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

[JoyfulSpring]

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

Can the EAs not communicate down the chain to one another, @hotandpermi? They all have commission at stake.

@hotandpermi i cant talk you off the ledge as Im on it myself. We are in exactly the same position, ftb at bottom of the chain had no legit mortgage in place for exchange on Fri, Mon or Tues just gone
My EA and conveyancer say they cant believe the ineptitude that the ftb EA/solicitor/broker had not noticed but doubt if the ftb lot will care enough to pay the extra stamp duty for the rest of us in limbo

Apparently my EA can only speak one chain below and "have no control"

@Madformaltesers omg that's the last thing you need !!! No advice but solidarity

So sorry to those with bad news today😥It really is an awful process where people can blatantly lie about what position they are in.
If it's any consolation(prob not) we are up to buyer number 6 and purchase property 3. I think I prob need therapy if we ever get through this.........😩

They should tell the level below to rattle the cage of the level below them. And so on.

Hello all, I seem to have been in some kind of time slip incident and have had to catch up with posts from the end of last week onwards. Congratulations to @JoyfulSpring and @Tupster and others who have exchanged now. I'm so sorry you missed your deadline @JoyfulSpring and hope things can still work out for your DCs school places. And so sorry for the continued stress @movingtoreading. It sounds like lots of us are still in a deeply frustrating place.

For me, my conveyancing has been all but done, but still no mortgage offer. My broker thought it would be through in a week or two, but it's been about six now. Someone please tell me this is normal! The LTV is only about 35% so tbh I didn't expect too much drama once the DIP came through. Perhaps that was naive.

I've started having stress dreams. Last night I was literally herding kittens in a car park, while my useless ex kept putting them in boxes without solid bottoms and then shouting in panic when yet another one ran off. I woke up with my hands clutched towards my chest because I thought I was clinging on to a slippery bundle of tabby fur!! Is this what life's descended to?

@hotandpermi I could have written your post pretty much word for word a week and a half ago. We did get there in the end, but it took for our solicitor to intervene and speak to the FTB's solicitor directly, even though they weren't the next solicitor in line. It was easier as we are middle of chain so have more sight. I think it's really hard to be top of chain as you have least visibility but a lot at stake. Being bottom of chain is often easy as you are more likely to be flexible with timings.

I do wonder whether sometimes when FTB come across as inept, it's more that they too have little sight of what's going on higher up the chain and the stress it's causing. This is coupled with the fact they have no prior experience of buying so don't know what is involved and no bugger really explains it. So they are sitting there waiting to be told what to do. You really need a project manager going up and down the chain to bring all the loose ends together. I mean in any other industry, no project that involved multiple transactions and dependencies would ever get carried out in this way. You would have someone who had end-to-end sight pulling it all together. It's bonkers.

And I sympathise on those having weird dreams too. I was dreaming all kinds of shit in the run up to exchange, especially when it was all about to collapse. Fortunately, I've slept like a baby since we finally managed to exchange.

We are in a similar position as the bottom of our chain is not applying for a mortgage until April so they have another years self employed accounts to get their rate down! My friend also had her ftb turn out to not have proof of identity or a proper bank account. I can’t believe there are so many of us & that the EA don’t do their due diligence.

Whoever said the next thread should be called ineptitude & dishonesty was bang on the money.

What lender are you going with @barbaricyawp ? We went with Lloyds and it was ridiculously quick, literally 4 working days.

See, now I want to cry! I'm going with the Coop. I was limited in my options, partly because I'm self-employed and partly because my credit history is a bit fucked up (see also: useless ex letting all the kittens run madly around the car park). My broker literally handpicked them after talking 1:1 with underwriters, so I hoped it would be straightforward after that, but they've asked for everything but my inside leg so I've been getting increasingly nervous tbh. (Not that there's anything abnormal about my inside leg.)

I hate the whole thing. The numbers are so huge. To contemplate spending a quarter of a million on a teeny tiny wreck of a house, you have to be all in and really want it. But once you get to that point, you want to just die if it doesn't work out. It's almost impossible to think in terms of Plan Bs once you've got yourself into that headspace.

I am very sorry (and honestly scared) for all the bad news piling up in this thread! Compared to some, mine is not so much as an additional inconvenience, but it made me laugh that this pm my solicitor found out that the upper part of the chain is still sorting enquiries, despite us being pressured by the sellers' EA into being ready for imminent exchange and completion by end of the month. And yet, we cannot even discuss dates!

