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!!

Are you talking about full removal services? Or are you doing a self-move in a hire van? If removals, you definitely need to be doing it by now. You book and agree to use a particular remover before you have a firm date - they work with you to confirm the details once you know them.

I'm going to request another viewing between exchange/completion- plan is to take a copy of the floor plan, take lots of measurements, and start to get a proper idea of where various items of furniture can go, which cupboard we'll put the pots and pans in etc. That way we won't be having to make all those decisions on moving day.

If I were your vendor, I would welcome you to come to take measurements,etc. If my buyer asked to come for another visit now after 3 months of offer acceptance, I would refuse, and ask them to come after the contracts are exchanged.

Yes. Some solicitors recommend it. Just to check nothing has changed since last time you viewed.

I might pull out on you. That sounds suspiciously like something has happened in the storms or snow that you are hiding! Even though I know you don't mean it too.

I don't really understand what benefit is derived from refusing a last minute viewing? It would probably concern me if the request was refused or questioned. When I'm about to spend £100s of thousands on something, I'd quite like to see it after seeing it once or twice months ago!

{mention:Feelingstrange2}@k@kirinm
No, I have nothing to hide!
I am just annoyed with my buyer/buyers solicitors at the moment. No response from their solicitors for a month. Yes, they can come to view the house again, but I would be very annoyed if they start taking measurements. They have not shown much of their commitment to purchase the house.

Do you let viewers take photographs of your property (inside & outside) on their first viewings?

I wouldn't refuse a request to view just before exchange, but I'll be pretty ticked off about it. The house is going to look like total shit at that stage, with packing everywhere, pictures off walls etc. It's also valuable time that I could be usefully using to do all that packing and preparing and making sure the actual move goes smoothly when it happens. If they want to drive by and make sure the house hasn't fallen down, they can do that without coming in, but actually asking to come in and walk around at that time I think it quite inconsiderate of the practicalities for the vendor.

I don’t agree. Some people stop doing any maintenance to their house whatsoever once it’s sold, even basic stuff like mowing the lawn in spring/summer. Some people will see a leak & not bother to get it fixed because the house is “sold”. A viewing just before Exchange is a good opportunity to check that the house is still in the condition it was in when you agreed to purchase it & limits the potential for nasty surprises on the day of completion. If everyone was reasonable it wouldn’t be necessary but people aren’t all reasonable.

No because they aren’t your buyer at that stage.

I'm completing tomorrow and my buyers only had one viewing of my house and I only had one viewing of the house I'm buying. I do agree with @Twiglets1 that a viewing just before exchange is a good idea but it has been such a rush for me at the end that there's been no time.

My only worry is that the loft is not clear. I was a naive FTB when i bought my house and didn't check the loft when I moved in. When i did check it was full of junk and too late to do anything about. Lesson learned: I'll be checking the loft straight away tomorrow.

@TartTartin I never told my EA people couldn't take photos of my house. When i was viewing places only one EA said i wasn't allowed. I found having my own photos really helpful when deciding if I wanted to make an offer because the rightmove photos rarely show the stuff that's important to me like the cupboard under the stairs, hallway, utility, landing etc.

Sure there's a tiny chance that some major breakdown/leak has occurred - but realistically what are you going to do at that stage? Demand a price reduction because the lawn isn't mowed? Threaten to delay exchange until a chip in the paintwork is repaired? It all just smacks of becoming the nightmare buyer that everyone dreads. I think at some stage everyone just has to accept there is some risk in the process - and a hell of a lot of this is just playing games and trying to score points against other people in the process.

I'm a lawyer and once saw a case where between exchange and completion (house was empty) there was a massive escape of water which wasn't identified for a few days and caused so much damage that they couldn't move into to. Both parties insurers refused to cover the claim as well (although think they did eventually).

You can tell them you expect them to mow the lawn if it has been allowed to get really overgrown in the months between the offer and the pre exchange viewing and threaten to delay exchange until you have proof it has been done. In the case of a leak or other problem that could be damaging the property, you could refuse to exchange until it has been fixed.

Well if the roof has blown off or it's flooded, then you could pull out. I think you're being facetious re the lawn and paintwork, as obviously that's not the kind of thing they're checking for.

Ultimately, damage there when you exchange becomes the buyer's problem, not the seller's, so of course it makes sense to check that nothing major has happened before exchanging.

I'd probably pull out if I wanted to do a pre-exchange condition check and the vendor acted weird about it. I'd think there was a major problem they didn't want me to see.

@kirinm Sure, shit DOES happen. But viewing before exchange wouldn't have stopped that and by the time it did happen the new owners were already legally committed to buying that property.
Using Mumsnet as a guide, I see far more posts about "my buyer pulled out on day of exchange" than I see "moved in and something was broken". I just think you need to remember there are human beings on all sides of these deals - mostly who are stressed to all hell and who really don't need someone turning up to check-up on them. The gain you get is far less than the additional stress you load on someone else. Ultimately does it matter if I move into a house and they haven't mowed the lawn for the last 6 months? All the standard wear and tear type issues that may have come up are going to be pretty cheap and low effort to get repaired - and likely you wouldn't spot them in an extra viewing anyway.
Most people make the effort to keep the house nice, clean it - maybe even leave flowers for the buyer. A few leave a shithole and piles of rubbish. You won't know which type of seller you have until moving day, so you have to suck up some level of risk.

Why should I suck up the risk though @Tupster when I could just request a viewing pre Exchange of contracts?

Never have I had this request refused and I would be suspicious if it was. Equally, I've never refused it when selling even though yes, it can be a slight pain with the timing sometimes but then the whole process is painful anyway!

See, to me, that would be an absolutely foul way to behave. Why screw around with a whole chain of people's move over such petty, inconsequential things?

I agree it would be petty over a mowed lawn (and I wouldn't do it in reality but I might threaten to do it to get them to get the blasted lawnmower out).

But I wouldn't exchange on a property with a leak say, I would expect the owner of the house to get it fixed.

What, delaying because of an issue which is potentially damaging the property is unreasonable in your eyes? Interesting take!

Because there are loads of other people involved and invested in the process. It's not just about whether one person in the chain is happy with the grass. It's called compromise.

Why should somebody 'compromise' and commit to buying a house that may require (tens of) thousands of pounds spending on it due to something which occurred pre-exchange?

I take it you'd be happy to suck up paying shed loads of cash for a fault which clearly occurred before exchange when you move? More money than sense if so!

Yes, because it's sabotaging your purchase and other people's purchases that are worth hundreds of thousands of pounds for the sake of something that might cost you £20 and 20 minutes to fix. It's utterly disproportionate.

Or it might be something which costs thousands of pounds. That is not disproportionate.