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!!

Yes, we’ve had this one as well! Chancel repair - the insurance companies must be cleaning up with all this.

Ours wasn’t chancelry, but we have had that before. It was something to do with the mining of something, but the village has been in existence for a long time.

I would certainly say that these days it makes sense to keep every guarantee on work done, every invoice of proof of work, every gas safety/electrical safety ( in fact I would have these done before selling) - every boiler service etc - mainly because chances are high you will be asked for them on sale- if you don't have these things there's a good chance someone will be trying to 'knock your price down' a fair way along the line. Times have changed it seems.

Our chain has been relatively sensible but it's the solicitors who seem to be driving everyone nuts. My survey had loads about ask for x/y/z guarantee but the seller has been there 45 years and everything done pre buildings regs so I was happy to crack on, my buyers seem similarly sensible but their solicitor keeps over-riding them and asking questions about things that don't even exist. Whole chain of 5 is supposedly ready to move friday but my buyers solicitor is holding everything up. They ignored my solicitor all of friday but buyer tells me they've informed them it's all signed off. Don't they realise the whole chain needs to be on board.. It's all making me rather anxious, I've got movers coming to pack wednesday, have already swapped shifts multiple times and need to know the day is definite with at least 3 days notice for movers! Praying it all comes together Monday 😬

What's the next step after enquiries are answered ?

@mamnotmum it's taken us 9 months. Been a nightmare. Will never move again. Right up to the morning of completion it could have gone tits up.

Urgh. Starting to wake up at night panicking about what's happening with the sale and having nowhere to live. And then it's in my head all day. Worse at the weekends when Rightmove is dead too!

We were asked to pay £100 for indemnity insurance against some 1880s covenants that had NEVER caused any problems.
I phoned my solicitor to discuss it, and he actually told be he'd been part of some research which showed that such indemnity policies were NEVER called upon for claims and they were basically a backhander from solicitors to insurance companies.
He actually recommended we didn't bother and we went back and said if the buyer was concerned they should take out their own, as we were confident the risk was virtually zero.

We're not typical as we were selling an empty ex-rental property, so no onward chain, and my buyer was also a cash buyer with a chain-free buyer.

Took 8 weeks from offer to completion, for which I am very grateful.

Best of luck to all those stuck in longer, more complicated situations...😧

I've just drafted a response to the EA with a big fat no to the price reduction request... Having seen the extract from the surveyor's comments, it's purely cosmetic with no actual issues being caused! Hope yours are easy to deal with @IWillAlwaysBeinaClubWithYouin1973

@kirinm @Gekko21 We have a chancel repair related one too, think it's on every single property in the town 🫣

We are buying a new build but this is a good tip thank you. We want to convert the garage fairly soon so will keep all the paperwork and we intend to make sure we go above and beyond for insulation purposes etc keeping everything crossed.

DP had the surveyor out to value his house on Wednesday and the estate agent for the part ex is next Friday and then we will see what they say.

Meanwhile we have done both utility rooms at my house and taken 5 black sacks to the tip and loads of old broken mops and vacuum cleaners etc so both utility rooms and both bathrooms declutterred at mine. An entire car load has gone to the tip today alone.

DP has just gone back to his house (the one we are part exing in) do an hour in the loft. We can keep mine for a bit after we buy the new one to declutter.

Can’t believe how much we have done.

We went to visit the new build again yesterday and we still love it and DP disappeared yesterday evening for a dog walk and ended up at the new build as he wanted to go in the evening and he said despite it being a number of houses (it’s not a big estate) it is between the rugby club fields and a farm and green belt he said he was lovely and quiet. We will have houses and a people around and 15 min walk to the centre of town but bus stops right outside. Getting excited now.

@Dealingwithatrexrightnow , re your garage conversion, have you checked there are no covenents stopping you from doing this?, only we are also buying a new build and can't convert the garage for 5 years. Not sure if that's a common thing, or just where we are buying!

