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.

@MovingToPlan you were one of the ones I was hoping had dropped off here!

Hopefully it wont be too long for you

Thank you! We've definitely been at this lark for a while now, for a few reasons, but it's exceedingly frustrating to be rushed into exchange by our own vendor and then to hear they haven't bothered to sign their own contracts. Whyyyyyy!

It amazes me how manual this entire process is - when so much of conveyancing could be sped up and done right first time if they just used software more. Like have a legal checklist (and also a check for correctness) of everything that needs to be completed before a solicitor can move to next stage. I'm surprised some clever boffin hasn't already clocked there's a big market gap here begging for some clever automation. Surely sols would be behind it too as they could take on more work and blitz through the basic, boring stuff.

Our solicitor finally sent over the TR1 form after taking ages to prepare it and there's an error in one of the address boxes where they've put in the address of the previous house we tried to purchase that fell through. So that's added more stress/maybe delays when we are supposed to be exchanging and completing this week. Also just found out that the mortgage funds still haven't been requested to be drawn down and the lender needs a few days notice. My sol doesn't think it's a problem, and says everyone is working towards a completion date of this week but i have no faith anymore.

@houwseevryweekend they tried to simplify it years ago where the seller got all the stuff like searches, surveys etc in a pack to give to buyers solicitors but it fell on its arse as everyone with a steak in making money in selling houses loses out so they basically made it fail.

A house sale falls through, the council gets more money for more identical searches.

A house sale falls through the surveyor gets to charge several hundred to survey the house again.

A house sale falls through the broker gets another customer to get commission / charge for organising a mortgage.

A house sale falls through the mortgage company gets to charge for another valuation survey.

A house falls through solicitors charge a new customer for work and if it's the same one they can recycle their work.

The only losers are the people buying and selling houses as we are the ones who have to wait around for weeks on end.

Obviously this is simplistic and not everyone gets more work but you get my idea

Very true and well explained, thank you. And it's why unlike so many sectors that prioritise the customer, the property market seems to actively hate both buyers and sellers!

Well done @noodles44 hope you're in soon@dinnermoneyready !

We have the survey back on our purchase. Nothing we didn't expect and had planned for in our offer really. Although a few things we want to check out. Still waiting for reply from our enquiries. Our buyer should have her survey back now which is the scary bit. She had a level 3 done and he was here for ages and didn't look me in the eye when he left. So we'll see what he says.

I thought you had to wait until exchange to get a school place? My son starts primary in Sept and I need to organise a new school place for him.

Hello can I join? At the very start of the process...

We aren't selling a property as we are buying a second property for my parents to live in. Had an offer accepted on a lovely bungalow nearby and the chain just completed today. I say chain but our sellers are buying somewhere but it's not your typical land purchase.

I am waiting to hear about our mortgage - finding this even more stressful than when we bought our own house as my parents absolutely love the property and I will be devastated if we can't go ahead with the plan for any reason. No particular reason mortgage would be declined but as it is a second mortgage I think they will be hotter on affordability...

Survey happening this Friday and I am hoping it is all fine. Searches already ordered.

Only bought the house we live in a couple of years ago and still quite traumatised from that and wasn't expecting to go through this again so soon!

So did I. I was really surprised to see the letter in the post the other day, I have no idea why they processed our application early. I haven't yet heard about my older child's place either, so it seems a bit chaotic over there.

I’m at the fuming stage today! I’m angry with everyone about this fucking process!! We are supposed to be exchanging this week with completion on 10th June. It’s Thursday tomorrow and we are adamant that we need 2 weeks between exchanging and completing, yet somebody further up the chain is delaying! We’re being pecked by our vendors suggesting our solicitor is still asking enquiries of theirs. Umm, the solicitor will keep going until they get a satisfactory answer for us! Bloody cheek, their solicitor has been avoiding answering emails from ours or delegates to a minion!
Sorry for the rant! It’s just getting me so wound up! There’s got to be a better way than this?

We still haven't exchanged either. The reason we've been given is that only now have the vendors "obtained final sign off for their completion statements and should be able to exchange tomorrow once this is done."

They wanted to exchange ASAP at the end of April. Fuck knows what they are playing at.

Oh, and my older child's school application was never received by the new council, so I've been waiting weeks to hear about her school offer, for no reason whatsoever. I was told by her current school that they sent the application in April, but speaking to the admissions team today, they have no idea she even exists. So that was even more irritation from even more incompetent people who are making this process needlessly stressful. I've sent the application to the admissions team direct without the current school's info about her attendance/marks/predictions because they can get that when she transfers anyway.

Moral of the story: don't trust anyone to have done anything they've said they've done (or will do) when it's your own peace/wellbeing/comfort that will be impacted. Channel your inner bulldog and don't let it go til thr job is done.

Right there with you in AAARRRGGHHH territory, @GoldieLookingBoots .

