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

6 times? Ours are wanting to come again & it's the 3rd time & I think that's really demanding! Why do they want to come so often?! That's borderline stalking 😂

We sold a few years ago & surveyor was there all day, all day! He was doing the shower for ages, I even asked if he wanted a fresh towel 🌞
It was a 4 bed semi nothing fancy. I think it depends on how much the buyer is borrowing, the bank will demand additional surveys to satisfy their lending.

Hi All I hope everyone is doing ok?

Im just waiting for contractor to check roof/chimney/ceilings after the surveyor helpfully listed everything in red needs urgently sorted 🙄 feels like that was a waste of £400.

my searches are back. Once I’ve had roof etc checked can anyone advise on next steps please? I’m FTB no one in real life to ask 🙈

feels like I may actually be getting out of rented but also feels too good to be true …

The house im buying is built 1891 so similiar to you I think? My surveyor put the whole house - literally everything doors, windows, walls, floors, ceilings, roof, chimney, kitchen, bathroom, gas, electric, water, outside step- in the red. I really wish I’d either sent a contractor to look at roof /chimney myself where I couldn’t inspect or found a specialist surveyor it was very clear from the report he had no clue what he was talking about. I hope yours is better than mine 🤞🤞

@2025willbemytimeour chain complete mid December and no sign of an exchange date yet....

There is one solicitor holding the whole chain up. If he did his bloody work we could exchange tomorrow!! Instead he is delaying, lying about who said what and just generally being an absolute piece of work. It's not our solicitor so can't do anything. They had been 3 x complaints made about him and they said he was taken off the case but there was an email yesterday from him so ?
Who knows.

Doors? What was wrong with the doors?!

We had a level 3 survey done on the late Victorian/edwardian (no one seems to know 🤷🏻‍♀️) that we’re buying, and it did the usual ‘I’d recommend a damp and timber specialist’…I’m so glad we did - it was 50/50 as to whether we bothered. He went and found lots of lovely woodworm and rot of various types in the floor joists and bits of mould and dampness everywhere. Thinks there’s a broken drain. So that’s fun! I kind of feel like I want to stop looking for things. I was much happier when I didn’t know.

I keep telling myself it could happen on any house.

We are now on the cusp of it being 5 weeks since offer and nothing happening on the purchase. Really annoyed with the EA who has 100 excuses. I think the fact of the matter is one of the executors (who is also a beneficiary) has lived in the house his whole life and (understandably) may not be so keen on selling.

Given that the owner died 18 months ago they risk HMRC repossessing the house if they don’t sort out IHT soon.

I do feel for the family but these were all the concerns we had from the outset and we were assured it was all fine.

I just wish something else we can afford comes on the market. The market around us is moving fast and things that were £900k at the beginning of the year are now £1.1k.

Our estate agent has just blown my mind by saying that not everyone has a survey and during covid no one he dealt with did (he's their chaser making sure all the sales and chains are kept on track),

Wondering @PuzzlingRecluse what have you done in response to your survey?

re survey - I read it about 10 times & after initial panic settled I realised the surveyor had no clue about older homes.

the internal doors some of them have gaps 🙄

most of the survey was obvious stuff ie floors uneven, windows too low (style of building at time nothing wrong with the actual windows), cracks in walls stuff I expected for age of house & can see. Kitchen has step up into it … these were all in red needs attention & urgent action before exchange according to him.

Gas recent (past 4 weeks) all checked, gas fire is capped off as rented previously, surveyor said it was dangerous & risk to life.

electric I have an electrician friend who has read the full report & can sort advisories for me, non were what he felt to be red needs urgent action.

Im having a contractor assess roof/chimney/ceilings as that’s the bits I can’t see & don’t know enough about.

I can see why people don’t bother with surveys tbh

That sounds completely mad @PuzzlingRecluse! My husband is now saying that, as the house we are buying has been completely renovated over the last three years we don't really need a survey either. We're not relying on a mortgage so would't need for lending purposes.

A renovation doesn’t justify not having a survey. Plenty of renovations are done badly!

yes, totally!

