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

[JoyfulSpring]

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

The trouble is the solicitors are more in control of the questions than the buyer, but it gives the impression that it's the buyer being difficult. I'm also noticing that there seem to be a lot of things where the solicitor is getting stuff the mortgage company want, rather than anything I've personally asked for. I don't remember on my previous purchases that I was aware that the mortgage company were involved after the mortgage offer, but this time there seems to be quite a lot of bits of information that they need. I know enquiries have been raised, answered and the solicitor has gone back with further enquiries, but I have literally no idea what's being asked. When I got sent a load of documents early in the process, I read them very carefully and didn't have any issues that I asked for enquiries on, nothing came out of survey, so I wouldn't rush to blame the buyers!

I agree - I’m in touch with our buyers directly and I think they’re in a really tricky position where the advice from the solicitor is (in my view) creating issues and delays unnecessarily. I didn’t know that about the mortgage companies, useful context to have!

the whole process just seems to lack common sense!

Our EA has been quite specific about where the questions have come from so we know what is from the buyer and what is from the solicitor. Some questions have been things that the solicitor clearly won't care about as they aren't legal issues. We've just found out that the solicitor for the buyer at the bottom of our chain has now issued their final report so it really is in the buyer's hands now. Really hoping they sign and return their contract so we can set a date this week.

Well I've taken matters into my own hands after more radio silence from solicitors.

I called land registry (40 min waiting time)
Spoke to a really helpful chap who has told me everything I needed to know.
There is first and foremost an issue with the mapping at their end and the piece of land the query sits against actually IS registered and always has been, but there is another (smaller) piece of land between ours and the neighbouring property which is unregistered - it is actually incorporated into the neighbouring garden, which I already knew as we looked at that property over two years ago and the EA told us the additional driveway could be subject to change due to a ransom strip of land......

I am kicking myself that I didn't remember this from back then, but hey ho, this is where we are at.

The man I spoke to at land registry has confirmed our matter is expedited and he has forwarded it urgently to the team manager as the original case handler is off sick.

This is the LAST outstanding matter and could resolve within a few hours this afternoon.

So all is not lost right now, but beyond this I'm at the end of my tether.

I tripped over a box this morning and smacked my head on a doorframe, and I'm totally fed up of it!!

@Icanflyhigh I hope your head is OK! Someone needs to make you a strong cup of tea. I hope this is all resolved very shortly.

Thank you I'm fine!!

I'm being dramatic as I'm so fed up with this process!

I have gone back to solicitors and EA today and told them what.ive discovered.

Frustratingly I think it is our solicitors that have made the vendors jump through hoops, potentially unnecessarily, with an adverse possession order and if it turns out this is the case, I will be asking the solicitor to reimburse some of our fees and theirs too.

Sending positive vibes to everyone else, still time for good things to happen this week!

We've been sent the final report and contract to sign today, will send them back recorded delivery tomorrow. I just hope everyone else in the chain has had theirs through and sends there's back quickly! We are all hoping to complete on 28th but I'm worried with snail mail and not being able to control when everyone else deals with theirs that it won't happen.

Send it guaranteed next day delivery. It's worth the extra for something like this.

@JoyfulSpring great news hope you get the school admissions deadline now 🤞🤞

@movingtoreading thank you, that is definitely my main priority!

Can anyone help because I'm driving myself mad with worry.

We lost our buyer in January and have agreed to part exchange with the developer of the house we are buying.

My question relates to the process.

The developers solicitor has sent the transfer deed for our current property that we are selling to them and also the contract for the new build we are buying. Our solicitor says she still awaits enquiries from them. They are awaiting a couple of searches to come back and the survey report.

Is the fact they have sent the Transfer deed for the house we are selling to them a good sign?

What order do things normally happen? I can't tell if they are just being organised.

My solicitor called to tell me that she is waiting on my sellers solicitor to confirm all contracts have been signed for their onward purchase and that we will exchange any day and asked me to ensure that I had house insurance for the day of exchange. she said that if I exchanged at say 3:00 and then the house blew up at 3:32 It would be my responsibility. So i'm assuming that my buyers should have insurance on the same day. I don't remember doing this 10 years ago when I bought this house, but she is adamant and wants a copy of the insurance account ref number etc.

