Sellers/Buyers Roll Call 8 and still going

[Fern204]

Hope it's ok to start a new thread.
Bottom of our chain should exchange on Monday and then the top will hopefully exchange a week later. I dont quite understand, something to do with a charge on our buyers house which needs to be released first.
Aiming to complete on 15th July, so hopefully not much longer.
I will never move again, and definitely not in a chain of 10!

The estate agent is brilliant and she has been shimming them along and told them to start the legal stuff as it takes ages etc. but just so quiet. They were so keen and eager at the start and had lawyer and mortgage details within an hour so thought since no one needs to move will be 6-8 weeks tops. Now there's no chance of 6 weeks and i seriously doubt 8 will be possible either!

I'm glad your EA is good. It's so frustrating, I kept asking if there was a date he was trying to avoid, was he deliberately delaying, because I am perfectly fine to delay completion (we are going into rented) it's just exchange I need asap for developer. I was going crazy thinking he must have some kind of tactic, no one is this laid back and naive, but no I think he really is. I'm a "sign that form the second it comes in" kind of person, I'm a nightmare customer that chases constantly. I don't like hanging around and I don;t understand people not like me lol!

We've been on the market for 7 weeks and still only 1 viewing. Shared my property on another thread a few days ago and had some constructive feedback, but also a lot of people who really dislike it based on layout and type of house which obviously we can't change. I'm just feeling now like t this will never happen for us, and I totally love the house that we were going to move to, it's the dream forever house. If we don't buy now as a new build then I don't think we will get they perfection as it is now again. Feeling a bit crap about it, but then feeling stupid for feeling this was a bout a house. I thought our house would be so easy to sell because I really like it

@LoisLittsLover that does seem low for viewings.Do you think the price was fair ? Do you know how it’s performing on right move ?

@Loislittslover are you trying to buy a new build? Can you part exchange or do an assisted move?

@Bigoldwimp the price seems comparable to other similar houses in our area and is what the agent recommended. They have told us that it's getting above average views on rightmove, including people downloading the brochure, but it's not translating to viewings. I thought even if people did think it was expensive they may have viewed and then put a lower offer in.

@notheragain4 yes, looking at a new build but they don't do part ex. They will do assisted move but a local agent s has to sell it within 28 days and we can't afford to move if we don't get nearish to the asking price, the assisted move were estimating about 25-35k under the current asking price to ensure a 28 day turn around and we can't afford such a big drop.

Thank you for both of your responses, we are going to talk to the agent again.dH's dad was shielding but can come out at the weekend and we are going to get him to take some better photos for the advert as he is amazing photographer

So my agent called today about something else and I asked about where the legal stuff was. She said she's going to my buyers today to help with their forms etc as they're getting confused haha. I think I may have to buy her flowers after this.

As for my purchase we were worried we were overpaying a bit but another house went on the market on the same road on Monday and has already gone stc in less than 48 hours. It's a 3 bed 1 bath as opposed to our 4 bed, 2 bath and it's not as nicely done. I rung the agent selling it and asked out of curosity about it and they told me it went at asking price aka just £40k less than ours in less than 48 hours. So we feel better about our purchase price

@Loislittslover ooh are you the townhouse?? I read that thread but didn’t comment as other people had given lots of helpful suggestions! FWIW it’s a lovely house if it is that one, I like townhouses. Better photos would definitely help though, fingers crossed the whizzy photographer comes through for you guys and that that translates into viewings. The forever house will still happen...worst case scenario it won’t be this one that you think it is, but wherever you end up it’ll work out. I know plenty of people whose house purchases fell through and they were gutted at the time, but they all say it worked out for the best.

@Didicat I’m so sorry your house fell through, what a nightmare for you. Hope you can keep the rest of the chain intact and that things work out however you want or need them to

@Bells3032 I feel your pain, except our slow ones are the sellers rather than buyers. Accepted our offer over a month ago now and we’ve still heard absolutely nothing.
I’m going to ring our solicitors tomorrow to see if they’ve heard anything from vendors’ solicitors and if not, I’m going to suggest via EA that they get a new solicitor who will actually do some fucking work.

