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!

I've been watching the thread and feel I can now join. We had offer accepted on a house in April. It's a bit unusual in that it's currently a B & B. I should have known it was going to be a problem when the vendors took 8 days to get back to us about our offer. Our house sold on the first day it was on the market to people in a chain of 4 who all wanted to move by the June deadline. The B & B was empty at the time (covid) but they refused to aim for that date (despite saying they didn't need to buy a house to move) to cut a long story short I think they wanted to get one last summer of bookings so it now looks like we're moving in September. Our chain has just about held on to wait for this date despite everyone now being ready to move.

It's like our sellers are on a different planet - they take a week to respond to the tiniest question and don't care about anyone but themselves. It would have been great to move in the summer holidays to get the kids settled but now it'll be after schools have started back.

I'm at the point now where I get a racing heart feeling when I think about it and all excitement has been taken away about moving. I don't trust them at all so I'm pushing for an August exchange and maybe then we can relax and know we are definitely moving. On a positive note our solicitor has been excellent - answers phone calls, pushes to get replies, emails you back when she says she will - she's been marvellous!

I'm sorry for all your moving woes. Enjoy the weekend everyone at least we know we can't get any of the dreaded phone calls for 2 days now!

Yes should have said congrats @Livingintheclouds ! What a relief and just typical that you exchange as you prepare for delays!

I've just been to the bank to transfer money to the solicitor! Fingers crossed this is a good omen!

@newhouseangst so annoying that people can't just be honest!

@goodbyestranger Well it's indeed comforting to hear everyone is on the same boat, thank you. Although I do hope your buyer sorts themselves soon

Meant to be completing tomorrow. Still doesn’t feel real 🙈 which is only backed up by the state of the house 😫😫 probably should have booked today off work!

Good luck to those waiting on whatever…. hoping this week is a productive one!

Congratulations livingintheclouds! And good luck newhousehope, I must admit I am not looking forward to the actual moving bit

@Keepemguessing, any news on offers?

Hello anyone who's joined, nice to have more people to commiserate with! We took the children to see the new house yesterday, all approved thankfully. Just hope it goes through now - there are murmurings about exchange next week for completion early September, but not sure how much I trust it . . .

Congrats on all exchanging and completing!

We have a big issue. Our buyer has gone AWOL. This after the estate agents told us we were good for exchange/completion this week so we cancelled internet/sky and moved the money etc etc

I am so furious with these useless estate agents I can barely type!!

What do you mean AWOL StrongArm?

goodbyestranger AWOL means 'absent without leave' so it sounds like the buyer has gone missing.

How rubbish Strongarm.

I'm waiting for feedback from Saturday's viewing, and I have one final viewing tomorrow. Then I'm throwing in the towel for a bit.

Yes I know the meaning Keepemguessing! Just wondered in what way missing. Just not answering emails etc? How long for? etc.

Hahahaha sorry goodbyestranger, I did wonder

Good luck for tomorrow @Newhousehope, waiting for the final stages to complete can be so nerve wracking.

@goodbyestranger well they told us last week they couldn't get hold of him on one day but then told us Friday afternoon it was all sorted everything was ok to exchange/complete this week! Us and onward chain have been ready for ages. We are just waiting for my buyer (no chain, in rented) to catch up.

So we booked everything, emailed our solicitor who said no reason it couldn't be done and we were all happy it was going ahead. I moved the funds. And our solicitor requested funds from them. Contracts are signed my side and on the sellers side waiting for release.

Then solicitor phoned this morning to say it's a bit unusual as the buyer's solicitor hasn't been in contact. I phoned the estate agent who admitted they hadn't actually heard from the buyer or his solicitor since the early last week!

I said how did you conclude that we could exchange/complete - they said it was from us not from the buyer and they just assumed they would have got hold of him by now but they sheepishly admitted they haven't heard.

