Buyers/Sellers Exchange waiting room new thread

[thoughtsofmoog3]

I noticed the last one was full, so here we go!

Hello to the newcomers and welcome back to those who are still working their way through the joys of house buying/selling.

I’ve had this 3 times and at all times it’s been delaying tactics and then playing games to get you to reduce price last min. In no way was the request ever justified or sensible.

Call me cyclical, but I see it as a big warning sign that they are just looking to pull out or ask you to reduce price.

We are 4th property in the chain and this issue is right at the bottom so our agent is doing all he can but his hands are tied. You’re right it’s a really fine line isn’t it. I’m terrified that if we play hard ball our buyer could just decide to pull out as he could probably easily find another property. And you’re absolutely correct in that we could end up with equally crap chain again as there are not oodles of cash buyers lining up right now!

knowing how these things can become nightmares I’d be tempted to fix it before moving forward either way and hassling the council. But if it doesn’t concern you to the extent of potentially losing the house, I’d go into negotiations with the seller. You could a) factor in time to apply and potentially not winning the ROW
b) take a gander and ask for a straight reduction, so that you can all move forward to the sale

Do you know how desperate they are to sell? Move?

Absolutely! Unfortunately our 5th pulled out couple of weeks and it’s a nightmare, but we are in London and I think for this market attracts a lot of people who don’t really initially follow financing the usual way and also come from places where property buying/selling is very different.

One buyer pulled out because he thought I should include all the furnishings for free.. and then the sale was taking too long 3 weeks in🤷🏻‍♀️

Oh my goodness!! The cheek of some people… I hope it all works out for you. I wonder if there will ever be a system overhaul for how it works here!

Thanks!🤞🏼 yeah it really does, need an overhaul.

There should be clear deadlines where everyone has to stick to (incl solicitors, etc) and there should be a financial penalty for pulling out on both sides of a sale unless there are serious reasons behind it.

We allow too many people to waste people’s times because they know there’s no repercussions but for the other more serious party there’s loss of time on market, losses for others due to being in a chain, etc

So I emailed our solicitor this morning for an update and have heard back - she is still waiting for responses raised on June 29th to the sellers solicitor. I knew their solicitor was bad, but that is appalling, surely? I know the seller has asked to change solicitors within the firm, but has been refused.

Literally nothing we can do - solicitor is chasing, EA is chasing, vendor is chasing but she is just not responding.

Then although our buyers finally have an offer through, there is now an issue with the annual service charge that has to be paid to the estate management company. We were up front about this - included the details and cost on the listing, but now the lender has an issue with it. After all this time waiting, now they raise it, which makes me think the buyers didn't say anything when they applied.

15 weeks this week, I could cry in frustration right now

Our solicitor has gone on annual leave, and the locum solicitor has not responded once. And now not available by phone. And we're right at the end! Pretty sure all enquiry responses are in. Our solicitor is back next week so hopefully they can get things moving again. So frustrating.

We're still waiting to answers from queries, so much waiting!!

@geminiflanagan I feel your pain, you're on pretty much the same timeline as us and we are stuck at the same point. It's so frustrating. We can't plan anything really. It's like limbo!

After phoning the council’s leasehold services team since late last week (several times a day) I got through to human being 👍 and discovered that the second set of (buyers’) enquiries were actually answered on Friday. I can’t believe my sol did not pass on this very important piece of information! It was, as suspected, questions seeking to reconfirm what was in the management pack. The Council lady said she basically just repeated what has been communicated previously. The sudden silence from all parties is worrying. The worst case is that my buyers have just realised the financial exposure associated with holding a lease and having second thoughts. Financial risk comes with any leasehold or freehold title. The nuisance of owning property is that you have to pay to maintain it sigh. The benefit of leasehold is that (usually) you don’t have to arrange or oversee anything - just pay for it

what’s everyones’ tips on handling this acute stress??

I feel your pain. The difficult issues tend to not get addressed until the 11th hour. Sols (and lenders as in your case) generally don’t address their minds to these until just before exchange. I could not have been more upfront about the major works S20 notices on my leasehold property. I sent the S 20 notices with almost every email. When the first set of enquiries came through I said they are basically not asking the right questions and so there will have to be more/ further questions. I asked my own sol when do the important conversations start? The ‘right’ questions and conversations were eventually asked/ commenced 12 weeks in.

Our solicitor has finally given us a provisional date for completion of first September! She is now checking down the chain to see if everybody else is ready. Exchange, hopefully tomorrow. Cannot wait!

And now today our solicitor has email to say that the people at the top of the chain have a problem with Land Registry and we can no longer complete on 1st. I am ready to pull out I'm so frustrated!