Good day here - after what feels like weeks of limbo, we finally had a response from the bank today re the mortgage - they won’t lend us quite as much as we’ve asked for - there’s a £15k difference which luckily we can soak up thanks to the stamp duty change! I’m just so so relieved they haven’t come back with a flat no, was absolutely dreading the thought of having to start all over again. However because we’re now putting in more £, we’re into the next LTV bracket so need to quickly rerun some figures with mortgage broker tomorrow as we’ll be eligible better rates now apparently. Seems like a pretty done deal though, he said he’ll ring tomorrow to run through it with me over the phone, ping it off to the underwriter and we should have a formal offer within a couple of days. I’m massively relieved and am going to start chucking my weight around re getting things done now I’m a bit more confident that we won’t be holding everything up for weeks trying to get a new mortgage offer!

@fourforyouglencoco possibly that may be me!!! Ivve just used fil's camera to play around with some angles etc and already my photos look far superior to the agents. I'm no artist but just taking 10 random shots of each room has allowed me to get it looking so much better. So we're definitely going to retake most at the weekend during the day with fil's advice, and resubmit them. My only worry is if people have written it off based on the old photos bit hopefully it will now catch someone's eye. Bit peeved with the agents though

Last week EA advised buyer's lodged complaint with their solicitor as there had been no progression in 9 weeks. The EA, lets call the fella bullshitting bradley, told me the senior partner in the solicitors firm was handling the complaint, doing everything they can to rectify the issues and had tentatively advised another 8 weeks to complete but would come back to me on Monday with hopefully a shorter timeframe. He gave me the name of the senior partner and I recalled making a note but in my anger it didn't register.

DH chased EA yesterday as no update was forthcoming. EA advised that the search results were due back by 7th August as the local authority was experiencing covid-19 related delays. (The searches were requested 29th June)

So I called our solicitor to advise of the complaint the buyer had raised with his solicitor and that the buyer now had a different conveyancer, although same firm. They said it made a lot of sense, solicitor had been getting very frustrated with lack of communication, requests for information sent numerous times, so promised to look into it and come back to us. She was also going to contact our vendors solicitor to advise of the delays being experienced with completing the sale of our property and check on the incentive of SD. She called me back late yesterday to say she had been on hold for 40 minutes, pushed from pillar to post but found out original conveyancer was on holiday, the firm has massive backlog of cases and can't give any cases time frames for completion. Her words: They are not a good firm to use.

Our Solicitor also advised us "Tell the EA to stay out of it" because it turns out, they are a more than likely a lying bunch of .....

EA advised us at the time of the offer the buyer had DIP and conveyancers in place as he had sale fall through recently and was in their words "Ready to go". It took 6 weeks for the buyer to supply ID to the ambulance chasers. The mortgage had to be reapplied for.

Today I contacted our Local authority to seek SLA's on search requests. They advised 2-3 day turnaround. The search office were very concerned with reports of a 4 week wait for search results as they pride themselves on being one the best on the country and wanted further info. After explaining the situation they were able to tell me searches were requested but not on the date I gave them and via a 3rd party organisation. Turns out the searches were probably were not paid for til last week.

Google searches revealed this so called "Senior Partner" (Because I remembered writing this birds name down) that she in fact is a standard conveyancer working for an solicitors whose main line of work is ambulance chasing. They have "offices" all over the UK but workers are home based. The trust pilot reviews are shocking.

Looking back, our naivety has not done us any favours. The EA has been economical with the truth; the buyers solicitors are for want of a better word incompetent. Even our solicitors at times have been very slow at updating us and it took 4 goes to get the correct title plan, so not everyone is perfect. I haven't helped the situation by chasing at least weekly for updates and getting frustrated people IMO are not doing their jobs properly!! God forbid if there is ever a next time we have learned:
EA's are lying slimy fucks - will use 2 agents on a no-sale no fee term 6 week contract only.
Vet buyers status before accepting an offer. What should have been a very simple transaction is not because we ourselves didn't perform due diligence.
If those fail, part exchange!

So the plan is....nothing. We wait. DH wants to move into the house as he loves it. It is a decent house, many rooms, just right for what we need from a home, driveway questionable but it's a compromise. If we are still here at the start of school term I will drive my boy to school. 40 mile round trip but hey, will be nice to get out the house.

And if it all falls through, then so be it. It's in the hands of our solicitors who we are leaving alone to sort through this mess. We could be lucky and be in by the end of September. So that is the deadline DH has set, moved end of September, or we pull out.

