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!

After almost two years of stress and various disappointments, we have completed! It seemed like it might fall through right to the very end and it still hasn't sunk in that it's ours. Moving in a week or so, been busy packing and popping in and out doing bits. Each time I'm there I feel like a burglar, I am in that much disbelief that we finally own our own home!

Good luck to everyone else, I know the stress feels bloody never-ending but it will come together in the end

Congrats @LopsidedWombat!

@SaltySeaAir It'd be your solicitor you talked to - although if you're at the bottom of the chain, typically further up would suggest dates when you confirm that you're all ready to go.

@LopsidedWombat Congratulations!!! That's amazing news. Enjoy your house!

@Getyourarseofffthequattro Did you hear back about the log burner report?

No news here; we've heard nothing from the estate agent or buyer since the weekend visit. I'm sitting on my hands not to email! I've spent the morning in the labour ward (all is fine, thankfully!) and now I'm struggling to focus on work, and I don't feel at all ready for the baby... I just want to know if we'll be here or there 🙈

Hi all, can I check that contacting EAs for updates is ‘ok’?

I emailed to ask that something was pushed along last week if they had the opportunity to speak to the vendor, and had a call yesterday essentially saying that it was the solicitors job, not theirs...

FTB so not sure if I’m being annoying / inappropriate in going to the EA!

Some are better than others, @OrigamiParrot... It took me a while to get my head around who would know what!

Generally the solicitors will talk to each other, and the estate agents will keep each other up-to-date. Typically your estate agent should update you, but if you're not selling anything, you don't have one, so it can feel frustrating. And we do have one this time, but they've still been pretty unresponsive and rubbish most of the time!

What do you want to know? We might be able to signpost you to the best people to ask?

Our solicitor won't update our estate agent, for example. Our old buyer's solicitor happily talked to them, but the new buyer's solicitor has asked them to stop emailing her and not to CC her on anything as they are not her client. Above us, our vendors estate agent is quite responsive to us and our estate agent, but his solicitor doesn't talk to either.

Nope nothing @TakeYourFinalPosition I'm sitting on my hands too.

Thanks @TakeYourFinalPosition - it is a minefield! That makes sense (well, as much as anything does with this process!).

It was just to ask whether the vendor had been told about enquiries raised, as they’ve been with them for a number of weeks with no acknowledgement from their solicitors despite chasing, according to ours.

It’s tricky as I have no idea what a reasonable timeframe is on any of this - but if I left queries totally unanswered for a month or more in my job, I’d expect to be on a performance improvement plan sharpish..!

I found out my offer wasn’t accepted but it was very close between me and one other hopeful. They’d offered more (don’t know how much) I’d offered asking, and they decided to go with the higher offer in the end.

It was on purple bricks and could see via the email updates all the offers that came in- there were a lot!

Disappointed but I was already at my max budget so it wasn’t meant to be.

Ah @Bobbleka; I'm sorry

@OrigamiParrot Sadly the estate agent will have no visibility of enquiries at all - and solicitors tend to vary massively on how quickly they pass them on. Some will pass them on as they come in, and some wait and present them all together... how long have you been waiting for replies? We were told 6 weeks for enquiries was standard - I've always had mine sorted faster than that, but it does depend on what the enquiries are, and the stamp duty holiday has massively delayed just about everything conveyancing related 🙈

Your solicitor should be able to provide updates on the enquiry status; although if they haven't heard anything back, it'll probably just be that they're still waiting (and hopefully that they've chased!)

@Getyourarseofffthequattro Fingers crossed for news today! 🤞 I think I'm going to chase a bit today and see if there's any news...

I regret chasing for an update...

Our solicitor says the buyer didn't buy the searches; and they've heard nothing at all from them. They wanted the old enquiries that the previous buyer had raised, but my solicitor said she can't provide them without the other solicitors' permission, so advised them to raise their own... Nothing since. That was over a week ago. She thinks that their solicitor only does conveyancing part-time, and the 4 - 6 weeks might be based on her availability...

@TakeYourFinalPosition

I regret chasing for an update...

Our solicitor says the buyer didn't buy the searches; and they've heard nothing at all from them. They wanted the old enquiries that the previous buyer had raised, but my solicitor said she can't provide them without the other solicitors' permission, so advised them to raise their own... Nothing since. That was over a week ago. She thinks that their solicitor only does conveyancing part-time, and the 4 - 6 weeks might be based on her availability...

Oh no what is going on! Why is nothing ever straight forward

I asked for an update and got "we're chasing it" so the same drivel as the last 5.5 weeks

Hi all

Breaking a long silence to say we're in! We completed on our sale on 13 September and on our purchase on 1 October, rented back from our buyers in the meantime so had a few days to move everything over. The rent payment was unwelcome, but actually saved enough stress I almost think it was worth it . . .

