at all, phew.

Hoping that is it and we can exchange very soon, I'm feeling like we're slightly getting into delaying tactics esp with pointless discussion over the undamaged garage roof so not entirely sure where we go from here if we aren't able to set a date for exchange extremely soon as my patience is non existent after a year of this! But then reading everyone else's experiences I think I probably need to be digging deeper!

Thanks @WBWIFE I've just been looking at pricing and it doesn't seem as bad as I feared. We're going to check with the surveyor because the report reads as though there is also some sort of rot and a lintel that needs replacing, so we need a clearer indication of this is an immediate issue it just a longer term thing. At this point we're not put off, just cautious.

The other concerning thing is the possibility of rising damp elsewhere in the property - something I know nothing about.

Moving house is an education if nothing else!

@tootyfruitypickle that sounds reasonable. I certainly don't want to mess with anything that's working just fine. I'm not sure what the situation will be if the roof needs removing because other parts of the structure are damaged but can't be replaced with it in place. We were so hoping for a green and orange survey!

How long has it taken you to get to this point? And, if you don't mind my asking, how much was the full damp survey?

Local authority search back and now more enquiries!!! We need to exchange by Thursday to have a chance of moving next Thursday!!

@TiddleToddle welcome and congratulations on selling so fast and finding somewhere to move to.

@TiddleTaddleTat I hope you can exchange now and that it's all over for you soon.

@Minnie881 oh gosh I've a feeling that's going to be us but I'm so pleased you found a house that you seem to love instead of one you just 'liked'.

We've narrowed our search to four new builds 🤣. Two on a development in our desired market town and two in a village near the market town. I can't decide on house or location.

ABingThing the survey was free but from a recommended damp surveyor as a lot of them are very dodgy as they make money from anything they find. I know more than I wish to now about damp from chatting to him for a long time though. It sounded like most rising damp can be fixed through a new damp course - they do wear out over time so if there is rising damp I think he was saying it can be fixed very easily just by putting in a new course. It's costly enough that you would want to deduct money, but probably not a deal breaker for your vendors iyswim. I think the section along the outside in our front room he said would have cost a couple of grand had he found it defective (which he didn't - yay!). It's definitely something I'd be looking to deduct for though and I was expecting to deduct had the survey found a definite problem.

Garage sounds a bit complicated so I don't know! I guess if other parts are damaged that does compromise the roof though - but definitely call your surveyor, I had a really good chat with mine when I was buying and it was super helpful.

Everyone is very brave, I haven;t asked any questions about exchange dates etc this week because I just can't bear to get bad news just before a 4 day weekend! Back into the fray next week for me!

oh and we're now 8 weeks post offer - no chain sale.

@tootyfruitypickle do you know what's outstanding?

We've been told that when the enquiries are back hopefully today we can then exchange so I'm hoping for tomorrow exchange and completion next Thursday. We are on week nearly 10!

@ABingThing our survey came up with exactly the same thing. Its quite common in the type of property we are buying and weve already spoken to a 2 builders we've used in the past who have said its a straight forward job to remove it but only if it has been damaged...like the others have said above. And thats if it is even there in the first place...

@Tiddletaddletatt I would have done the same thing. I found our seller being overly petty in last few weeks so to have an easier life (and to get to exchange) we just agreed to their irrational demands. Do whatever it takes to get to exchange!

@Smart123 you are a lovely person to have left prosecco. The only person getting a bottle of anything is our solicitor who has been amazing and quite frankly deserves it!

@Minnie881 i feel your pain it is so stressful isnt it? It sounds like you know youve made the right decision to put an offer on the new house. At the end of the day its a big purchase, it has to be the right decision for you and your family.

@WBWIFE hopefully any answers will get sent out soon so that can all be closed down for exchange

Lots of you are really close to exchange now..if it doesn't happen this week (i'm guessing because of the bank holiday) then i'm sure next week will be busy week for exchanges.

As for me, i'm still working through decluttering the house so much to do and my goodness we have a lot of children's toys in the loft. Will be making lots of trips to charity shops this weekend!

WBWIFE before they suddenly decided to have a last minute survey, we were just waiting for their solicitor to report and for them to sign the contracts - i have no idea how long that takes? Then the survey threw up these two things - and presumably although the damp surveyor has verbally told the agent he's found nothing, the solicitor needs to see the report before they can report. I'm hoping this could mean an exchange next week or the week after? I've told my solicitor to push back on any talk of the garage, because the survey does not say it's damaged, it just does that survey talk thing about how he couldn't get to all parts of the roof blah blah blah.

I just figure if I push this week I won't get that far what with people on leave etc and then will be stressed out all over the weekend so I'm taking a break from being ms pushy vendor.

@BeauticianNotMagician81 I really hope it isn't you, it's agony! Good luck with choosing your options

@Jem01 absolutely has to be right. And with that comes the pressure of 'what if it all goes wrong'. Really couldn't care less about wasted money on surveys if ultimately this is the right choice, certainly don't want to be moving again any time soon!