Yes buildings insurance is def on exchange unless new build which is completion. We did it 14 years ago with ours. I think my main bit of confusion is about my current property but I guess that will be the buyers responsibility.
Holding pressing the button on my mortgage app as santander and barclays dropped sub 4% yesterday. Currently have 4% with club lloyds.

Argh, our vendor's EA are just painful to deal with (we nearly went with them as well, so I'm glad we didn't!). Three weeks ago we sent a couple of really minor queries about some things on the fixtures & fitting list, and made on offer on a couple of things they were offering to sell us. I have chased multiple times to see if we have a response and their 'sales progressor' just doesn't respond. The only times I have got a response out of her has been when I've emails our solicitor to say we're waiting on it and copied her in... I just rang her this morning and she clearly had no idea what I was talking about, and then later emailed me to say that her and the vendor 'keep missing each other'.

We are at the point where this is almost the last thing to be sorted.. So frustrating!

You are lucky, our vendors' EA just said 'Nah I won't deal with this, ask the solicitors'. So now that's one more thing on our solicitors' outstanding list. Also, the EA said they think we'll complete 'way before Stamp Duty end relief', but as it stands we have:

• No contract
• No answer to enquires
• No answer to our own queries sent to our solicitors
• No answer to the fixtures and fittings
• No searches

Considering the average response time is 1 week for anything, and looking at the above points, I think the EA is out of touch with reality 😆

Gah, that is so annoying! Why is everything so slow?!

Our solicitor was clear that any negotiating over purchasing stuff on the fixtures & fittings list had to be done via the EA or direct with the vendor. I honestly think it would be easier if it was via the solicitors tbh, at least they respond quickly!

We do at least have the contract to sign (despite these outstanding things), and I think all the queries have been satisfied now... Just the fixtures and fittings queries!

Bit of relief this morning! Last week sales progressor (who is a magician) came back and said three enquiries outstanding. I asked our sols and she said nope but ill email the buyers solictor. They replied with 3 enquiries on Thursday. Thursday she sent them off to management company who replied Monday and they were sent on to buyers solicitor.

Have to say dont think we would have made it this far without our solicitor who is on it!

We’re right at the beginning and already finding it stressful! Lots of interest/viewings and mix of offers on Monday - some very low and one really good one that we provisionally accepted. Within 24hrs they had withdrawn their offer and were ignoring the estate agent. New decent offer sorted quickly and again the wait to see if they actually submit everything so we can formally accept. I completely get that this is normal but still, annoying that people can be so flakey. In the meantime unable to secure viewings until we are properly SSTC.

Crikey @Blackchaircushion which part of the country are you in that you have to be SSTC before you can go on viewings? That sounds very tricky.

In the NW, excellent school borough area - I’m getting the impression from the estate agents we call that they get a lot of window shoppers and time wasters.

@Blackchaircushion we were the same couldn't view houses before selling '

@Skandar we have a similar 'Sales Progresser' and if it wasn't so frustrating it would be funny. She openly says she doesn't have the bandwidth to chase things for us. She claims she can't get hold of the vendor but when I went to someone else at the EA basically begging for their help as I wasn't getting anywhere with her, he called the vendor and had an answer that afternoon. The sales progresser really didn't like that I'd gone over her but it was holding us up so much and I was just a simple question that was clearly answerable immediately. I wish the vendor knew how bad the EA have been as we've nearly pulled put because of this one woman.

I just don't understand how they can be so crap?! They don't get paid until it completes, so why aren't they desperate to push it along?! So strange.

I've just spoken to our lovely sales progressor (who gives me regular updates and is really on the ball) and she's going to speak to the vendors EA this afternoon and give them a nudge/shove. I'm hoping between us all we can get some actual responses!

I thought the same thing about them not getting paid so it's in their interest to push but I guess realistically it comes down to the individual person. They're still getting their salary regardless and it's not their life on hold while they wait so basically they simply don't care enough 🤷

But it does make the EAs look shit and I will be putting in a complaint after we've completed!