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!

@Karcheer I don’t think anywhere in London will be low risk for subsidence, we’re build on clay. I just figure if the house has been there for 90 years already with no sign of sinking then hopefully we’ll be ok!

@bellyislikejelly congratulations on exchanging!

I thought that once the completion date is set at exchange, you have to complete that day or you’re in breach of contract? What is the point of the gap between exchange and completion anyway, just to get removals etc arranged?

I just feel like we are being squished from both sides... and I now understand why I’m not rich! Both the buyer of here and seller of our new house live in £3m houses, I’ve got one expecting me to pay for their carpets to be cleaned and the other expecting me to pay for their curtains... I’m living my curtains and will clean the carpets at the other end if they need doing.

Leaving not living.

Joining you all in the stress of selling/buying

We've just accepted an offer on the sale of my mother's house (inherited property) and started the process for Inheritence tax/probate 6 weeks ago, I rang HMRC yesterday to find out how much longer it was going to take and they can't find any reference that we have even requested the code for Inheritence tax . I kicked up a fuss and they have promised to get us the tax by Monday. I'm worried out buyer is going to get fed up and pull out.

We're buying a shared ownership home with the proceeds from the sale. Found somewhere we love and been accepted by the seller, references have been sent to the managing agents and then we'll need to have an interview. I dont think they'll be any issues but I'm having sleepless nights worrying that they're not going to accept us for some reason.

I can believe how stressful it all is

will clean the carpets at the other end if they need doing

Too right! Cheeky buyer. I’m planning to get some cleaners in to do a deep clean on day 2 at the new house, tbh, given that we don’t have to move in right away. They can do the same if they want surely! Just say no.

Actually have my own carpet shampoo machine as the flat we’re in currently is all carpets apart from bathroom/kitchen and we have pets it’s a nightmare! New house is all wooden floors downstairs can’t wait.

@Newhome321 ash that's rubbish. Having gone through so much. I'm sorry you have ended with the process. It is stressful; we are at the beginning and my nerves are shot. The small glimmer of positivity though is 5 years to clear your mortgage! That will be such a relief for you at least.

@bellyislikejelly CONGRATULATIONS on exchanging🥂. Good luck with the packing and the move.

13 viewings today. I have spent the day at my mum's. Fingers crossed we have some positive news of an offer on Monday. We are 2nd viewing the house we like on Tuesday so we can make an offer afterwards. Fingers crossed.

@notthereyet good luck!

I can finally join a thread like this. Still assume everything will go wrong. It’s the property we became accidental landlords on (I know I know, shouldn’t even be admitting to that on here) and it’s a mill stone round our neck, we’re selling it for less than we owe on the mortgage to someone who is keeping the tenants in. I have everything crossed that this is going to save 2020...

Draft contracts went to the other solicitors last week. Here’s hoping.

I’ve just been reading through this thread where a buyer is having problems as the vendor doesn’t have the paperwork for the loft conversion
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/3846289-Converted-loft-with-no-building-regulation-certificate-Can-it-be-counted-as-a-bedroom

We’re currently waiting for all of this information back from the solicitor, the property we are buying the vendors did the loft conversion themselves so 🤞🏻 have the paperwork for that (their questionairre said they did), but there is also a downstairs knockthrough/extension done by the owners before them - over 30 years ago now. The wording of the survey on this is “ Without opening up the structure of the building it is not possible to ascertain whether these have been removed correctly and you should ensure that Building Regulation approval was given for this work. At the time of inspection there were no signs that this work has compromised the integrity of the original building structure.”
Now I suspect the current vendors will not have evidence of the previous BR approval, if there was any. Can historical BR certificates be found anywhere? Worst case scenario, I thought we’d get an indemnity policy - but then reading that thread I linked, it seems that indemnity only covers against retrospective legal/planning action, not against the building falling down 40 years later because the work wasn’t don’t properly?

Not sure I understand it all to be honest.

@Lemonylemony I think sometimes you have to just take the risk that something that was done 30 years ago, if still standing will probably continue to stand. You probably won't have any documentation and thats just the way it is.
My current house was a 1980s 2 bedroom bungalow, every single person since then has added to it, knocked walls down, rebuilt walls etc.
Someone at some point made it into a dormer bungalow - we had no documentation for this. The previous owner added a side extension (they had all the correct doc's) and then we added a further side and front ext.
No one would believe it was ever a 2 bed bungalow... but only some of this is fully documented...

As long as the surveyor has checked for cracks etc and there aren't any...
Also if i were going to do work i would say to the builder, im not sure if there are the correct steels etc.

Just caught up with the thread, @Newhome321 I’m so sorry it’s all gone tits up for you, what a huge stress! Hopefully it all turns out to be for the best in the end.
@Notyetthere good luck for your viewings from today - 13 in a day, blimey!

@Lemonylemony I agree that for some stuff you just have to take the risk. Our first house the seller was amazing, had docs & certificates for absolutely everything. Our current house, practically every question on the whole fixtures & fittings form they’d ticked ‘don’t know’ we had pretty much no paperwork for anything, but the house has been great and we’ve never had a single issue here.
@Karcheer sounds like you’ve had a nightmare too - how are you feeling about everything now?!

Over here I’ve spent most of the weekend catching up with all the paperwork for the conveyancer for our sale & purchase - the people we’re using have an online portal thing which is a) foolproof and b) really quick, which helps reduce the stress of it all a bit! Have a phone appt tomorrow just to touch base with conveyancer, and I’m hoping we can finally get our mortgage application officially done and in too - it’s dragged on for weeks already and I suspect it will be the thing that holds everything up! And that’s just the application - we still need to wait after that for the flipping offer (or a rejection I suppose!). All starting to feel a lot more real now - I’m excited but also v nervous that it will all fall through yet! Can’t wait to start packing though going to force myself to wait a bit longer!

