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

[JoyfulSpring]

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

I'm really not sure what he thinks that is going to achieve!! Or why it's down to the agent to verify exchange deposit amounts, that's really a solicitor thing.

I've had an email from the solicitor. They're hoping to exchange tomorrow! I hope they manage to get it done earlier rather than later.

I’ve just bottled it & booked a survey - wasn’t going to as the mortgage company were thorough hoping nothing hideous comes back - still waiting for the firewall to be built to get the mortgage offer - hope I’m not wasting £400

I think it was this thread someone talked about ftb using survey to negotiate - they are marketed that way 😱 I just want reassurance the house isn’t going to collapse on me!

I have everything crossed for those waiting to exchange 🤞🤞🤞🤞

Doesn't the whole chain need to exchange on the same day ?
I got this email from my solicitor
I am now waiting for your sellers solicitors to exchange with me, as soon as they exchange I will be able to finalise the exchange with the buyers solicitors.

This may fall into tomorrow; I will keep you updated.
I am confused 🤪

We're STILL waiting for bloody Crest to sign the Deed of Variation that our mortgage providers need on our purchase. They've had it weeks! Everything else is ready to go, we can apparently exchange as soon as they confirm it's signed, but nothing.... It's infuriating - out of all of our control, everyone is chasing constantly. How is it possible that this third party, who have no vested interest in the sale/purchase at all can hold it all up like this??
I feel so stressed - everything was going so smoothly really and now as every day goes past I get more and more anxious. (It's the stupid looming stamp duty change, if it wasn't for that I'd just accept that it was going to end up being an April completion..)

Got my mortgage offer through today. So now on to the searches.

I'm so disappointed with how my mortgage application is going. I submitted on 11th Feb and it was acknowledged on 13th and I rang up to pay for homebuyers survey. Rang a further twice asking for update-No update you have to wait. Sent a secure message last Tuesday 28th and a lady called to say we need one more bank statement, we emailed you twice since 13th but i hadn't received it. Sorry, that the two people you spoke to didn't tell you this. Sent it over immediately and on 29th had acknowledgment. Saturday they email to say it's progressing now and half hour later phonecall from estate agent selling house to say, your survey is being completed on Tuesday. Rang them today asking when I would see the report and they tell me oops we didn't do a survey only a valuation sorry. We will send a message to the underwriters, allow 48 hours for them to read this and then action another appointment with surveyors. So frustrating. I feel like I'm in limbo waiting to hear if it's all ok

Just to add I'm porting and borrowing more. Can't just go elsewhere because of the ERC.

Yes, if it doesn't go right through the chain that day, they will start again from the bottom tomorrow.

No, because all of them getting on a Teams call would be far too sensible and the law doesn't work like other industries do 😂.

If it helps we are porting our mortgage (our new house is cheeper so in theory should have been easier) with Co-Op and it took from December 1st when we had our initial meeting until the end of February to get out mortgage offer through. Honestly no idea what the hold up was we ended up phoning them daily to chase it towards the end

I am feeling so frustrated. This week all of a sudden there has been a flurry of activity. Still no closer to exchange as it turns out our solicitor hasn’t actually requested lots of documents they need from the management company of our flat that we paid them to obtain weeks ago. I’ve spent today on the phone chasing them myself.

@movingtoreading hope you exchange today 🙏

We looked through our final report yesterday. Was anyone else surprised and underwhelmed by what was produced? It was basically a guide on what searches may or may not be done, and what common problems might be. So basically they have done a shopping list of searches, put them in folder with a how to guide and asked us if we want to proceed. I was expecting some kind of well, report, or guidance, or this popped up the your search that may need some attention. Not sure what we have paid them to actually do as we could have requested, and paid for all these searches ourselves!

BUT if we proceed on this lack of any help from the solicitor then we should be able to exchange end of next week I think.

I'm really worrying about schools. We didn't get any school offered for year 7 in September on national offer day because we missed the exchange deadline. So they've said we have now been added to the waiting lists of the schools we would prefer and after 17th March each school will have more information on how many places they have to offer people on the waiting list but being last into the area means we're at the bottom. The council have said all the schools are massively oversubscribed in Wokingham and they might have to offer a school in a neighbouring borough. They've also said they can't always place siblings at the same school.

My other child is currently in year 8 and I've done an in year transfer application for our preferred school. She's 20th on the waiting list! So not a chance in hell of getting a place. The other schools are the same. There's one school that has space in year 8 and it's the school that's awful and everyone we've spoken to has warned us off going there. I know that sounds horrible but we're coming from an area that's crap and I don't want to go from bad to worse. The reason we're moving mainly is for better schooling.

I'm so worried about what will happen. I just know after 17th we will only be offered the school we don't want. It's making me feel so much anger towards my seller and their solicitor for being so crap. I was asking them from October to answer enquiries because of the school situation. I thought if we exchange in Dec/January or even February we would have been more likely to get a place. But no.

