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

Feeling really stressed here, just got a letter through with 24 enquiries, ALL of which are completely ridiculous, e.g. asking if we have a permit for parking when the nearest permit parking road is 5 roads away and ours is unrestricted, and asking very specific questions about materials used in our extension which of course I have no clue about , and it was all signed off properly by building regs.

Should I be worried - has anyone had these type of enquiries and still got to exchange ? Is it just a delaying tactic or are they wobbling?

I actually just can't bear this any more, we started on this road more than a year ago now.

Hi again! @fleabag I hope it doesn't come to walking away. Fingers crossed for you.

We accepted a poor offer on our house a few weeks back and that's progressing nicely with the solicitor's having sent over the draft contract to the buyers today. However we had an offer accepted 2 weeks ago and they still haven't named their solicitor. Feel like we're being led up the garden path and that they're just going to delay the whole process. Not really sure what to do!

@tootyfruitypickle don't panic. We had a load of silly enquiries right up to exchange too. All you can do is answer the questions to the best of your knowledge and whizz them back over to your solicitor in the hope that exchange will be very soon. If you are still feeling worried speak to your estate agent and get them to find out if all is ok with your buyers? Your estate agent is your link in with them so hopefully that should settle any worries you have.

The agents think they are fine. These are different agents to my previous aborted sale, who also told me the buyers were fine, and they weren't! But yes basically I have been told to calm down and be patient. But why ask detailed questions about building works - it's been signed off and thankfully I wasn't there measuring the diameter of each wall they put in, obviously the buyers haven't done works themselves before but surely the conveyancer should be rejecting pointless enquiries.

thanks jem i will try and not read too much into this!

@balalalala this happened to us, no solicitors named ... and then they totally disappeared.
Talk to your estate agent and get them to push your buyer.

There's nothing coming on near me to buy , I thought there'd be tons this week. And I've just had an argument with my horrid letting agents as they want to access the house when I can't be there and I hate that but they can do what the hell they want. Desperate to sell, buy, and this all to be over. I'm not feeling very well this week and seem to have no resources to draw on to cope with this situation anymore! Even if I could book a viewing it would make be feel better - but there's just nothing at all suitable! People are still waiting to sell?

@glitteryfrog it is the vendors of the one we're buying! Good news though... apparently the estate agent now has the firm, just waiting on the actual solicitor's name!

@tootyfruitypickle I hate having letting agents too and am generally fed up of being a tenant.

We had a minor breakthrough with the chain above as the estate agent at the top (selling a retirement flat) called my estate agent at the bottom (who is no longer involved as we are in rented) and wanted an update. Seems the estate agents (and / or solicitors) dealing with the middle two properties are the ones who are slowing us down.

I've now passed on our completion deadline of 20 May to everyone. Hoping we can achieve that and avoid moving into temporary accommodation.

Hello all 👋🏻. We’re in the process of selling our house and trying to buy another and I’d love some advice from you clever folk. So we saw a house we love, viewed it twice, didn’t put in offer because we hadn’t listed ours yet, told EA we’d be back in touch when we could proceed. Fast forward 8 weeks and we have had a great offer on our house from a chain free buyer, which we’ve accepted.

The house we want to buy is gorgeous but needs a lot of work (think rotting windows, damp, truly ancient kitchen/bathroom). It’s been on the market over a year with not a great deal of interest - was overpriced to begin with and it is in disrepair. We’ve put in an offer of just shy of 9% below current asking, which will give us budget to replace windows and do essential repairs. First offer rejected (not the lowest offer they’ve had though), second one still on table. It’s been a week now since 2nd offer and we’ve heard bugger all. EA seems to have been chasing, and I know we’ve just had Easter, but apparently the vendor takes ages to get back on offers (“finds it all a bit much”).

So my question is - if this was your situation, how would you play it? We can afford to up our offer a little, but not massively. But I feel like we’re hitting our heads against a wall (a wall that doesn’t really want to move (house)). How long to leave an offer open on the table? The EA seems genuinely apologetic at lack of news, but is it all a game? I don’t know anymore!

@BridgetJones : it’s tricky - in my experience poor contact with vendors = reluctance to sell = difficult or aborted transaction.