Well done! I hope when my time comes (our buyers have survey booked in for 12th), I hope I can hold as strong and just say no.
They are FTB, and we have agreed to be out by 31st March to save them the stamp duty increase (we are moving to an empty property, and our purchase is so far ahead of the sale - thanks to their solicitors delay in responding). Unless something really major comes up, we're going to stand firm. If they don't want this house, then they'll have to potentially risk starting over elsewhere (at a quiet time of the year), and possibly getting into a larger chain, and then losing thousands anyway if we don't complete before end of March.
I just hope that I can hold my resolve when the time comes - DH will likely be a lot more firmer than me, so I may just have to let him deal with anything that comes up (especially as I start my new job that same week).

I'm beginning to think I should have a career change and move into indemnity insurance. Having a job where you actually have to do work is clearly a mug's game.

@Crikeyalmighty I agree. I think you need to keep every document and make sure you've dotted the i's and crossed the t's. I mentioned it to my mum who wants to downsize soon and she went into a blind panic about whether she had documentation for every bit of work my parents had done on the house. My dad managed a lot of the improvements and also did several jobs himself. He's no longer alive so it will take some piecing together. At least having gone through it myself recently, I can advise her on what to get sorted before she even puts her house on the market.

We are hoping for some progress this week. It's been quiet whilst the bottom of the chain catches up but everyone has had their survey now and I think we can't be far from done.

Having spoken to them and investigated. The law they can’t withhold it unreasonably. We don’t want a separate annex just a massive utility / storage and den for the kids - they are fine with this and the people over the other side of the estate - one of theirs was done, they put a window in and bricked it up. We want to keep the garage door etc. I think it will be about £250 to pay for it to be removed. We may or may not need planning permission - if we do we will apply and if not we will make sure we do the building regs etc But thanks we had thought about it.

Depends on the situation but you should be able to buy permission in writing. Hand on I will see if I can find it

https://express-conveyancing.co.uk/everything-you-need-to-know-about-garage-conversions-in-2024/#:~:text=In%20short%2C%20yes.,and%20inspections%20will%20be%20required.

We will get the ball rolling on day on completion I think and hope to be done by September

@EagerHouseMover if the survey had highlighted actual issues that were affecting the structure or causing damp etc then we would've thought about going halves or similar, but this was purely cosmetic, with some staining on an outside wall 🤷 we're also in a similar position in that they're FTB and need to move by end of March, we're in no rush, so they can drop out if they want to!

Tomorrow I hope to have something in writing that my sale is still going ahead. I've booked my survey on my new house. I've spent all weekend organising the garage so that all the boxes are in their new room groups. Taken hours and was exhausting. Having expected to be moving in two weeks - and it would have been last month - I am now having to reset as I won't be moving until three more months time. I will need to buy food!

@Dealingwithatrexrightnow yep- keep all the receipts etc -my FIL was asked for so
Much stuff it was untrue and because he's an ex electrical project manager he had done a fair bit himself and was kind of 'incensed' they were doubting his work - and at 85 he could have done without the hassle-

I would also say to people- get stuff serviced pretty regularly - be it boilers, gas safety , electrical safety , chimneys etc - it seems like an expense when you know it's ok - but may save you thousands if you come to sell - certainly I would have the lot done if i was putting a place up for sale-

Packers here on Tuesday. Anyone any tips on what to keep out for move day? I’ve thought of a cloths, kitchen spray, soap, tea towel, hand towel, tea bags, kettle, cups dog water bowl and washing up liquid…

We complete tomorrow! I cannot believe it’s finally time. I don’t think I’ll be sleeping tomorrow!

Tonight, even! Doh

@Muddledandmiddle best for tommorrow lovely !

Terrible nights sleep! Was so emotional to say goodbye to our home, but also cannot wait to get into the new. What a weird feeling.

I hope it’s all done by lunchtime! A couple purchases ago we didn’t complete till 4pm and it was hellish!

Good luck for today @Muddledandmiddle! Hope it all goes as smoothly as it can for you