Chain of 6. So worried and it’s making me ill.

[Worriedhomemover]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has any advice or positive stories of a longer housing chain.

Our buyer viewed our house in July! We accepted an offer. DH actually showed them around on the second viewing and he said ‘we’re in a really good position and have exchanged’, our estate agent presented the same information to us. All great. We accepted the offer based on that, gave them a few grand off.

We then have an offer accepted on our new place saying we are in a short chain (they are chain free so we are number 5).

We then found out our buyer has 3 people behind her. We were angry and wanted to pull out but decided to keep going as this is our dream house and we don’t want to lose it.

The first purchase in the chain fell through and was re established in early September. We are still waiting and haven’t exchanged. Apparently they are still waiting for a search to come back.

I feel sick. This is a relocation for us and for various reasons we needed the sale to go through quickly.

I’m so worried that something else will go wrong. Our estate agent has been great (feel awful for her as she seems to be organising the whole chain’)

I almost want to pull out, but we’ve come this far and our vendors have been amazing- they have had a sale fall through previously and I don’t want to do it to them again.

Who had actually completely on a bigger chain? Any survival tips? I can’t relax at all. We started packing things into boxes thinking moving was imminent and then all of a sudden they’re saying ‘hopefully before Christmas’. There is just so much uncertainty!

I was person number 8 in our chain with 2 properties above us last year. We exchanged on a Wednesday and completed the following day. We had a bit of drama and a few lies from further down the chain along the way but all worked out fine. Offers in June, moved in November.

I think it's a bit strange to be cross that there was a chain, if they'd said they'd exchanged but you didn't ask length of chain that's on you. It's not a dead hand though. Keep optimistic, nag your solicitors and estate agents (that's what we did). Good luck

I'm the middle buyer in a chain of just 3z

FTB, us and vendor has gone into rented.

We thought everyone was ready then buyer decided to have a survey after all. Fine as we knew there are no major issues but why wait until week 10 to do it?! Then had to wait 3 weeks until a surveyor was available.

We should now exchange this week. However until we do I will remain unable to sleep with a massive knot in my stomach, I hate this.

Other than the late survey it's the lack of communication from the solicitor etc.

I really think they need to simplify things.

The whole thing is so much more complicated than when I last moved over 15 years ago, when the whole thing (viewing to completion in a chain of 3) took just 8 weeks. The volume of paperwork and back and forth. Searches have always been slow where I live but I thought the government had told all the councils to turn them around in 10 days. Obviously ignored. No wonder so many sales collapse.

We are in a chain of 6 also. I’ve got to the point where I’m so stressed and anxious too - I think about it all the time!! For us communication is the major issue. Our solicitor is great but our buyers solicitor is terrible ( online conveyancer) and hard to get a hold of. So there are two people below our buyer that we have NO idea what stage they are at. Chain was complete early September. Any advice on how to push this exchange through?? We have sent off our signed contract last week but no news on where everyone else in the chain is. Our estate agent is getting frustrated at our constant hassling ( twice a week) to chase up.

I just don’t know how to speed this up?!

At the moment, many solicitors' firms still have staff furloughed so those that are working are doing the work of two or three people. The stamp duty holiday means most firms are really busy. In addition, many of the mainstream lenders are ridiculously short staffed, so any call to a lender is likely to take at least an hour on hold, getting a written response to a query can take over a week in some cases.

This really makes me cross, the whole point of furlough is to support businesses that don't have enough work for their staff, clearly these solicitors and lenders do have enough work.

So unless all their staff are furloughed because they are vulnerable these firms are being really unethical AND screwing over their customers as a result

Yep agree @gurglebelly, if there's enough work they shouldn't be furloughing more staff than is necessary!

@gurglebelly agreed, it’s ridiculous.

To those saying that in Scotland offers are binding.... they’re not any more! They really should be, but some people (looks pointedly at previous potential buyers) will still pull out, lie, etc.
Sometimes it’s unavoidable EG if their mortgage falls through, sometimes it’s not, (waves at THOSE bastards). What doesn’t happen is people asking for a different ££ later down the line (waves again, and no, I didn’t sell to them). EA and solicitors will occasionally refuse to continue to work without buyers who do that kind of thing.

The survey being included before offers are made really helps. Searches included would also help, but all cost the seller and in reality it comes down to whether the buyer is a decent human being or not.

At the moment, many solicitors' firms still have staff furloughed
Why are staff furloughed if they are snowed under with work?
They should not take on the work if they haven't the staff to do it.
They also shouldn't be taking government money to pay furlough when they could actually keep the staff on.

Early on in my saga I was told by someone in the solicitors office that they didn't have enough staff and couldn't do everything. I complained that they shouldn't have taken my business if they were not in a position to do the work. The manager climbed down very quickly assuring me that all staff were working and everything would be done as normal.
It seems normal means slower than snails

I’m with you chain of 4 sold 1st August, the communication is terrible it’s making me so stressed that my period has stopped sorry for tmi. 😞 hugs to everyone holding out for completion before Xmas

@organisedmother you can’t say that on MN without doing a live pee on a stick thread

@LividLaughLurve 😂 trust me it’s def stress!!