Maybe they do need to think about it but if they’re going to drag their heels about every interaction is it going to be more hassle than it’s worth on your part?

@Fleabag123 I think you’re right and the seller is reluctant to sell, which makes me concerned that they’d pull the plug at a later stage even if they accepted now. Baffles me why you’d have your house on the market if not actually wanting to move though! EA assures us that the seller is keen to move, but all communications so far seem to the contrary.. I don’t want to push the seller too hard, but by the same token an open offer on the table for a week with no response either way is surely ridiculous?! I could never leave someone hanging for that long

The other problem is that we haven’t seen anything remotely interesting in our price range in the area we’re looking, which means moving into rental is most likely (don’t want to take our house off market as we do ultimately want to sell it). If there was another house option, it’d be so much easier!

Well we've have good news this week.. our vendor has found their onward purchase and the chain is complete again, YAY

We are just waiting for draft contracts now, I've chased the EA today and vendor has promised to have the forms back to their solicitor in next couple of days.

I have a question though, we have no draft contract yet but have paid for searches. Does anyone have any advice on when to do searches? My understanding is you wouldn't usually do it until draft contracts are received but with it being second time round we are keen to get things moving. Likewise for the survey.. I know it's always a risk of wasted money but it's such a fine balance with wanting to progress ASAP!

minnie when (if!) i come to buy I will be doing the survey first and then follow with the searches, at least then if there is a deal breaker on the survey you haven't paid out for the searches yet. Second time around for me too so am keen not to throw more money away! But I have a surveyor who can usually do it the same week and the searches came back very quickly last time so I know it won't hold things up to do it this way.

@tootyfruitypickle thanks that makes a lot of sense. We've got a discount with our second survey (!) so may get on and do that in the meantime.. they take a fair while to come through anyway...

Still not heard back from vendor regarding this lease issue. I’ll call EA later, he wasn’t in the office y’day.
It looks like the “new lease” in 2011 wasn’t actually a new lease, it was an informal lease extension and someone unwittingly got signed up to a really crap deal - a dirty trick played by unscrupulous freeholders 😩

To make it worse the unwitting person paid £17k for their “new lease”

I've Exchanged🍾🍾🎉
I complete next Wednesday 1st May..
What a journey,so stressful.
Good luck to everyone on their journeys

@Smart123 - yay! I feel like we should have a thread 🛎 every time someone exchanges. Very happy for you and just a little bit jealous.

@Fleabag123 - keep strong. Bloody lease.

The survey was done on our house today. I stayed at home to spy. Our buyer has got a full buildings survey which I thought was a bit OTT - as did the surveyor. On the positive side he didn't seem to spot anything insurmountable and was a very practical and sensible (old school) type. I was feeling a bit wound up about the survey on our house but now feel a bit better. I think staying in to snoop was a good move. He says he will report back to his client in about 5 days.

Top tip - surveyor said that there should always be a gap between a hedge and a house. Our privet hedge is snug to the wall and looks to be causing slight damp. DH will be trimming back at the weekend.

Woohoo Smart123!! Great news and hope you can start to relax a bit.

Fleabag123 that sounds quite serious. Hard as it is, I would reconsider over the lease issue.

Ahh congratulations @Smart123 !! So happy for you

Thank you @sandybayley @mrspatmore and@Tiddletaddletatt... Will sleep tonight

How's @WBWIFE doing?

Congrats @Smart123, hope you’re celebrating!

@MrsPatmore - we are reconsidering but whilst there’s very little else of interest coming up right now we may as well give it a bit of time & see what possible solutions might be presented and how viable they are. I’m keeping an eye on listings. The vendor is being incredibly proactive at trying to find solutions according to EA who I finally got hold of today. He’s getting the file from his purchase tomorrow or Monday and his current sols are checking over all the details to make sure my sols interpretation is correct

@Smart123 waiting on our buyers, they still havent sent back signed documentation so they are holding up the whole chain still..

Hoping to exchange by next Friday as we go on holiday for 2 weeks.. just want to be exchanged as it will make me feel better.

Keep having reoccurring dreams that they pull out now!

Also congrats!!!!