Sellers/Buyers Roll Call 9 and STILL going

[kerrymucklowe2020]

Is it time to start s new thread as the previous one has nearly 900 posts?

(Which have been answered!)

Good luck @Bells3032.

We've had yet another week where we have heard absolutely nothing from the solicitors and I have chased them every other day.

Searches were submitted three weeks ago - nada and still waiting for one of the sellers to sign and return a form. It's obviously not worth it to him to do this.

Getting fed up with it now.

Next week will be our eighth week since we made our offer on a "simple" chain free purchase. I did want to be in for September. Seems like zero chance of that now.

@Zebrahooves it's so disheartening, and frustrating when the hold up isn't overly apparent. We accepted the offer on our house around the 15/5/20 I think it was, first time buyer, and here we are on 14/8/20 with me begging is end of the month possible! It's exhausting having to constantly chase but it's all you can do really. Do you know where the searches are coming from, if it's local authority maybe you could contact them and ask how long they're taking atm?

Thanks @notheragain4. It's crazy that the whole system can take so long for some, whilst others can seemingly whizz through in no time.

Fingers crossed 🤞 for your move. I know that you are moving into a new build Barratt and I hope it is ready earlier than you thought it would be.

We are buying a used Barratt house that is around 3 years old.

@notheragain4 the whole process is completely exhausting in every way. I don't understand why the system has to be so long and convoluted. You can buy a car more expensive than a house in a day but it takes months and months to buy a house

I think a big part of the issue is it doesn't make solicitors a huge amount of money, so they have to take on huge numbers of cases to make it lucrative which then means it doesn't run at the pace it reasonably could because they're juggling so many cases. I would much prefer the Scottish system to take away the stress of it falling through so late (except for the weird offers over thing!)

@Zebrahooves thank you, we bought a 5 year old new build last time, the great thing about buying a second hand new build is they've done all the snagging for you!

@Zebrahooves I'm in a similar position. This is the end of week 10 since we accepted an offer, end of week 5 of "you might exchange this week" from the estate agent. It's been 5 weeks of nothingness, and then all of a sudden it's the other freeholder putting a stop to it all. It's a long story but my flat is 50% freehold (it's in London - converted Victorian terrace) and the other freeholder is refusing to sign the form to transfer ownership to the new owner until he gets a bit of paper to say the new owner won't charge him for a lease renewal. That's fine as he didn't charge me, but it's another bit of paperwork and goodness knows how long that will take to materialise.

We've been trying to sell since May 2019. This is buyer number 5. All I can say is anyone buying into a shared freehold - you need to think very, very carefully about it. It's been hell.

@Zebrahooves@notheragain4 oooh - we could start a Barratt homes thread ha ha.

Are there any covenants or management fees on yours that you know of?

For info to anyone interested you can Google( your local authority) local searches turnaround time.

@PavoReal this sounds like a nightmare for you. I would also add (though no personal experience) beware of flying free holds.

When we sold - currently in rented - the sale fell through 3 times through no fault of our own, and that was bad enough. I can't imagine it falling through 5 times.

We are buying from a divorcing couple who aren't speaking. The property has been empty for over a year. One has signed the papers, but not the other.

I agree that the solicitors probably have a high workload. It is all a shambles.

Add to that I've a son who got his A level results this week (at least one grade down on every prediction) and we are trying to sort out his way forward and I have another son who gets his GCSEs next week.

Nothing is straightforward.

@kerrymucklowe2020 there are some covenants, mainly around extending, sheds and work vans.

There are also management fees, but as it is a big estate and they are still building, no one knows how much these are yet.

The management fees make me more nervous, but there is a large field for the dog to run on so at least we will get some direct benefit. Plus this house is the same size but two council tax bands below an older one that we looked at, so we would save in that way too.

Another thing I hate about house buying is all the what if's. What if we bought the older one, but it needed more work? What about management fees? Should we gamble on location? So many decisions.

