House sale.... what week are you on?

[organisedmother]

Ok who is in the lead for longest sale so far, I’m August 1st 17weeks in!! We can all pull our hair out together 😂

@ethelredonagoodday yep 😭 sold in Feb, 2 chain collapses and we're now living with in laws waiting to complete on our purchase. It's a joke! 🙈 not easy with a 6 week old baby 😞😞

Oh blimey. Sounds hard going. 😭

Week 11. Should be exchanging on our sale in the next week or two as everything (searches, surveys, mortgages, enquiries) completed in that part of the chain. We are now top of chain as pulled out of our purchase due to no building regs on massive new extensions and other works. So will be going into a rental. Need to find one...

13 weeks for us and it’s just ended in a shit show .
I have never felt so ill and stressed in all my life .

I've started getting panic attacks as we were due to exchange last friday. On Wednesday the buyers solicitor raised loads of enquiries but most were things my solicitor had already answered, 2 were new and one would take some time and negotiation . She reiterated everything she had already answered and went back with our proposal on the negotiation item. Weve heard nothing since Wednesday. He doesnt answer the daily emails or my agents calls hes had since then. Our buyers havent answered my agents calls on Thursday, Monday and yesterday. Is this it? Are they pulling out. I am spiralling and my fiance is seriously depressed so I cant mention it to him, if we dont get this house I think he will kill himself

@IndiaMay you poor thing. This sounds exactly like the behaviour of DSs conveyancer. Bad as it is I suspect incompetence rather than malice.

It's dreadful. @IndiaMay I'm sorry this is causing you such anxiety.
I am sure this has been said by anyone who's ever moved, but the process in England does seem particularly inefficient and fraught with problems. Surely it's time for an overhaul?!

I honestly feel your pain @IndiaMay .
I feel very much the same . Most nights I’ve gone to bed and had a panic attack or I end up being sick .
I don’t think these people realise how much they play with peoples lives .
I really hope you get some good news and soon

@Fluffybutter

13 weeks for us and it’s just ended in a shit show . I have never felt so ill and stressed in all my life .

Oh blimey what happened?

@IHeartNiles We were told on Monday this week that things were good and we were ready to exchange contracts , come Tuesday we hear nothing all and get not replies so dh knows something is up.
Finally at 4:45 we here that the solicitor at the bottom on the chain after 13 weeks has decided she is not happy about things and raises 3 new queries .
1 is that the flat our buyers are selling has only 83 years left even though anything over 80 is ok and the mortgage provided was happy with that which is how she got a mortgage! But nope solicitor is not happy to proceed and wants an extension which our buyer is not happy to do as it’s takes months and we’ve agreed with them that it’s not an option.
2, she’s also now decided she is not happy with the valuation of our buyers property even though it’s a fixed price as it’s housing association, part ownership and the client is happy with the price and has told her so last month!
And there was something else but I think I’ve blocked it from my mind .
The lady at the bottom of the chain is a first time buyer and she’s quite young so I feel this disgusting solicitor is pissing her about because she can as these issues should have been dealt with months ago and some aren’t even issues at all but she’s made them to be .
She never answers emails , never calls her client so the poor thing didn’t even know about any of this until our buyer told her today!
Can these solicitors still push forward and demand things even if their client has stated she is happy to proceed ? The mortgage is ready and waiting for her ffs .

Sorry for the typos ! You wouldn’t think I was a proof reader would you

Thanks @Fluffybutter and everyone else. I am just tearing my hair out. My partners mental health has been awful and hes usually my rock but I'm so worried about him and this could push him over the edge.

That is awful about the bottom of your chains solicitor Fluffy Butter. That should have been the first thing they picked up in the leasehold management pack. I would query the lease length and whether that is correct as I'd be quite surprised someone got a mortgage on an 83 year lease, especially at the moment. As a new buyer cant renew it until theyve owned the property two years and at 80 years it's un mortgable. It seems crazy someone gave them a mortgage.

It should be fixed with some time, although that doesnt help you. Their seller should be able to start the lease extension process by serving a S42 notice after exchange but assign the extension to their buyer. Then the buyer would carry on with it after completion.

Oh my god really? Everything I read said anything over 80 was fine , including our buyers solicitors.
Now I’m really worried .

Apparently the mortgage broker found one to reduce the term to fit the lease .
When can you do the lease extension? Can it be done after completion or does that need to be started now and how long that roughly takes ?
Sorry for all the questions but trying to get hold of anyone who can answer is near impossible atm.
Fingers crossed things start to go more smoothly for you .

@fluffybutter it's just the closer you get to 80 years the more difficult it becomes to get a mortgage (say if new buyer wanted to remortgage at any point) and the cost to renew the lease sky rockets. What needs to happen is that after exchange the current owner (providing they have owned it for more than 2 years) gets their solicitor to serve a section 42 notice on their freeholder. The freeholder then sends round a surveyor to put a premium (a price) on extending the lease by 99 years. Once this is done the seller can fill in some paper work to assign the lease extension to the new buyer and completion can happen. The new buyer then continues with the lease extension post completion. The issue would be the cost. If it's not a local authority property then the premium may be high (I've seen some up to £15,000 and after 80 years this jumps significantly) and the legal fees circa £2500. It would be negotiating who paid for this. The buyer or the seller. I think it can be done in a month if everyone works quickly.