Have been following and rooting for everyone on this thread. @Getyourarseofffthequattro and @TakeYourFinalPosition, I absolutely feel for you both with the slowness of it all I'll never understand why people can't just pull their fingers out!

Wishing you all positive news very soon and congratulations to everyone else who's completed. I never want to move again

@Househunting21

Hi all

Breaking a long silence to say we're in! We completed on our sale on 13 September and on our purchase on 1 October, rented back from our buyers in the meantime so had a few days to move everything over. The rent payment was unwelcome, but actually saved enough stress I almost think it was worth it . . .

Have been following and rooting for everyone on this thread. @Getyourarseofffthequattro and @TakeYourFinalPosition, I absolutely feel for you both with the slowness of it all I'll never understand why people can't just pull their fingers out!

Wishing you all positive news very soon and congratulations to everyone else who's completed. I never want to move again

Congrats

@Househunting21

Hi all

Breaking a long silence to say we're in! We completed on our sale on 13 September and on our purchase on 1 October, rented back from our buyers in the meantime so had a few days to move everything over. The rent payment was unwelcome, but actually saved enough stress I almost think it was worth it . . .

Have been following and rooting for everyone on this thread. @Getyourarseofffthequattro and @TakeYourFinalPosition, I absolutely feel for you both with the slowness of it all I'll never understand why people can't just pull their fingers out!

Wishing you all positive news very soon and congratulations to everyone else who's completed. I never want to move again

Ah fantastic news! Congrats!

And thank you, it's very frustrating isn't it.

No news as of yet. Just emailed EA again. They've been chasing our vendors mortgage company for about two weeks. I'm struggling to understand why it's taking so long.

Congratulations @Househunting21!! I'm so glad it all worked out for you okay.

@Getyourarseofffthequattro That's so rubbish, I'm sorry .

We're in the same boat, EA has gone VERY quiet; our solicitor says she's being chased from higher up the chain for confirmation that we'll be able to complete before November 14th, and to be honest, it doesn't seem likely. The buyer's solicitor hasn't bought the old searches or raised any enquiries; and is allegedly saying 4 - 6 weeks... And I've heard nothing on his mortgage offer, either, which is exactly where we got stuck for 10 weeks before; and then the EA suddenly said that he hadn't keep them properly informed and he couldn't get a mortgage.

I feel really tired and fed up of it all today 🙈

@TakeYourFinalPosition

Congratulations *@Househunting21*!! I'm so glad it all worked out for you okay.

@Getyourarseofffthequattro That's so rubbish, I'm sorry .

We're in the same boat, EA has gone VERY quiet; our solicitor says she's being chased from higher up the chain for confirmation that we'll be able to complete before November 14th, and to be honest, it doesn't seem likely. The buyer's solicitor hasn't bought the old searches or raised any enquiries; and is allegedly saying 4 - 6 weeks... And I've heard nothing on his mortgage offer, either, which is exactly where we got stuck for 10 weeks before; and then the EA suddenly said that he hadn't keep them properly informed and he couldn't get a mortgage.

I feel really tired and fed up of it all today 🙈

Oh god it's scary isn't it. Our buyer has been so patient but our sellers, they've been horrendous. Well them or their solicitor or their estate agent. Or all of them.

The ea has gone on annual leave for the rest of the week and not told me so I've just emailed their generic address.

Eurghhh I hope someone gets back to you from the generic email

Our estate agent called just after lunch. She wanted to check that I hadn’t gone into labour; but also to say that she’d called our buyers solicitor, who was waiting on the buyer to authorise her to review the searches. The buyer apparently didn’t know he had to, but she’s left them on a call. She’s also chased his mortgage offer… she said it should be today or tomorrow now that the deluge of applications has ended, but that’s made me a bit panicky about why it’s already taken two weeks

I’m just so fed up of waiting today. I hope we both get updates soon

@TakeYourFinalPosition

Eurghhh I hope someone gets back to you from the generic email

Our estate agent called just after lunch. She wanted to check that I hadn’t gone into labour; but also to say that she’d called our buyers solicitor, who was waiting on the buyer to authorise her to review the searches. The buyer apparently didn’t know he had to, but she’s left them on a call. She’s also chased his mortgage offer… she said it should be today or tomorrow now that the deluge of applications has ended, but that’s made me a bit panicky about why it’s already taken two weeks

I’m just so fed up of waiting today. I hope we both get updates soon

Hopefully it's good news and you get some answers.

Nothing for us as yet.

It's been almost 5 weeks since our buyer applied for their mortgage. 5 weeks and nothing. No "oh we've got a survey booked" absolutely nowt.