Ours has all fallen through again for the 4th time so we are taking it as a sign and staying out. We will lose money in estate agent/solicitors/surveys fees but save on the mortgage so 🤷🏻‍♀️

The system is a total nightmare, we're gazumped twice late on and had two buyers pull out last minute for spurious reasons

Oh man..!! So feeling your frustration. That’s one less than us. It’s really really annoying as heck. We’ve taken it off the market and will put on again in a few weeks. Just drives you nuts!

check with the costs, normally some you shouldn’t have to pay for if deal doesn’t go theough.

The owners of the house we're buying were married, one of them died, and now the other has that's why we are buying as a probate property. We just got the grant of probate for the lady who died last, now our solicitor seems to be saying they need the grant of probate for the husband who died first (years ago) as well because they were tenants in common. If that's the case we can add another 3+ months onto everything because nobody has that grant 😭

@Wednesdayonline that sounds like an absolute nightmare! Hope things get worked out soon

Ouch - that’s really odd. The understanding I had of ‘tenants in common’ is that the house portion goes to whomever they give it to. So surely that was checked by EA and confirmed before they put it on the market? Ie. The portion was given to his wife, then she left it completely to the person selling it?

@AshRJ I am hoping the sellers know something that means they don't need a grant! I was reading about overreaching of the beneficial interest so reaaaally hoping that applies here. However I don't have all the information yet just really hoping our Locum Solicitor is wrong about needing the second grant!! Waiting to hear from the sellers solicitor about it all, everyone is trying to reach them with no luck today or yesterday 🙄 before this the plan was to complete on the 11th!

I do hope so! Otherwise it sounds convoluted.

Normally anything that restricts a possible sale is asked by a good solicitor on day one. Ie. Do you own the property free and clear, and the mention of a tenants in common would mean they’d covered all this.

Typical that it’s raised at the last min 🤦🏻‍♀️

fingers crossed it’s overreaction. 🤞🏼🤞🏼

Our buyer has sent more enquiries. One is valid, as they want confirmation the new bathroom has building regs compliance if needed.

The others are repeats of information she's already been told, things we've already said no to or things that aren't legal/material issues. EG:

• remove the wasps nest - we've said three times now it is a house martin's nest and not a wasps nest and the surveyor's report wrongly identified it as a wasps nest. I sent a photo of said house martins in and around the nest. 🙃 I explained AGAIN house martins are a species in decline and we're not going to remove the nest until they have migrated as it is an offence to remove it while undert construction or in use
• remove the broken burglar alarm - no, we like it as a deterrent and we're not going to remove it. She can remove it after completion if she wants.
• could we send her a full breakdown of some work we did to the roof to fix an issue mentioned in the survey - I reiterated we'd already sent the invoice which includes a full breakdown.

It’s oddly reassuring to realise that so many of you are also dealing with these stressful situations! We are still in limbo and as each day passes lose hope of it ever happening. I’m starting to wonder if we’re even getting the full picture, there always seems to be another issue (lender wants something in a different format, surveyor now on leave etc.). This is the bottom of the chain which is holding everyone up - we’re 4 months in now & not yet exchanged. Can we ask for some sort of evidence of the current status of affairs?! I’ve lost all faith!

@Buttons0522 i feel your pain. I feel like if it’s been such a long time then yes, I would be asking more direct questions in the hopes to encourage movement again.

we are due to complete next Thursday, have paid deposit for movers and need to pay in full soon and not to mention pack most of our belongings this weekend but haven’t even exchanged yet. It’s a chain with 4 people in it, but our sellers are asking a probate place so that is more flexible.

Everyone is ready but I’ve been told through the grapevine that it’s our buyers buyers lender who they are waiting on to release funds I believe. I asked my solicitor exactly what the issue was and she didn’t know herself

i really don’t want to exchange a day or two before completion bcos it is so stressful
and ideally we want more time.

any tips on anyone who has been through this are very welcomed!

So we've finally had some progress. Ha. We are 12 weeks in. Yes 12 weeks and our seller has finally sent initial paperwork in to her solicitor. (Fixtures and fittings ect)

FTB buying an empty house, 12 weeks in and this is where we are at. Unbelievable.

I've been calling the EA for weeks trying to get them to make contact with the seller but only when I threatened to pull out did they actually pick up the phone and speak to her and find out what the problem was. Basically sellers solicitor retired and they didn't assign her a new one so no paperwork was sent to her. But instead of thinking 'oh it's been nearly 3 months, maybe I should call someone' she just sat back and did nothing.

Our solicitor still hasn't received it yet though. 😭