The all new buyers/sellers waiting room (x 7!) thread

[JoyfulSpring]

Starting a new thread so we can continue the conversation...

Might take you a few minutes to pack up your house...

That's shocking communication.

Glad I found this thread! New seller here, put our three bed on the market on Saturday failing to realise it’s half term this week… wondering if that was a really bad time? (My kids aren’t school age yet).

We had two viewings yesterday but that’s it. I naively thought we might have a lot more interest, I suppose because when we bought this it was at the height of the madness era when everyone was buying anything they could get their hands on 😩

Wish we’d priced it lower now as wanted to move quick!!

We've had an update... my vendor has been advised that she needs to get a further survey and EICR completed on her purchase which are booked for this week apparently. We've also been advised that the top of the chain can't secure a rental until we've exchanged so they've said we'll aim to exchange on 28th rather than complete that day. My worry is the survey will throw up further issues which will prevent us exchanging on 28th. I'm so pissed off, I knew they were hiding things. It seems our vendor's solicitor has done nothing since November last year with her purchase.

My solicitor has responded saying an exchange date can't be agreed without a completion date being agreed so how can this be? How can someone secure a rental without exchange but can't agree an exchange without a completion date agreed? This seems like a catch 22! Does anyone have the answers? This can't be an unusual situation as people sell and move into rented all the time!

@JoyfulSpring, you'd normally have a longer gap between exchange and completion where somebody needs time to find a rental. They obviously take the risk that it goes wrong for them in finding a rental, however, and they're left homeless if they don't even try to find one before exchange!

My understanding would match what the solicitor says - the completion date forms part of the contract that is agreed at exchange, so they have to commit to a date with or without a rental. Maybe they are somewhere that rentals are plentiful and usually available immediately so they don't want to commit too soon?

We had the same i asked if we can exchange so i can apply for schools and the solicitor told me she is still waiting for confirmation on completion date and we cant exchange until that is agreed

We agreed to go into rented and we just wouldn't formally agree an exchange date. It is incredibly hard to find a rental and horribly expensive too so committing to a rental without some form of commitment on the sale is stressful.

Ok so it sounds like they have to agree a completion date regardless of risk otherwise we cannot agree an exchange date?

What is the kind of timeline on conveyancing, have forgotten since last time? Searches have been requested and apparently last will be back in 2 weeks. Mortgage app is in. Survey is on Thursday.

I'd say 6 months average based on these threads.

@WimbyAce I'm on week 19 of my purchase. Hoping for a completion date of 28th. The estate agent of the one were purchasing said the average was 20 weeks. The sale of my house is now on week 29 but that's because it took us 10 weeks to find our next house as there was hardly anything on the market.

😨

And we're in 😃 Absolutely drained, but in. We put our house on the market in mid-September, and had an acceptable offer about a month later. We then took a couple weeks to find our place, and the chain was complete by Halloween.
So all in all - 4 months.

Tha k you to everyone on these threads who have helped over this time! Sending best wishes to you all x

We exchanged within 3 months. We've delayed completion as we are moving into a rental and had the issue discussed above with needing time to find somewhere.

@kirinm please can you tell me how the process works when selling and moving into a rental? Is what the EA is telling me correct that you can't look for somewhere without having exchanged?

"this would be standard as a letting agent will not accept a rental agreement if there is a sale involved that hasn’t yet ex/c)".

And if that's the case then how do you agree a completion date? Which I'm told you have to do before an exchange date is agreed.

Everyone I've known in this position has rented holiday accommodation like air b and bs

I didn't ever have an EA say that to me. I certainly told them that I couldn't commit to a rental until we had a rough agreement as to when we would exchange. It is incredibly risky for someone to exchange without having a rental but I would expect for whoever is going into rented to be looking at rentals what will be available around the time of assumed completion. There must be a rough idea in peoples heads?

We are moving to a short term rental so we didn't have to wait long to be able to move in but usually, longer term rentals come onto the market a month or two before they're ready to let. And I think there's a lot of competition so I'm sure someone who may or may not be completing on X date is less attractive to a landlord than somebody who has exact dates.

It's not an easy position to be in - speaking as the person who stupidly agreed to rent! It was extremely stressful and I was getting to the point that I'd have been happy to see the sale fall through.