Sorry of you've lost minutes of your life reading this flipping essay, but it has helped typing it out - best wishes to all...

OMG Poppiesandnettles! How on earth have you stayed sane? I think I would be rocking in a corner by now. Hats off to you I say ( and lots of wine)!.
( I probably would have stormed into the EA's and so called solicitors ( and probably been banned for the torrent of expletives that would have ensued )). Credit where credits due I say! ( Are you allowed to tell us the names of EA and Solicitors so everyone reading this will know to avoid at all costs ?) Poor you.
If you're serious about pulling out September, have you told your EA and Solicitors this, and, if so, what was the result?
I only went SSTC over a week ago so very early doors for me so far.....

Argh joining you to bang my head against a wall....

We were doing so well to start with.

Our buyer is not in a chain, we've exchanged numbers and she has everything in place to move. Survey done, valuation done, mortgage in place, searches requested (and probably in by now).

We were in a good place too, buying a new build so no upwards chain.

Then the mortgage cropped up. We are self employed and only have 1 years worth of accounts. Our current bank are considering us anyway because we business bank with them; mortgage with them, and we are at 60% loan to on the new property.

Which in theory is great as it saves us the early repayment fee of almost £7,000.

Underwriters requested additional documents 10 days ago. They were uploaded within 45 minutes of the request being made..... and nothing.

Total radio silence. Mortgage advisor at the bank is not being helpful, just shrugging shoulders and waiting.

We are waiting for our searches to come back, and I'm not worried that the mortgage won't come through and we'll need to start over with a new bank, and that will take FOREVER.

I know in theory we are low risk, as our income has gone up, we are not affected by Covid, our loan to value has gone down, and we have savings in the bank.

But the silence is making me nervous. ARGH I hate house sales.

Had a hiccup in the proceedings, (it's my own fault for telling someone how well I thought it was all going ) After paying a £999 set up fee for our 90% Nationwide mortgage last Tuesday and getting a text from them telling us a mortgage valuation was booked for the following Wednesday (yesterday) we suddenly noticed this Tuesday that the £999 had been refunded back into our account. After chasing our mortgage brokers (who helpfully had both gone on holiday together) and Nationwide directly it turns out that one of the criteria for the mortgage (which neither us or our brokers can find listed anywhere) is that no more than 25% of the deposit can be gifted (about 40% of ours is). So, the way to fix this is to scrape even more money together so that we can now have a 85% mortgage which at least gives us more options. We are now going with a different bank as well.

I was very stressed that this has put us back in the process and we are going to run out of time, when I actually looked yesterday however we only had our offer accepted two weeks ago yesterday so I have calmed a bit. Our solicitor is still going ahead with everything, the mortgage brokers have found another mortgage and we have an Agreement in Principle with them and the full application was sent off yesterday so hopefully we haven't got too behind. This new mortgage needs our landlords address for a reference though? Is that normal?

@Ballet1992 You are in the exact position as us! No chain buyer below that seems to be going ok - survey done and searches requested. We are buying a new build and my husband is a ltd company. Luckily we are using the IFA that the new build company recommended so he is updating them directly on mortgage delays due to needing another year of tax accounts which will take another 10 days!

@luvabellawilleatme oh no. What an absolute pain. Hope it's not the same for Santander - We are getting about 70% of our deposit (which accounts for 45% the value of the house) from my in laws.

When I bought my flat a few years ago about 40% of my deposit was gifted from my family and it wasn't an issue. That's such a strange new rule.

@Poppiesandnettles that sounds like a total nightmare. We are here for you to vent to though I admit I don't have much advice

@Ballet1992 it makes you wonder why anyone ever moves more than once in their lifetime

@Bells3032 Hopefullly not! We are going with Santander now! Nationwide did tell us that that criteria only applied to their 90% mortgage, as soon as we went to a 85% mortgage most of the strict criteria disappeared.

Waiting for the postman to hopefully have our mortgage application paperwork for us to sign to send off with our payslips and bank statements. Our bank said it would take 4-5 days. This was last Thursday.

With regards to the Building Survey, we were going to use the bank's surveyor to complete it as it was cheaper, however, with the banks having a backlog of applications and the conveyancing process going a lot faster than the mortgage stuff, we might just instruct our own just so that we can get the queries from it responded to sooner. A few of you have recommended this too previously. Our solicitor agrees.

