Buyers Sellers Roll Call 15

[MotherofHeathens]

Because we're nearly at the end of the other thread and still inflicting this torture on ourselves...!

@TheCrookedKind that’s difficult isn’t it, I’m surprised the brokers are saying there’s not much to be done.
I’m sure down valuation has been discussed on here before, it may be worth doing a search and see how others resolved it, maybe either by getting it revalued, or going with a different lender.
I suppose you just need to feel reassured that you are not massively overpaying, if the house is right for you and you can afford it.
Do you intend to live there for a while? That always makes a difference if it’s a short term house the risk is higher if you overpay.

God I hate how slow everything is. We answer all the buyer's solicitors queries and they come back with two more, one of which has already been answered. We accepted the offer on April 21st. They are FTBs and we are chain free. It should not be taking this long!

Just answered our buyers queries. Hopefully they won't come back with more.

@Paddingtonthebear

Irrationally annoyed that the house we have just pulled out of buying is back on the market for the same price despite a dodgy survey 🙄

Feel free to tell me to bog off but I am nosey. Link?

Nothing has progressed for my stuff due to staff at solicitors self isolating. Hmph.

I'm going to rejoin this thread. I had an issue with my logins so couldn't post for a while. We were selling our house and the paperwork was ticking along nicely and literally an hour after I'd dropped off our signed contract in our solicitors' post box I get an email saying that the buyers are pulling out. We are moving to my MIL's in six weeks' time and now it just seems like we may end up staying there forever because we aren't able to look for a new house until we've sold this one. The market seems to have slowed right down so F knows how long this is going to take...

Look forward to starting this all again. Not. Hope you all are doing better than we are!

Oh @BabyPotato that sucks.

We didn’t make exchange today. I don’t fully understand, don’t think our sellers funds came in on time.

Argh newhousehope, that's annoying. Hopefully Monday?

We've been told that contracts have been issued at the top of the chain and the mortgage offer was expected today. No news on whether searches have been requested, but they seem like they're moving on so hopefully they have. Everyone else in the chain is ready, so hoping against hope this one will go through!

Fingers crossed for speed @Househunting21!

Oh @BabyPotato that is so frustrating, I'm sorry. I hope things work out for you sooner than you think.

We are finally, finally exchanging on Monday! Lots of faffing around on Friday afternoon (as always) and then I had a missed call from my solicitor at about 4.30pm saying everything was done and did we want to give permission to exchange? I didn't see the call until 4.50pm, rang her straight back but of course by then it was too late as everyone had buggered off home on a sunny Friday afternoon

Anyway, she promised she will get on it first thing Monday - and we then complete on Friday! Eeeek! Can't believe it's actually happening now but so, so excited about this new chapter in our life.

Best of luck for next week everyone!

Very bad luck BabyPotato - so difficult.

Please could anyone who's done this give me advice? I'm wondering at what point I can say no to requests from the buyers for this test and that test.

I've given masses of info on the Property Info Form two months ago, with all the certificates, planning permissions, building regs etc. They've had a mortgage valuation which they got back the next day, all fine, they've had a full structural survey subsequent to that, all ok, and I've had the boiler serviced, woodburner swept, hot water cylinder serviced, alarm serviced and now, 'just for peace of mind' the buyers want an electrical check, a central heating check and a water pressure check. I'm inclined to say give me a break. The house is immaculate and the surveyor who was at the house for some while could surely have turned on a tap. There are no problems in any of these areas incidentally; everything working fine.

Also, in the Additional Enquiries which have just come through, their solicitor says that since I'm 'selling at an undervalue', he wants me to provide an indemnity against my being bankrupt. Is this very odd? I wasn't aware that I was selling at an undervalue. I accepted an offer below the guide price but will this be something the survey has said?

Advice welcome! Buyers are lovely, seem keen, but life is very busy and these endless tiddly tests after a great big long survey are getting really annoying.

peepopeepopeepo I'm with you! Lots of questions asked in Additional Enquiries which have been answered in the Property Info Form two months ago.