Think it depends on how long you need. That's definitely the route I tried first.

Thank you. So they're talking crap when they say "this would be standard as a letting agent will not accept a rental agreement if there is a sale involved that hasn’t yet ex/c)."

They're just buying for time by the looks of it but we can't just stay in this process indefinitely. It's driving me to the edge!

I suspect somebody is trying to buy time because they can't find anywhere to live. But also some estate agents / letting agents will be problematic. It helped that I found the place I'm renting with the agents I'm selling with. They knew they needed to help me find somewhere that worked dates wise to get their commission.

Hopefully your in your new house now or just about to move. We have been waiting a long time too and will hopefully move in mid March.

Question: to avoid the stamp duty increase, would you need to just exchange by 31 March, or also complete?

I am trying to work out rental notice and it's not looking good!

Just posted the below on completely the wrong thread — but...:

After another night unable to sleep, I need some perspective from those who've been there please!

I posted a week or so ago that top of our chain have relisted, having gotten wind of massive new set of enquiries from our buyer's solicitor. Since then we are no closer to a resolution. As a sample of the things coming up:

• Buyer's solicitor wanted me to sign a statutory declaration, which is fine. Two weeks was lost while my solicitor insisted the buyer's solicitor should draft it, so she could make sure she was happy with it, and my buyer's solicitor insisted she was waiting for it from us. My solicitor ignored all references to this on email, claiming to be in the dark over it, and finally a 2 minute call with the EA on Monday clarified things. She finally sent the draft for approval yesterday, to me and the other solicitor — other solicitor promptly sent back a huge list of amendments and quoted 3 separate emails that should've been used when drafting
• Buyer's solicitor cannot understand that we don't have a usual management company — we are leaseholders with a share of the freehold, so the 'freeholder', 'MC' etc is actually just my neighbour who volunteered for the job. One of many ongoing issues here is that I fixed the chimney a few months ago — my explanation of what I fixed isn't good enough, nor are the photos, nor is the invoice, so the 'freeholder must be consulted'. Why?! I emailed my buyers to explain that we do not have a management company and I cannot provide any more than I have already, so to resolve it perhaps they could just accept the answers already provided — they said thanks for this and forwarded to their solicitor to decide. I await the fallout of that
• They have requested four separate indemnities, totalling over £1000, plus a 'top up' of an existing one. This includes indemnities because I have my own building insurance, not a shared policy with downstairs and next door — this was voted on by we leaseholders with a share of freehold at the AGM, and out of my individual hands. Surely this is normal in terraced/semi detached houses so fine in a maisonette?!
• The indemnity quotes arrived last night, along with about 3-4 new enquiries cobbled together from old emails and apparently 'missed'. Plus old ones that they aren't happy with, like the chimney above.
• One of the new ones is that the approval for the loft conversion uses the number of the maisonette downstairs, not mine — but it's the same loft!! I'm now wondering if I'll get a 5th indemnity to fix that

I desperately don't want to lose my onward purchase — it's exactly what we want, and even more than that I know what the sellers have been through. They are moving through sad, forced circumstance and already had a sale fall through just before exchange. I don't want to pay more SDLR, either!

On the flip side, I'm sick of this. My buyers are first time buyers with a particularly dogged solicitor who is running riot, and they don't seem able to tell her when to let enquiries go for the sake of the sale. I can't magic up a management company, I can't change how we organise insurance here, I can't change that I fixed the chimney when it broke!!

What would you do? Is it tiredness and principles making me want to pull out, when we are (in theory) so close to the SDLR deadline which everyone agrees cannot be missed? Or am I better off coming off the market and enjoying my super low new mortgage rate for June?

You own share of freehold so your neighbour isn't the freeholder - she's acting effectively as the managing agent? We are also share of freehold but we do have a management company that we are all directors of. I guess that makes it more straightforward.

I guess they are looking for evidence you had permission to do the chimney?

Re insurance, it's unusual to have buildings insurance twice - it can impact the extent of cover available under both policies. Sometimes there are 'other insurance' conditions. We have a property owners policy with our own contents cover.

I suppose your set up is slightly different but during my sale (which completes on Friday) I just responded by saying this is the answer and if you don't like it; explain why and what you're expecting me to do. Most of the time they didn't come back to me.