The all new buyers/sellers waiting room (continued) thread

[sweetpickle2]

New thread!

Another day and yet more enquiries on our sale. We've been at this stage for 2 months!! My solicitor said today that this is ridiculous and really poor on their part that they keep coming back with more things that could have been picked up weeks ago. I honestly thought we were about there. Feeling so frustrated and pissed off. Our solicitor has gone back and said can they be sure at this point there's nothing else to raise and can they ensure this is everything. Enquiries relate to information they've had for weeks so why only ask now?! Thoroughly fed up today.

Instructed solicitors today, i've had a third viewing (1 video and 2 physical) and the estate agents will not let me have access to the loft. Im buying a top floor flat is this normal?

Is the loft included in the sale of the flat @MotherOfRatios?

The estate agent say it is I have instructed my Solicitors but told her to hold off doing anything beyond the basic things because it's at the max on my lending requirement And I want to have my mortgage offer I do have my agreement in principle, but I want absolute certainty, so I want to know kind of before proceeding but not sure if this is something where I might just have to waste a bit of cash on asking the solicitor to look.

Literally just shy of 30 days for me so far and I'm getting impatient so god knows how you must be @sweetpickle2 with all the shenanigans your chain is having.

Everything we can do is done. Draft contract sent by our solicitors, survey done on our purchase and mortgage confirmed so it's just a waiting game for the sale with regard to searches coming back which are due by the end of the week and i guess the enquiries to follow but it seems to be steaming ahead.

Solicitors on the other hand seem to be a law unto themselves and only requested the draft contract from our sellers solicitors Friday despite being almost a month down the line 😳. I have no idea why they didn't get right on it and request it when the memorandum was received. At this rate the super small chain of FTB us and Empty house will be finishing at totally different speeds.

@fromtheshires our sale was steaming ahead so well. Then we hit enquiries . Been here 8 weeks and counting. Our purchase was way behind, now our purchase has caught up and at this point looks like we'll satisfy enquiries on that first. I'm getting so frustrated with our buyers solicitors. We replied to the first set of enquiries and heard nothing for 3 weeks and since then we've had several more come through a few at a time, some weren't even relevant. What a process this is.

@Mrscharlieeeee It's seems a re-occuring theme. So far this year I've been involved in selling my house and my Dad's and trying to buy one. In each case months into the process the other solicitor has queried something that was in plain sight right at the start, and then made a meal of it. A plague on them all - except my solicitor, who has been a voice of reason amidst the chaos.

@Mrscharlieeeee I'm hoping 99% our enquiries can be answered by our solicitors as we kept all the information from the purchase of the house we are selling and handed it over to them to save time with them sending the enquiries to us to answer - we shall see eh!

Last time I sold & bought was 9 years ago.

It's like a distant memory and I can't remember what enquiries came up.

We're 4 weeks into the process now. Surveys are done and searches are now beginning.

I was worried that in a chain of 3 (we're in the middle) with my buyer living with parents and my purchase chain free that it would be very quick - but I don't think I've got much to worry on that score! 🙈

@Laughingravy that's the same issue we've had; enquiries coming out of the woodwork regarding info they've had for weeks. Sorry you've had the same issues. This is my first time selling as I was a FTB last time. Oh how naive I was back in December when I thought I'd be in my new home by Easter.

Been following this thread with interest. We had an offer accepted in February and are hoping to complete in May all being well. We only started seriously looking in January and thought it might take months to find a house we wanted to buy but it turned out the 3rd one we viewed was perfect - location, size, huge garden etc., pretty much our ideal house. I loved it from the first viewing - made the mistake of being too invested as we had a bit of a bidding war. It only went on for 4 days but I was on an emotional rollercoaster 😄 DP is far more sensible/pragmatic and fortunately very good at telling me to get a grip in a nice way. We got it in the end and still within budget but I was frazzled!

We don't have a property to sell for this move, we sold two properties when we moved back to the UK from Canada (I'm from here, DP is Canadian) and have been renting from family while we decided if we were staying long term and then location etc. It's a big relief not to have the stress of simultaneously selling and buying, but our vendor still hasn't bought anything. They are saying that exchange and completion will go ahead regardless so presumably they have a contingency plan. Surveys are done and the mortgage is sorted, searches are underway but I'm still half waiting for something to go wrong; it's just such a nerve wracking process! Last time I bought in the UK was 14 years ago and in Scotland, we're now in NI so a totally different system even if I could remember much about it.

