Been trying to buy/sell for 12 MONTHS now...

[Dansgoproadventures]

Hello everyone

Long time reader, first time poster. Although I'm not a mum I find this site very helpful for advice in our position and want to share our story and gain some hope/support.

We were first time buyers 4 years ago, mid terrace 1970s build, very exciting times. However the walla are paper thin and its been four years of absolute pain from one neighbour.

Weve renovated the whole house and gained considerable equity so last September we decided to market the house as our work would allow us to simply port our mortgage to a semi detached.

Here's where the fun starts.

We had an open day last September, 10 viewings 2 offers, 1 5k over asking (cash buyer) and one at asking. We took the cash buyer.

We found our onwards purchase for a great price and things ticked along nicely. We signed the contract to buy, had all searches and survey undertaken but things got fishy in December. No one could contact our buyer.

After Xmas, the buyer pulled out stating he had to relocate to Birmingham for work (!). We then lost our ongoing purchase. Devastating.

We remarketed in January and got another offer at asking. Great. We then managed to get an offer accepted on another house in April and the chain was back together.

However in July, our buyers had to pull out as the people buying thier flat decided against it. 3 months of wasted time.

Luckily our vendor held on and we accepted another offer at asking in July. Problem here is that the buyer is a Russian National and has taken ages for them to secure a mortgage - 6 weeks in fact.

In addition to this, his conveyancers are STILL doing AML checks some 7 weeks after the memo of sale was issued. I cant see the problem as the mortgage company have managed to sort that in less time.

This seems to be taking way to long and we're fearful of losing ANOTHER house. I must add that the EA hasn't been the best and has provided the buyer with the conveyancer.

Someone please tell me that all will work out. We're doing our heads in on a daily basis and are desperate to move after 12 months of terrible luck.

Dan

I feel your pain. I have exchanged today... After 20 months of this shit show. We are on buyer 5, and house 2 for our purchase. It all feel through right before exchange back in Feb this year. This time round though it has been much smoother sailing. Got our buyer in early May after going on the market end of March (asking price). Found my onward purchase by early June, and they had theirs secured very shortly after. So mid June things started, with exchange today - so much better than round 1, 2, 3 and 4!!!!
I hope you get your happy ending 🙂

Wow!

At least we aren't the only ones in this crap situation. Thanks for the reply.

I'm confused to why we or you are having so much bad luck when the market was apparently booming (excluding past 6 months).

Weve done everything right, we're honest people and have always been true to our word. I wish the same of others too. We are starting to believe in karma and it will come to bite them.

I don't think people who pull out on house sales really know the Financial or emotional impact it has on people. Not all people are greedy, some (like us are moving out of need not greed).

AML on a Russian national would be a nightmare.

We aren't taking on Russian clients at my firm and many many other solicitors are the same - the risks are too high.

It maybe that they have an offer in principle, rather than a full mortgage offer - less checks for that first step

Hi

Yes it seems a nightmare but we've had confirmation that it's a full and proper mortgage offer so no problems there. It's just the length of time the conveyancers are taking with the AML.

We're in personal contact with our buyer and he seems a solid buyer I just think the conveyancers are dragging thier heels.

I’ve heard that a third of STC buyers are falling through, which is a crazy high amount. People are calling for deposit reservations and I think it’s a good idea.

Please don't be disheartened by any of this- once you're in your new house, it'll be a distant memory. We were the scary buyers for our vendors- I was contracting at the time and our bank took 5 months (?!!!!!) to approve our mortgage. The whole thing was nail bitingly tense. I actually lost hair over it. Things have a way of righting themselves in the end. Lots of positive vibes coming your way.

Ps. Once our mortgage was finally approved, we exchanged and completed within 10 days!

Thanks for the encouragement. Oh yes hair has been lost on our part too! Just hope our onward doesn't lose patience fingers crossed. He knows we're good for it and have signed all documentation.

Upsetting part is that on our 2nd buyer, we were only 2 weeks away from exchange. Had a completion statement from our conveyancer and everything

I’ve been trying to sell/ buy for over 3 years. I’ve had 4 houses fall through. It’s been devastating and the market has moved on so much in that time I can’t afford anywhere near what I would have done if it had all gone smoothly. I’m so bitter and resentful.

What has taken so long? Why did each house fall though? I'm interested to learn. Please share!