I ask them to chase and they say they are and.... Nothing. At what point do I start saying look, are they proceedable or?

I've been lurking through a long and agonising wait for our mortgage offer, which has been the final thing we needed before we could exchange for weeks and weeks. We've now received ours, although they've sent our solicitors copy via snail mail. Short chain of 3 (we are selling property but it's not part of the onward move) with us at the bottom and everyone has been screaming for exchange for weeks, with an agreed completion date if we can get there in time of 22 Oct. Our solicitor hasn't sent us our title report or contracts for signing or requested deposit or anything - says she'll do it all 'as soon as I get the mortgage offer'. Last time I bought and sold a house, the signing happened in person in the solicitors offices, but these days will she send something we can print and sign and send back? Trying to work out how much longer everything will take...TIA

We are all done. All done. But for one piece of paper. I asked how long that will take. I was told weeks or months. Not sure what to do now. How long do we wait for a piece of paper ? How long will our buyers wait. If we pull out and start again something could go wrong in the new house. Giving up for now and have been setting up all the new things I bought for the new house in my house I have now.

I ask them to chase and they say they are and.... Nothing. At what point do I start saying look, are they proceedable or?

I waited until 9 weeks for that; and regretted it massively. The secret appeared to be asking it bluntly, using "proceedable"... The estate agent sent a snooty reply saying that of course they were but they were awaiting their offer etc; but she did chase and I think passed on the concerns, and the next day we got the full story.

I hope it goes better for you! 5 weeks seems more than generous. Mine took 4 days... our buyer applied last Wednesday and had his valuation on Monday morning, and I'm already impatient 🙈

@TweenWrangler It seems to really depend on the solicitors... some send everything over at once. Ours emailed ours to print and post back/drop off to her. Our seller signed his at a meeting with the solicitor. I'm not sure there's much consistency! But it sounds like you're getting there! Best of luck meeting the 22nd.

@Paranoidandroidmarvin Oh no! What's the piece of paper? That sounds so frustrating.

I'm close to wanting to set up for baby here; but my husband really wants to see if we can get it over the line, and it would be him that had to pack it all away again as I'm now gigantic and can't lift much.

I really don't understand why the process in England is so abysmal. My US friend had an offer two weeks ago and its' already binding; and she's packing to move out now. She'll have moved to Eastern Europe before our buyer is ready to go. That's insane.

Joining optimistically. We viewed last Friday, had our offer accepted on Monday, and I’ve spent all week poking and prodding the solicitor and surveyor into action. Survey booked for Wednesday, but solicitor has raised some issues from the initial forms that we’ve already received- very low EPC rating, and partial works from their planning permission have been completed but not signed off by building control.

A bit concerned we’ll have to pull out, or go back with a reduced offer - which I don’t want to do as it seems sneaky to me, but how much will it cost to get the place insulated and inspected…? Hmm. Seeing the solicitor today to provide documentation so we’ll discuss then.

Staying hopeful!

Bad news we think.

Email from ea that mortgage advisor for our sellers is speaking to business development manager at mortgage company.

My step dad / mortgage advisor thinks this is bad news. Wouldn't have to speak to them if it was plain sailing.

Plan to go to the office today and ask face to face if they are actually proceedable because if they're not we need to walk away now and not waste any more time. We can't let our sale drop really. Were in a really really shitty position.

I snapped this week. We were promised that we would received everything (searches report, enquiries raised, etc.) by 1st October as our solicitor was going on holiday for 2 weeks. We didn't.

I called and emailed on Monday repeatedly and got nowhere. On Tuesday, I finally managed to speak to our solicitor's assistant who basically said nothing has been done and she's not qualified to do anything. She said everyone in the office was too busy and no one would be able to cover our solicitor's work and we would have to wait. I had a complete sobbing breakdown as we are 2.5 months in and they have done literally nothing apart from order the searches. I had to pass the phone to DH as I just couldn't speak to her anymore.

DH had a long conversation with her and she agreed that she would send 'everything they had on file' to us. And she was going to find someone to review the searches. We decided to give her to Thursday. On Thursday, we still had nothing from them so we have offically fired them and have instructed new solicitors.

It is going to cost us more money but I think it is worth it. Our new solicitors said it is possible for us to still be in in October but think first week of November is more likely. I wish we moved back in the middle of September when I was first having my wobble but no use worrying about that now.

I hope everyone else is doing well. @Getyourarseofffthequattro that sounds very stressful. Do you have any idea what they may need to speak to the Business Development Manager about?

Oh god how shit! I hope you've managed to find better solicitors.

No we don't unfortunately. The mortgage advisor is supposed to advise the EA what the fuck it is were waiting for but as of yet ... Nothing. Why am I surprised!