Welcome to all the new joiners and good luck on this hair raising rollercoaster! It is interesting to read posts of those earlier in the journey and remember that I felt exactly the same at those points - mostly an inability to think it was actually going to happen, no matter how far along the journey I got towards exchange. And then numbness after exchange....

However. We completed last week and the second I walked through the front door I fell in love with the house all over again. It is my dream home and now I feel determined to do whatever it takes to pay off the mortgage asap! Spent the weekend wandering around finding all the little quirks and finishes the previous owner had done - he had renovated the house from it being derelict a few years ago, painstakingly and with a beautiful finish. He left it pristine and kindly donated a few antiques/paintings - I feel very lucky to live in it. It's not for everyone - empty courtyard garden overlooking shabby warehouse building etc - but I'm back in what feels like civilisation after 6 years in far too provincial a town and I love it already. Met neighbour yesterday and have even - gasp - been added to the street's WhatsApp group (will I live to regret this? 😆).

@sweetpickle2 - I cannot believe you are still on the cliff edge of exchange - today - SURELY??!

@MotherOfRatios - I would want to see the loft space if I was buying a top floor flat, I think. And I say this as someone who never even looked in the loft space of my previous home in all the 6 years living there. Why is the EA refusing access?

They're saying they don't have access?

I viewed with a different EA yesterday and I could actually look at the property the other EA didn't let me fully look at the property. There are plug sockets hanging out of the wall, also found an electric key but the EA said it's direct debit? The place is fully trashed, there's mould on the windows all stuff that was hidden in my first viewings, lots of doors without handles etc.

Since the viewing I had yesterday I've got cold feet. The form I've been sent from the landlord was completed in August 2023, but a sale fell through apparently for financial reasons but I know you can't trust EA's. From what I can gather the tenants have trashed the place on leaving probably due to the fact they were given notice then told they could stay as the sale had fell through. There's just a lot that once left to go digging I've uncovered. So far I've just spent the usual initial fee for my solicitor but nothing else.

We accepted an offer on our house in early December 2023, at the same time, we had our offer on a house accepted. I had my building survey on my onward purchase in December, my searches came back mid-January, all enquiries answered and good to go. Signed draft contracts of sale for both my house sale and my onward purchase end of January.
Constant delays from our buyers.
Last minute question from our buyer's solicitor answered last Friday; expecting to exchange and get a completion date this week. Telephone call from our onward purchasers estate agent received yesterday afternoon, telling me our buyer hadn't had their searches done on our house!
Unbelievable! How could we get to this stage, and then be told our buyers hadn't had searches done?
They have had a building survey done of our house. My solicitor has been answering questions from their solicitor, but I presume these questions have arisen from the Property Information Form, not from search results?
I am beyond exasperated, as is the seller of the house I am buying, which I don't want to lose.
Once the searches come back there will no doubt be more questions and a significant delay to exchange and completion.
Has anyone else discovered three and a half months after accepting an offer that the buyer hasn't even applied for the searches? It was the first thing my solicitor did after I instructed them.

@Bigbangtheory we're on a similar timeline; offer accepted on our sale and purchase in December. That is wild incompetence by your buyers solicitors. Never heard searches not been requested at this point? If I was your buyer I'd be making a formal complaint. When did you buy the house? Any chance of your buyer buying your original searches to speed things up?

Apologies in advance for the long post. TLDR: back on the market after buyers pulled out close to exchange.
I’m back on this thread having had our buyers pull out when we were a couple of weeks away from exchange! The reason they gave was that the chain, which is 3 more houses, was taking too long! I’ve cried, I’ve got angry, I’ve called the estate agents all the names I could think of. Now we’re back to square one, and possibly will lose out on the house we love, not to mention tin all the money we’ve spent on surveys and sol’s fees so far.
We had originally put our house up for sale in August, then accepted an offer at the end of September. We found a place, after lots of looking and failed offers on other places, the our buyers had their survey and started making demands on us. They wanted £20,000 off the price, we said we’d take £5,000 off, which they agreed to. Then it was all going along nicely until the agent for the house we intend to buy kept lying about how long the chain was further up - 2 different stories in a week. Our buyers pulled out when they heard this. I complained to our EA as it’s the same company as the agent were buying through, she said our buyers couldn’t be persuaded to wait a couple more weeks until exchange! We felt so fed up with this EA, but we agreed to them re-marketing for us as an easier/quicker option. However, they tried to make us reduce the price in order to ‘get more reach on Right Move’, we refused and told them to remove the board from outside our house. Anyway, in a surprising turn of events, they have got 15 potential buyers lined up to view on Saturday. All of the fingers and toes are crossed for no time wasters! They are all FTBs so that could help with the chain situation, although, it makes us nervous that they will be the ones who the whole chain relies on.

