Sellers/Buyers Roll Call No 6

[Violetroselily]

New thread

Slow progress for me. About half the enquiries have been responded to, but its the useless half i.e. nothing that i actually need to know in order to progress.

I will be moving out of my rental in 4 weeks time irrespective of what happens, so starting to sort through some of my stuff now

@PinkToaster - I feel for you. We lost one buyer and found another only to lose the house we originally wanted. We then very nearly lost the 2nd house. Thankfully we've exchanged on both now but trying to juggle a sale and purchase is almost impossible. That's what makes going into rented appealing.

@OneWorld - any news on exchange? I don't think Monday is a good day for exchange, much more likely on a Tuesday as things need to get going again on a Monday.

@pinktransit - all sounds positive but keep on top of it. Make yourself a pest.

@Violetroselily - keep plodding on. By the end I was almost past caring about the remaining enquiries.

I have the children packing their own boxes today - one benefit of having teenagers. DH has been negotiating with our buyers today about some bits and pieces we don't need (dishwasher, fridge freezer and bike sheds etc) so we have an extra £700! I'm pleased we're leaving the fridge freezer (new house has a big American one) as it means we won't have to run the contents completely down, we'll just stick anything remaining in a cool bag for the 1 mile journey in the car. Our buyers have been so nice I will also be able to leave them champagne in the fridge.

@pinktransit welcome! It all sounds very exciting, hope it all goes smoothly!

Still no updates about our exchange and our buyer would like to complete this month! How often do you keep chasing your EA at this stage? I email approximately every other day and he always replies and ends his email 'I will let you know as soon as I hear' or something similar. The local searches are taking ages (6 weeks now!), the buyer's solicitor is rubbish and the buyer also likes to go AWOL from time to time.
I'm tearing my hair out soon, just can't take this uncertainty!

Can I join in?
I’m selling and going into rented, accepted an offer on my house on 19th June. Buyer is in rented and works for a firm of solicitors, led me to believe she could move fast.
EA advised her that local searches are taking 3-4 weeks so to put in for those first, I requested a moving date of 1st August. Found out last week that her solicitor hadn’t requested searches until 4th July!
Was promised a list of enquiries last Monday, they still haven’t arrived.
Apparently her searches are due back 13th August so I’ve requested a moving date of 16th August.
I don’t want to lose my buyer but if she doesn’t hurry I’m going to lose the lovely house I’m planning to rent. I’m so pleased not to be purchasing at the same time, the stories above are so disheartening. I feel for you all

@dimmu I also struggle with knowing how often to chase. My solicitor is very good and I know he is chasing the vendors solicitor, so I don't want to keep hassling him but every day that passes makes me think I should be doing more.

The EA for my purchase is utterly useless - never in the office to take calls and doesnt respond to emails. No point chasing him as I just don't get anywhere.

@Violetroselily It's hard to know isn't it! Our solicitor is brilliant and has done all he can, It's the other party along with the council that is slowing things down. So I mainly chase the EA for updates and he must hate it when he sees my name pop out on his screen! He always says he will keep me posted but I can't help myself and keep messaging him.
We have no direct contact with our buyer at all and I have been quite surprised to see how many people here communicate with their buyer/vendor directly, always thought that didn't really happen!

@dimmu and @Violetroselily - we also have had a very good solicitor and TBH I felt a bit sorry for him. I have felt like he has done the most amount of work in the chain and has carried our vendors rubbish solicitor. I'm still going to put in an official complaint about our vendors' solicitor but am holding off until completion in case he messes anything else up.

@LabradorMama - welcome! Don't get put off by all of the doom and gloom on this thread. It can and will work out for you but you can come on here to rant away!

@PinkToaster oh no so sorry. How long is your chain? Fingers crossed you find another buyer quickly.

@Violetroselily hope things pick up for you soon. After enquiries it shouldn't be too long.

@dimmu I would call your solicitor and get them to chase things up.

Well we played the game and lost. Put our house back on the market and stated that we could give until Tuesday to complete. Our solicitor and the buyers solicitor said they felt this was doable. We refused to take house off the market until exchange as we've been told exchange is going to happen for a month now. Tuesday is it for childcare and work time off really so not much choice. Buyers have now pulled out and found somewhere else within 24 hours. A rather rude message sent this morning. At least we now know where we stand. I don't think they had any intention of completing anytime soon. Someone pass the wine.

@BeauticianNotMagician81

@BeauticianNotMagician81 shit I wonder if they've been pursuing the other place all along and that's why they've been so slow with you. Did they send the rude message, or did you?

Are you going to stay on the market now or come off for summer?

Have you booked that holiday yet?

@BeauticianNotMagician81 - the bastards. The house buying and selling seems to bring out the worst in some people. Hope you'll carry on and book that holiday - at the end of the day that's what's important and you recognise that, so onwards and upwards I hope.

