The all new buyers/sellers waiting room (8) lies lies and the stamp duty deadline

[hotandpermi]

Continuing on the convo- title based on the theme of the last thread

I do think a bad surveyor can really do more harm than good! Ours had got the build date wrong on the first page!
My buyers have a Level 2 surveyor coming to ours tomorrow - our house is practically a new build so no idea what they’re coming for!

Does anyone have any tips on how to ensure no wires are crossed by the surveyor?

One hears so many horror stories about new builds that'll be what they are looking for!

However if its a good quality new build, hopefully you'll get a lot of 1s and maybe the odd 2 if the areas are starting to wear.

Then you'll get the red flag 3s if services haven't been tested. Show surveyor any testing paperwork you have although I don't know if that will.affect their grading but it might influence their wording.

We are lucky enough to have a choice of two offers, one a first time buyer in rented and one who has a ‘let to buy’ mortgage. So they are keeping their home and letting it out and buying ours.

am I right that the FTB is still more agreeable? Or would a LTB mortgage not throw up any issues?

Hi all, those who have completed, how long did it take?

I feel like nothing is happening for us other than me chasing everyone and I’m feeling down in the dumps! Going on 2 months now, but our whole process has been since October so I’m exhausted!

There's no average. Years ago it used to be done in six weeks. These days it's supposed to be good if in three months. I'm on over four months with still no end in sight. If not done by a set date, this month, the whole chain will fall apart.

From 20 December until 28 March this year. No chain but buyer needed to transfer some property equity and this held him up. I wasn’t buying anything.

Hello, I would like to join here please!

We have accepted an offer on our house to someone in rented on a rolling contract and had an offer accepted on our onward purchase. That vendor needs to find somewhere.

Sorry have never sold and cannot remember - does our solicitor do the memorandum of sale for the house we are selling? We don't want to proceed too far on the conveyancing right as we don't want to pay for our solicitor to do everything on our sale in case our onward purchase doesn't proceed and then our buyer drops out. Currently they have said they are happy waiting. I presume we need to at least do the memorandum of sale though? Also do you think we should do the survey on the house we are purchasing now too? I see no point sitting and waiting on that if it then came back with anything that would make us pull out (unlikely I think!) Finding it a tough balance to show our buyers we are definitely going ahead with everything but also not spending all the funds in case our vendor doesn't find anything. The market is slow here.

We’ve gone from waiting, waiting, waiting to it all starting to fall into place & everyone rushing to be in before the 3rd May as that’s when mortgage offers run out. We were hoping to wait until the end of May as we have other stuff on.

3 hours! Oh my god. Ours is a late victorian property so any survey will be bound to throw up something.

The memorandum of sale comes from the estate agent. Or, at least, that’s our experience.

Yeah my is 70s build. It's all mainly structural - look outside at the roof, windows, tiling, garage. Inside looking at the lofts, all the rooms ceilings. Did some weird stuff like flush the toilets, check the lights - want to know where the stopcock was and see it (mine is buried in a cupboard). I did not see the outcome report. The only thing I got knocked back on was leak in garage. Found it quite nerve wracking tbh as you don't really know what they will pick up and demand some sort of cost reduction. Good luck!

Yes it does come from the EA.

Completely agree about the fear of what the surveyor will uncover and whether it will result in a reduction. We’re already £15k under our “offers over” asking price so if they even try I will be furious…
Our surveyor is here now and pottering about - just heard him open our kitchen cupboards? 😅
He keeps opening and closing our front and back doors and we have alerts when they open, so my notifications are going crazy!
I’m very nervous about what he says but just waiting it out!
He said on his way out he’ll tell us if there’s anything dangerous. Gee thanks 😂

Hi all. WIBU to put a stop on all visits arranged by the buyer until they have got their mortgage offer through? Valuations, Searches and Surveys have all been carried out and enquiries dealt with, but for some strange reason our buyer is still waiting on their mortgage offer to come through 8 weeks later. We applied around the same time and we had our mortgage offer through in 2 weeks. So far including 3rd parties (builders plumber etc) they have visited 6 times and they want to book more people in.

That does seem strange. Soi don't think YABU.
I couldn't be bothered with it all if they havent secured funds to buy the house

What is the point of a memorandum of sale? Our buyers put "cash in the bank" and no house to sell.
Now they are selling their house and aren't using cash on the bank 🤦

I'd go for the first time buyer 100%

Ftb

I'm not sure... I feel like it's one of those things that looks official but actually means very little.

I suppose it's proof the EA isn't marketing the property to anyone else since they are confirming who the buyer is.

I don’t think a memo of sale has any authority. Nothing does until you exchange. It feels like it’s trying to be official but it means absolutely nothing really.

yeah it doesn’t have any authority - it’s mostly just to guide the conveyancers about the parties’ positions and how long it might take.
Our system is so open to manipulation - as PP said, nothings binding until exchange and I feel like buyers can be pretty misleading for a while!

Joining the thread after lurking for a week or so.

We're in rented and had an offer accepted. It's a private sale and the vendors have found their onward purchase. DIP in place, Solicitors instructed.

As we're not dealing with an EA do we need to arrange a survey?

@Hungrycaterpillarsmummy no I can’t be bothered anymore and I feel they are taking the mick now because they know I WFH so I’m “always in”

@littlecrocodiles speak to your solicitors and advise them to go ahead with the searches, speak to your bank/mortgage lender to inform them you have had an offer accepted and give them the details and they will write up your full mortgage offer, get a survey done after the lender has carried out a valuation on the property

Yes, that does seem rather excessive.

It’s up to you whether or not you get a survey (beyond the most basic valuation survey your mortgage provider will insist on) and nothing to do with the EA.

Most people do get a survey unless buying a new build or nearly new house.