Does anyone know if there's any tricks for getting the school you want? I know we are not the only people disappointed with schools honestly, it just feels so unfair how this has panned out. We're 30 to 40 minutes away from current schools when we move so we will have to travel back until they get places offered but what would happen if we'd moved across the country? I assume they have to find you a place it just will be in whatever school they have places.

Is there anything that can bump you up the list @JoyfulSpring my kids go to a faith school. As they were baptized we got bumped up the list above those that had not (luckily not so oversubscribed that we had to go to the local church every week). Any physical or wellbeing reasons why your child needs to be at a nearby school? Or a smaller school or one with a stronger SEN or wellbeing department?

Just imagine, I received my report on title over a month ago with no searches attached. There was only one comment on the searches, which of course we could not understand because we didn't have the original document to check against. Yesterday the solicitors dumped on us the searches documents without any further comment/report. I see there are some bits saying 'this requires attention' or something, but I have no idea what they actually mean! I don't even know if we were supposed to receive two different kinds of reports. In the only one we've got, there are comments about the original conveyance document and covenant, and just the one on searches. I assume that's it?

Honestly, I feel like I've wasted so much money on these useless solicitors. I'm doing most of the research anyway. What's the point? If I query something, I get 1-2 words in reply, after several weeks.

Ah, also, in ours there was a lot of 'you might want to gain these further documents/policies as they are important' and then when I actually asked for them the solicitor said 'ah deal with the sellers on this, it's not in our legal field' LOL nor have they mentioned that they have requested the indemnity policy we might need in lack of those documents THEY said we should be really concerned about. Like, had I forgot in the meantime, as it's been almost two months since that report, they wouldn't have flagged it now. Absurd.

@HavenSprings this is exactly like ours. We had a dump of information and reports in various emails over the last several weeks. None are referenced or linked in the 'report' we just received which is in fact a general guidance which mentions things like tenancy agreements when its totally irrelevant. They have also incorrectly calculated the stamp duty as they haven't read our declaration that it will result in us owning two homes. Its a farce. They have asked for proof of funds for the money laundering rules, we submitted that weeks ago.

I don't think there's anything that will help. No SEN or anything and apparently it's extremely hard to get in that way anyway. You have to make a case for why your child can ONLY go to that school. It's almost impossible even if you have an actual need. When it simply comes down to it being your preference you've no chance.
I think I'm going to end up with kids at two different schools and possibly in completely different areas.

I also expected the solicitors report to be helpful and full of legal advice. It's laughable what you actually get! No advice, just a bunch of documents you've paid for them to collate!

@JoyfulSpring our school has loads of movement, kids forever seems to be arriving and disappearing. So you may be able to swap later. If it helps at all, we also had people who were on the waiting list but changed their mind before the start of the year when offered the place as they decided they were happy with the school they had been offered. So in one year it was the 8th person on the waiting list that got the spot. I know that's not 20th. But some people decide their second choice becomes the first after they have been to a couple of settling in sessions etc. Then if a place becomes available they decline it.

See, our solicitor has been brilliant in this aspect. Our report included a lengthy letter from her clearly outlining the things within the searches that needed our attention, and explaining any queries that were still outstanding with the vendor's solicitor.

Thank you @rainingcats, that might suggest the problem's not me, as such, then! Though tbh I just don't think I'm going to get a good night's sleep until and unless it's in the bag. My broker said they were making decisions really quickly when the application went in, but then they supposedly "had IT problems" and now they all just seem to have died on the job. He said on Wednesday when my conveyancing bundle came through that he was sure we'd have a decision on Thursday. But here we are on Friday (sigh).

At least it's just me, and I'm in rented atm so no chain, thank god. I swore I'd never get in a chain again after a nightmare four-year attempt to move house when my children were small.

@JoyfulSpring I feel so, so sorry for you. I do know from hanging out on the education boards way back that there's more movement on waiting lists than you might imagine. The only suggestions I can think of are either to somehow find the money for private while you wait (not necessarily possible or everyone's cup of tea) or try and find out about people who have got their kids a place fraudulently (e.g. using grandparents' address, temporary rental etc) and report them. I imagine that might be hard if you're new to the area and don't know anyone, but if your DD2 is going into a local Year 6 you might hear whispers. People are ethically divided on this as a strategy. Some people think it's incredibly petty and others think it's everyone's moral duty to stop others cheating the system. I really hope you get lucky one way or another. Your sellers have been so unkind imo.

Nothing so far today. My EA has just chased my solicitor regarding exchange today. We'll see if it happens. Good luck to everyone else waiting.

We have exchanged !!! I have not slept a wink last night work issues on top of everything else was working until 11 !
How am supposed to get everything sorted in a week 😭!
@JoyfulSpring so sorry its so unfair to miss the spot for a few days ! I feel for you !
I cannot get my kid's in the same school either it will be a nightmare . I think we are in the same area do you know anything about early st peters ? Is it bad ? One of them will likely get hillside so i hope the other one can get in too !