Looming lockdown limbo support thread

[PointyMcguire]

Thought we could do with a thread to rant, laugh, drink copious amounts of gin and whatever else it takes to get us through the madness of whatever new curveballs covid throws into the mix as we try to move house.

We’ve exchanged on our old house and are due to complete on Friday 13th (I was just asking for bad luck right?!) but we’re actually moving out next Friday and into a family owned holiday home for a month. We were hoping to exchange on the new house in mid November and complete before Christmas but god only knows how likely that is now. I’m relatively hopeful we’ll still be able to move during lockdown, but am pretty stressed about the potential impact another lockdown might have on the chain and how much time everything takes.

Anyone else in the same boat?

In theory you should still be able to complete as planned. Even if people are working remotely there's nothing you need to physically do to get the house (keys can be posted, docs signed and monies transferred).
The new house might be more problematic but still doable for exchange, you may just run into a few more problems being at the start of the process. Fingers crossed :)

Ah thanks @Loofah01. I think it’s just the unknown that’s stressing me at the moment, like in a matter of weeks we’ll be without a home of our own which is a bit daunting with everything that’s going on right now.

It might put you in an excellent position! With exchange under your belt your current sale is safe, I expect people to be very nervous and not sure house buying will be at the forefront so you might perhaps, get a bit of a deal on a new place. Housing market is fickle of course though!
As long as the sale monies are sitting tight in the bank (maybe a few accounts to make sure they're safeguarded) and you have a roof over your head then just breathe and ride it out.

We’re expecting to exchange fairly shortly after the completion of our old house so the solicitor has advised keeping hold of the majority of the money from our sale and just transferring the money we’re taking from the sale into our savings account so that it’s easier to safeguard.

We are meant to be exchanging on Thursday & completing the following Thursday 😫 it’s been a rollercoaster of a journey, I don’t think I can take anymore! I’m clinging onto the hope that they need house moves to continue for the economy & there are so many going through at the mo with the stamp duty holiday that it wouldn’t go down so well to stop the ones in progress 🙏🏼 You can still move in the current Welsh lockdown.

Guess we’ll see at 4pm 😞

@MoirasRoses I’m inclined to agree, I can’t see them putting a block on moving given the stamp duty holiday and need to keep the economy going. I worry more for any potential impact to our chain, but am trying to reassure myself that anyone selling at the moment must have at least considered there might be another lockdown so shouldn’t be too spooked by this. I just want our searches and formal mortgage agreement to hurry up so we can exchange and stop worrying about the what ifs where the new house is concerned.

Fingers crossed you can exchange and complete as planned 🤞🏻

Do you think that they'll extend the hold on stamp duty?
EA friend said that anyone hoping to complete by the deadline must have their house on the market by Nov 1st and have offers within two weeks (hey, she's on commission - she might just be trying to drum up business) due to the excess demand causing backlogs in the system.
If that's true and a lockdown goes ahead it'll put a lot of people back, maybe even people who have already got sales arranged?

I should add she said that a few weeks ago before any lockdown issue was raised.

We had an offer accepted on a house today, hooray! We have just completed our chain. It’s literally just our sellers, us, and our buyers. Our buyers offered on our house mid September and have already instructed solicitors who have had paperwork back from us, and the surveyor came around to ours a couple of weeks ago, so things are moving their end. I’m hoping to get through before end of March even with lockdown! As the property we are buying is empty, does anyone know if surveys etc can still happen on this during any lockdown?

@schitter I’m not sure about extending it but I wonder whether they might amend it to anyone that has exchanged by March 31st to take into account any delays caused by lockdown perhaps?

@Bug55 we have our survey booked for the 9th and have been told it’s business as usual so fingers crossed nothing changes on that front 🤞🏻

We did complete two weeks ago and set the move-in date next Thursday. We got the house professionally cleaned and are expecting 3 deliveries next Monday. I’m super nervous. This has been a incredibly long drawn-out bumpy journey up to this point and I don’t know if I can stomach any more delays tbh...

Best of luck to everyone in the same boat

@PointyMcguire

We’re expecting to exchange fairly shortly after the completion of our old house so the solicitor has advised keeping hold of the majority of the money from our sale and just transferring the money we’re taking from the sale into our savings account so that it’s easier to safeguard.

Nothing to force you into exchange should you choose to press pause (I'd be considering it at least). Bank limit on savings is 85k per person per institution so spread the cash about.

@Loofah01 I’m not sure I’m understanding why we should consider pausing the exchange on our new house? As of the 6th we’re moving into a short term rental to enable our buyers to complete. Our upward chain all want to complete by Christmas. We’re weeks away from being ready to exchange so not sure why we wouldn’t want the security of knowing we are definitely moving into the house we’re in the process of buying? Am I missing something?

@puret0ne ah fingers crossed to you! It’s so bloody nerve wracking! I wish we could all just to skip to the bit where we’re all settled in in our new houses.

[quote PointyMcguire]@puret0ne ah fingers crossed to you! It’s so bloody nerve wracking! I wish we could all just to skip to the bit where we’re all settled in in our new houses.[/quote]
Thank you & I totally second that! Skip to the end

@PointyMcguire oh I didn't mean you should, sorry! Just that given everything I would, personally, consider how prices and processes might be affected in the coming months. If you're 100% then absolutely no need to pause at all. All guys blazing, best foot forward etc :)

This is all so stressful

:(

We were supposed to exchange yesterday, and the bottom of the chain then admitted they had not signed their contracts (nor did they have them to sign) even though I have an email confirming this was happening on the 9th October..

Now we are trying for Monday/Tuesday and supposed to be moving on the 12th.

If it doesn't happen because of lockdown I have no idea what we will do :(

@Loofah01 ah gotcha, sorry I was panicking we’d missed something obvious. We’re relocating due to a job I took at the end of last year so definitely keen to get it over and done with now as we had expected to have moved months ago.

We’re going from no mortgage on the current house to a small mortgage on the new house, so we’re lucky to have a big deposit and low LTV so any changes to the market are unlikely to have much of a impact, especially as we don’t intend to move again. Just really hope we can still get everything done by Christmas.

I'm meant to be going to empty my stuff out of my Dad's house on November 21st...

Not quite sure how the sale will fare if lockdown comes in

Or how my brother will react if he has to pack the stuff for me (he is local) and put it in storage (at a guess I think he will be very unhappy).

@RunningThrough I feel you. I’m just trying to think ahead to how great it’ll feel once we finally get in.

@Techno56 how frustrating! Fingers crossed you can exchange next week 🤞🏻

@opinionatedfreak that sounds really tough. Hopefully your brother will step up without complaint if needed.

Just stepping on to say I managed to move at the height of the April lockdown so it is doable! I had exchanged before though so was legally locked in. It also wasn't an empty house but a chain of 4, so we still did it even though houses weren't empty.

Good luck all, I've never been so stressed as I was then, at least this time I have a house to sit in and a sofa to sit on!

Thanks @Vintagevixen that gives me hope. I flit between feeling lucky we’ve exchanged so we know our house is definitely sold, and then panicking about the uncertainty of our onward move.

I'm in a short chain and am worried that it could fail. I'm also heading towards a refurb but will I even get builders and tradesmen to work on the house until Spring?

It's a worry.

We've exchanged and are due to complete mid November. We are renting as an interim measure so are already paying rent on an empty house. We are moving 200+ miles so have removal men for 2 days. What could go wrong?