Buyers sellers roll call 17 - the one where everyone finally completes

[gingerninja1]

Last thread is now full so started another one so the mutual support can continue

@paranoidandroidmarvin
@takeyourfinalposition
@getyourassoffthatquattro
@shineysides
@blacklilypad

Just reading through some of your horror stories. My parents finally exchanged and completed simultaneously on 20th December, after six months of torture, whereby:

• Their sellers had an old charge on the property in favour of two people who had died many years ago and which took months and months to release;

-One of the solicitors in the chain left suddenly under a cloud; -Both sets of solicitors had failed to deal with an overage agreement which affected parents' new property; -Another solicitor in the chain decided to go on holiday without telling her clients; -Parents' buyers tried a last ditch price chip; -Removals were booked and cancelled three times in a row.

There has to be a better way. It was a relatively short chain and a couple of the parties were already staying with relatives. I'm a solicitor, but haven't done property for 20 quite a few years. Fortunately, I was able to put in the legwork to help sort the charge/overage, otherwise I'm pretty sure they still wouldn't be in.

So frustrating for you all

Just popping back to see if @Getyourarseofffthequattro managed to finally complete? I hope you have by now.

Also congratulations to @TakeYourFinalPosition on your baby, must be so lovely.

I am coming back from Canada next week to get us all moved into the house. A friend has been checking it for me since we completed in December and my sons went and stayed overnight when we first completed.
The plonker that we bought from left the house unlocked, windows open (he moved out 4 days before completion and it’s in London) he left no keys so we only had the estate agents ones for the front door so no back door, side gate keys, food in the fridge/freezer cupboards, dishes in the sink and random bits of furniture, personal items and of course nothing cleaned.
I’m now looking forward to getting everything out of storage and the house into a bit of shape, at least I’ll have plenty of time to clean beforehand.

We are moving to Scotland from England. In a rental and chain free. Our solicitor is useless. We are in touch with vendor who has moved out and says everything done her end but her solicitor can’t get anything from ours. Supposed to be completing in less than two weeks. Haven’t signed missives yet. Why are these people so useless at their jobs? No response at all. It Is so frustrating

I am so so furious!! After being told last week there was no reason we couldn't exchange by the EA, it turns out our solicitor hasn't even received the contract pack from the vendors solicitor!! They haven't responded to a phone call or email since 2nd December!! So I'm furious at my solicitor for not keeping me updated, the EA for lying that everything was ready and the vendors solicitor for being utterly useless. The vendor went down in person this afternoon to try and sort things out but I suspect they are all doing jack shit from home

@vickyc90, It's so frustrating, isn't it? I don't blame you for losing it with them, I'm close to that myself.

I emailed my solicitors again yesterday and asked yet again for an update and they responded with a list of enquiries from the buyer's solicitor. Now I'm wondering how long they've been sitting on those for as they replied fairly quickly. The enquiries were all very basic, just the other solicitor covering their back. God knows how long it will take for the next step.

Keep hanging on in there, we WILL get there in the end

Well we've had an offer accepted and today has been an avalanche of emails from various people.

Mortgage valuation is booked in for Friday and I've paid the fee for the searches. I'm waiting for a quote for a survey and suddenly feeling very grown up

However on the basis of this thread, I confidently expect something to go tits up in the very near future

We're still waiting on enquiries. God it is just so frustrating. It feels like both solicitors are playing power games at our expense. We wanted to be in mid December and we are still waiting with no date in sight. Living in this limbo, knowing it could all collapse in a heartbeat is so stressful. Well meaning people asking us how the move went, if we could make it happen immediately, we would.
Our lives are on hold until we move and have been for the last 6 months.

@Itscoldouthere we did thank you!! We are finally in

A bloody long old road and the worst thing is we aren't planning on staying here that long but hey ho. Won't have to stay with family again so there's that!!

We've had so many issues. Internet company have fucked up, furniture got ruined in storage and we've had to claim... But we are in!!!!!!!

@Getyourarseofffthequattro congratulations I’m so glad to hear it, you had a tricky road for sure.
I’m just trying to arrange getting our furniture out of storage and delivered, I hope it’s ok, it’s been in there since July 2020, it was fine when I last checked in September but I suppose anything could have happened, we don’t have insurance, what happened to yours?
I’m flying back to the UK next week, unfortunately DH can’t come as we have a dog and nobody else to look after him, we can’t get him back to the UK till April time as the won’t fly animals in cargo in winter, so I have to sort out the house by myself which is a bit daunting but I’m sure friends will help.

@Champagneforeveryone

Well we've had an offer accepted and today has been an avalanche of emails from various people.