We didn't get the queries btw. But apparently the buyer had sent them to their solicitor who is sending them to ours

I tell you what makes a huge difference is a good estate agent. The one we are using to sell this house is utterly hopeless. We didn't want to use them but they were the estate agents of the first place we put an offer in (but withdrew eventually) and we got stuck with them as part of the other house accepting our offer. Our other place we sold with an excellent EA who was on top of the process the whole way through. Us and next in chain want to exchange in 2 weeks time and that side of the chain is all in line but no one has any clue what is going on with our buyer mainly because the EA is so rubbish!

If you are in SW London and want a recommendation of who not to go with you are welcome to PM me !! I am really worried it is all going to fall apart at the last minute and we will have to start again.

@goodbyestranger can you just say if they want to appoint and pay for someone to do said check that’s fine, but you’re not doing it for them?
I’ve asked my sellers for gas/electricity certs but things haven’t been looked after and the house isn’t anywhere near immaculate. If they don’t want to do it we will pay for someone to do it, just so we know if money needs spending or not.
I’ve never heard of the ‘selling at undervalue’ thing, currently there is a thread here in the property/DIY section (think it’s called Property Solicitor) where a solicitor on maternity leave is being very helpful, you could ask on there.

Thank you Itscoldoutthere. It's more the irritation of lots more people. They have all the certificates, everything is recently serviced (and has been every year/ I have the receipts), and they've now had a full survey which seems to have said the house is in excellent nick, despite being an old cottage. I don't know how much more they need 'for peace of mind'.

I'll hop over to the poor solicitor on mat leave :)

@goodbyestranger I think there are a lot of buyers being told to get all of these things. We are selling 2 properties and buying one and were told we had to get an electrical certificate for both places we are selling despite not having an issue with either.

Either the surveyor or the solicitor is probably telling your buyers to get it. The problem you have is that if you refuse, you risk looking like you're hiding something!

@goodbyestranger I can see why that’s really annoying. I do sometimes wonder if it’s over eager solicitors who drive these things or the buyers.
We did everything for our sale, all paperwork was together we got certs for everything, now I’m buying my sellers (not helped by them divorcing) don’t seem to want to provide information on anything, the sellers information just said no/don’t know to most things. It’s so bloody annoying and just makes everything more long winded with questions back and forth.
I realise they just want to move on with their lives but we also need to know what we are buying and any potential additional costs, but some people do go a bit OTT and want guarantees for everything which just isn’t possible or needed.

Thanks both. I really want to tell them no but completely agree about looking like I'm hiding something. They say they want a quick exchange/ completion but I need a bit of time having been here forty years, without unnecessary electricians etc cluttering things up! Just having a moan really, but wanted to know if anyone else has said: enough!

Time to pack and leave the house as they want to find it I mean

It's a total pain in the arse @goodbyestranger so you have my sympathies!

We also priced for a quick sale and have suffered a bit for it as we keep getting asked why we are selling 'cheap'! No one has mentioned bankruptcy though!

Cheers StrongArm. It seems to me that this solicitor is obsessed with indemnities. He's asked for several others aside from the indemnity in case of problems arising from bankruptcy (eg building regs for replacement windows (which didn't require building regs) or an indemnity; building regs for an internal wall removed in 1979 (which didn't require building regs) or an indemnity; building regs for a replacement roof (which didn't require building regs) or an indemnity, plus several other suggested indemnities for things which also aren't issues). I'm tending to think the guy has a brother in the indemnity field who's short of work....

@goodbyestranger or the solicitor is a paranoid arse coverer 😂

That is a nicely worded phrase which I now regret not having used in my response to him Itscoldouthere :)

Taken the liberty of creating a new thread, as this one's almost at capacity - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/4300424-Buyers-Sellers-Roll-Call-16?watched=1

Just waiting for searches etc so we can get to the next step. FTB in the UK and the process feels really opaque!