The all-new buyers/sellers waiting room (continued x5) thread!

[BirthdayRainbow]

Hi I took the liberty of starting a new thread as I couldn't answer on the last one.

@kirinm I am glad you've decided I pull out. I wanted to suggest it but didn't want to stress you out. I hope the next house you view is the one and it all goes smoothly.

@ingkir I have just read all the search results. My son has helped with a couple of questions, I've left a message for my friend to help with something else and I am waiting for the solicitor to ring me back as they've attached someone else's details to the end of the paperwork 🙄. I'm distinctly unimpressed as of course potentially someone has mine and the whole stream could be wrong. Looking at what the emails say it is likely it is a one off but I needed to tell them. The receptionist was going to put me through to the solicitors secretary until I said why I was ringing. Already over the time of when she said she'd be back.

I still have a few things outstanding but I won't exchange until I have answers so I'll wait it out.

I didn't get removals quotes until a couple of weeks ago when it looked as though a completion date was on the horizon. We were thinking of hiring a van but decided against it which I'm happy about as we're moving on Thursday!

Anyone know what ‘finalising reports’ means? Our solicitor has chased our buyers solicitor who responded with this and said once things are signed she will send them over in due course. We still don’t have an exchange date yet, chain of four and all enquiries back.

Looks like i need to calm down and not start bothering removers yet then! 😀

It's usually a file with everything about the property of the buyers to read over from what I heard along with documents to sign

We were quoted just under 1k for removals, no packing. £1780 with packing. 3 bed house (but with lean to and music studio in shed so more stuff than your average 3 bed semi) moving 1 mile (north west) x

Thank you. Sadly I expect it will be a lot more for me. I've packed most of it myself but I'm moving about four hours.

We are moving from London to Yorkshire. No exchange or completion date yet but we’ve had 7 quotes and have a 4 bed house. With packing included, quotes have ranged from £4k to £9k!!!

Fuck!!

@BirthdayRainbow we're moving 3 hours away and our removals are charging £2005. That includes packing the house up on day 1, removing everything into their van and storage overnight on day 2, then driving to our new house, unpacking and returning on day 3.

£450 for two man team moving us from 3 bed to 2 bed house a couple of miles away. We have already done the packing but they are being very helpful, providing clothes rails etc.

@BirthdayRainbow £980 to move 2 miles, 4 bed, 3 floor semi.
We are doing the packing. Our new house is a wreck so they’re just putting everything in two rooms when we arrive.

I’ll let you know what the second company say today!

Thank you @Champere , @standardmum , @Gekko21 @lingmerth .

Definitely a huge difference. I moved in 2001 45 minutes away and paid about £1800. I am very nervous. I have two companies coming today so will see what I get.

It is more relevant for the ones who are moving long distance and not doing 100% packing, for me. Even though I'm moving from a four bed to a three, it's only me and I'm only taking three items of furniture so not a true four bed house move and multiple people's things.

I know right? I was thinking, surely that's a typing error. Our favoured ones are coming in at about £4.5K for packing, removal, assembly / disassembly (not including extras like insurance) but it'll be about who we can get once we have a date.

Our vendors have now suggested early-December, which works for us as we are almost ready to go (just awaiting final report & contract from solicitor). However, the bottom of the chain is being slow so no idea if December is realistic at this point.

Back to the price differences, each removal company seems to have a different strategy for managing a relocation. The number of days ranges from 2-4. Some want to pack and load the day before completion and then drive the 225 miles and unload on completion day. Others want to pack on day 1, load and drive on day 2, unload and drive back on day 3. Those doing it over 2 days seem to be throwing more men at it than those doing it over 3 or 4. Some have costed out hotel frees as a separate line item. So all those things affect the price.

Some companies came out to quote, whilst others did a live video and others had us upload a video. Our preferred company came out and did a fully itemised inventory so seemed very thorough.

I need wine. Send help.

man 1. Come day of moving, pack left over bits, load, drive, give me DS bed, sofa and some bits. Back next morning to give me the rest.

man 2 Come on exchange day - I suggested he make then completion - pack, load, go to their hotel, bring everything the next morning. So I get nothing. Not even a bed for my child or the sofa. Kept banging on about traffic might add hours on. Said if he brought me the bed and sofa they might as well bring me everything. Said about hours and how I'd not want them to do a 17 hour day surely...No but I want a bed for my child and a sofa for me to sleep on and a few boxes to unpack. Oh and some clothes.

On removals you will get an absolutely massive variation in prices and to an extent you will get what you pay for, but sometimes you don't actually need what the really expensive people are offering - for example if you don't have a lot of expensive furniture/ art/whatever that you would be devastated if it was broken etc. Access, stairs and number of storeys also comes into play. However, a lot of the difference comes down to how they do it- like do they lay floor coverings and door protectors, do they routinely wrap mattresses, do they cardboard/cloth wrap the furniture/ crate TVs and art? Also, some have their own trained staff and some basically just use "contractors"- i.e. anyone who will do that work cash in hand- it is a very transient industry because it's basically bloody hard physical work.

Just had our second quote - over double the first one! They did say they would use 3 separate vans though rather than one…

how long is the drive between the 2 houses?

Man 1 - asked how big the new house is, what access is like, explained how they'd wrap the TVs and my bureau, said they'd put down floor and shoe protectors and will pack anything I have packed if they don't think it is secure enough. Wrote everything down for what I am taking as I'm leaving a lot, most, of the furniture.

Man 2 - asked nothing about house, nothing about floor protectors, said he'd wrap my frames in the mattress. Negative about some exercise equipment.

The distance is 4-5 hours.

I am awaiting a call back from a big national chain and have asked that they come to the house rather than me send a video. Tomorrow I'll get the quotes from the ones today as well.

I'm glad it's not just me getting such variations in removal quotes.

Anyway, I may be jumping the gun a bit. Found out today that the bottom of chain's solicitor hasn't even sent enquiries despite them being 2 months since offer accepted. Our buyer's EA said enquiries were raised on the 24th but buyer's solicitor said they haven't received them. I'm now upping the pressure on my EA to cut out the middle men and join the dots.

Morning - can't sleep so thought I'd ask here :).

Our solicitor has sent our initial queries to the vendor (both in a care home so being dealt with by their sons). As our solicitors use a portal I can see what these queries are.

Strange question - as the buyer ,I can actually answer a few of them.. should I?? I presume not but it might speed things up.

Has anybody else done this?

I wouldn’t answer them on the portal but send a separate email to your solicitor giving them this information.

It depends.

If you are using a mortgage to buy then some questions have to have replies from the seller so the mortgage lender can rely on them (planning, building regulations, rights of way etc). Any questions that may affect the lender’s security.

If they are questions that don’t affect a lender’s security then you can possibly provide the replies yourself or just tell your solicitor you are happy to go ahead without those replies being answered.

if you aren’t having a mortgage then you can choose for yourself whether you want all the replies answered or not.

With my purchase, I was curious to see if the vendor's answers were the same as what I was expecting.

One of responses was 'the Seller will not be providing replies to any enquiries which are capable of being ascertained by the Buyer’s own enquiries, survey or personal inspection.' That's my solicitor told 😂

I chased the MA/freeholder myself and the vendors solicitor does now have the LPE1 form just a query about the windows now I.e will she fix or do we renegotiate and we should be moving

Who else is hoping for exchange next week? I think a few of us are nearing the finish line...