Chain is on the brink of collapse

[Doornon]

We sold our house in September and put an offer in straight away on our new property.

It’s been annoyingly slow as there have been 3rd party management companies involved

we found out only Monday that our buyers mortgage offer runs out next week! the bank will not extend it.

We had done everything at our end and waiting on our sellers solicitors - there appears to be a lot of bits wrong with the deed and land registry which we also didn’t know about until now. Our solicitor is trying to sort that out with them and land registry. They are arguing over a deed of covenant and an indemnity policy now

We had started putting pressure on a couple of weeks ago to complete by end of March (stamp duty) and assured it was only a few outstanding items left. Now this

I can’t see how this will work now as there needs to be time for funds to transfer and how likely is it this will all be sorted by Tuesday (when the offer expires!) - highly unlikely. Then that would mean exchange and complete on the same day but will it be too late?

So now are we now left with our chain collapsing, all the extra stamp duty fees, more costs to resell as our buyer needs to sort out with a lender, it’s going to ruin us financially for a while, all our savings gone on this

I am feeling really gutted. Is there no hope for this to work do you reckon?

Having children doesn’t make your need greater

Respectfully why have you posted this unhelpful comment? I’ve said all along we do not want to let our buyer down. We do have 2 small children in a local school so it is not easy to find a local rental in 3 days, and I’m not asking for anyone to pay for this or help us, just that it’s really tricky. I don’t know the buyers full situation but it’s easier for a single man to find accommodation than 5 of us. Simple maths.

Indemnity is done so there is one last thing to sort out.

I am in a panic as this is a big deal. Who wouldn’t be? We have never purchased such an expensive house before, the commission from us means the EA should be working for us, not against us so I am frustrated and stressed.

Of course it does. It's a totally different thing trying to accommodate one person or a couple compared to a whole family with children in local schools, etc.

Unfortunately, if I understand what you are saying, it sounds as if you need to pull out of this deal. If you agree to sell you would end up either looking for a rental at very short notice or bunking with family with a large family. I agree that neither sounds great at short notice. The other option of waiting means that your buyer would need to either reapply for a mortgage and probably request a discount or pull out altogether.

Today we have agreed to everything we can possibly agree to, so we waiting now completely on the other side. We will find out today. We aren’t pulling out per se, but we are only willing to complete at the same time as our seller

How are things going this afternoon?

Such a horrendously stressful process OP, I feel for you. Your seller's solicitor is being ridiculous.

It sounds like things are set for the end of this month, haven’t yet signed anything but solicitor is sending report this evening. Everyone has agreed to everything, so just contracts to get done now so not out of the woods but much better position. Sounds like the buyers lender is satisfied with the proposal

I can’t bring myself to talk to the EA anymore as she’s frankly a manipulative exaggerator I can’t wait until I don’t have to deal with her again. She stretches a truth to DH and thinks he doesn’t just check the facts with our solicitor? 🤔. I know she has her commission on the line but there is no need for all her bullshit.

Isn't there some ethics involved in Estate Agenting? I can't see how one EA can get the best possible outcome for each individual party in the chain.

I hope it works out for you @Doornon

I understand about you not wanting to rent or stay with family with a whole house of furniture and stuff to store. I hope everything works out for you!

That is so unbelievably stressful. The house buying/selling process needs to change. But this is why you have estate agents, to navigate the awkward and annoying process and coordinate between all parties. It sounds like yours hasn’t done an amazing job of this and is trying to blame the solicitors.

we are still pretty fed up with the professionalism of our EA. She tried to pressure our solicitor into committing to a competition date before she had received all the documents, the documents EA wanted were the bloody basics! Ie how much had seller paid to the management company this year so far? She had asked for this over and over. Why are we this close to the line and still don’t have this? We do now but only because we have been chasing them up all day long and explaining what we need. We think it’s all on track now but it’s so unpredictable I don’t want to assume anything anymore.

then what is then? my solicitor didn’t advise me of anything so we had to rent. what other option is there?

At that time, it was not clear that this was a good option. The solicitor gave us the advice. That’s just what I am repeating. We can still do what we want to. It’s not an issue now anyway we are not renting we said no

Meant to exchange yesterday and still haven’t. Completion is scheduled for Monday. What can go wrong is going wrong every day. Was very close to exchange yesterday but the buyer hadn’t submitted documentation. My nerves can’t take this anymore.

I’m so sorry, we had the same thing moving, it’s all so last minute! It’s so hard to plan movers and all of that as well when the timing is so uncertain.

Take a deep breath!

We went through similar back in September last year - you have my sympathy as it’s just so stressful with kids and schooling involved. Our situation was our buyers dragging their heels and using the most incompetent solicitors I’ve ever come across. At the end they were screaming and shouting and insisting on simultaneous exchange and completion and furious I wouldn’t even consider it after all the messes they made. They wanted me to pack up lorry’s on a Friday in the hope that they finally came through and just hope for the best. Anyway. It did happen. Everything crossed for you today.

I’ve paid the final money to the solicitor so exchange is still on for today
haven’t yet booked a van! It’s batshit

We have exchanged

Well done ❤️