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!

Takeyourfinalposition I've thankfully found out that they've had an offer accepted. The person they're buying from is yet to find a property... My sale is continuing apace and I'm going to sell and put my stuff into storage for a while.

It sounds like you are going through the same thing as us @LopsidedWombat. Is the house leasehold by any chance? We are trying to buy a flat that is but the freeholder is absent which means the property might be unmortgageable. I never knew something like this could happen. Nightmare

Wrongside Ah that's good! I hope their seller finds something fast too...

No more news from anyone today.

We have another potential buyer, but I have no idea what to do.

We own here, and we're safe and fine, and we know it well... my head says to stick it out.

But it's now 5 BTL landlords and us; so no maintenance gets done, and it's loud and busy as all 5 are being let, and 3 are on AirBnB. It's not going to be ideal for a baby, and I don't know how long we can take working/living in the same room all the time.

@MonkeyMadness7 Sorry about your flat. Freeholders are nightmare at the best of times, absent ones are an absolute nightmare! Have you started looking for other options?

I have the keys. I have the keys. They are in my hands. I have the keys!

Plus a random story of another buyer trying to change my contract.. but yeah.. I'm just going to ignore that and focus on my shiny keys!

@PlanarJaner Congratulations! That's amazing! So pleased for you

@LopsidedWombat That's so frustrating and ridiculous for that mistake to happen. Surely the seller knows if there is a management company or not?

@TakeYourFinalPosition What position is the potential new buyer in? Do you feel like they might be able to act fast? I think in your position I would probably cut the other buyer loose as he is either incompetent or can't get a mortgage.

We actually heard from our solicitor today! Not a particularly useful update but contact nonetheless. So the extra money she wants to charge is for the water searches as the commercial search is more expensive.

We found out that our sellers were mistakenly moved to the commercial arm of Southern Water a few years ago but they didn't notice. They are now being moved back to residental but it will likely take a while so we will have to do a commercial water search to keep things moving. Apparently the information will be the same, but the search companies like to charge more commercial ones. Typical.

@MonkeyMadness7 ours is freehold on a fairly new development (2-3 years old) but I believe it works in a similar way to leasehold when it comes to trying to buy what with all the paperwork and its a very common setup with new build developments. What happened to your freeholder, surely they cannot disappear into thin air! With us, the management company was never set up so I've no idea where we go next and also wondering if all these properties in the development are going to end up unmortgageable like you say could be the case with your flat.

@TakeYourFinalPosition without the management company being setup, I have no idea where they are to get the paperwork from, if anywhere. Hoping to find out more this week as we have been kept in the dark about the reality of the situation thus far. The living in limbo that you mention is exactly how I feel, like I am just waiting for bad news all the time.

@blacklilypad The sellers bought the place brand new so I wonder if they just assumed the management company had been set up in the time since, I am not sure. They are lovely people and very organised so I should think they are as bemused about this as we are.

Going out of my mind. Counting down the hours until I have to go back to my parents with ds. It's really getting me down.

It's now been a week since our sellers applied for their mortgage. Still no idea whether searches have been done or not. No idea whether enquiries have been sent or satisfied.

How long do you all realistically think? I'm not sure how much longer I can carry on.

Apparently I'll get an update Tuesday but I'm not holding my breath. If we don't get anything meaningful I'm going to ask if our sellers will consider breaking the chain and staying with family because literally everything for our sale /purchase is done. Signed contracts the lot just waiting for the bloody sellers onward purchase.

Am I being a total twat?

I don’t thing ur being a twat. It’s stressful. And other people don’t take others into their consideration when they don’t bother to do things. I know that the lady whose house we are buying has young children and a dog. Must be really stressful as they are breaking the chain as they are behind in finding a house. I’m trying to everything I can to make this easier for her.
Your child is at the for front in ur mind. And that makes it even more stressful for you.
I’m moving myself and my nearly 18. Will be doddle for me compared to her and her kids and dog and moving on with parents. Feel like telling the estate agent to tell her not to bother cleaning. Can’t even imagine how stressed she is.

@Getyourarseofffthequattro I'm sorry, it is so, so stressful, and I'm not displaced from my family too.