Thanks for the comments and sorry you are all feeling so stressed too.

As if they have people on furlough! That’s crazy.

I get that it must be a very difficult time to be a conveyancer, but they just don’t seem to care. It’s so busy they obviously don’t need the business!

Our EA apologised again today, think she feels quite bad we’re in this situation.

I think we’d be lucky to exchange before Christmas but probably won’t move until the new year.

I was saving up my annual leave which I think I’m just going to have to take now before we run out of time.

@RosesAndHellebores
Our solicitor's fees were £1,500
So we didn't do this on the cheap.

@gurglebelly I completely agree. They are also screwing over the staff who have worked for months and months without a break, in many cases for 10-20% less pay, and have had to deal with anxious and angry clients etc. Believe me, I care about my clients, I want to do my absolute best for them but at the same time I am exhausted, stressed, frustrated, my kids have barely seen me even though I'm working remotely.

As someone said up thread, those solicitors who do care about their clients end up doing the work for other solicitors or conveyancers in the chain because those at a cheap as chips firm can't be bothered or don't know how to.

Wishing you all the best of luck that things move quickly from now on.

Yes we had 6 or 7 in the chain. This came out gradually. We thought our vendor was top of chain as we were told no onward chain but this was a lie and they were buying somewhere. At the bottom there were delays and problems, and lack of communication. The whole thing took 6months and I still feel the impact of the stress 10 months on. I had to do a lot of mindfulness and breathing at the time and somehow got through it. I love my new house and it was worth it but I’d not want to do it again! Good luck!

It took 6 long months from getting the offer on our house and finding our purchase (within 2 weeks of each other) and actually moving

Just had a conversation about this with my EA. (We are virtually bubbled we have been "together" so long ).
She says lots of solicitors do have staff furloughed even though they are overwhelmed with work. Many have now stopped taking on new clients but it's already too late because they have such arrears of work.
Seems criminal that conveyancers are furloughed when their skills are in such demand.
I was sorely tempted to DIY the conveyancing but decided not to risk it.

Oh gosh, can I please join this thread please?

Have been so stressed, ended up having a massive panic attack last week as just can't cope with it, and as much as I want to move, I can't cope with the stress of it all. I'm in a chain of three, and have just found out that initial contracts haven't even been sent. On the other side I've been waiting three weeks for answers from enquiries. And apparently it's 19 working days for the bank just to look at my application. Wish I'd just redone the kitchen

@thelastmullercorner sorry you’ve been having panic attacks. It’s awful isn’t it, the wait and the not knowing what’s going on. I didn’t even consider myself easily stressed before all of this started!

Still no update from the first in the chain. We still don’t know when the searches were even requested so there’s no timescales.

It’s really pissing me off that our buyers (they’re vile) have basically been using our estate agent as their estate agent. She’s been doing all the chasing, he even said she needs to find him a removal company!

[quote Worriedhomemover]@thelastmullercorner sorry you’ve been having panic attacks. It’s awful isn’t it, the wait and the not knowing what’s going on. I didn’t even consider myself easily stressed before all of this started!

Still no update from the first in the chain. We still don’t know when the searches were even requested so there’s no timescales.

It’s really pissing me off that our buyers (they’re vile) have basically been using our estate agent as their estate agent. She’s been doing all the chasing, he even said she needs to find him a removal company![/quote]
I emailed the council today, the local searches department. Came back to me straightaway and were able to tell me when they’d been ordered and that they’d sent them back on 20th!

We are in a similar position, but only have a chain of 3. I'm on the verge of a breakdown here nobody will tell us what's going on! Our solicitor is very hard work and I think our seller's is a bit rubbish too (our buyer's seems fine). The estate agents have been stars through the whole thing - so helpful and responsive, pushing it all along. We are still waiting replies to enquiries that were submitted weeks ago. I am meant to be starting a new job and we have school places expiring and I'm just so stressed by it all!

@ratha

I'm the middle buyer in a chain of just 3z

FTB, us and vendor has gone into rented.

We thought everyone was ready then buyer decided to have a survey after all. Fine as we knew there are no major issues but why wait until week 10 to do it?! Then had to wait 3 weeks until a surveyor was available.

We should now exchange this week. However until we do I will remain unable to sleep with a massive knot in my stomach, I hate this.

Other than the late survey it's the lack of communication from the solicitor etc.

I really think they need to simplify things.

I thought I had written this! This is exactly our situation completely. 3 in a chain. The house we are buying is empty and that part of the chain is all done. Our FTB left it so long to get a homebuyers survey (they had the valuation done beginning of October) it was finally done this week, but now have to wait for the report. I don't think we will be in before January now.

We have a chain of 5 - I felt guilty early on as I was the one stalling as neither of my Solicitors would let me do anything - due to the divorce.
But the delays since we started moving have all been other people in the chain, so I feel a lot less guilty.
Both my Solicitor (and she has junior staff doing stuff) and my Estate Agent are working very hard.

Next time I’m tempted to do it myself, and then if anything comes up but an hour with a solicitor for advice. Only problem is you’re all working at the pace of the slowest in the chain so probably wouldn’t make a lot of difference. Surprised there isn’t a solicitor chain that has a presence in estate agent offices.