Beyond frustrated with this wholse stupid process

[reabies]

Just having a vent because I'm losing my mind, sorry it's long.

We put our house on the market November 2023, nothing happened so pulled it off over Christmas and re-listed end of Jan. Accepted an offer early Feb, then found something we liked and had our offer accepted on that in early March. They then took 6 weeks to find somewhere, that was chain free, so we were in a completed chain before end of May.

Everything went smoothly regarding our sale and were ready to exchange in August, but our vendor was being super slow to respond to things and there were outstanding enquiries on our purchase.

End of August, our vendor says she is pulling out of her purchase, for a reason that not only we, but our estate agents (managing the whole chain) thought was stupid. She found another place in a couple of weeks, but decided not to offer because of work needing doing. By this time, we are mid-September and concerned about losing our buyers.

Our buyers tell us they have had to take on a new lease, as we all expected to have moved by end of Sep and that clearly wasn't going to happen. Our agent advised us they didn't think our vendor actually wanted to move, so we had been looking for something else, found an alternative property, chain free, and made an offer 2 weeks ago. It was accepted. So finally it looked like we might be able to move in the new year if we got all the legals done quickly, and not lose our buyers.

Yesterday our estate agent called and our buyers have now pulled out. They said they had been in the process so long that their financial situation had changed and their priorities had too, and they were going to look for something bigger. Which means we're no longer proceedable, so our vendors on the new house have put it back on the market.

We are now in the exact same position we were in 11 months ago when we first listed our house.

I could scream. We are having a baby in December - alright maybe I was gung ho in TTC when we the property process is so fucking unreliable, but it never crossed our minds we would be literally no further forward one year later.

We've now got to scrabble round making the house presentable for viewings and hope we get something quickly, and in the mean time hope the house we want doesn't go under offer to someone else. Our original vendor is not putting hers back on the market, so she clearly wasn't ready to sell anyway. Also all the fucking money pissed away on legal and surveys over the last 6 months. I'm just so fucking fuming that this is allowed to happen. And beyond depressed about searching for something again if we aren't able to re-offer on the house we had lined up, because we've been looking for 18 months now and these 2 are the only ones we've seen that we felt would work.

Anyway feels good to get that out. Please feel free to share similar tales of woe, or anything with a happy ending so I can believe this will be sorted at some point and we will be able to move eventually.

Totally feel your pain. I'm in a three person chain - my buyers, me, the house I'm buying. This chain was originally slotted in place in January, but problems emerged with the house I was buying. There were a lot of secrets, refusal to respond to requests for information/clarification and a lot of pressure on me to spend money and be ready to exchange. But I couldn't even get access to the house for a second viewing or survey due to tenants that I was being told were happy to move out but they obviously weren't because they wouldn't allow access for the purchase process to continue. So by the end of April I dropped out of everything. However, market is such that the buyers of my house couldn't find anything else as good, so were begging to still buy my place, while simultaneously bitching about petty nonsense in the survey and trying to knock the price down. After much negotiation all over the place, I am now back in the exact same chain with a plan to complete in Feb/March 2025. I hate everyone and everything, conveyancing is costing twice as much because everything has expired and is having to be done a second time. Every question i get from the estate agents and/or solicitors is just really annoying me. Today it's been about whether I had permission from the local authority to get a replacement front door (which is a really good quality door with Fensa certification etc all in place and documentation already supplied). The response from the local authority is that I don't actually need their permission. I hope evenutally I might have a happy ending to share with you, but it just feels like a never ending slog and I'm constantly expecting disaster.

Ahh @Tupster I'm so sorry you're having a total shitter too! That is so frustrating with the legal work, and tenants making life even harder.

I agree on the stupid questions as well. Like I get it, it's a big purchase, you want to make sure it's right for you. But we were asked if we had all the manuals for all the appliances in the house and I was a bit like...probably somewhere but can't you just get a grip? We didn't ask anything of the sort to our vendors, because it's not structural or dramatically going to impact the way we live in the house.

Anyway, we've managed to get 6 viewings lined up for this weekend, and while I'm desperately trying not to get my hopes up, I do really hope at least one of them will want to offer. And we'd even take a bit less money now just to get things going quickly.

I really hope your process goes smoothly over the next few months and people stop being such dicks!

Asking for manuals is a whole other level of petty. You are meant to get them when you rent so you don’t break the LL’s appliances but when you buy, they are your problem, so wtf?

My sympathies to you and @Tupster for all that you are going through.