What questions are you waiting on @GoldieLookingBoots ?

my buyers keep asking me over and over for non existent building regs, and damp treatment for works carried out before my ownership. I don’t know how many different ways I can say I didn’t do it and I’ve provided you all the info I have. It’s a loft conversion that’s been there for at least 15 years with no sign of issue and nothing flagged on the survey so I’m not sure what they are looking for. Can someone just suggest an indemnity policy already?

I’m never selling again. This process is so shit.

We're supposed to be completing on Tuesday 28th which is 5 days away with the added excitement of a Bank Holiday weekend .

No one has yet told me we've exchanged.

We're moving out on Saturday anyway as we're moving in with my parents but it would be nice to know that the mortgage won't have to be paid on the 1st June and that I can inform all the utilities we've moved.

Onward purchase is still only 4 weeks. Searches will be done by 18th June and I've asked the EA if the vendor is as eager to move as we are and stressed we are now living with elderly parents so need to move asap.

Not had a reply as yet. This EA is a bit of a waste of time up to now.

Agreed @MovingToPlan and @sugarbyebye the whole process is a bloody long drawn out nightmare! I know solicitors have to be very thorough and almost triple check things but… why? Ours are asking for indemnity for lack of building reg on something. I kind of think these indemnity policies are a big scam and a money-maker for someone somewhere.

I’m just going to spend my lunch break tomorrow chasing again and hoping for a miracle!

The whole process seems an inefficient money making scam that breeds resentment. I imagine it's how acrimonious divorces come about when they started off amiable enough. Solicitors demanding things over and over.

Morning,,, lots of frustration on the thread lately which I concur with. This process is ridiculous and surely most of the admin stuff could be completed on one big platform for all parties to view and comment on/upload etc.
Apparantly my buyers have had their survey results and have made some requests via solicitor 😬 I’m nervous to see them but hoping they’ll be easily sortable and not too costly. Not sure what top of chain are doing but I’m willing a July completion.
oh and whoever mentioned about divorces and house moves: me and ex are quite amicable (apart from arguing about his new partner but that’s for another thread!), but this process would be even more hideous if we couldn’t communicate.

Morning all
How long did it take for your memorandums of sale to come through?

We accepted an offer Tuesday and still haven't had it come through yet. Im sure you will all say to wait a few days but every other time Ive purchased/sold it came through literally within a few hours.

Im very nervous as this has rebuilt our chain after it collapsing on exchange day and I'm not sure our onward purchase will accept a 'sorry my buyers have pulled out for no reason again' without them instantly re-listing.

for my purchase it came through next day, as I had a solicitor lined up. My buyers took a week as they had to provide ID and stuff and there was some back and forth with that.

I am just accepting that I am a nervous wreck throughout the whole process. And I’m not usually an anxious person. There’s just so much to go wrong and the stakes are so high.

my buyers have scheduled a damp survey for this morning and it’s been raining solidly here for two days.

On my purchase that fell through, I received it next day (both of us chain free) though the agent was asking me to instruct a solicitor or surveyor before taking it off the market. Luckily his colleague had more sense and just issued the MoS and made it STC on RightMove the next day when he was off.

Current purchase actually took 5 days to get MoS which stressed me out - but that's because they sent it by post and not email.

Don't worry all, it's through. I can relax now.

Ive phoned the estate agent and asked about our old buyers giving our new buyers the searches for their utter dickhead behaviour to us.

They are going to make the call but apparently searches are coming back within 10 days so it may not be quicker.

Two weeks to get MoS for our sale here, a day for our purchase. However there were reasons behind the delay for the sale and we were kept updated constantly.

A total flurry of activity today. Having to reconfirm everything, sign paperwork and all that jazz.

It turns out their conveyancing firm is the same as our previous buyers down to the name of the conveyancer. Im hoping they have an ounce of common sense and just recycle all the enquiries and use the same paperwork as much as possible to speed it up.... but then again this is solicitors...

that's handy @fromtheshires !
Damp survey done here this morning and he says only a tiny bit of damp from some cracked mortar - a five minute fix. I'm sure my buyers will find another survey to hone in on. I can't work out if they're just being really cautious or are looking for money off, but the surveys have all been in my favour so far. The valuation for the lender was approved, the only thing on the level 2 was some damp readings apparently, and that has just been solved. What next?

Ugh, we are supposed to be exchanging and completing tomorrow and my sol still doesn't have confirmation from our lender the funds will be available. So frustrating as she could have requested it last week when we knew completion was this week. Instead she's left it last min despite knowing they have long turn-around times and me chasing her every day. Feel so dejected that after not being able to exchange last week, it might not be this week either. Will also mean taking days off work as this weekend was the only one DH and I both have free till end June.

I thought using a local solicitor where I could drop things off and discuss (nag) things in person would be much better than the terrible online experience I had with my last purchase. It's made not one difference.