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.

Yeah, tbh anyone who buys ours will realise there are going to be holes as we have many many big paintings on the wall that require raw plugs. I'll just give them the option of I can leave the plugs or remove and fill/ touch up (used to live in HK where all holes have to be filled to get deposit back from LL so it's my DIY forte). Vendors are being wonderful and leaving us all their curtains and light fittings bar one so that's one less thing to worry about.

We are still riding the rollercoaster- at the weekend DH and I were saying we have to accept we're looking at end of the year because vendor's vendor was being super indecisive. Suddenly now we got an email from the EA and vendors want to complete early July. I hardly dare hope!

Yeah mine was here for about 1.5 hours and I tried to prod him for a bit of info but he was very poker faced. He took a lot of photos, the damp meter was out, and he spent a lot of time looking at our roof.

I am leaving a lot of stuff for my buyers as they were really into my style and the stuff I chose for the house suits this house. My vendors are being more stingy but that's fine as I'm not really keen on their decor and if they will reuse their curtains and light fittings elsewhere then fine by me, I'll buy my own.

Congrats on getting this far! I'm a FTB and I'm usually quite a pragmatic person and I'm still finding it quite stressy, esp as I'm buying by myself. Offer accepted at Easter and I thought I might have been in by end of May (no chain), but I think I've underestimated how long it takes. Hope it all goes smoothly for you.

@NoIdeaWhyNow thank you! I messaged the solicitor today and transferred funds for the searches but asked to hold off and reassess timings to start until end of this week in the hopes we have some news on the mortgage offer progress.

I have no idea of the right thing to do. Hold things up waiting for the mortgage offer or go ahead with everything at the same time and risk loosing money if the offer doesn't come in.

@Unexpectedbaby it's difficult to know what to do isn't it?! I realise now I was lucky, my mortgage offer came within 48 hours so I had the solicitor instructed and survey booked within the week of offering. Sellers took ages to get the draft contract pack to the solicitor and now I'm having to chase the EA to get the seller to send through the management pack (it's a leasehold property and I didn't know about this bit). Speaking to the solicitor today and the sellers didn't send her the any of the certificates (gas safety, electrician etc) so that'll add more time!

Hopefully your offer won't take too long. Maybe leave it until the end of the week to see if the mortgage comes through by then?

Good luck to everyone progressing towards the finish line…

I complete on Friday. My removals got in touch with my sellers removals to check access as although my seller told me there were no issues when she moved in with a big lorry, it is down a narrow lane with a tight bend to the car park. It turns out, instead of using one big lorry, they need 3 smaller trucks. Oh and they want to pack 2 trucks on Wednesday! I have been doing more packing after work until now, it is a good incentive to speed up!
I am just going to leave them to it on Wednesday as am meeting my parents at the halfway point with my cat to go to a local cattery, my dog and a few breakable bits and plants.
I am getting really excited, only one more day of work too for a while…

@NoIdeaWhyNow I'm buying a leasehold property (never bought one before).

Any tips on how I can speed up the process. My sale is 12 weeks in and I'm coming to the end with that, expecting to exchange and complete within the next 10 days or so.

We decided to put our furniture into storage and move in with my parents as my onward purchase is only 3 weeks in. I've heard leasehold can take longer.

I've paid upfront for the searches. Ideally need to be in 12th July as we go on holiday on the 20th for 2 weeks.

My purchase is a leasehold and no tips unfortunately to speed up the process. It took nearly 4 months when I was initially under offer to do all the checks on the management pack/leasehold agreement in addition to the other searches etc. Then I lost my buyers, second time around, I secured the same property once under offer again and most of the solicitors work had been done, so it has taken less than 3 months this time.
It is my first time buying a leasehold, I also have a share of the freehold. Good luck, I hope yours moves swifter than mine did...

I bought a leasehold house so I think that's very different to a leasehold flat. It didn't seem to add any time on to the conveyance process, just expense.

I was thinking of giving it to the end of the week. I have paid the solicitor for the searches but asked to hold off a little longer.

Our sellers had a sale fall through a few months ago so have everything to hand. They had the draft contract pack over within 2 days lol so it's all just sat waiting now.

We have gone for our mortgage with Co-Op which seem to have a reputation of being extremely slow which won't help.

We are three weeks in and no mortgage offer yet, and our situation is not complicated and we're only borrowing 2x our salary. Natwest have asked for one bit of paper at a time, and insisted on seeing actual passports when we had an abroad trip last week, so that held things up. Hopefully we'll get ours approved this week but it has been slow.

Just had news that valuation is booked in for today. No idea on what order Co-Op do everything in. I can see both hard and soft checks on our credit reports already too.

Patiently waiting to find out if our chain will close. They made an offer on Friday but a solicitor is dealing with it as the owners went into a nursing home.

