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

Realised I can join this forum now!!

Anyone want to play 'guess the completion date?'.

We sold 7 weeks ago and found out this week that the buyers onboarding process with their solicitor didn't go through properly so that's basically only just started.
2 person chain
Mortgages both approved
Surveys both complete. No flags on the onward, haven't heard from our buyers.
Searches on our onward purchase complete. Buyers searches not yet started (due to onboarding issue).
Two enquiries as a result of our searches. Solicitor suggests they're 'small things'.
Our buyers coming back next week to take measurements for various things.
No restrictions on moving dates for anyone involved.

Help me while away the waiting hours!

We've now made progress after our set backs. I viewed two properties at the weekend and offered on one. That was accepted this morning, and the Memo of Sale was sent out this afternoon.

We're using different offices of the same solicitors as the vendor, so incentive for them to crack on!

All parties in the chain are keen to crack on, so 🤞we can make up some lost time.

Gutted, been waiting for the Mgt pack from my leaseholder as the final enquiry before selling my flat. Have just been informed that major works are planned and I will need to pay £5.5k for pipe works due to take place in the next 2 years.

I know my buyer is at the top end of her budget, and the building does not have a sinking fund. Looks like i'm just going to have to suck up this cost. Bang goes my new kitchen :(

Our buyer pulled out last week but we already have another buyer. Does anyone know if conveyancing fees increase with this second buyer? I’m too scared to ask 🤣

We are going to view another house this week. We are nearly 8 weeks post offer and just aren’t hearing anything from anyone despite chasing. I’m a bit lost on how it can be handled so badly.

We’ve had this happen (twice!) and they shouldn’t, we didn’t have to pay the file opening fee again as all info was the same. If they had their searches done, you can also see if your new buyer wants to buy them to help speed up the process!

@thelma57thank you so much! Yes the estate agent has told me that the new buyer has purchased the searches from the old buyer and they have also gone with the same solicitor which I’m pleased with as they have been great.

They will but it depends on how much work was done. My DS didn't get charged anything extra but they hadn't started searches. I think all they did for him was accept a memo of sale.

@Feelingstrange2 it was a lot of work, we was close to exchanging before they pulled out. Was your DS the buyer or seller?

Buyer. A FTB.

I think if you read the engagement terms you signed up to there maybe more information on there about aborted transactions and fees.

Our solicitor has requested the redemption figure twice and each time it's got the early repayment fee on it which we don't have to pay as we are porting !

Mortgage broker saying they are not selecting the right option! Halifax saying it shouldn't be on there and solicitor saying they are doing it right!

I'm going to ring the lender myself this week if no progress is made and it's still showing. Halifax have said it shouldn't be .... ahhhh

We have enquiries raised from our buyer solicitor going to "revert" to me ASAP.

We have asked for mid may completion. ....

We called the EA and they have not got a clue what is going on. Heading into looking at 8 weeks without a draft contract.

Had our survey back- seller has never serviced the boiler ….. not sure what to do with that information. All they could figure out is that it was installed in 2015. I would prefer for them to get it serviced before exchange. I don’t think that’s unreasonable given the lack of maintenance?

Full gas service not just boiler but all gas appliances.

Or knock money off to cover for replacement.

Having seen my DS agree a repair and arrive to it not being done and a small amount of cash as an apology...don't trust anyone.

They said it writing it was done so he could claim but the amount involved would cost more in lawyers fees so he's let it go. In future I would double down on stuff like this. That's 10 years. It's a significant amount of time it's not been checked.

I’m tentatively joining this thread as I am trying to buy a house with my DP and I genuinely don’t know where we are in the process, having not bought a house before!

We made an offer on a house end of March and it was accepted. We had a mortgage in principle at that point through a broker. We then needed to get proof of funds for deposit from our financial advisor and he dragged his feet so that took three weeks, then the mortgage broker made the formal application over two weeks ago. We haven’t heard anything from the bank directly, so we rang the mortgage advisor on Monday and he said yes they’ve approved it- but still haven’t received anything in writing. Is this normal? When should we hear?

Once we had verbal confirmation on Monday, we returned all paperwork and money for searches to the solicitors.

What happens now? Should we instruct a homebuyers survey before written confirmation of the mortgage?

I’m a bit lost if I’m honest and learning things from the internet…

@LillethCrane have you instructed your solicitors to carry out the searches? This takes about 3 weeks and I would also instruct survey as well to save on time.

With our mortgage offer we waited about a week after our mortgage advisor confirmed it was approved but we also had a message from the lender to confirm it so I wasn’t worried.

This is not a big issue but definitely not unreasonable for you to ask them to get a service now and send your solicitor proof when it has been done.

The irony here is that whilst we have been clutching our pearls at our sellers unserviced 10 year old boiler - our 4 year old annually serviced boiler went kaput. Sat waiting for a gas engineer right now 🤣

Yes we’ve returned all the signed paper work to instruct the solicitors- assuming they start the searches at this point? Good to know that now’s the time to organise a survey, thank you.

Nothing at all directly from the lender which is what’s making me hesitant.

I called the EA and burst into tears. All going so well 🤪

Oh bless you @kirinm i know exactly how you feel! Sorry if I’ve missed your posts but where are you up to?

We’re just waiting now, our buyer is getting the house revalued due to our conversion having no regs and whilst we thought he was ready to go otherwise we’re tied up waiting for land registry and various mortgage things to release his deposit 💀

We are barely anywhere. Actually we are now viewing other properties because it just doesn’t feel like it’s going to be possible to get through the purchase. The sellers conveyancer hasn’t sent the draft contract despite the fact our offer was accepted over 7 weeks ago.

The person I spoke to did say they might need to insist on a change of handler at the conveyancers but that might be because I was blubbering down the phone!

Oh @kirinm you poor thing. This whole system is an impossible nightmare. I hope you feel a bit better for the cry. It’s horrible holding in all the stress.

After all sorts of issues (conveyancer and vendor, both now out of the picture) we now seem to be making progress.

I offered on a new property which was accepted on Monday this week. Our solicitor was waiting for the contract to arrive and she can start with her enquiries (we're using the same searches as for the abandoned property as they're in the same building and we aren't getting a mortgage). The buyer has their mortgage offer and has ordered searches (which aren't due until the end of May, for some reason). Our solicitor sent the contract last week and I answered some enquiries within half an hour of getting them yesterday. They're going back to the house next week to measure up.

It all feels like it's progressing nicely.

With 30 days to go until exchange, I have had a leak in my shower that leaked through to the downstairs flat. Thankfully the plumber was able to stop the leak and cap off the pipes, not much damage done to my bathroom but Still waiting to hear more about the damage to downstairs.

now the issue is the bathroom has started to smell a little damp, I have left the bath panel off for it to dry out but I simply don’t know what to do.

my solicitor also informed me there are major works planned for the building that will cost each flat £5.5k. That’s all my spare budget, So I really don’t have any money to do work to the bathroom.

this is a nightmare, I just want out!