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.

Sympathies to everyone whose buyers are pulling out or proving difficult. My buyers have been quite patient I think although two requests recently will put us back a bit.
However up the chain feel slow as wading through treacle and I can’t get any sense of how much is left to do. I’ve said before here that as a teacher I have to move end of July to have August to try and get the house in living order on my own for my two kids. There’s no carpet/flooring and it needs a lot doing. Once I’m back in September I can’t get time off to move and I can’t bare the thought of a heavy workload and well as the mental load of the move and being solo.
This process is just destined to create stress and failure.
Apologies…feeling negative yet should be grateful because we still have the chain in tact!

@runningmom it is shocking how difficult it actually is. I hope you meet the dates you need to.

I wanted to move in time for the new school year too. I don’t think we would cope very well during the school year. Not even a teacher but A levels for DC and a university commitment on top of a full time job for me.

Anyway, I’m staying put, I’ll have a new kitchen and shower room instead.

No real house update, but god I got myself worked up yesterday and had a little mini breakdown.

We're relocating and our son is due to start reception in Sept. I can't officially apply to schools in the new area or get on waiting lists until we complete. I reached out to a few schools and they are all over subscribed. Felt so stressed thinking what we can do. He has a school place where we currently live but it's too far to drive him every day. Childcare in the new area is also massively in demand and we just can't find what we need in terms of opening hours etc. I think I'll need to leave my job in London and find something more local, maybe a wfh role will be the best so I can be more flexible with childcare times etc.

It's just a lot and feel all the pressure for the move, the admin that brings, and the school and childcare admin is getting too much. Partner doesn't really help with this kind of stuff. I work full time too and just getting it from all bloody angles at the moment.

Sorry to hear of the collapsed chains and the stress all around for everyone. No news here, we're still waiting to see if our second mortgage approval goes through following the revelation our buyers are missing paperwork that 98% of lenders need. I've been wiped out by a bad case of gastro and haven't been able to hold down solids for days, so think the stress is weakening me physically as well as mentally. This process is a riot.

So sorry to hear about people's buyers pulling out at the last minute, it's just awful that people can be out so much money in surveys/searches and have nothing to show for it at the end.

We are the ones holding things up this time as have yet to secure our onward purchase, but we only accepted an offer 2 weeks ago and are second viewing a couple of properties tomorrow - so hope to have the chain complete by the weekend (all 6 properties 😭). Then the fun really begins.

We are relocating and have a 2 year old in nursery so although not as complicated as moving schools it's a logistical nightmare. I'm having to commit to moving in December just to secure the nursery spot (and will move in with parents while husband stays put if we haven't completed by then). One preschool I tried had nothing until 2026 😮

Wishing a productive couple of days for those hoping to exchange this week!

Joining you all. Had an offer on a property that has just cleared through probate, only my buyers and this one in the chain so hopefully won’t be quite as challenging as some of you have had 🤞🏻🤞🏻

It needs a complete overhaul though, new kitchen and bathrooms, carpets, doors and ceilings skimming 🙈🙈

I am vaguely terrified as I have never done anything like this before but also excited, probably very naively 😂😂

@OldAgeStudent sorry to hear you've experienced the same too. It's awful I just feel shellshocked. Our situation is we're relocating to the Lakes from West Midlands along with our daughter son-in-law and granddaughter. She's just got a new job up there, we're childcare for dgd. It was always we all go or no one goes. They've only just sold their house about to put an offer on a house there, we've found a house, they were going to move in with us until their chain completes as we like you were 3 months further down the line. Added to which dd is a teacher so September she has to be there. It's such a mess.

A haiku:

My solicitor
is on holiday, second
time in four weeks. Fuck.

I'm terrible at poetry but hopefully you get the idea. Feels like everyone is hurrying, a mortgage is running out, I’ve tried to get everything ready and the solicitors are just coasting along at a glacial pace.