Our conveyancer was being a true pita about a bunch of stuff I wouldn’t think twice about these days. They need to go to the school of bloody common sense.

Surely it's normal to provide the manuals though for anything included with the purchase?

You need to know how to work the boiler, central heating, oven, any other appliances?

We kept the ones that belonged with the house separately so they could just be handed over?

Why not just stay put for a while?

You can download manuals for every appliance under the sun from the internet now, even many old and obscure models. They're being ridiculous.

Obviously we would provide the manuals for anything that we had, we wouldn't take them with us. But we bought our fridge secondhand on marketplace, so no that doesn't have a manual. And anything else we did buy, I certainly wasn't keeping in mind the fact we might one day sell as to whether I kept the manual or not.

And as Alcedo pointed out, you can download manuals, videos, tutorials for almost anything online now, so would it really be a big deal if we didn't have them ready to hand over? I just mean in the grand scheme of a house purchase, is this really a question that needed to be asked, when conveyancers are charging as much as they do?

@ItWasOnAStarryNight we are in a 2 bed victorian terrace with a toddler, dog, and baby on the way. We really need a bit more space😅! And had thought we would be moved in by now if the first chain had gone to plan. In any case we will be staying put for a while because even if our viewings this weekend do turn into offer(s), I would guess it will be 3-4 months at least before any move date, if we don't lose the house we intended to purchase in the meantime! Stress.

But who wants to be messing around downloading manuals off the internet and trying to find model numbers etc whilst dealing with moving into a new house/area when the seller who already has them could easily just hand them over?! Some of ours for the heating it really isn't obvious how you would work out which model you have just from looking at it.

I'd be seriously unimpressed with a seller who couldn't be bothered to do this. Especially with a house move in the colder months when you need to have heating on.

I wouldn't be bothered about a secondhand fridge manual - fridge just sits there and runs, mostly.

But definitely yes for ones for heating systems, boilers, ovens, security/alarms.

I'm not saying I wouldn't provide them if I had them - what benefit would it be to me to take the manual for my current boiler to my new place? But would you back out of a purchase because a vendor said they didn't have a manual for the boiler? Or would you just be unimpressed and roll your eyes and muster up the energy to have a google? If the answer is yes you would back out of the purchase then fair enough, it's clearly a dealbreaker question for you. But if not, why even ask it?

We asked when the boiler had been last serviced, whether regularly maintained and asked to see the report from last service.

Both times we've bought we've ended up planning to replace the boiler immediately so manual not important.

It's not necessarily a dealbreaker for a desirable/perfect house but if there were other options on the market I'd see it as the seller being unhelpful and difficult if they wouldn't provide this stuff and that would make me more likely not to proceed.

Most appliances are pretty intuitive to run. If you have a problem a manual is nice although if its more than changing an oven bulb they usually just say get it repaired. We have left basic instructions for things like turning on the boiler, which would probably be more helpful than the incomprehensible manual..

Yes absolutely - all of those questions about servicing etc, certificates were reasonable and we provided them.

I think if the question had been 'would you mind leaving behind any manuals for any appliances that you have' I'd have just said yes of course, not a problem. But it was 'Do you have all the manuals for all the appliances you own' and that was a bit more of a stupid question in my eyes.

Anyway, those buyers have pulled out so I don't need to field any more annoying questions from them haha. Let's see what comes up when we hopefully secure new buyers!

You totally have my sympathy! It's a crazy process in England - I just don't know why it doesn't get updated!

Also, I'm told by 2 estate agents and the solicitor, it's now common practice to exchange and complete on the same day. Which means theoretically we could get to move day, get the van fully packed and someone pull out! Insane!

We accepted our offer in January and it's looking like early November before we will (HOPEFULLY!) complete!

I get that you don't mind about not having manuals but look at it from the buyer's perspective - they've pulled out. The process was taking ages and they've asked for things and not had what they asked for provided, which makes you look like a difficult seller? So no wonder they got cold feet?

Also I had a problem with our washing machine not draining the fabric conditioner drawer the other day and it didn't even cross my mind to look for the manual from when we bought it 2 years ago, I got straight on youtube to find someone to talk me through it 😂

It wouldn't have occurred to me to do that - our manuals are all kept in a folder in the kitchen, just got it out and looked up washing machine or whatever problem.

I also write on each one the purchase date, length of guarantee and staple the receipt to it so if there is a problem it's easy to follow up.