Has anyone mentioned what mortgage provider they're using? If so, you might be able to make a guess... Ours took four days with Barclays, but our buyer is using Kensington and they're seven weeks into the process with no offer yet.

If you know the area where they're buying, you can probably find out how long searches are taking at the moment, too...

I've got no idea on enquiries, though, I can't even get our solicitor to confirm if all our buyer's enquiries are satisfied, and our solicitor has reopened some of the closed enquiries for our purchase for some reason...

I don't think you're being a twat, but I'd mentally prepare for them to decline - it feels like such a fraught time to risk not being on the property ladder anymore. DH's parents have been pushing us to still sell even if our chain collapses and we can't buy, but we couldn't do it, we know far too many people who now feel stuck in rented. I hope they will, though - just prepare yourself so it's not a let-down if they say no

@LopsidedWombat That's bizarre. Was it ever registered? Is it a requirement of the lease for the company to exist?

Barclays will re-value the house we're buying next week, to check out the partial loft conversion. Hopefully that'll go okay. I'm hoping our buyer makes some progress, too... I think September is a lost hope now, but I'm hoping mid-October might be okay.

I replied to our solicitor on Friday to say that we were on CC for 3 of the 4 issues that she'd emailed she hadn't had updates on... no reply. I feel like she's working against us more than with us, at this stage!

There's a bit of me that wants to pull out and nest here now, so at least we're ready for baby somewhere.

Yeah I'm definitely expecting them to say no to be honest. They won't tell me who the mortgage provider is because of data protection apparently. I mean, wtf.

I'm just really struggling. It's hard being away from dp, it's hard parenting ds on my own. I feel like my parents are undermining me a lot, judging my parenting and yet I have to keep quiet and allow it because they're doing a nice thing by letting us stay. Im so incredibly stressed and upset every day.

We haven't gone back tonight because ds felt poorly and it's stressing me that we'll have to get up early to get to school 45 mins away.

Honestly I am just fed up. I'm totally at breaking point and there's nothing I can do.

I be, @Getyourarseofffthequattro I genuinely don't think I could cope with that, you're doing an amazing job, even if it feels really hard.

I hope this morning went okay.

No news our side. I'm trying to stay relaxed, but I just know I'll get irritated by the lack of activity soon. Our solicitor barely even acknowledges us now, let alone our buyer and their mortgage offer issues.

Thanks @TakeYourFinalPosition I just feel like I'm a bit shit on all fronts at the min.

Well we did get here with some hiccups. Ds didn't know whether he felt sick or not so decided to chance it. He was fine. Then set off and my tyre light came on, stopped to fill tyres up for literally first time in my life which was fun and then got to school 5 mins late. But hey. Luckily my job is pretty flexible. Although my front passenger tyre is now looking a bit squishy again so may have to have a trip to the garage later / tomorrow.

If I didn't have bad luck I'd have no luck at all I swear!

I really hope we both get some good news soon, lord knows we both bloody deserve it. Your situation sounds so stressful

Yay! I accepted an offer on my house this morning. It went on the market about a week ago and I had 3 offers over the weekend so I'm a very happy bunny today. Thankfully I don't need to buy as well so it 'should' be fairly straightforward. We'll see.

Good luck to all of you selling and buying. I last went through it a couple of years ago and I know exactly how stressful the whole thing is.

Had an email from our solicitor saying do we want to complete on the 30th, and if we do she'll put it to the upper chain.... Lower chain have agreed.

I'm so confused. It's 10 days away and we don't even know if the upper chain have a mortgage or searches yet or enquiries....?!

Is it possible? I don't want to get my hopes up.

That sounds positive, @Getyourarseofffthequattro!! My fingers are tightly crossed!

No updates here, but that’s no surprise.

@Terriffids I hope selling goes as easy as possible

Thanks @TakeYourFinalPosition mine too!

I feel suspicious rather then excited this is what the process does to you!

Hope you get an update tomorrow!

Disabled parents have house up for sale, desperate to move into an empty little bungalow, 10 weeks in to the sale , due to sign end of next week/start of week after, buyers have pulled out today citing 'personal circumstances', last week they reassured my parents the sale was definitely on!, I cannot begin to tell you of the despair this has caused, just gutted, very few bungalows for sale around our location, really at a premium and have gone up massively in price, if they can't find another buyer pdq, that's it, dream over , so sad for them

Much stress today after my removals company can no longer do my date. Ringing around and emailing everywhere and so many places booked up.