Sorry so many are having a stressful time 😣

Our estate agent is being slow coming back with responses from our seller. I’m wondering if they’ve even passed on or asked what we’ve requested? I know they have to pass on offers, but are they obligated to pass other information on or forward requests? (Which are very minimal! Eg. Request for a survey)

Love it 😂
( not the situation the haiku)

From my limited knowledge of conveyancing, I think it's not paid as well as other legal specialisms, so those that stay in the job are over-stretched. I also think they fire off emails rather than calling, so they have a paper-trail. It's infuriating all around though, especially in longer chains when the conveyancer knows who is who up and down the chain, but can only speak to the nearest links directly, they have to communicate through the next layer up/down instead.

The entire process is unbelievably antiquated.

I'm sorry to hear you've had to give up on the move, @OldAgeStudent . At one point last month, when our pushy vendors suddenly went deathly quiet for over a week (felt longer!!), we had to accept the idea that we might not be able to move after all. We planned how we would update/change the house we're in to make it more suitable for our needs - stuff we'd not bothered doing because we'd be leaving. It helped knowing that the alternative was viable, despite not really wanting it to be, iyswim.

Finally got the school place through for my older dc, really happy with it. Looking forward to cracking on with things now.

Oh this whole process is draining! And things are going smoothly so far- I am religiously checking my emails and desperately waiting on our mortgage offer

Ditto on the emails - it’s bordering on obsessive!!

If I check it every 2 minutes that'll get results right?! We were told 5 working days, today is day 4 and apparently I can't cope waiting any longer 😭

Sorry to all those that are having a horrible experience - it really sucks and those are the phone calls that we dread. Touch wood ours is going ok at the moment, but we are right at the beginning.

Interesting turn of events for us is that the small bit of land next to the house we're purchasing has suddenly come on the market! We have put an offer in for it, though as it is likely to get planning permission we expect a developer will double our offer, but we had to try. We wrote an email to the vendor saying we wouldn't build on it and it would be an extension of our garden. Who knows - maybe they will have a heart but I'm not holding up hope 😂

This sounds so hard @lingmerth. It is rubbish.

Thanks for everyone's commiserations. @MovingToPlan. I really love my current home so it isn't too hard to stay, it is just much too big for two of us. My driver for moving was to save cash/reduce my mortgage costs. I want to drop to 4/5 at work and thought downsizing was the thing to do to get there so I will just have to keep going f/t.

The new property needed a lot of work and I'd planned on spending £50k on it, so anything I do here work wise will be a doddle really.

Still annoying and disheartening.

That is exciting @Maybenexttime08. I did that in a previous house and it was a great buy.

Eesh. Less than 100 years is pretty short. Less than 80 is often unmortgagable. Tbh the issue also depends on who the freeholder is- there are a few central London freeholders who are a nightmare to extend with. The other issue is that currently you need to have owned it for 2 years to extend. I'd try to find out if anyone else in same building has recently extended and at what cost.

Not sure the two years is true now as the Tories passed their leasehold reforms.

Ah ok- thanks. I thought that got held up in parliament but I think that was some other housing legislation

It became law on 24 May, squeaking through!

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/leasehold-reforms-become-law

Morning: no news from solicitor again despite an email sent to them a few days ago. 😡
My EA did some chasing (apparently) and said everyone is working towards a July completion 🤞 but do you ever worry that you’re just being told what you want to hear? There’s six in chain and I know survey hasn’t happened yet on the top house.
Removals company chasing me to pencil them in. They’re the only firm where you can move the date without financial penalty. Would you pick them? I liked other firms more but I worry about availability as well as dates getting moved.

That's why we've gone with AnyVan, @runningmom - charged 72h before the removal date, move it around as often as you need to before then, and I think you can even ring up to move it after the 72h but before 48h or something like that. They are linked up with lots of independent firms across the country so have the ability to be so flexible. Hopefully they will do a good job on Monday, I'll report back.

Our mortgage funds have been released today, we've been charged for removals, and our cash deposit is transferred. I think it's actually going to happen. 😂

Are you all packed up or rushing around doing it like us 🙈😂

We have way too many anxious planners in the house, so although I've paid for the packing service about half the house is already packed anyway! It's a bit ridiculous tbh but I don't mind, it's meant the DC are calmer about the move. We've got coloured dots for every room, and a large laminated floorplan for with dots stuck on for the removers.

This weekend we'll be cleaning mostly!