@BeauticianNotMagician81 I second DaphneduM's sentiments exactly - the total utter and complete bastards!!! It beggars belief how anyone can do this at such a stressful time - why on earth string you along for so long? Sending loads of good vibes and wine your way that you get a decent buyer very soon who will complete as quickly as humanly possible

@Violetroselily they sent the rude message. I sent a perfectly polite one back and wished them luck. She's also 6 months pregnant and although I'm fuming, I just keep telling myself it was just a house and not worth crying over. We will stay on over the next few weeks and see how it goes I think.

@DaphneduM thanks. Yes booking our holiday. Definitely need to think about something else. Moving has been all I've thought about for four months.

@Blobby10 thanks. We have some new builds going up by us so who knows perhaps we were meant to go for a shiny new house instead of another that needed work.

@BeauticianNotMagician81 pair of fuckers. Well done for not rising to it.

Actually managed to speak to the EA this morning, told him I need to complete by mid August or I'm out. Hoping that shit him up a bit. There's answers to enquiries that my vendor is needing from the managing agent - so somewhat out of the vendors control - but also stuff that he should be sending himself (like the fixtures and fittings form )

EA assures me he will get on to both the vendor and the managing agent to chase it up today.

My solicitor is optimistic that once these enquiries are resolved, we're good to exchange. But depending on the outcome I will be looking to reduce my offer due to the cost of the communal works, so that is potentially more rigmarole if the vendor doesnt agree to a reduction.

@BeauticianNotMagician81 - allow yourself 24 hours of anger and move on. You have done the right thing by forcing the issue and not being rude. I'm a great believer in karma. The buyers we lost have still not sold their flat and the vendors who dumped us have still not sold their house. Things have a way of catching up with CFs in the end.

@Violetroselily - well done for chasing. Appalling not to have sorted out the fixtures and fittings form. DH and I completed it within 24 hours of receiving ours. You have to wonder how serious people are if they can't set aside time to complete necessary forms ASAP.

@sandybayley yep, I dont know what he's playing at tbh. He's a BTL landlord and is clearly very hands off with the whole process, and doesn't seem remotely concerned that he is losing money on an empty flat. No sense of urgency whatsoever, and no incentive to hurry things along

No exchange yet! Don’t know what’s holding it up. It’s so frustrating!!

@Violetroselily I hope things hurry up for you now you've spoken to EA.

@sandybayley the buyer has turned it all around on me and being so rude. I don't even believe they have found anywhere but I'll let them get on with it now.

So we have a few viewings booked already. I just don't know what to do with all the boxes. Partially unpack or fully? We currently have a dining table with no chairs as we sold them as getting new delivered on Tuesday. Was supposed to be at the new house. I'm just worried our house doesn't look it's prettiest. I've taken out all the candles and nice little flowers in a pot as I think the little touches make such a difference.

@OneWorld fingers crossed for you. I would call the solicitor and tell them to hurry up.

@BeauticianNotMagician81 - great that you have viewings booked already. If you've 'sold' once you'll sell again. Any potential buyer will see that you're motivated to sell. Don't worry about the packing boxes. No one bought a house because it has scented candles or flowers.

@sandybayley haha you are right. I think I'm just over thinking the whole thing. I don't know how I feel. It's an emotional rollercoaster.

@BeauticianNotMagician81 oh no that's rubbish! But Glad you have viewings booked already, hopefully a new buyer will come along in no time.

Our useless buyer and his more useless solicitor have gone AWOL again and have stopped communicating. Were hoping we might even exchange this week but not a chance now. I hate this process so much.

Jumping back in! I was on thread 5 for selling but back for my purchase under a new name Forgive me for the massive post, I really need to vent today!

So we are now chain free with the equity from our sale ready to go as a deposit. Mortgage offer is in place. We viewed on the 9th May and then again a few days later, made an offer of the asking price on 13th which was accepted the day after. Instructing a solicitor was tricky as our lender only approves 3/4 conveyancers in our region. After the first failed to respond to our formal instruction despite being great on the phone, we cut our losses and went with one on the list recommended by the estate agent as they are local and apparently have a good reputation.

Fast forward to yesterday; after being off for the whole of the last 2 weeks the estate agent gets in touch to say the searches can’t be processed by the vendors solicitors as they haven’t received the proof of funds from our solicitors. We’ve had this in place for weeks. They also claim to have returned the fixtures and fittings form which we tried to chase up last week. I call my solicitor, who has also been away all last week. He gets arsey, tells me he sent the proof of funds by special delivery on the 27th June and has not received any fixtures form from vendors. He also states vendors have only responded to 2 of 9 enquiries and declares that “oh I suppose you’ve been speaking to the estate agent. I’m really getting quite angry now.”! Then informs me he has chased up the fixtures form by fax

I know this isn’t AIBU but really? He is the one getting angry? They don’t even use email! Vendors want to complete mid August as they have school age children and are buying a vacant property with no onward chain, have all their searches back etc. so should be straightforward. Who do I believe/chase/yell at?

Oh gosh. That was longer than I thought sorry!