Hope they don't take too much longer. Really need this stress out of my mind.

My buyers have gone radio silent for the past few days, knowing we were hoping to exchange this week - gaaahhh. Nobody has heard from their conveyancer since last Thursday. I'm hoping against hope that the buyers have just had a tricky time getting someone to witness their signatures on the contract. I'm shaking as many trees as I can without actually speaking to them directly. Which would be mad, so I won't do it!

Omg I didn't realise there was a new thread I've missed so much!!
Absolutely miserable news here. Our buyers are threatening to pull out as there is no movement but we are completely stuck waiting for probate to be granted on the property we are buying. Apparently it is incredibly poor practice of the estate agent to list a property when probate hasn't even been applied for yet.
We are understandably upset and angry at being dumped in this position. Our buyers will be homeless at the end of the month and don't know what to do.

We have exchanged today and are completing on Friday 😊

I'm so relieved. It was definitely cutting it fine for it to go ahead this week!

@Turniptracker thats lousy for both you and your buyers. That EA needs a rocket up their backside.
Hoping it comes off for you somehow.

Valuation tomorrow, hoping it all goes well and a mortgage offer follows shortly.

purchase survey through and nothing majorly scary for me though lots of snaggy issues. I’m not looking to get money off but really would like a few things done:
new radiator (it’s corroded)
new door handle (broken)
new banister (it’s broken in half)
boiler needs servicing

They aren’t deal breakers but it would make my life easier if he did these jobs. There’s so much else I’ll need to do eg flooring/redecoration every room and I’m a single mom. How can I get my solicitor to word it?

Just waiting on my buyers to do the same 😜

@Turniptracker we've had exactly the same with the retirement flat my parent is buying. When challenged on probate told its been left to them in the will, EA had no idea about what probate is. The EA is inexperienced and this their first sale, I don't blame them, but I do blame their firm and training of new staff.
Thankfully probate came through last week about 15 weeks after we had been told it was submitted. Do you know when probate was submitted?
We are pushing for completion in 10 days. Thankfully, we have sorted it to buy first and get ready for parent and sale of family home is a few weeks behind, but realise we are fortunate to be able to do this.

Hi everyone

We had bad news yesterday. Our buyer has decided to stay put disappointing three other parties.

Hoping we can find a chain free buyer asap as we've almost ready to exchange

Anyone else had this and resolved it quix?

@BG2015 no tips I'm afraid. You're at the mercy of other people and organisations completing what they need to do in a timely manner. For example, my solicitor has had most of the searches back bar the local authority one (which she says can take longer but has no timeframe for though she is chasing). The sellers seem to be taking their sweet time with getting the management pack sorted from the leaseholder so that's frustrating. But I'm hoping it won't bring up an issues. It's a maisonette with only one other flat so there's no big service charges. I'm 7 weeks in and have no idea when the end is in sight!

I guess all you can do is share your timeline with the solicitor so they know your timings. Good luck with it!

@Unexpectedbaby if you've already paid for the searches then maybe there's no harm in asking your solicitor to proceed with them in case they bring up a bunch of questions?

Well I think I have had the most stressful few hours possible...

Due to complete on Friday, my solicitor called earlier saying my mortgage Co are refusing to release the funds.

There is a retaining wall to another flats patio which has cracks in it. The mortgage lenders valuation wanted a structural engineer to check this out and give an idea of costs (even tho not my property)

I just got an email.saying my mortgage offer had been accepted and it wasn't spotted by anyone else. So have been trying to find a solution. I have 2 x removal vans arriving 2mo as they have to use 3 small lorries rather than one big one, so want to pack a couple early. I am mostly packed.

My solicitor has got my surveyors report, but he is not affiliated by the bodies the lenders require. If they can get costs, that would be great as I will have equity left over, so can stand some to be retained (not the whole lot)

I might manage to scrabble together the outstanding amount if I borrow off a few family members and sort once there (& repay once the mortgage comes thru)
.safe to say my anxiety levels are thru the roof tonight and I have had to have a medicinal calming wine. I am never moving again!!!
3 days before completion too, there really are no words.

@noodles44 that's awful, especially so close to the finish line. I really hope that you manage to get it sorted in time.

My surveyor responded late last night to my email, he has recommended someone with the necessary qualifications who has started work early today, saw my message via his website, and can go up there this am. He will do a report, then I need to get a builders quote for costs. It isn’t even my wall, but is retaining a neighbours patio. If it ends up being a leasehold cost, I would pay a portion potentially rather than the full amount (if it isn’t the responsibility of the patio owners)

This really was/is next level stress so close to completion. My solicitor emailed me at 5am today, so I think she has had as little sleep as me!