Buyers Sellers Roll Call - 13

[lachy]

Staring a new thread!

Come and say hi 👋

Looking to exchange Thursday and complete 4th March.

Can't believe how quickly things turned around.

Now have to figure out how to move house with 4 cats!

Spoke to our sol today and feel more reassured now. She said it was completely standard to ask for a central heating service but also completely normal to say no (she said in her experience about 70% say no). So hopefully as our buyers haven't done a regular survey either, it's just a solicitor question that will now go away.

Crossing fingers we are close to enquiries being done so we can talk about dates. I'm desperate to move!

ARGH spoke to sales progressor and now am less reassured! Our vendor is buying from a divorced couple and they've been arguing for too long to progress the sale. So it's behind. Which means we are very unlikely to move before the deadline.

Previously our vendor had agreed to move in with family if that happened, but that was before we knew there would be another lockdown...

So dispirited.

Doesn't look likely that we'll be exchanging this week now. The sellers solicitors are now waiting for a mortgage redemption statement before they will exchange.

I have a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that they are deliberately delaying the process and are considering pulling out, as we have all had to find alternative accommodation to meet deadlines

Stuff is finally happening! On our sale - our buyer's searches had been delayed several times and the latest due date was the end of this week, but they're back already! So just waiting to hear if there's going to be any enquiries because of that - otherwise we can exchange!

And our purchase started 6 weeks behind, so we've said all along that we'll break the chain - but unexpectedly, it seems everything might be back on that already too - solicitors are just reviewing to see if anything further is needed! We're not going to go back on our word to break the chain for buyer - we'll progress with the sale as quickly as we can and then deal with the purchase. But they might actually link up - or if they don't, it could still be less time in between than we were expecting!

Ooh, great that things are coming together for you guys too, @SheWouldNever and @JustCheesz!

That's frustrating, @InescapableDeath. Have you asked if they're still prepared to move in with family? I know lockdown wasn't foreseen, but it wasn't beyond the realms of possibility either. Keeping fingers crossed for you!

Surprised the mortgage redemption statement takes that long, @ldnirish. Hope your suspicions are wrong

Urrrghh I need to vent. So we were all ready to exchange this week, last week everything was confirmed to be up together with the rest of the chain and we could exchange this Friday. This evening we get a message to say an issue has arisen with our buyers sale. We've not been told what. I want to scream. We are living in boxes, ready to go for the past 5/6 weeks, postponed storage twice already, two children feeling unsettled by it all. Complete lack of decent communication from our EA and Solicitor recently is tipping me over the edge!!

@ldnirish same thing holding up ours too despite us being told everything was on track.
The one for my house only took a couple of days so am hoping our purchase's is the same or the whole chain could fall apart. Should be a quick process as far as I know.

@catfeets so frustrating isn't it! With our sale we actually had our annual statement just beforehand so they didn't need a recemption statement, so I had no idea on timelines. Fingers crossed it is just a couple of days!

I'm so sorry to hear everyone having so many problems. I cannot believe the hoops we all have to jump through. Strongly believe it should be direct contact from seller to seller and solicitors get involved at certain key points only, not this whole process of being shrouded in mystery and misery!!

ethelredonagoodday yes we've got a progresser who gives us fortnightly updates from the whole chain but they struggle to get answers from the lower part of chain... Another day of no news so I'll be calling ea tomorrow and pestering.
I do feel everyone's pain and frustration on this thread and hope everyone gets some good news in the following days!

@SheWouldNever can I ask what this means?
our seller wants to complete on or before March 5th as he’s worried about the rumoured tax increases possibly being announced in the budget and doesn’t want to get stung a further £70k on tax

What's the additional rumoured property tax after the budget? Thanks

Glad to see some people are seeing some progress.

After the anger/upset/frustration of yesterday I’m just feeling bleugh today. The viewer yesterday was positive but looking at another house before making a decision. (I’m 90% sure they’ll be looking at the one round the corner which is £25k more and exactly the same layout but a bigger garden and is just nicer...if I had to choose I’d probably pick that one too). I’m not sure I can face the long haul of viewings in lockdown again.

Hope you get another buyer soon, @MotherofHeathens. If your viewer does go for the house round the corner instead then at least they'll be taking it off the market and you won't be competing with it any more. And your next buyer is pretty much guaranteed to be "better" than the one you lost, because they don't get much worse!

