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

[MovingToPlan]

The previous thread is almost full! We've had lots of completions, exchanges, offers accepted, maddening conveyancing teams, strange requests, and worries to last a lifetime. Welcome welcome.

Catch up here: The all new buyers/sellers waiting room (continued) thread

My update is that everything seems to be lining up and we're looking at exchange next week. 🤞 Hoping to complete a few weeks after that.

Good luck to you, whatever stage you're at in the process.

Hello! Mind if i join?

FTB, currently in rented but had an offer accepted on a house 30th April that is chain free (being sold due to separation).

Solicitors have got the draft contracts, gone out for searches and said they are starting to raise enquiries.

When we had the offer accepted, the EA made a passing comment when we were talking about our tenancy end date that the seller was "waiting on a money order from the court before they can complete, but its due in June so should be fine". I didn't think anything of it at the time, but does anyone have experience of what that means? Awkwardly, the seller actually works at the EA so I don't really want to ask as it feels like I'm prying!

Congrats to the exchangers and completers! Spoke to EA today, the chain is keen to get everything done and dusted by end of June (which is ideal for me due to wanting to escape the rental from hell) so I’m badgering the solicitors to get a wriggle on.

I accepted the offer on my house on the 14th February and it will be 13 weeks when we complete next week.

Fairly simple process with my buyer living with parents. But 13 weeks is such a long time.

Hoping my onward buy doesn't take as long.

2pm on the eve of a BH weekend - not really expecting exchange today at this point!

DW and I have now talked through what life would look like if the sale falls through, we have a plan of how to make this home more suitable to our needs and our timeline for a future attempt at moving. We'll be ok either way - trying to be stoic!

My solicitor estimated 16 weeks, we're 5 weeks in now and still feels like we're at the beginning of the process. She usually sends me a load of info on friday at about 5pm just before the office closes. I'm wondering if this is a tactic to make me read it all and consider it properly before sending a load of questions and responses.

NatWest mortgage valuation happened and they agreed with our purchase price which is good but no mortgage offer yet

Our survey happening today

Other than that no news...

Ha my solicitor emailed at 5pm right on cue. I also had a call from my estate agents saying our buyers were still keen after all the surveys and all the aggressive questioning coming my direction is from their solicitor not them, so that's a relief.

Congrats @BG2015 ! We didn’t - a missing plan - should happen on Tuesday

@sugarbyebye what sort of questions are they asking? Are they the standard questions the solicitor should be answering or are they pointless questions already answered?

@Delphigirl - how can missing plans come up now? Surely before dates are agreed everyone has everything in and reporting is done to the seller/buyers.

The issue had been raised and it is the sellers solicitor who hasn’t sent it. We do have a leasehold plan but they have one edged in green and we don’t or something. I don’t know. It just needs to be sent over.

Congrats to those who've passed the finish line!

After months and months we've finally exchanged!! We move on Wednesday 🥳

@KatVal congratulations

I've spent the day packing and cleaning.

Cleaned the oven 🥴 what a job.

Thats dedication to your new buyers. Mine is just going to be spray some mr muscle around and wipe when i move out 😂

We exchange and completed this morning! Got the call at 11.30 right as i was doing a stressful presentation at work, wasn't expecting it at all. The agents then told us they were only around till 2pm for the keys (Erm??) and DP was on shift already. So I had a mad dash to pick up the keys and do a quick check of the house since it's been vacant for a while. It was still standing thank god, and the vendor left detailed notes on things around the house, and a folder of all the manuals/paperwork. My god, he's far more organised than I'll ever be.

Moving a few bits and bobs over the weekend. It needs work done (plastering and carpets/floor) so will do that before properly moving in. Getting internet sorted is first job so I can wfh and start organising it. But it's very homely and while all the works are stressful, at least it's ours.

Good luck to everyone for next week!

So All searches are back, all queries have been responded to by sellers solicitor. Waiting for mine to update everything - estate agent has said they want to exchange and complete by mid June (!!!). Not sure I’ve got my breath yet.

Was the property tenanted before or still tenanted? Could be the seller had a tenant in the property who didn't pay rent and got taken to court - hence a money order being owed to the seller. And he won't complete it till he gets it as a change in ownership could mean he forfeits it (but not sure as I'm not legal). I would ask more details, it's not prying, it's information you should be told as the buyer as it concerns the seller's position and any complications.

If the property is tenanted atm then be very careful in case they are difficult tenants and the ones not paying up. My first place was like this - the tenants refused to move out and my sale almost fell through, the seller had to bribe the tenants to move for it to go ahead but took 7 months.

Sorry my message wasn’t very clear!

there’s no tenants, the house is being sold due to a separation. Husband has already moved out and the woman is living there, but is moving back with her parents. So I’m guessing this “money order” is something to do with their divorce?

Congrats @houwseevryweekend sounds incredibly stressful but hopefully you can breathe a sigh of relief now!

Congratulations to everyone over the line and nearing the line!

the questions to me from the conveyancer are all ones asking for regs and certs for work that predates my ownership and then stuff generated by the survey but with no specifics - like what is the stain (what stain?) and what is in the loft insulation. Anyway, I’ve heard from my buyers that they’re still itching to buy so that’s good.

I want to be able to vote so I don’t want to move before the GE but as our searches aren’t back yet I can’t imagine that would happen anyway.

Ah yes, that would be it - the divorce. I think money or financial order is normally when the couple can't reach an agreement on how to split the proceeds of the sale so the court makes the decision for them. I guess that's the decision the seller is expecting in June. However, he could have also meant consent order which is when both parties agree to the split of assets and the court just processes it. I had this divorcing my ex and the sale of our house went smoothly. If it's not a consent or clean-break order, it could be messy.

Sale as a result of divorce always has a risk of delays as both parts of the couples need to consent/sign etc - and one could always be difficult or decide they don't want to sell. You should ask for some details and also get your solicitor to assess their situation. It's your money and you should know all the risks that come with it.

After a majorly stressful day completed on parent's flat at 4.30, thankfully their sale is separate. Parent is sulking that completion was so late in the day, they have refused to go to flat today 🙅

Oh dear @Cantthinkofadifferentname , probably better for them to go fresh and rested tomorrow. Good luck with that!

Thank you, I’ve asked the solicitors to find out some more info. If it’s the court deciding how to split everything, can one of them contest it if they don’t like the outcome?

Hi everyone, I'm not sure I really belong on this thread yet because we've only had our house on the market for just under 2 weeks.
I just wondered how long things have been taking to sell / how many viewings people had? It seems like such a bad time to try and sell with crappy mortgage rates and now a general election! Unfortunately we really do need to sell in the next year at the most because we need to be moved before secondary school application time.
I don't even know whether we should really be looking at other houses? The estate agents seem to think we should because ours "could go under offer at any time" but realistically I feel it's likely to take ages and so there's no point looking at others and getting our hopes up. Any advice? Thank you!!

@Itsrainingten I think as long as your own house is on the market, it is appropriate for you to be looking at other houses to build up a picture of what you want/what you can afford so you are in a more knowledgeable position once you have sold.

And as your EA says, you could get an offer at any time assuming you are getting viewings. It’s really hard to predict ahead of time how long it will take for a property to sell because it depends on so many factors like what your local market is like & how realistically the property is valued.