The reason I know is we are selling a flat with 85 years on the lease. We put it up at a reduced price knowing this would be an issue. Our buyers are cash buyers and asked us to do the above process but said they would pay for everything and we agreed. Our property is ex local authority so the premium is only £2000 as the council cant make profit on it. Part way through the sale our buyers said as they were cash buyers and therefore had no issue with a mortgage they would be happy to go the informal route of extension after they owned the property 2 years and that's how it was left. One of the queries our buyers solicitor bought up last Wednesday was that they actually do want to do the lease extension now. We went back with the answer we would be happy to do it post exchange as long as it was still being funded by them. But the informal process after owning it 2 years is a lot cheaper legal fee wise so was this really the route they wanted to take as it was costing them time and money. We have heard nothing since.

Can I join? When you say week 11 etc, are you counting from house going on the market or from when your chain completed? We are week 1 of the chain being completed, week 10 since we put our house on the market.

Our offer was accepted on a chain free house beginning of this week, our buyers have a cash buyer. So it's a chain of 4. HSBC mortgage application went in yesterday and they say their current wait time is 4 days. Currently filling in fixtures and fittings and TA7 forms. Not confident that we'll make the stamp duty deadline but we are going to try!

Its frustrating for us as if we complete this year our flat would still have 83 years left after they had owned it 2 yeàrs so they could do the lease extension through an informal route and the premium wouldnt have gone up at all. They would save themselves the legal fees going this route but their solicitor doesnt seem to realise this

[quote IndiaMay]@fluffybutter it's just the closer you get to 80 years the more difficult it becomes to get a mortgage (say if new buyer wanted to remortgage at any point) and the cost to renew the lease sky rockets. What needs to happen is that after exchange the current owner (providing they have owned it for more than 2 years) gets their solicitor to serve a section 42 notice on their freeholder. The freeholder then sends round a surveyor to put a premium (a price) on extending the lease by 99 years. Once this is done the seller can fill in some paper work to assign the lease extension to the new buyer and completion can happen. The new buyer then continues with the lease extension post completion. The issue would be the cost. If it's not a local authority property then the premium may be high (I've seen some up to £15,000 and after 80 years this jumps significantly) and the legal fees circa £2500. It would be negotiating who paid for this. The buyer or the seller. I think it can be done in a month if everyone works quickly.

The reason I know is we are selling a flat with 85 years on the lease. We put it up at a reduced price knowing this would be an issue. Our buyers are cash buyers and asked us to do the above process but said they would pay for everything and we agreed. Our property is ex local authority so the premium is only £2000 as the council cant make profit on it. Part way through the sale our buyers said as they were cash buyers and therefore had no issue with a mortgage they would be happy to go the informal route of extension after they owned the property 2 years and that's how it was left. One of the queries our buyers solicitor bought up last Wednesday was that they actually do want to do the lease extension now. We went back with the answer we would be happy to do it post exchange as long as it was still being funded by them. But the informal process after owning it 2 years is a lot cheaper legal fee wise so was this really the route they wanted to take as it was costing them time and money. We have heard nothing since.[/quote]
Ah right ok thanks.
It’s housing association-catalyst.
They have owned it for 16 years apparently.
Dh has messaged our buyers this but I’m assuming the solicitors should know all this?!
That’s what’s so frustrating.

@Fluffybutter they should yes, though it can be quite specialist. I work for a law firm which is a very large national firm. My conveyancer is doing my sale/ purchase but passing on to a specialist department to do the lease extension

Thanks for al your help @IndiaMay, very much appreciated!

Offer accepted Aug 16. Completion date Nov 20. 14 weeks. We were FTB, no chain. Seller advertised as no chain but actually was waiting on a property. Very happy to have moved in before the holidays. Good luck everyone!

Our seller has 'politely declined' our offer of cash to move out. Solicitor now advising that with the looming xmas break it will be mid to end Jan before we are anywhere near making significant process.
I can see us not moving now til Feb half term, and we were aiming for October. Honestly, I could cry.

We offered end of august, due to complete next Friday. No chain just us and them as they already have a second home to move into. So 15 weeks approx.

This thread is filling me with despair. Everything is moving so slowly. Our buyers and their buyer wanted to be in by Christmas. Wishful thinking. As far as I can tell, literally no searches have been done. If we aren't certain to get moved before the stamp duty break ends, we will have to pull out as we can't pull an extra £10K from nowhere.

DS completes tomorrow (hopefully) 25 weeks after his offer was accepted. This was back in June before the post lockdown boom and stamp duty holiday.