My DS pulled out of a renovation property because the quality was poor DIY level, the doors and windows stamped with early 2000s so clearly had been recycled, and no BR applied for (and lots of indications the renovation didn't meet BR standards). Further questions led to lies for answers "we've not completed any electrical work during our ownership" (forgetting the marketing photos from when they purchased are all available online!)

He was paying top dollar for what was essentially a bodge job with excellent decoration and staging to cover it up.

He would have renegotiated but would then have been worried about what was underneath. So he pulled out.

I think renovations are a good time to have a survey! And hopefully it will come back as all good.

I think many 'renovations' are at Bodgit and Leggit standards, tbh! Our last house which we rented was very much one of those.

My parents' buyer has had his mortgage valuation and homebuyer's survey done this week. He seems keen!

We're hoping to exchange on the sale and purchase on the same day, but with a longer gap for the sale so there's time to decorate the flat before they move up here. At least they'd only be down on the SDLT for a few weeks then.

Weekly email dump from my conveyancer received today - two emails and 28 attachments - just want to run for the hills! More documents to print off and get independently witnessed and then sent back via snail mail.

I've had a flurry of activity yesterday on our sale and purchase. The construction director for the new build called me to discuss the retaining wall. He explained he had removed a second planned retaining structure which would have been flag on edge at the rear of the garden (or as he called it, a weed trap) and has increased the height of the retaining wall with steps up to the higher part of the garden. He says this has given us an overall more level garden and has explained drainage etc. I'm fairly comfortable. I asked him 'Would YOU be happy with this in your garden?' and his response was sincere.

I've had a call from our assisted move company who are managing the chain (just us and FTB) and have said my buyers money is now drawn down from their LISA and we're hoping to exchange today.

The developers at the new house won't let my carpet fitters in yet to measure up due to 'groundworks', ie. They haven't laid the drive yet, and told me they'll check again next week. Current time for order of carpets to fitting is 10-14 days so cutting it fine to get carpets installed in first week. This will be a pain in the backside as I won't be able to move furniture into all my rooms and the rooms that do have flooring will just be storage, so not sure how comfortably we'll be living with mattresses on dusty floors.

Whoop this is exciting @TheCatCameBack112, fingers crossed for exchange today!!!

We have had a bit of movement too. Director of vendors solicitor has now taken over our case and seems to be on it. 🙏🏻

I know the answer is probably the same as “how long is a piece of string” but I’m trying to gauge roughly how long we have before exchange.
3 person / 2 house chain. We are FTB and renting. We’ve got our mortgage offer, searches are partly back and first enquiries sent. We had our survey yesterday and all was fine. What are the big things left to do? Assuming things are ticking along nicely for our seller’s purchase, do we still have ages?

I've got a battle between heart and head going on after getting the survey back on an intended purchase. The house is late victorian, not well maintained unfortunately but also not being sold as a doer-upper. I love the house, it's in a lovely area and I could make it lovely over time but all windows need replacing urgently and as it's in a conservation area, they will need to be wooden and require planning consent.

It's already at the top end of my budget, and both an agent and a valuer friend have said it's overpriced (even before survey), and I can't afford to buy it and also shell out £50k on windows 😩

There are hardly any character properties in this area and I don't want a 90s shoebox but feel I am going to have to let this one go. Can anyone give me any renovation horror stories or tales of 'the one that got away'?

How long do you think it’s reasonable to wait for a memorandum of sale when selling your house?
FTB, accepted their offer on Wednesday.
Estate agent says they are waiting for them to complete their AML checks. They have asked to come and see the property again next week to show family but I want to make it a condition that we have the MOS first.
am I being unreasonable?

hi ftb here I don’t know anything about mos or when my seller received theirs some of this is dependant on solicitors & not in the buyers control. If it’s not going to put you out massively I’d let them bring family to view again, what’s the harm? Appreciate I may be missing something here.

If they're as shite as my parents' estate agent, it'll take almost 2 weeks for no reason (we gave them our conveyancer's details 3 bloody times in that time too!).

Yes tbh I think you are being unreasonable.

The memorandum of sale can take a few days … I wouldn’t be refusing a second visit or even raising it as an issue so soon.

Thanks for the head wobble! I’m just wary of being messed around as we have had an offer accepted on our dream house.