The all new buyers/sellers waiting room (x 6!) thread

[Champere]

Welcome across everyone!

We’ve got six nights until we move and the insomnia has set in!

It’s taken us three threads to move and I hope this thread is the one I graduate on….

Best of luck to everyone! May your agents be truthful, your conveyancers responsive, your lenders generous and your chain reasonable!!

@Nugg did your seller pull out the one they were buying then and now have to move out anyway?

@Crikeyalmighty no, the outstanding documentation was expected at some point today or Monday so amazingingly her seller has allowed her to move in!

@Nugg That's humankind at its best!!

Congratulations! That's great to hear that you've completed.

Re the removal firms, I'm guessing they didn't commit to holding your booking open until you'd exchanged, hence why you went with pencilling in 3? My worry would be that with a really tight turnaround, none of the 3 would come through and I'd be stuck. Anyway, I'm still waiting on the bottom of the chain to suggest dates so it's not really an issue yet!

It truly is! I am so relieved and grateful to the person I will never meet!

@Gekko21 yes they were great as well as my move has fallen through so many times and I have not been charged.

Well done @Nugg that really is humankind as a pp said.
Disappointed here. Exchange was due today with completion next Friday (13th). Apparently no exchange today because Muve (the purchasers conveyancing house) the admin person passes it to their 'qualified' manager who doesn't look to sign off u till the end of the day. 🤦‍♀️ So no idea what will happen. We are selling a probate house. We've done everything required at a drop of a hat. Couriered documents from Budapest last week because they wanted the contract urgently. Third time we've sent stuff by courier because they need it urgently. Apparently that doesn't reply in reverse.

Good luck to everyone. This system is just so bad.

@Isthiscorrect how frustrating, we’ve found it to be slow and laborious at times. My conveyancer has been amazing but my seller’s has been absolutely shocking and she’s going to complain it’s been so bad.

@Isthiscorrect Same position - we were meant to exchange today and haven't. A complete s**t show where it seems the bottom of the chains solicitor is one of these call-centre types and were completely uncontactable all day and nobody seems to actually know if they are aware that we are due to exchange and complete on 17th! We have to have to have to exchange on Monday for lots of boring reasons, so a nervous weekend ahead!

Fantastic news 😊

I was briefly on an earlier thread. SIX months after making my offer, I'm still not sure if I'm moving next weekend or not! I originally thought I would move in August, then September, then October, then November and here I am in December.

The seller has kicked off with his solicitor (who have definitely caused some of the delay) and made them agree to aim for completion this Friday 13th otherwise he's in danger of losing his purchase. That was a week ago. The trouble is I still haven't managed to actually speak to my solicitor to see how likely we are to be able to achieve this. I've emailed once and left 2 phone messages but not heard back.

In the meantime I've booked a moving van for Saturday, broadband installation for Monday 16th and gas/electricity accounts to be taken over. I'm dreading having to cancel/postpone everything on Friday if it can't happen. Argh!

So we've finally all agreed a completion date of Friday 13th, with exchange on Monday. We were supposed to exchange Friday but it was a shitshow and didn't happen.
We're now frantically packing up the house and I've just been hit by a huge emotional storm wondering if this is the right thing to do. We love our house but it's too small for us now and we need more space due to kids and working from home. Our new place is a new area only 15 minutes away from where we are now but lots of family and friends in our current area.
This is a normal feeling right? Anyone else second guess themselves when they get to this stage?!

Feeling your pain @cathyburke. We were supposed to exchange Friday and complete next Friday. Not a peep from the buyers or their solicitor despite their solicitor saying at 10am they actually weren't qualified to sign off and it would go to the team leader who does t look at the cases until the end of the day. So no idea what's happening, if anything for us.

This will be the right thing for you. It's such an emotional time. The current house has memories. You're, rightly, not sure about the new house, it's such a lot of money, such a big commitment. But to be honest if you weren't feeling confused I'd be mighty surprised. It's such a busy time of the year. So much pressure from everywhere. But you can do this and next year you will look back and wonder why you were worried. Fingers crossed for Monday.