The estate agent is blaming the buyer's solicitor - but I actually know them quite well (I use them personally and on the corporate side) and they are far from useless. Which makes me think the issue is the buyer. I am furious the estate agent told us exchange was on having not spoken to him but also more worried now that he's pulling out and hasn't told us :(. Luckily we hadn't firmed the movers as we had till the end of today as we would have lost a couple of grand!

Dp swears the EA said he had spoken to the buyer - the EA swears he never said that. I don't believe them as we were concerned about the buyer last week and there is no way we would have thought exchange was on without them speaking to him.

Argghhhh

Oh dear StrongArm. Best of luck with this - super stressful. Fingers crossed/ keep us posted.

the truth has finally come out!

our cash buyer is not a cash buyer - that's the bottom line. So although can exchange, it turns out they need 10 days notice to get their loan in place.

so lied to us about that from the start - they even wrote it in their letter to us, the estate agents said they were cash buyers too. Solicitor thinks they said that to get the house as the other bidder at the same price was non cash and we chose them over the non cash one.

it has soured the whole thing - why do people lie like this! I guess he's going to get the house but it's made us really pissed off

now we can only move in the week I can't have leave which is really unfair on everyone else in the family but nothing else I can do....

exchange should happen this week though - i will have a very large glass of wine when that happens!

That’s proper shitty of them @StrongArm!
Surely anyone posing as a cash buyer should have to evidence this early on in the process!?

And the only thing I’ve done in prep for moving tomorrow is cleaned the oven. Instantly regretted not hiring a professional 🤣🤣

Gah! Sympathies Strongarm

@StrongArm that's so annoying. I'd leave them a note in the house but that's because I'm petty!
The estate agent should have asked for proof of funds before accepting their offer as "I'm a cash buyer" is one of the most common lies.

In cash buyers defence we had a best and final offer accepted on a house and our intention was to pay cash then sell our house and port the mortgage over. Unfortunately our seller took so long to find an onward purchase that our sale chain had caught up with our purchase so we decided to just move our mortgage. This means we are no longer full cash purchasers and now need a survey valuation etc. We haven’t done this to deceive our buyers so they would choose us. It’s just that sometimes things can change along the way. They should have told you this earlier though.

Cash buyers seem to be risky business! Surely someone verified they had the funds at some point in the process, they should've asked how long to would've taken to draw down.

We are looking at completion a week before my due date. That could be a busy week...

They have the funds apparently - the EA says they verified it (and I believe this part as they are ruthless about that) - the buyer has apparently chosen to get a mortgage but what annoys me is that my solicitor blind copied me into an exchange between solicitors where his solicitor confirms that he was always intending to get a mortgage and was never going to purchase it in cash . So he did blantantly lie to get the house rather than change plans

We’ve had our mortgage offer given with NatWest but our buyers have only had an online valuation on their mortgage. For some reason they don’t seem to be having a survey on ours, is this normal? Their solicitor has been asking us general questions about our property electrics etc but no survey? Just wanted peoples thoughts/experiences thanks 😊

Our buyer didn’t have a physical survey done. May have had a drive by (still a thing?!) or a desktop one. But the house is on a well established estate and every house is probably structurally sound and near on identical. They are safe bets! But they aren’t mortgaging the whole purchase so I don’t know if that makes a difference.

Our original buyers did a very basic survey, guy took 5 mins. They dropped out and the replacement buyers didn't do one at all

Yes same situation original buyers had a quick one pulled out and the new buyers haven’t had one? I’m assuming they won’t be having one now at this stage 🤷‍♀️

I posted a separate post but no idea what to do - buying a three year old house which apparently is under a ten year warranty (yet to see evidence and paperwork or find out who I'd go to if such and such needed fixing)....

Would you spend £300-500 on a Level 1 RICS survey, spend more on a more comprehensive survey or not bother given it recently must have been scrutinised by building regs and has a NHBC certificate dated two years ago.

I'm risk adverse but also on a tight budget and can't see the L1 survey showing much or maybe I'm wrong.