Also, still no news about the wrong document they need to sort out for us, but at least now we have 'time' to get our stuff right, as the rest of the chain is not ready yet. No enquiry in sight. No searches. No contract.

I should tell my sellers they should count themselves lucky, we are FTBs with a mortgage in place, and apparently that's not as obvious as I previously thought!

Totally agree with this, I’m a FTB literally no one tells you what to do/what order to do things etc I’ve had to google (no family to help friends in rented) if it wasn’t for this thread I would have no idea of stresses up chain (although in my case thank God no chain)

im also still waiting for final mortgage offer -new house needs firewall building very happily lender has dropped the request for insurance (on a brick wall not a thing as many companies have told me) so once that’s done my offer should be there. I’m thinking of starting the solicitors off now I had been holding off until mortgage offer but feels like low risk - very grateful I’m not holding up a chain!

Also to add estate agent & seller are aware of my position super grateful they will wait for me

Talking of mortgages has anyone tried changing the rate after offer? I have noticed that ours has now decreased for the 2nd time so wondering how easy it is. No broker involved as lloyds as direct to lender only.

The plot thickens. My 'ftb' have now sent screenshots showing the ea knew they had a property to sell all along and it was the ea who fudged their position. This does make some sense. There were conversations with the ea which I felt were suspicious at the time, but as everything was rumbling along, albeit slowly, I left it alone and wasn't going to panic if there was no need.

So the buyers may not be at fault after all, but their insultingly low initial offer and lack of responsiveness has not endeared them to me. Also, requesting a survey at this late stage doesn't make it look like they've been particularly bothered up until now. We're back on the market and they are in the pool along with everyone else.

Also not best pleased with the ea tbh but can't blame them for trying, even if it didn't pay off. They have a couple of fresh viewings to throw our way so I have chosen not to throw my toys out of the pram (today) but to take a few deep breaths whilst I see what the next few days bring.

Good luck everyone, this is brutal!

BBC news this morning - segment on the stamp duty rush. They are saying if you haven’t got a date in the diary to move then it’s unlikely to happen. Lovely …

As far as I know we're still supposed to be completing on 14 March but I've not heard a word since last Thursday. I'll be chasing today as I was told last week it would be the 14th with a short turn around but I thought I'd have heard something. I've booked removals, kids school is sorted and broadband ordered. I can't believe this process is just so ridiculous. I'm sick of scraping by with 4 hours sleep. The stress is unreal.

@fulloflentils I mean what the actual.... so they allowed the "buyers" to make a offer knowing they weren't proceedable, allowed you to think they were ... and then allowed you to spend money on searches etc.

That is completely nuts. I actually have no flipping words tbh.

Have you changed agents.

@Limeandsober brillant well we are buggered. Supposed to exchange tomorrow but seemly more unlikely.

@NormallyAwkward have you exchanged yet ? Normally completion date is set in stone at exchange. I would chase to confirm. It shouldn't have gone all quiet. As this thread may suggest... lies are happening left right and centre.

God knows what's happening tbh I'm resigned that our chain may break which is frustrating

I did this through Barclays did it in a few days. That said I don't know if there's a limit on how many times it can be done ?

I did it twice. It took 2 days to get the new offer both times.

@hotandpermi I've chased the agent this morning and they said it's still on for the 14th and my solicitor has received the notice from my sellers solicitor. Now the hard work of trying to get hold of my solicitor

Well my buyers solicitor responded and apparently they are ready to exchange today according to the EA ! Haven't heard anything from my solicitor yet so not getting my hopes up !
There are only 3 of us in the change as our vendor is retiring in his holiday home (lucky for some 🤣) so in theory it should be straight forward !

@NormallyAwkward we are in the same boat supposed to complete on the 14th i have no school for kids yet though which is my bigger worry 😓
I just gave aurhorization to exchange but my lawyer was like we will try they are supposed to be ready but i cant guarantee as they are difficult to get hold off 🤦🏻‍♀️

It’s many decades since I owned a house so unsure about what comes next. Our offer was accepted a week ago and we instructed solicitors at the end of last week. There’s only us and our sellers in the chain so things should go quickly.

When do I need to find a surveyor? When I’ve found one do they contact the estate agent to arrange to see the property or do I do this?

@SayithowitisYorkie i would wait for the searches to be back ( the solicitor will ask you to pay for them soon ) then arrange a building survey
At least thats what we did as if anything cane up on the searches we wouldnt have wasted money