We received the F&F and property form for the house we are buying and our solicitor raised over 20 queries from it. We added a couple more to the list but hopefully they shouldn't be too difficult to respond to. Some of the queries might actually be answered with the survey.

On our buyers side, survey completed, plumber was here on Tuesday and he found a couple of minor issues which we have fixed and electrician is popping round tomorrow morning to complete their electrical report. Our buyers are coming to conduct a 2nd viewing on Sunday as they also want to see the items we are leaving for them. Once we are past the weekend, I will relax a little; I might even pack a box or two in hope.

With regards to % of deposit being gifted - are they assuming that after purchase you’ll basically have no money left? This is what my lender is querying (although thanks to 5 days of no replies to daily emails to me broker, I don’t actually know specifically what the query is. My parents have given us some money, but will have almost that amount left over after the sale, we don’t need the entire gift for the deposit, but it means we’ll have money straight away to work on the house. So I don’t know what counts as gift deposit - the amount they have given us, or the amount of that we actually need to pay the deposit? Confusing! If % is an issue, can I give some back to them (and they’ll give it back to me after we complete!!?)

@Lemonylemony what usually happens is they will draw up a completion statement that shows what you need to pay in terms of deposit, solicitor fees etc. They will want to see proof of funds in your bank account (well I don't remember that as a FTB actually but they did that this time), they may ask to see your bank statements (they did for us, they wanted to see we had savings to pay the rest as the proceeds from our sale won't be enough). And they ask where the money has come from which you have to declare. I don't know how it works with lenders at all, but in my brother's case they just wanted a letter from my mum confirming it was a gift, she wouldn't be asking for it back and she had no stake in the property.

Yes, we’ve done all that already - weeks ago! They’re querying the amount of the gift. Probably because we said was x amount and actually it is 5x amount, but we only need a fifth of it for the deposit if that makes sense?

I’m hitting a brick wall with it. Broker not responded to 5 emails in a row now, and not answering phone, no voicemail. Tried to call lender - no answer on any of their numbers either, just rings out. Nothing else I can do.

It's time for me to join this thread.

Offer accepted on our house - 18/7.
Our offer accepted on new property - 24/7
Solicitor instructed- 24/7
Full mortgage application submitted via broker- 29/7
Valuation appointment- 30/7

Let's see how this journey goes. I remember saying I'd never move again but here I am!

I might be getting somewhere on a webchat with the lender. I think. It’s all a little confusing.

I found myself ridiculously getting frustrated at the weekend that it was the weekend - because no progress would be made! Now that it's the week guess what, still no progress. The whole week. Broker told us last Thursday that because the lender was withdrawing the rate that day (meaning we had to quickly apply) that they would then process the request quicker and that we should hear by Tuesday. Well it's Thursday now and nothing. Plus can't get hold of broker via phone or email. I get the feeling we are being ignored. Decided to send the solicitor paperwork even though we can't fill in the mortgage info just to get the ball rolling. I'm just so disappointed that absolutely nothing has progressed (as far as we know) this week yet.

My big concern now is that valuation will come out as less than our offer as we offered a fair bit over asking price 😩

It’s just so frustrating isn’t it? I wouldn’t mind no progress if we were kept informed of when we can expect responses. But just no response, no evidence of any action, radio silence is quite frankly crap customer service. Apparently I can’t cut the broker out now without starting a new application. But I doubt I’ll be using one again put it that way. I found the same deal online myself, I just went with them because I thought they’d manage it all for me and make it easier. It’s been the opposite, they’re holding the process up.

I think I’ve answered the lender’s query directly in the webchat, and they said underwriters response 1-2 working days - but response will go to my broker, so fuck knows when I’ll get to hear about it!

Meanwhile, vendors apparently want to complete 14th August. My thoughts on that today are, well wouldn’t that be nice.

@Lemonylemony that sounds optimistic! I would like to complete then too but I'm not going to!
Frustrating that it goes to the broker - the cynic in me assumes they are prioritising new business rather than getting back promptly to those who have already put in their application. I just need to know! They did seem absolutely snowed under when we called them though. Like you I also saw the exact same offer direct and feel like we should've gone straight to them but broker made the process easy... albeit many years ago now. I look at the commission they are set to get for the arrangement and wonder why it's all so slow.