Mortgage valuation is booked in for Friday and I've paid the fee for the searches. I'm waiting for a quote for a survey and suddenly feeling very grown up

However on the basis of this thread, I confidently expect something to go tits up in the very near future

With my brand new hindsight, my advice is phone the solicitor and EA,don't email. Ask them both to tell you exactly what has been done and what is outstanding. If something is outstanding ask how many times it has been chased. Don't be fobbed off! Keep those wheels turning.

@Getyourarseofffthequattro wahoo finally!!! Brilliant 👏

After 2 days on the phone getting to the bottom of this shambles, both me and the vendor are furious, the vendor has given his solicitor today to send the contract pack to my solicitor or they are appointing a new solicitor. They've had it since October

Congratulations @Getyourarseofffthequattro , that's great news!

We received a 3-inch-thick pile of paperwork from our solicitor through the post yesterday. The management pack has finally appeared! Albeit, minus the rather vital info about what the estate fees are [eyeroll] Sol says he will forward that on as soon as he receives it.

We read, signed and returned the relevant forms to him today. I took them in person. I just couldn't leave it to the mercy of Royal Mail.

So, it finally feels like this purchase might actually happen! It's been 21 weeks since our offer was accepted.

Good luck to everyone here, as always

Big chase today, we are on our final enquiry but still don't have a completion date due to vendors purchase not being ready.
[Sigh], almost at week 16

Our vendors still have the contract, two sisters to sign it. One has signed and is waiting for the other to sign and return it.

I'm not going to believe it til I see it though, it's not been long at all, only 17 weeks but it could have been at least 4/5 weeks quicker.

We completed today, hooray!

Moving was tough but it's done. Lots of dump runs in my future.

Feel in shock now! We're in a probate property so it needs serious updating.

So we are still looking good to complete by the end of the month hopefully. One or two searches left to come back but everything else is looking good. I just want to start ordering some furniture!!

Can anyone advise how long enquiries will take? Or is it a piece of string? Everything my side is done - mortgage, survey, searches. The sellers solicitor has had the contract pack for 3 months and done nothing, if they get it to my solicitor tomorrow is 2 weeks possible?? Or am I kidding myself?

@Summersdreaming

Can anyone advise how long enquiries will take? Or is it a piece of string? Everything my side is done - mortgage, survey, searches. The sellers solicitor has had the contract pack for 3 months and done nothing, if they get it to my solicitor tomorrow is 2 weeks possible?? Or am I kidding myself?

Definitely a piece of string question. Our enquiries were sent Mid Nov and we're still not done. There were 30 odd questions though but most were Yes/ No answers. Good luck to you.

Our enquiries were sent at the beginning of December and we have not heard anything back from vendors solicitors on these yet. We are meeting the vendor to go round the property again for a pre-exchange viewing on Wednesday so going to chase him then.

Thanks both, the vendor has threatened to change solicitor if they don't get on with it but I'm so frustrated with it now.

We lost the house we were buying before Christmas (well, they took it off the market after we’d paid for a survey -turns out they’ve done it NINE times!!!!!). We then lost our buyer early last week (they decided they didn’t want a big house after all) but two days later we were under offer again. Now just waiting for a house we want to come on. Unfortunately they seem as rare as hens teeth…..

We've accepted an offer... officially a "Seller". And so the countdown begins. It's a short chain of three people, two properties - we're going into rented and our buyers' buyers are ftb. Hoping it'll be somewhat painless... wish me luck!

Good luck @Momniscient!!!

Just joining this thread for a bit of a handhold. We've had a nightmare trying to secure somewhere to buy since we accepted an offer on our property back in May 2021. First property we offered on we had to pull out due to survey problems, 3 more offers made on houses and we were outbid on them all(out bid by over £60k roughly each time and that was with all our offers being at least 25k over asking too!) We were all but ready to give up after finally deciding to look at a new build property last October. Went away to think about it and some one brought it literally an hour before we had an appointment to put a reservation down. However, our luck turned and by some miracle that house came back on the market last friday after the chain collapsed so we reserved it and are now working to the 28 days to exchange. The house already completed and is ready to move into at the end of January so we are also looking at roughly 6 weeks to completion. Just need some luck for it Should hopefully be doable, our buyers have been great waiting for us to secure something and have even signed the contracts and completed everything for their purchase. It just our side to sort now. Mortgage application is on Wednesday, that shouldn't pose any problems as we are only needing to take half the money they have offered us through the mortgage in principal. Solicitor is being appointed today. It all seems like a whirlwind now and stress levels are an absolutely high!

Please no hate about new builds, it's taken us so much debate and discussion including changing the areas we were looking to move too and the types of house we were looking at (now staying in our current town).