These exchanges need to not be happening until the solicitor has rung you to double check you still want to..

I decided to pull out and had a panic that my solicitor would exchange and tell me afterwards, as a friend said. She said no, they should always check as anything could have happened.

@JawsCushion Yep she's did that. We said go go go. They said oh need the team leader to do it and then radio silence. To be honest I think they will piddle about until after Christmas now. Furious.

Does anyone know about council tax and annexes ? We accepted an offer on our house and saw one today that is the area we want . It has an attached annexe which we don't intend to keep as an annexxe (ie remove the extra kitchen and replace with office )
In the description it says council tax for house band e council tax for annexe band b
Does that still apply if you remove the kitchen ? Or it just becomes a higher band ?

This thread is so lovely (in a way) as I see so many people who are in the exact same situation as us. We were supposed to exchange on Friday and complete on the 13th as well @Isthiscorrect @cathyburke but we didn’t exchange, really hoping we can exchange next week.

The waiting is absolute torture. I’ve been wavering between ’no news is good news’ and worrying that our buyer’s solicitors aren’t doing anything. Our solicitor last heard from the buyer’s solicitors at the end of October.
Our last sale fell through because the buyer’s solicitors advised him not to buy it because of the ground rent terms. They said he wouldn’t get a mortgage on it. I do know that this buyer has got his mortgage agreed with his bank. He’s a buy to let landlord so I keep telling myself he must know what he’s doing…
Yesterday it felt like it was just a matter of time. Today I’m having a wobble! We’ve completely outgrown our 2 bed flat, with two of us wfh, a toddler and 2 cats, and we’ve already knocked the price down to less than we paid for it as we’re so desperate to get out. We’re ready to exchange, our seller is ready to exchange, we’re literally just waiting for his solicitor. Aaargh!

I last bought 12 years ago, so am seemingly out of touch. Can anyone advise, the mortgage lender are physically going out to value the house I’m buying next week as a desktop wasn’t possible. It’s just a standard valuation. So, do I arrange a separate survey? When I bought this current house the bank did it all at the same time.

@Offredismysister , the banks survey is Purley for the mortgage, so they will basically check that you are buying a 3 bedroom detached house made out of bricks - for example! .
It's not a homebuyers survey, you would need to arrange and pay for that seperatly if you want one.

When we bought our current house, our survey was through the lender too. It's 20 years ago, but we were going through old documents recently and found it. It was from Abbey National and was definitely a proper Homebuyer's survey. This time it was separate, although I think the lender only did a desktop valuation rather than a site visit.

We got the keys Friday and moved in 🎉 Lots of angst as many of you having with dates and last minute changes so we're so glad to be in. Our buyers solicitor was the very weak link in the chain so exchange your delayed from Monday to Tuesday and finally happened Wednesday as they hadn't ordered funds or checked the file etc. Other 4 in the chain were ready and wanted 6th for moving day so I booked movers and paid cancellation insurance extra where could move the date with 24hrs notice. Was still nerve wracking as they started packing the van Wednesday and we still hadn't exchanged. 🥴 So glad to be in! Good luck to everyone else..so blummin stressful!

Congratulations! Hope you've had a good weekend sorting out your new home.

Apparently we are completing next Monday but we haven't been given a date for exchange (possibly same day?!) and we haven't been asked to send out deposit over yet. How concerned would you be about this on a scale of 1 to 10? Because I am a 10 (absolute nervous wreck) DH is a 1 (thinks it's all fine and solicitors knows what they are doing).

Another day of us maybe or maybe not exchanging. We HAVE to complete on 17th so all getting a little bit scary. Does anybody else get a slightly dodgy tummy when nervous?? 😂😂

We're in the same boat today as well, it's absolutely nerve wracking isn't it. Can't focus on anything else. We've got movers booked for Weds/Thurs and need to complete on Friday! Fingers crossed for us all!