Buyers Sellers Roll Call 16

[Househunting21]

Because the last thread is nearly full and I for one very much appreciate the space to vent

Good luck to everyone hoping to exchange and/or complete this week!

Can I join late? We’re FTBs and had on offer accepted on a house late-May. We have finally been given a provisional date yesterday of 19th August for completion. We haven’t exchanged yet. I’m off to the bank this morning to transfer our deposit. It’s a chain free purchase but still been extremely stressful due to incompetent solicitors. Im keeping my fingers crossed for exchange in the next couple of days. I won’t be moving again for a very long time!

@LODReturn fingers crossed for you today!

We have been told our buyers money should be released by the bank soon but we're not getting any proper updates from our useless estate agents. I think we'll lose our onward purchase, I'm so angry & I just want to cry. I feel powerless!

Aw I'm sorry, @labourlost. How are things now?

@LODReturn, I hope things are going okay!

I went to see our estate agents in person today... the usual lady wasn't there, but the lady covering for her managed to talk to our buyer. They are now saying the valuation on the property that they want to remortgage is next week but they've instructed their solicitor and will do the paperwork later today, and their mortgage offer is in.

She was really disparaging about expectations... kept saying we wouldn't possibly be in a position to exchange in August, until we said our survey is done, we've got our mortgage offer and searches and we're raising enquiries today... irritating! But I just want a timescale, really.

Tomorrow I'll chase our solicitors again... and our survey people, it was due yesterday and they were "just working on it" at 2pm, but nothing yet.

Powerless is the perfect word to describe the whole house buying process.

The B and B owner has failed to answer some simple questions about the business she is buying namely when she thinks it'll go through, so we've given an ultimatum that we exchange on Friday or we pull out. We've said that we can have 3 months until we complete. She said she can't exchange this week and wants it to be in September. Our solicitor says there's no reason we can't exchange on Friday as everything is sorted so we're holding tight and sticking to our guns..... wish us luck

Good luck @newhouseangst although I'm not sure what's for the best. Friday is so close though. You'll know soon enough where you stand.

And good luck to everyone else. Some of this makes for difficult reading.
Could it be the run up to the new school term adds delays?

I'm occupying myself picking out flooring whilst I wait for the finances to come through... twiddles thumbs.

Where has all our happy news gone?! Sympathies to everyone experiencing issues - @labourlost, really hope the money comes through soon and your vendors hang on for it.

Both we and our vendors managed to get our mortgage offers extended to meet the 1 October completion date that the top of the chain wants (why they can't do a day earlier and save us all 2.5k is beyond me, have given up trying to rationalise). Our buyer needed confirmation that the rest of the chain was ready to exchange before they could request an extension, which they finally did on Tuesday. Now just waiting to hear if that's successful and if so, we can exchange - don't want to think about what happens if the lender says no

We were also asked yesterday if we would cover our buyer's stamp duty. Ironically we did actually discuss doing that when it became clear we were going to miss June, but we couldn't make the numbers work, and now we'll miss September it's even less so. I really feel for them, they've been super patient, but we can't stretch any further. Am hoping that won't be a deal breaker, but am at the point where if any other obstacle comes up I might just give up on the whole thing. The new house is not worth this much stress!

@newhouseangst Fingers crossed they agree to exchange on Friday. They seem irritatingly non-committal!

@Househunting21 Best of luck with the extension, and your buyers. It's very annoying that they will only do the 1st October, but at least you'll hopefully be in...

Our survey is back this morning. It's long, but there's no major issues - it needs pointing, the boiler needs changing, and the downstairs bedroom has damp so needs better ventilation and replastering. It has a horrendous smell, so we'd sort-of guessed that much.

Waiting on DH to chase our solicitors again today... they said on Monday that they were still waiting for searches back from the previous buyers, so hadn't reviewed the pack like they said they would over the weekend. We've now had the draft contract minus the searches for 10 days, which is quite annoying, because we haven't seen the fixtures and fittings yet, etc.

Our estate agent is supposed to follow up with us today to confirm that our buyer has instructed his solicitor and requested searches, so I'm hoping that happens...

It just feels so slow!

@TakeYourFinalPosition still waiting here. Hoping to hear something today or tomorrow.

Good luck @newhouseangst

@Househunting21 I feel your pain, sometimes the new house just doesn't feel worth all this stress.

We really thought we would be in by now, our little one starts school in September & I'm so upset & stressed by it all.

Hello, can I join in? House went on market two weeks ago and accepted an offer, found my new property and had offer accepted (thank god for terrible photos, they had no other viewings!!) And now... I wait?

Am antsy already, I have absolutely no idea how long to expect

Can I join? I could absolutely cry with frustration. Our vendors will be moving out to break the chain''mid August' we were told- all good. FTB are purchasing our property. All searches in, enquiries dealt with, mortgages sorted, we've signed and returned everything asked of us and still...nothing. No hint of exchange, we have DCs supposedly starting new school in September, absolutely frantic to move in time for this. We sold end of April and put offer on property first week of May. No complications, all very simple- why is it taking so long??????