Ahh now I think that's a bit unfair, because even though I thought it was a silly question and they should get a grip, I still answered it. I didn't moan about it the way I have here! Of course we cooperated and sent everything requested. They pulled out because the top of our chain collapsed and they didn't want to wait any longer, not because we were obstructive.

If it had been because we were moany and slow then I'd not be quite so cavalier here. But we were literally ready to set an exchange date - we had provided every single thing asked for. It just made me laugh/roll my eyes because it just wasn't a question we even thought to ask on our onward purchase.

Oh my gosh - I'm so sorry you've been in such a long process too! We had everyone saying 'average time is about 8-12 weeks from the chain being sorted to completion' and here we are months later just losing our minds.

I'm keeping everything crossed for you that nothing happens over the next month and you do indeed complete in November!!

Just have to pester solicitor immediately to start legal process and also estate agents to move things forward. Market is picking up now so that should help find a new buyer and somewhere to buy.

We're in the exact same boat as you at the moment OP and now won't be able to move before baby is born. The system here blows my mind, it's outrageous that buyers and sellers can just pull out last minute with no consequences, everywhere else you would pay a non-refundable deposit with limited outs, which at least covers wasted costs for the other party but in the UK you can literally walk away after months of time and costs incurred by the other party just because you change your mind, it's crazy.

@yellowpuffin yes it pisses me off so much - months of legal work now wasted because people walked away. We are probably going to have spent close to 10k on conveyancing by the time we actually move, on at least 2 sales (the one we've just lost, and a hopeful future one), and on at least 2 if not 3 purchases (the one we did initially, the one we started 2 weeks ago, and the one we eventually end up with). We have now instructed the solicitor to stop all work so hopefully not racking up any more fees at the moment.

I have so much sympathy for you with a baby on the way too. I know we are lucky to have a roof over our head and things could be much worse, but bringing a new baby home to sleep in the lounge because there isn't enough space elsewhere in the house is just...not the start in life I had pictured for this newborn.

Fingers crossed for both of us for the new arrivals to get here safely, and the housing situ to be sorted sooner than later!

I have only bought 2 houses, one as a first time buyer where the seller lied flat out about having somewhere to move to, then dialed back on it and said I had to pay them more so they could move. I said I would withdraw and they magically found they could proceed. Next one was a probate sale - on the Monday I still did not know if I would be able to move on the Tuesday - to be fair, my solicitor was shit. So I feel you. The whole system needs to be improved.

After a year on market with last house we ended up having to decouple the sale of our house and the buying of next so we didn't lose the sale. Supposed to be a week two at most expected to be a week - put our stuff in storage and family took us all in - 9 weeks later we thinking we may have to pull out and rent in new area and we clearly stating this - did move things on but had anotehr 2 weeks. We got keys literally before day long bank holiday weekend. The seller were going into two different rental properties - divorced mother selling after last child left home - they blamed their solicitor for delay but I think they just wanted longer and weren't upfront to us about it.

First house was us in rented house owner going into rented - suddenly wanted two extra weeks and luckily landlady was fine with that - DH went past house said they'd clearly moved out in original date. Day came sale went though around 10 am - we'd booked removal firm for next day. By late afternoon DH ended up camped in Ea office and kids of seller EA were all leaving unanswered phone messages - though only after our solicitor started mentioning at fees. 6 pm keys finally handed over - EA kept saying too soon for emergency locksmith but then tried to close office before keys handed over. So bugled baby and toddler in double pushchair and walked up there - front garden and drive were strewn with rubbish and furniture and house was fifthly. Also heating had been left on high for two weeks property was empty and pervious owner tried to claim is was on us to pay that bill - on house we didn't yet own.

Never had manuals left for anything - though have left what we had - and never actually got all the keys - got one key for first house - so had to rapidly change locks and here changed locks quickly but think pervious owners tried to access property with old keys.

I feel your pain and also think the whole system is rubbish. We were moving to a new area hundreds of miles away two and a half years ago. Sold pretty quickly, buyer pulled out a few weeks before sale. Sold again, stayed with our seller. Then solicitors stopped communicating, turned out they had been merged with another firm and stopped offering conveyancing during our sale and had more or less abandoned old clients and the one working on our case was wfh and not communicating. We had to go to their offices every day for about two weeks to get the sale and purchase through. But two years later all is good and just like a bad dream. You will get to that stage too op so just try to not get too stressed and look after yourself (I put on 20 pounds during the whole process).