Fingers crossed you exchange today @PC96 and @sweetpickle2! 🙏

@Bigbangtheory your timeline sounds very similar to mine, and it’s our buyer’s solicitor who has been holding things up! Luckily she’s a cash buyer and got searches indemnity, probs due to them taking so long..

We’ve signed draft contracts and are on the final enquiries from the buyer. Hoping they come back with no more this week as we are aiming to exchange on Friday and complete next Friday before Easter! Feeling very anxious 😥

One question - I’m going to ask our solicitor to chase 1-2 times this week as the buyers solicitor is useless and only responds when chased. Does this sound reasonable?!

So pleased to read this @ibelieveinmirrorballs- so so pleased it all worked out for you after the rollercoaster you've been on! Also it's reassuring to hear not everyone has buyers regret from day one- I can't wait to see our new house again (hopefully next week if we manage to exchange ever!!!!!) I just know I'll love it.

Godh @GoldieLookingBoots what a saga! I can't believe your original buyers, CFs. Fingers crossed for your viewings this weekend!

Not unreasonable @Cocteautwin6, if I was approaching exchange I'd be chasing every day. However don't be surprised if your solicitor doesn't have much joy- if they're anything like my buyer's solicitors they could just go AWOL and then it doesn't matter who is chasing them if they don't respond to comms. Fingers crossed you can exchange soon!

Honestly @MotherOfRatios with your update I'd be getting cold feet as well- also you can't buy anything if you can't view it. I'd halt all further solicitor work and keep looking for other properties if I was in your shoes.

A Homebuyer's report would have the surveyor up in the loft for you, I think that's the most common time to check out the loft as they have all the gear to get up there. But that means spending hundreds, and it sounds like you're not sure...which isn't a good feeling to have this early on.

It's just strange they did wellof talking to you through each room to the point that you didn't miss minor things but they also hid other things.
I don't really understand why the landlord couldn't get someone to screw the plugs back in and just do little things.

Honestly I think if you're buying a flat that has been tenanted you have to brace yourself for that sort of thing- if they'd fixed up all those things they'd probably want more money, so count yourself lucky!

The trouble is you seem to have got the ick- and much like with men, once you get the ick it's hard to see it in any other way. I'd keep looking if I were you.

The thing is, I don't think the seller is aware, there was leftover tiles and flooring and beading in a cupboard which when I went last week and asked to look at it she wouldn't let me. I looked in it yesterday and I was like clearly something has gone on here.

she has gone to ask Seller some of the questions I have asked about. Is it on key metres? Can I get in the loft and other stuff like that?

So very pleased for you @ibelieveinmirrorballs ! The place sounds fantastic. It almost makes the huge painful saga worth it … doesn’t it ??!! 😂
Best of luck for this week @sweetpickle2 I was like you at the end. So fed up with exchanging/not exchanging it was hard to care. Emotionally wearing. Hope it works out.

Wishing good progress to everyone on the board. Sorry to hear about so many awful buyers and flakey sellers.

Spoke to the EA again and she's confirmed the seller hasn't been back to the property since the tenants left.
I also got food to the managing agent who said there's quite a bit of scheduled works on the property which I'll have to pay in addition to the service charge.

@MotherOfRatios , that sounds like a whole lot of red flags there. Unless you are getting it at a bargain price, I can understand you considering walking away.

Regarding what the managing agent said, presumably this means that the sink fund for the building maintenance has been exhausted? I know there are sometimes extra charges, but you would need to understand exactly how much they are talking about before going ahead.

Well done, @ibelieveinmirrorballs , that's great news. Good luck to everyone else this week.