@labourlost Ah, I was really hoping you'd have heard. Fingers crossed it's soon!

@HouseIsOnFire Congratulations on the offers! Have you started your paperwork and things?

We're exactly four weeks from our offer being accepted today... solicitors have been very slow, and our buyer has only just instructed their solicitor, which isn't helping with speed!

I'd say to be patient right now as it's all frustratingly slow, but I'd be being a complete hypocrite, given that I'm struggling with patience . Our chain is hoping to exchange this month and complete by end of September at the latest, but the estate agent doesn't think that'll happen.

We have heard from our solicitor - they've paid for the searches from the old buyer so are expecting them today, and then will take the pack home over the weekend. Which is what we were told last weekend, too....

Ah @20thCenturyGhosts i get the being frantic to move before school starts. Can you keep phoning everyone (estate agents, solicitors etc)? I have made an absolute nuisance of myself but we have had enough of the waiting (We sold March & found our property in April) so I just keep calling all parties involved.

We’ve had a bit of a nightmare our end. The searches on the property we’ve bought all fine but the searches on our property failed the environmental search as we live next to an old petrol station (hasn’t been used in over 10 years) Our solicitor has put forward an indemnity insurance to their solicitor, which was only £35 to cover the issue. Has anyone else had any issues with searches? I hope this insurance policy will progress things as I am so stressed and just want this moving process to be over!

@20thCenturyGhosts Oh that sounds stressful!

Are they still willing to move out and break the chain? Surely if they've moving in mid-August, they must have the details all sorted now.

I might be a cynic on this, though, our last chain fell apart because our vendor denied ever saying that they'd break the chain "unless it was absolutely necessary", and said the estate agent must have made it up... and our buyer dropped out as a result. It seems to be a common complaint at the moment.

It sounds like you're almost ready to exchange... I hope the delay either becomes apparant so someone can deal with it, or everyone gets their skates on and it happens soon!

Can I join? We have confirmed we will break the chain and go into airbnb between completion and our new house- but no sign of exchange. I need at least a few days to sort somewhere to stay but buyer wants to exchange and complete on same day. I have an uneasy feeling. This is why I never want to move- sooo stressful. Hope someone gets good news today.

Can I join- I've started a thread on this but I feel the mutual support here would help.
Our vendors accepted our offer, waited until we had a buyer all set up and everything arranged and then asked for more money.
I wanted to tell them to f#*k right off the greedy immoral idiots.
We did just without the swearing.
So now looking for somewhere to move to. Can't update our buyers as the agents on holiday. DH and I are pretty much obsessed with Rightmove.

Thanks all! Just spoke to estate agents who said buyers are still waiting for their mortgage confirmation. What have they all been doing all these months?! I am so sick with worry about it and me and DH are bickering. Never again!

@TakeYourFinalPosition it's all happened so fast (literally 2 weeks!) So a bit dazed right now! Applied for mortgage today and have solicitors, noone has told me to do anything more yet!

Now to decide which survey to go with - home buyers or the one above. It's an ex council 1950s so nothing too unusual but my home buyers for current house wasn't worth the paper it was written on!!

For those of you who have buyers pull out - so did we, but our new buyers offered more money and recognized we were in a rush and somehow we are completing tomorrow - 7 weeks after their offer! Still doesn't feel real.

I cannot however recommend moving house at 39 weeks pregnant. I keep running out of steam and getting frustrated I can't lug boxes around like I would normally be able to. Also people keep "telling me off" even though I'm barely doing anything! Mainly labelling boxes and wrapping things in bubble wrap.

Fingers crossed for everyone waiting on news today!!

@20thCenturyGhosts I feel your pain! How do these issues just come to light at the last minute?!

Can I join? I’m right at the beginning of the process but I sense it will be useful having a place to vent and ask for advice

Still had no news about whether our vendors have had their offer accepted on their purchase... Why the hell does everything take so long? Aghhh

We may exchange tomorrow or it might be in 10 days after solicitor gets back from holiday!! I

@Iamsodonewith2020 oh my! I would be literally rioting! Is there not someone at their firm who could look after you?

@HouseIsOnFire Nobody has told us to do anything at any point . Sadly I suspect the same is true for our buyer, so he hadn't done much until we started asking for updates last week, and that's slowing the whole chain down now. Everyone seems to expect that you just know what to do!

Our survey report came back yesterday, seems okay but I need a good read. We went for the Building one, as there was only £125 difference between that and the Home Buyers Report, but the latter didn't seem to have much about it... at least this one is 59 pages long and seems to cover most stuff.

@Andthenanothercupoftea Best of luck today! I'm 22 weeks this weekend... Very much hoping we'll be in inside the next 6 weeks, really. You're a superwoman! I hope you all settle in quickly.

@Getyourarseofffthequattro When did they make the offer? Surely they'd know pretty quickly?! How frustrating.

@Iamsodonewith2020 I'd be rioting too, that's insane. Surely they should have handed over to someone else in the firm who can exchange for you?!