Just emailed another 20 places this evening in the hope someone somewhere can do something. One online place is charging through the nose and I've have to do my own packing (I was hoping to get packing service) so just doing whatever I can.

Ugh. I'm beyond caring about price now just as long as someone can move the bloody stuff.

Hello all,

18months down the road of house hunting/buying. Pulled out of a purchase due to a third of the property not having planning permission/building regs. I thought we were completing imminently on the new one and the seller has disappeared. Agent hasn't been able to get hold of them at all for over a week. No idea if something has happened or they want to withdraw or what. We're just hanging in mid-air now.

It’s all so stressful. We have signed everything. Sent everything. Now just waiting for outstanding bits and pieces to come. So. I sit here. Not wanting to pack anything. Just waiting and waiting.

@Getyourarseofffthequattro I'm feeling quite excited for you!! I hope things are going well today.

I've emailed the estate agents to ask if the valuation is booked for this week as they'd intended... I'm guessing not, but if it's not, realistically it's not going to be done this week, and I don't know how long we (or the rest of the chain) are going to wait.

@rockingthelook I'm sorry about your parents house. I hope the estate agent can get some buyers in quickly

@readytosell Ugh, I'm sorry. Are you booking for September?

@NoToast That's not great, either! I hope they pop up soon.

@Paranoidandroidmarvin I'm with you on hating the waiting...

I've chased our estate agent to see if our buyers' valuation is actually booked in. They sent us a load of emails saying they were "trying" to book it for this week, but nothing to say they have...

I suppose I should also chase our solicitor, but honestly, she seems to have no idea what's going on...

Well no news yet....... I'm not convinced. Then again I'll not be convinced until the keys are in my hand! Ea usually sends me an update just before they close via email presumably so I can't ring them and pick apart what they've said!

@Getyourarseofffthequattro that sounds tentatively postive. Fingers and toes crossed for you

@TakeYourFinalPosition really hope they get it booked for you this week. I've heard from a couple of friends that valuations and surveys seem to be getting booked in quicker now as the influx of people buying to meet the SDLT holiday has ended as no knew people will make it. So hopefully that means you won't have a long lead time

Nothing happening here. DH and I sent a very long email yesterday over to the solicitors with some enquiries and some general questions we have been asking her since the beginning of August. I'm giving them today and then will resume chasing tomorrow.

I spoke to a couple of solicitors about how easy it would be to switch over. They say in general they advise against switching mid process as things can get missed. Most say they will start completely from scratch which is fine but one wants to redo searches that are already back. And I don't see the point in that. I'm still tempted to change solicitor but DH is less so. Hopefully she'll get something done this week as I imagine next week will be a lost cause with the deadline completions

Ea got back to me just before closing time as per. She's given us no update except the searches are back. No answer on who was lying about when they were done. And just said they're awaiting the mortgage offer. No more detail.

Asked if us wanting to complete on the 30th means breaking the chain.

I knew it was too good to be true.

@Getyourarseofffthequattro They want you to break the chain?!

Sorry your update from the EA wasn't good. Ours is stuck to their script too - they don't contact us unless I chase, and if I do, reply to say that they've chased but haven't heard anything, but the buyer is "keen".

They're blaming the surveyor shortage; but our solicitor screwed up last week and so we now need a physical valuation rather than a desktop one... they decided that on Thursday, it's already booked in. I can't see why its taken since the 1st September to rebook one, especially as he's already had one.

Still radio silence from our solicitor, too.

I'm tempted to go and see our estate agent and ask if our buyer is actually proceedable at this point, but DH doesn't want me to, he wants to wait. Sitting on my hands.

@blacklilypad Thanks 💕 I'd be cautious about changing solicitors too, sadly - we're on our fourth from the same firm, and to be honest, every handover has meant they've repeated something.

Current solicitor had the WHOLE handover from the previous one, and took over when our purchase was ready to exchange and our sale was just waiting on the mortgage offer, all enquiries done, and I think we've gone five steps back since then 🙈

How are things now?