A thread for those of us in the moving process

[sammylilac]

Thought I'd start one for anyone going through the motions of buying/selling or both! There is another one on here but I noticed quite a few comments and conversations are about trying to sell/hoping to buy.

Anyone else here waiting on reports, searches, enquiries etc feel free to join and share your experiences. We are around 6? weeks in, chain of four and awaiting enquiries from our solicitor to go to our vendor's solicitor. I know it's a waiting game but no one has mentioned expected dates yet! What are our chances of being in before christmas?

Yep, waiting on solicitors. It's been over 6 months and I'm losing the will! Hoping to move before the end of the year...

I'll offer some encouragement, we've just exchanged - today!!!

Took 9 weeks with a very short chain and some serious pushing and shoving from our part. Our solicitors and both agents have been great, or buyers solicitors not so much. There were times I was convinced it would all fall apart, DH was stressed to his eyeballs. But we're there, in 2 weeks we'll be in (yes on Halloween), and I'm on my way to buy some bubbles to celebrate 😁

Congratulations @Saisong ! We are 4.5 weeks since having our onward purchase offer accepted and completing the chain. It's us, our buyer who's an older lady downsizing and her buyer.....everyone seems motivated and I think all the draft contracts have been sent so enquiries are happening now! We are hoping to move pre Christmas and at the very least before the school application deadline in Jan. I think that's achievable as long as nothing painful happens in the enquiries process - fingers tightly crossed.

We have accepted a offer about 3 weeks ago and speeding through the fixtures and fittings stuff, our onwards purchase accepted our offer about two weeks but has gone silent in terms of her finding a property she wants to buy.

Am I being daft by asking this but that means our chain isn't complete so we have ages to wait.

To be honest the buyers of our house are super super nice so we will move in with family if our onwards purchase messes around. Although I have been told she's motivated to move so maybe my expectations are wrong ?

This is gonna be a long road

We are just over a month into the process and it’s already becoming quite frustrating. I now know what takes SO much time, the enquiries and getting everything agreed to all ends. We were initially told to expect the process to take 16 weeks but I think it’ll be another few months. Really wanted to be in before Christmas!

Heard today I should be moving mid November, fingers crossed 🤞

13 weeks for me. First time buyer, no chain, vacant property (ex rental)

We unfortunately had a very slow start due to the seller taking 2 months (yes 2 months!!) to complete the TA6 and TA10 forms so the solicitor couldn't send the draft contract over. Luckily the solicitor sent the title deed (I think that's what it's called) within the first couple of weeks so the searches could be ordered. It took 6 weeks for them to come back due to a backlog with the local authority.

We are now at the enquires stage - simple, straightforward questions and nothing overly complicated as far as I'm aware but they have still taken nearly 4 weeks to respond and now we have 3 enquires outstanding.

Honestly I've given up chasing as I feel like a broken record asking if there's any updates (because there never is!!) and I'm struggling to see the finish line.

I understand it's a stressful process for most people, but I feel like every part of this process, (from the initial paperwork to the searches to the enquiries) have just taken forever! Nothing has been straightaway and it's actually ruined the whole excitement for me tbh

Nothing has been straightforward I meant to say not straightaway 😂

We’re in the process of buying - we were due to complete on the 23rd but everything has fallen apart today! Should be super straightforward, first time buyers buying a new build. But we requested release of funds from our LISA today to find out it is a stocks and shares LISA which I hadn’t realised, so it can take up to 10 working days to release the funds as they have to sell the shares. So anyone using a LISA I would check this early on as I had no idea!

This means we’re now looking to complete on the 31st - the day we’re due to hand the keys back at our rental. We have already extended the tenancy here to allow an overlap while we are moving etc. but may have to push on without this.

There is currently no flooring in the property, so we had planned to complete day 1, carpets in day 2, hard floor in day 3, packers in here day 4, move day 5, clean the rental day 6. I had really wanted to avoid having to move in and then move all the furniture and boxes for flooring to be laid. Now all the movers, fitters etc have to be changed! I have gone back to the landlord to see if they will give us an extra week here. We had considered staying elsewhere for a few nights and putting everything in storage but when we got quotes from the movers it effectively doubled the price, so would be cheaper and less stressful to pay an extra weeks rent. Praying the landlord agrees to this, so frustrating as I’d tried to plan it to minimise stress and upheaval - we have a baby and a preschooler, and it’s incredibly busy at my partners work so really wanted things to be as smooth as possible.

My other tip - when you get removals quotes it’s worth asking them to quote for the move with and without a packing service. I didn’t think I wanted a quote for a packing service because I thought it would be ££££ but it’s only cost us an extra £350 to add a full packing service. Which is a lot of money, but in the grand scheme of a house purchase and all the costs is a drop in the ocean! So I’m hoping that will be worthwhile.

i hope everyone’s buying is going as smoothly as possible and we’ll all be in our lovely new homes soon!

We had offer accepted back in May. Chain collapsed x3 times and we are now on our 4 attempt. 5 in the chain. Never had it like this with previous moves. We ha e signed draft contracts done searches mortgage sorted ages ago. But will be delayed as starting again at the bottom of the chain. Resigned to the fact it will be next year now.

I HATE the process. Sale fell thru earlier in the year. Accepted an offer yesterday, you can't get excited because of the process. IF it happens it's someone buying ours with cash from inheritance, us buying empty property. So simple enough, but I know someone whose process has just taken 19 weeks. You are in the hands of administrators completing searches etc..... dead slow seems to be the norm

I'm at the start of this process. I'm in a short chain - first time buyers are purchasing mine and I'm buying a property outright with proceeds of sale and it's vacant possession.

My house was surveyed today. I'm not ordering the survey on the one I'm buying yet as I think my first time buyers may pull out. I know the roof needs work and there are a couple of other issues too. I priced £30k lower than the norm to account for this and to get a quick sale.

We shall see - I'm not hopeful.

How's everyone going? Our buyers have ordered a full damp survey and roof inspection because the homebuyer report guy said 'looks fine from the inside but could only inspect from ground level outside' and had some damp readings....in our Victorian terrace which is to be expected. I'm anxious now because if they ask for a reduction we can't afford our onward purchase so it will all fall through!

That sounds stressful @Gotosleep91 - hopefully it won't happen. Or is there a certain amount of reduction you could potentially afford?

I've heard from my solicitor re the house I'm buying. The yard isn't marked on the plans as belonging to the house so we need to make further enquiries. There are a few other things as well that will take time to look into.