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.

Thanks everyone for the congratulations, it's been a slog! Glad to be working on the next phase of the move, but my brain clearly doesn't know what to do with all this extra headspace and decided to wake up at dawn. 🙄

6 days to go, hopefully next Tuesday morning I'll be waking up to birdsong. 🤞

The chain agrees to take the deposit from the bottom of the chain and pass it up, usually. I think it's quite rare to have to make it up to 10%. You're still liable for the full 10% if it goes tits up, however!

Yes that has always been my experience ( what Fluffy said) with people higher up the chain agreeing to a deposit that is less than 10%

I must have particularly arsey vendors then - they wanted the full 10%. Shocker!

If you didn't have it, what would they have done? Idiots.

Just your luck 😂

How long was it between memorandum of sale and draft contracts being sent over? It was less than a week when I sold.. a week has passed now for our purchase, they’d previously had a sale fall through so was imagining the pack would be pretty much ready to go!

Just had an email on our exchange and apparently the buyers deposit is in an ISA which could take up to 10 working days to draw down.

We're supposed to complete in a week though. Solicitors have requested funds to be drawn down by the completion date with simultaneous exchange and completion but I don't think this is acceptable and sounds very stressful. As if it doesn't happen by then, we won't complete. Removals will be here, packed etc. How annoying.

Any ideas how to proceed, or what we can do?

My deposit was partly in ISAs and I just drew it out ten days before I needed it. This is the buyer’s problem to fix, not yours.

@Saschka It doesn't look like anyone was aware though until the day of exchange which is a bit late in the day!

I thought our estate agent was ridiculously pushy and overstepping - she wanted more financial information than I’d given the mortgage company before she’d even issue the memorandum of sale, and was deeply unhappy that some of my deposit was in an isa that wasn’t due to mature until summer (I could withdraw it same-day, there would just be an interest penalty). She rang me up on the day of exchange to confirm my mortgage offer was definitely in place (!)

I thought she was a right pain, but then I read tales of idiot buyers like this and think ok, she’s probably just seen too many people like this who have caused chains to collapse.

@Owlgirl14 , I would be reluctant to agree to a simultaneous exchange and completion in those circumstances, and in your shoes I would be asking for a week between the two. A delayed completion date may be the only option unless the buyers can access their money more quickly - it may take less than 10 days.

Yeah I'm not agreeing to that and doubt the chain would anyway. Don't even think they're aware yet.

Options are to continue with the hope it comes through, which we won't go for. Change the date, which it took a week to agree upon and we need to be in soon to get some building works underway before my maternity finishes. Third option I've put forward is for the buyers to contact their ISA and try to get it pushed through quicker, even if there is a cost. It's their issue, so they need to sort it. So we've gone for that to start!

I wouldn't agree to a simultaneous exchange and completion and would say it's too risky. Talk to your solicitor about it, they will probably say the same thing.

Must say I never want to move again!

We have a fairly simple chain - our buyers are chain-free cash buyers, us, then our sellers are buying a chain-free property. We are the party who wants to move quickest.

Turns out our solicitor has moved at a glacial pace on our purchase since instruction them two months ago. Despite requesting searches were ordered asap this was only down after the survey was received (we specifically said do before the survey to speed up the process). No enquiries (not a single one!) have been made despite us chasing several times a week for the last month. All other parties are now ready to exchange apparently.

We had our first real interaction with our solicitor yesterday and now I can't stop refreshing my emails 😂 it's going to be a long few months isn't it?

So with regards to our deposit.
Selling ours for £425k to FTB, buying property for £375k vendor buying retirement home no chain but don't know price. What would we pay?
In other news we have provisionally booked our removal co. We are moving 150 miles away. They'll pack us up day before move except for beds and sofa. Move day come and collect beds and sofa then go up to be property and we will follow and hopefully funds transferred mid journey. They're going to pack for us too. £2005 it's costing. I thought that was pretty reasonable.

You're making the right decision. Due to our FTB taking their time every time we attempted to exchange we ended up going for a same day exchange and completion. The day came and the FTB gave authority at 14:00...far too late in the day so we wasted £320 on a van for nothing. We exchanged in advance for our sale and then exchanged and completed on the same day for our purchase due to the sellers condition that was still stressful but much better than relying on so many people in a chain.

Does everyone in the chain exchange on the same day? Sorry, FTB question.

Usually yes unless someone wants to break the chain and move into rented.

@MovingToPlan thats a really good summary of the deposit situation for newbies (like me). I had originally thought I’d need to provide the entire amount I’m putting down as a deposit before exchange? I’ve got the lot sat there waiting to go.

Now just waiting once again for the vendors solicitor to bother answering the enquiries. After being asked the same thing for the fourth time.

Just had a call from EA. Sellers asking if we want to keep some furniture they had left (they have already moved out).

Strange how that makes it feel more real than the solicitor conversations haha.

We completed all of our ID and find checks this morning. I have literally done everything needed within less than 24hrs of request throughout this whole process. I totally understand they are not waiting on our emails to respond instantly like I am but I get so frustrated not even having emails acknowledged

@Unexpectedbaby just here to say that is me too: everything has been answered within 24 hours, often the same day! The same cannot be said of anybody else in the chain and EAs and solicitors. 😩😩😩

Getting so fed up now like it’s never going to happen…

More questions from our buyers solicitors today following on from their ones the other day.

Obviously they have come from the buyer or a brand new conveyancer as they cant grasp that windows installed when the house was built don't need FENSA certificates as they are signed off by building control. They have asked for us to provide copies of the FENSA certificates again!

They have also asked for the safety certificate for the new boiler as they have 'noted' it's been replaced since the house was built. Fuck knows where they have got that from as it's the same as the one that the builders installed and our solicitor has a copy of this already.

The buyers came for another viewing today. Came back home to find random lights left on, the oven still on, the recliners not set back to their original position and a tap running. Total lack of respect for our property and I'm pissed off as I would never do that to someone else's house.

Please tell me I'm stressing unnecessarily! FTB here and I've just got my report back from the solicitor. Property was advertised as having a lease of 114 years. It's actually 97 years. Is this going to be a problem? I understand that properties with leases of 80 years or less can be a challenge for sellers (and I'm not even thinking about selling before I've bought!) but if you have experience of leasehold flats, do you think this will impact the value of it? Do I need to look into the cost of extending the lease before I exchange (which wasa supposed to be imminent). Thanks!