@kerrymucklowe2020 thanks. I've just googled ours and it says three to five days. We've been waiting three weeks.
Off to contact the solicitor again, and leave the boards for someone else to comment on

@kerrymucklowe2020 no management fees on ours the council will be adopting the public spaces. There are some really weird covenants, can't have a satellite dish facing an adopted road, no boats parked on the driveway lol, no extensions until 2021 (when they finish building) nothing that concerns me though, I think it's mostly to keep the estate looking a certain way while they are still selling. My mum bought a 10 year old new build and was able to get the covenants removed if she wanted but as no one is demanding the satellite dish comes down she wasn't too worried lol.

@Zebrahooves oh gosh A levels and GCSEs, I'm sorry to hear about the results, the whole thing is such a mess, I hope it doesn't hold him back in what he wants to do.

@kerrymucklowe2020 thanks for that, mine says 4 days so keeping my fingers crossed.

@Zebrahooves that all sounds very stressful. As a teacher (admittedly primary) I was watching the shit-show (pardon my french) unfold yesterday. I really feel for your son, have his firm or insurance accepted him?

I have not checked in on this thread for a couple of days. We don't really have much of an update.

We are in a 3 or 2 chain links depending on how you see it. Our buyers (FTB) and we are buying an empty house. We sold ours first and then had our offer accepted on the empty house about 2 weeks later. We are, I believe the ones behind in the process in our chain.

Our building and valuation survey was booked on Monday to be completed on 1st September. Our buyers and vendors weren't happy with this but our bank has a massive backlog there was nothing we could do so now just waiting game. The bank instructed the survey quite soon after they had received our application.

Earlier this week we received enquiries from our buyers lawyers and responded to them within a couple of hours.

We received our searches and have no comment or enquiries on those.

Our vendors also responded to our enquiries satisfactorily (I think) but I just need to do a final check before we tell our solicitor that no comment from us. There is single storey extension at the back built around 2011/2012. It has FENSA for a door but none for the window on the extension. It also It has BR sign off for the build but no planning permission I can find. I understand there was permitted development back then but then it extends more than 3m to the back so that would have fallen outside of PD since it is a semi. Or lawful development but no certificate has been submitted. Gah I need to educate myself on these things.

Eeeeekkk so our new build is due to be ready end of September brought forward from middle of November!!! Suddenly panicking about schools! Even more pressure to exchange ASAP now! Still going to go into rented I think, we have the keys and it'll make completion less stressful to do it separately, a pain in the arse to move twice but so exciting that we get some time in the house altogether before DH is deployed in November :)

@notheragain4- is that better, the fact that it's ready sooner?

Forgive me for being negative but I would worry they are rushing it ready for their year end date ( if it's September) NB I REALLY don't want to stress you further do please tell me I'm wrong 😁

@kerrymucklowe2020 haha I know what you mean. But no it's not been rushed, it was due to be ready in June, but due to Covid they obviously had to stop working on it, so they put quite a conservative completion date on it of November working off of the initial Covid guidance, but as lockdown has lifted they've been able to have more people in the house at one time (at one point only one trade was allowed in at a time when you'd usually have different stages happening simultaneously) which has meant they've been able to advance quicker than initially thought, we always knew there was a chance it would be brought forward but didn't want to get our hopes up. The house is actually done, flooring is going down currently, it's just the garage and driveway to do.

@notheragain4 - Oh that is so exciting! Our house is due to be finished in November and I would love them to bring it forward (ofcourse as long as we have completed on our sale!)

(But we are hiring a professional snagger! We've never bought a new build completely new to us so I am a tad apprehensive)

@Maybenexttime08 haha yes that's my only concern, at this rate we still won't have bloody exchanged in September!!!

@notheragain4 - Yes, we will be doing the same!

@notheragain4 Phew! In that case I'm soo excited ( and a teeny bit jealous for you!) 😂
Great idea to get a professional snagger!

My ( EA third party chasers ) have messaged me to say the buyers solicitors FINALLY have his paperwork to start searches etc. Yay!

Have a great weekend everyone!

We have queries from our buyers and a contract to sign! Well, due to arrive in the post tomorrow!
Plus our buyers paperwork is officially with their solicitor so hopefully we can apply for searches this week.