Lots of exclamation marks in there, can you tell I’m a bit excited about it all 🙈

Hello, may I join you? Lying here awake in the small hours overthinking things!

So we’ve sold our house to relocate 130miles back to where I grew up and where my parents are.

Got everything ready to sell pre-lockdown but paused marketing, hit go in Mid-June and it sold for full asking within 3 days to a cash buyer (they need to sell their property to finance it though, so it has a little chain). Their survey was done within 3 days of agreeing price, it’s moved so fast.

Looks like we’ll have to go into rented as the market is moving so quick where we’re moving to, plus the type / location of house we want doesn’t come up often. Pre covid mum & dad would go and view in the week and we’d follow on weekend if they thought it was worth seeing - now things are gone by the weekend so we’ve no chance of pouncing on stuff being 2.5hrs away. Took day off Friday and viewed a place with my mum, had to FaceTime DH to show him - sadly loads of character but too small! We did agree a sale on a Victorian property but dad took his builder friend with him for a check and it needed £50k of work on roof, drains, damp & electric before we even put in new bathrooms, kitchen & an extension - it was already at top of our budget so had to pull out.

Thankfully I’ve got DS into a school so he can start there at the same time everyone goes back after months off, hopefully we’ll find something to rent before end of August otherwise I’ll have to stop in parents caravan on their drive whilst DH stays and sees house sale through.

I’m fairly chilled about it all, we’ve bought and sold 3 times over the last 10yrs so we’re old hands at this crazy rollercoaster of an experience & know all bets are off until the keys are in your hands!

I was pondering my own question on this after I posted, we took a drive yesterday through some old Essex villages full of chocolate-box cottages, and I thought, no one will have any paperwork for all those conversions and add ons over the years! So whilst we’ve asked for the building reg completion certificate for the pre-1990 work, if it’s not there it’s not a dealbreaker. House is still standing 30 years later and surveyor didn’t pick up any structural issues. I just think we have to ask. I do wonder whether the council would keep any records though.

@Lemonylemony Our seller is set on 20/7 for completion - they will not move from this date which for us is no real problem.

We have the tenancy on our place now till 12/08 which means we can move everything over at our pace whilst ensuring this place is left how our contract states.

We have been here 10 years so im sure even once professionally cleaned etc the landlord will still need to come in + decorate.

Last time it went back on the market (when our 1st fell through) the estate agent had used the pictures before we moved in so i felt very sorry for the people viewing expecting this nice, new shiny house!

Not looking forward to viewings with 2 of us working from home full time.

@Notyetthere thank you - sending good luck your way.

Whilst i am a first time buyer my husband is not so this is all very new to me so this board has been almost a lifeline.

Anyone see the news on stamp duty this morning? I only caught the end - i should google really.

@bellyislikelyjelly

I just read up on it, looks like he might announce a stamp duty break in the autumn budget for houses up to 300k

We'll miss out on this ☹️ by a month roughly. Gutted.

Anyone seen the potential news about stamp duty this morning? Typically we got ours paid for, we just missed out on first time buyers exemption last time!

Another house identical to ours on our estate but in worse condition has gone up for sale for £30,000 more than we've accepted, I'm worried we've sold for too little, add the fact our stamp duty negotiation may be a vain I feel we always make bad financial decisions

I think it's up to £500k not £300 from what I read?

The stamp duty news seems to have been broken in the times, but I don’t have a share token to read the whole story.

Looks like Sunak planning an announcement on Wednesday, and perhaps a stamp duty holiday on properties up to £500,000 for six months, being implemented in the autumn budget? Which seems a bit silly as surely it will just stall the market until it kicks in. And does ‘stamp duty holiday for six months’ mean that we just don’t have to pay the SDLT until 6 months after our purchase, or that any purchases during that six month period would never be liable for SDLT?

Would make so much more sense to implement it much sooner after announcement, otherwise surely everything will stall until it kicks in. If it’s a delayed payment then it’s not a major difference to us in the grand scheme. If it’s scrapping it but not till autumn we’ll have to seriously reconsider - we’ve spent around £1k on survey & solicitors fees for this property, but if we can potentially save £10k by dropping out and finding another property in the autumn (prices certainly won’t rise will they).....hmm!

@Lemonylemony I'd be careful though, what if mortgages are more difficult to come by? Lending only seems to be getting worse atm not better, they're starting to get stricter. Or if you end up in a chain where they struggle with mortgage etc? £10,000 sounds a lot but in the scheme of things vs the price of the property I would be careful to not jeopardise a sale over it in these turbulent times.

It's just hearsay at the moment. I dint thjnk hell announce it tomorrow. Its just something they're considering.

When I bought my flat as a first time buyer they announced just weeks later they were cutting stamp duty for first time buyers up to 300k. I would have saved 5k if I had waited just a month. But you can't change the past or see the future.

I dont understand if this cut will be only for homes up to 500k or you won't pay it on the first 500k. Doing a strict cut off may pull down mid range property prices.

And will it be you don't ever have to pay it or you will have longer to pay it? I am. So confused

Clearly hints in the papers are unhelpful to the market at best. They should either announce they are doing something or aren’t doing something.

If anyone has a Times sub can they share the article so we can see what it actually says? What the source is? Twitter is just full of criticism and declaring Cummings the puppet master.