Not recent, but I was trying to move in 2004/5 (iirc) and had a whopping 13 chains collapse for various reasons. People tell such lies and EAs are mostly useless at checking buyers out properly. We had offers from people who didn't have the money and were never going to have the money, offers from 'cash buyers' who meant that they would have the cash when some other property they'd failed to mention had been completed on, buyers who gazumped other buyers who were shoehorned into the chain by unscrupulous agents who wouldn't let us offer on our onward purchase unless we accepted them as our new buyers (I wouldn't stand for that now but I was greener then), buyers who just kind of flaked out for obviously spurious reasons, buyers who came back every week to measure up yet again and then decided actually they liked a different property better (wouldn't stand for that now either). We had people drop out on the morning of exchange (twice) and one person who got our phone account changed over to them a couple of days before dropping out, and by the time we managed to get it reinstated we'd lost our 'memorable' business number (to a newly setting up estate agent - the irony!!) and couldn't get it back (thanks, BT). We also lost a few purchases because sellers changed their minds (or perhaps we were gazumped - you never really know).

I think this shit tends to happen more in a rapidly changing market - either soaring or plummeting - as people make panicky decisions that they then revisit in a cooler moment and EAs behave less scrupulously (if you believe that to be possible).

Two pieces of advice: firstly, maybe just shelve it all for now if you can. I ended up staying put for 2 years and trying again in a more stable market, which was successful first time. Secondly, keep a diary or a blog, because afterwards you think, god, I should write a book about all of that. But it's hard to summon the energy to relive it once you're settled in your new home.

I really feel your pain though. It took me years to get over the stress of it all.

Hey, and a third piece of advice: I have a mantra for when - if - you lose your purchase. There's always another house. Always.

It seems to me and I might be wrong but the housing market seems to almost always in some kind of boom and bust situation.

Not sure you read my initial post properly. We're having to move, we can't stay here for another 2 years sadly.

Thanks for your reply though

Just reading through your story again, the bank might have already said okay, but ultimately isn't the conveyencer responsible for the AML checks FOR the bank? My understanding is the buck stops with the conveyencer - they might be paid by the buyer, but ultimately, they really work for the bank. At least that's how I think it sort of works.

I can't imagine you get the best service from a conveyencer recommended by the EA, but, being Russian, they wouldn't have known that.

Sounds like they need to pull their socks up, but it's a bit of a waiting game for you.

I hope this move comes off for you OP. Keep us updated please?

If you had told me that in the pub, I would think I had met a pathological liar.

Yes, I thought that too.

its weird that the aml check is taking that long. i was a non-resident buyer when i bought my house last month and my fund came from an overseas account. my incompetent solicitor did not mention that they had a firmwide policy of not accepting overseas fund. i found out about this only after contract exchange. the deposit came from my uk bank account. but i had to pay the remaining 90% from an overseas account. we were a week from sale conpletion. i tried to find a new solicitor but nobody could take me on at such short notice as they had to review all documents from scratch. one suggested that i make a complaint to the solicitor association or some sort of industry governing body.

after several calls to my solicitor (which they never answered) and emails (implying negligence), they agreed to do an AML check on me. its really simple - i sent over payslips and tax returns. and its all good.

since your buyer is getting a mortgage, presumably they have a job in the uk and for fund coming from salary/savings, aml should be straightforward. unless the deposit is a gift or inheritance from relatives in Russia or sale of business or property there. then the tracing could be complicated. but still seven weeks. and in fact they should have done the check before taking on the buyer as client.

some sort of negligence that the buyer can hint at to speed things up?

Wow that sounds an absolute nightmare! How can your own solicitor stitch you up so late in the process?!!

Our buyer sold a property in Russia 6 months ago which is where I believe his deposit is coming from hence the AML checks. However this guy seems solid, has been in UK working and paying taxes for 10 years now and has a UK bank account. I get it that his conveyancers may have to translate some documents/statements but 7 WEEKS?!!

I have an awful worry that these conveyancers, after 7 or 8 weeks are going to turn around and say to our buyer 'sorry mate, can't represent you, you don't fit our criteria'.

And THEN we lose our onwards purchase due to the delays our EA essentially would've caused by passing our buyer to that conveyancer.

Please tell me im wrong.....

I'm in personal contact with the buyer and have asked him to chase his conveyancers.

I'm fed up of micro managing this whole process. Isn't this why we pay estate agents and conveyancers?? I'm only doing so because I don't trust any of them and can't afford to lose our ongoing purchase.

It’s so stressful.

I think being prepared to micromanage everyone is essential tbh and a small price to pay if it has the desired effect, though the sense that all the professionals in the picture are making money for old rope is aggravating for sure. It can also help you feel a bit more in control of the situation, which can help with the stress.

@Dansgoproadventures bear in mind that one overseas buyer's AML experience won't mirror another's when their country has been waging a war that almost the whole world disagrees with for over a year.

Absolutely everyone involved will want to make sure that no stone is left unturned. For the politics, if nothing else.

Ok I can stop you there. My wife is Russian, and all her Russian money is blocked. Has been since the start of the war.

If the money is in Russia, it’s blocked, period, end of story. It can’t be moved except via somewhere like Serbia or India and they’ll lose 50% in the conversion and it will fail AML, this one is dead.

find a new buyer.

Well, that changes things.