Sellers/Buyers Roll Call 7

[MrBobLobLaw]

Stressed vendors and buyers alike: assemble here to moan about bloody solicitors!

Feel free to join at any point

@BuzzingtheBee we in an almost identical position :)

Congratulations @cuteorangeelephant! Looks like everyone is making good progress.

We’ve been on the market 2 weeks now, 5 viewings but no further interest and no more viewings booked in. I just want to get on with things. We’re not looking at houses yet as it seems a bit pointless until we’re under offer, but I’m scouring Rightmove constantly.

Sorry my last post should have tagged @Busybee434 I got my bees mixed up!

Hope you don’t mind me joining this thread - we got gazumped today. Just devastating! I know it’s legal, but feels like it shouldn’t be.

So we've been left hanging for over 2 weeks regarding our offer. Just looked and the property is 'no longer on the market' on rightmove and no longer on the EA website

@notheragain4 ah i look fwd to updates from you x

@planner10 , not pleasant experience.
so, they accepted your offer and then kept the property on the market?

@Busybee434 how is your estate agent and buyer feeling about the rapid turnover time for exchange? I feel we are doing well (mortgage offer will hopefully be through within 2 weeks of reserving) but our buyer has a new job and that's slowing down his mortgage.

@mumsy27 yep they accepted our offer (they asked for a specific amount which we decided to offer without haggling to secure it), the EA cancelled viewings etc but then someone who offered previously came back and outbid us (they previously had been given the opportunity to do this whilst still on the market but said they couldn’t afford it). Absolutely livid. We had the funds to go higher but the trust was lost with the seller (and to an extent the agent) for us. We couldn’t trust this wouldn’t happen again as the market is v competitive. For what it’s worth, the agents told the vendor to stick with us (so the offer couldn’t have been much more) - said they thought this couple would try and recoup the difference later on down the line eg after survey as that was often their experience in this situation. Also in this Covid market, if what they said was true about not being able to afford to go higher, it will be interesting to see if they can actually get the money together. But onwards and upwards for us.

Oh planner that is my worst nightmare so sorry that’s happened. Have you already spent much on solicitors etc? We made our offer contingent on them taking the property off the market too. It was marked SSTC the next day as soon as the EA had seen our id/proof of funds. I don’t think there’s anyone else that could come back though. Fingers crossed. Argh I don’t know you and am gutted for you! What’s your plan, straight back out viewing?

@rillette - have you spoken to the agent? What do they say about the situation?

I'm sitting here waiting to puncheon the post incase he has our paper copy of the mortgage offer so I can start chasing the solicitor for exchange.

@Lemonylemony thank you, yeah it’s gutting. Wind has been taken out of our sales a bit, horrible seeing my daughter upset as she loved it (she’s 18 so can’t hide this from her). Though she was also pissed off and said we shouldn’t be treated like mugs luckily we didn’t lose any solicitor fees yet - if it had been one day later though...

Calling agents again today and will set up viewings. ARGH.

Wishing you luck in your purchase xx

Well I’m having my first annoyed at solicitors moment today.

We’re using solicitors arranged through the estate agent as that was a condition that agent said the vendor was putting on accepting our offer, due to a previous buyer dropping out they thought blaming on shitty solicitors or something. Whatever, the quote was pretty much the same as the quotes I already had so fine says I.

Well first off there has been no personal welcome or contact, just log-ins sent for an online secure document site with a ton of stuff on there with several marked “COMPLETE AND RETURN” but no instructions on how to return it. No phone number to talk to a human, just a customerservices@ email address. They calculated the stamp duty incorrectly in the statement of fees. And some of the questions on their forms have very poor grammar/syntax, worries me about their professionalism and attention to detail.

They require us to send (still not sure how) some certified ID, we have an issue as DP lives with family, online banking, old paper driving licence etc does not hold any of the acceptable documents specified on one of the lists. I emailed them yesterday midday to clarify if any of the things he does hold would be acceptable, but no reply. Chased half an hour ago so will see if they reply today.

Just think it’s bloody cheeky it’s got bold capital letters saying PLEASE RETURN IN 7 DAYS with no instructions on how to return and no response when we raise a query. We’ve asked the bank to send out paper statements but that will take 5-7 days to arrive to us, let alone get it certified around DP’s shifts and then returned (somehow) to the solicitor.

@planner10 I sympathise as this happened to me last week. Buyers took higher offer after accepting mine. I had not realised how competitive market is. I was gutted as I loved it and my 19 yr old DD too. I even tried to outbid but they found some morals I guess and said no. I will not be doing that to someone myself, it is not a nice move. Best of luck, there will be something else there for you.

Someone in our village private messaged me on Facebook and offered more than our current buyer. I said no nicely, as I'm not a dick (as much as we could have used the money) I'm just praying all goes ok with this buyer or I will kick myself.

Oh dear planner, this is truly a worst nightmare, I didnt know that it is legal to do so!

I’ve just spoken to Bonner (www.doreebonner.co.uk/) and they are still packing 😁

Hi we have without meaning to jumped into selling/buying, after talking about it for ages we found our new house mid-lockdown, agreed part exchange and are currently waiting to exchange contracts, it seems the only hold up is the mortgage valuation of the new house but there is a huge backlog so no idea how long we will have to wait. It’s frustrating but not a lot we can do. Is anyone else in a similar position ?

@iamhopeful is the new house a new build? In which case it'll be a desk valuation and shouldn't take too long, we submitted our application last weds and the valuation was done today.

FTB question: at what point did you commission the surveyor? We’ll be getting a full structural survey, it’s a 90 year old property with various additions/conversion over the years. I was thinking once the mortgage is in place, I don’t want to waste the surveyor fee if it turns out there’s an issue with the mortgage.

notheragain4 That’s really reassuring, and yes it’s a new build, not really what it thought we would end up with but we need space and sadly live in one of the priciest areas in the country 😕 It is a lovely house though

@Lemonylemony you get a survey done as part of the mortgage process, you have 3 kinds you'll want the highest. I'm not sure if there's something additional to that for your own piece of mind perhaps someone else can help with that.

@iamhopeful I personally love new builds. I love the clean lines, energy efficiency, newness. If you've got a good sized house and a nice plot then no reason to deem it less worthy than an old house. This will be the third we've lived in, I've worked in the heritage sector for years and studied history, I get enough quirky and character through work! It's modern at home for me.

My understanding is that the mortgage is a valuation survey, commissioned by the lender. We want a proper building survey commissioned by us.

Got a lot of quotes for RICS level 3 building surveys, and a growing list of questions we want the surveyor to answer, just not sure when in the process to get it done.

Ah ok, I'm not the best to answer as the oldest house I've bought was 8 years old 😂 we've never selected the highest level of survey you can get with a mortgage, we went for the middle one with the new-ish house and only doing the simplest valuation one for the new build we're buying.

I'm pretty sure the level 3 mortgage led one is more than just a valuation though, it goes into much more detail.