@Candleabra Ah yeah sorry I said inheritance tax when I don’t think it’s that at all really. The house we are purchasing is an additional home for the seller, one that has been rented out so he will need to pay capital gains when he sells. There is a rumour that the March budget will include an increase in capital gains tax, so seller wants to try and complete before budget day on the 3rd, in case the rumours are correct and on the off chance they are applicable immediately. That’s only 2 weeks away and I’m doubtful our solicitor will be able to turn everything around by then, but we said we’d try and make it work if we could.

@SheWouldNever oh I see! I'm hoping to complete on a property soon and had a mini panic at an unknown £70k tax bill. Thanks for responding. Lots of luck for the forthcoming move.

We're in limbo land here and moving into rented. We have had to pull out of our purchase
After all their assurances that they'd get the ball rolling to complete by 31st March, we heard nothing. We forked out for searches /survey which revealed no building regs for the 4th bedroom, fire hazard and the house next door have planning permission for an extension to within 20cm's of the house. We had to walk away. We sensed there was a reason they hadn't sent the sellers pack and there were two rather significant ones!
So we've put an offer in on something else. It's a great offer and we're cash buyers but they want to show more people round.
God I can't cope with the bloody stress!!!

Have been lurking on this thread but first time posting. We finally accepted an offer on ours after 7 months and found one to buy in September 2020. It’s a chain of 3 but it feels like it’s dragged on and on forever with one botch up after another, lost paperwork, solicitors sitting on information for weeks on end, incorrect mortgage offer, false information from our surveyor... We are now waiting for seller to answer enquiries and paperwork from purchasers. I am just sick of all the waiting around now, but we are too scared to start packing up because our last purchase collapsed 2 weeks before completion, so I can’t relax till it’s all done and dusted. It’s causing severe lack of sleep and lots more grey hairs!

Re Searches- If we had them done on the original purchase can we use most of it (in the main) for another house that's very close by?
(No mortgage involved) Seems a waste to be told there's radon etc ( we know) I've searched the planning portal on all neighbouring properties and the surveyor picks this up anyway.
Other searches seem to cover quite a large radius ( for phone masts etc)
That's if we get the house of course!
Fingers crossed for the stamp duty extension for everyone who needs it!

So we are now not exchanging tomorrow as planned. Our buyers solicitors said they don't want to exchange until 1st March.

No reason given.

Our solicitor has tried to make contact to find out why but can't get hold of them. We were just about to book the removals company as well. Think I might still do that anyway, although we do have to pay a deposit which we could potentially lose. Think that would be better than exchanging then to find out we have to move ourselves!

Yes, why the secrecy?

When calling the estate agents “move managers” they should be able to say exactly what is going on, what problems there are and the timescales.

Actually, shouldn’t have to call and chase them, there should be an app which shows the chain and the progress of each with updates. So you can see, for example, house two in the chain is waiting for searches back, house 4 is waiting for valuation etc.

The lies, half truths and constant secrecy and not getting answers is what makes the process so stressful and there is no need.

Our solicitor has just sent us an email thread between all the solicitors and estate agents. We are chain of 3, FTB - cash buyer - us. The plan was to exchange this Friday but looking at the emails, the FTB solicitor hasn't answered anyone since the start of the month!! Hasn't said if all the answers to his enquiries are ok. One of the estate agents even said 'I know you're very busy but if you could even just send one sentence confirming this please.' It's so unbelievably frustrating!!!!!!! And there's nothing we can do.

I think we may finally have some light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully completing on the 4th, with exchange next week. Really need there to be no more spanners in the works from now!
😬

As some of you have mentioned, it's the lack of communication that causes the most grief. It's such a frustrating process.

exactly @Hmmph

Having a reason for the delay in exchanging would yes, make things far less stressful.

Are our buyers spies about to be sent on a secret assignment? Who knows!!

The house buying process is not fit for purpose in any way!

Our sellers pulled out yesterday citing "personal reasons". Been at the bottom in a chain of four since late September and have been very patient. Deposits have been with our solicitors for a couple of weeks as exchange was imminent.

Clearly the whole chain is now fucked for 31st March and we have to start again finding somewhere to move to. I feel really disinclined to offer on anything except chain free properties now TBH, this is the second time a seller has dropped out at the point of exchange, so two lots of legal and survey fees down the drain There is a lot wrong with the English conveyancing system!

We’ve SSTC , but it’s a business and we’re ploughing through loads of paperwork for the buyers due diligence ( though why they need to know half of it is beyond me )
Can’t find anywhere we like to move too
Nothing