The all new buyers/sellers waiting room (9) the one where we start to wonder if we'll move by Christmas..

[NeverGoingToMove]

Huge apologies if I have missed this thread, I have searched high and low but don't think another was started after number 8 ended in May.

After a seriously stressful encounter with building control, I think we are almost ready to exchange. After going on the market last July, I'm hoping we'll move before our year anniversary!

How is everyone else doing?

Well we’ve made another offer. Slightly terrifying as it’s an absolute cannot budge even a £1 more type of offer. Even if it’s accepted I will feel pretty sceptical.

@ErlingHaalandsManBun Yeah, I kind of held off the EA and said we've chosen solicitors and knew who we were using etc. I'm def going to hold off on mortgage application due to expiry worries, but I did tell EA we have the AIP already and tbh we're only upping our mortgage by a small amount to move so I don't have big worries about that side of things. Have got all paperwork ready to submit when needed.

I think I'll do the ID checks and stuff with solicitors to instruct them, but tell them not to action searches etc. until I confirm to them that chain above is complete. This should give my buyer some comfort that I'm serious hopefully.

@kirinm good luck. Hope it gets accepted. You have had some crappy luck with buying so far. You deserve some luck!

@ErlingHaalandsManBun nope. Not heard anything. I don’t know whether to assume no news is good news and that there’s no probs. Or whether to push the EA to get feedback. Just sitting here waiting and wondering! Our onward purchase is 300 miles away, we have arranged to visit again next week in the hopes of exchanging the week after, so hopefully all is ok there and things will start happening once September hits.
How are you getting on? Still painfully slow solicitors and waiting for the boundary issues to be sorted?

@moving300m oh that's frustrating. Like you say, hopefully no news is good news. Do you have a particularly old house or anything that worries you that might come up on the survey? I hate waiting, it drives me insane! 😂I would be tempted to give it until about 3pm then ask the agents if there is any news. But that's me. I am too impatient for all this buying and selling lark.

Our issues (non-issues) and just in the process of being finalised. I think our solicitors may finally have come to an agreement. But then again, I thought that on Monday, and yet here we are, with more little questions and queries cropping up. Some that we have already answered and provided the paperwork for weeks ago!!! It feels like it will never end. Hopefully we can crack on next week and our solicitor can get the work done that their solicitor requires. Then next up will be pushing for them to book their damn survey!

@ErlingHaalandsManBun no it’s a 1960s semi solidly built, new roof 5 years ago, no cracks or anything noticeable. But you never know I guess. I’m not an expert. For the money it’s an excellent buy in my opinion!! I am with you on being impatient though. This not knowing, waiting for others, not wanting to be difficult etc etc is so frustrating and definitely not something I’m built for.

It sounds like you are making some progress. I hope your solicitors can get it sorted this week so you can head into the bank holiday weekend with at least one stress reduced. Good luck with getting your buyers to book a survey, although you’ve got to assume
their solicitor hasn’t been working for free so they already have a bill there, they might as well commit to the survey at this point!

@moving300m I would think/hope you have little to worry about then. But you know surveyors have a reputation of picking houses to pieces and picking on even really small minor things. But as long as there are no major issues, which you don't think there are, hopefully all will be fine. They may already have had the report back and there is nothing. But it would be good to know one way or another I think.

We are hoping we can at least get on the same page by end of play tomorrow so our solicitor can do the work next week that's required. The buyers have said that once they have proof that the applications have gone in to LR they will book a survey so we will be holding them to that!

Good luck @kirinm, you’ve had a shitty time of it so far so you’re due a break with this one!

Not long heard our sellers have had an offer accepted on their onward purchase no.2. Fingers crossed for the survey on this one. It’s no chain too, so that’d be good as we’re into month five (maybe, lost track) now. I’ve dared to dream and had a look at some new sofas today 😁

Due to Exchange tomorrow and told there is yet another problem with my buyers DOV - needs a final signature by a person who is not in the office till Tuesday. My Vendor is well fecked off as this is now 6 months in and the incompetency at the bottom of the chain is just astounding - managed to apply for the wrong mortgage at 4 months in and had to start again. I have just issued an instruction to state - unless Exchange is achieved by next Friday 29th - my house is going back on the market on the 1st September. My Vendor will have definately pulled out by then. The thought of going through that again is just so just so depressing!. Told my Son I'm booking a winter sun holiday once this house falls through!

We didn’t get it. They also want an extra £50k after we increased our offer by £100k. So tedious. I don’t know why estate agents waste their time by not being upfront. Sick of being asked if I can find a ‘bit more’.

@kirinm im so sorry, that sounds awful- is this the house you saw a while ago and then re viewed? Sounds like the sellers may be the problem!

@Gunz im sorry, it’s so hard when there’s issues like that but does sound like it will be sorted next week? Fingers crossed!

our house is back on the market, we have two viewings booked so far and our estate agents are being super strict with who they book in. Fingers crossed something goes our way soon!

FFS! How is it so difficult to get two sets of solicitors to communicate with each other properly!!! I mean, its so frustrating its making me feel insane!!!

Our Solicitor emailed copies of the wording for the applications and statement of truth that we have been asked to do, to our buyers solicitor last Tuesday. All she needed to do was look them over (most of it was HER wording that has just been copied and pasted) and say 'Yes this is fine, crack on get the applications in' or words to that effect. One week on and she STILL hadn't done this. Our Solicitor chased her this morning and she has eventually got back to him and she wants to make another slight tweak, on HER OWN WORDING!! But instead of being okay with that and just saying 'make the tweak and then its okay to get it done' she wants the tweak to be made and then sent back to her to check again! So he has done that and we are now waiting, once again for her to give the go-ahead. No doubt she will sit on this again for a few days leaving us waiting for her once again instead of doing what most normal people would do and glance over it and give it the green light so this isn't held up any longer.

It is painful. A few issues and title changes which should have taken a maximum of a week to discuss and sort has somehow taken 3 months to get to this position and we still don't have the applications to LR in. I despair, I honestly do. It feels like this utter nonsense will never ever end.

Until these applications are in, which our buyers solicitor wants to see proof of, she won't give our buyers the go-ahead to book a survey on our property. Even though, in hindsight they don't even need her permission and could do it anyway. But they seem to hang on her every word and won't do anything against what she wants or push back in the slightest.

We STILL haven't looked at a new onward purchase due to these monumental delays and at times it feels like we will never get out of here. 😩

Rant over (for now!)

@ErlingHaalandsManBun no words. Sorry you’re still waiting. I don’t think I would have the patience as a buyer with a solicitor like that let alone a seller! I wonder why the solicitor is being so obstructive and why the buyers aren’t pushing back to speed everything up.
After reviewing our onward purchase and discussing our sellers timelines I’m going to be emailing my solicitor multiple times per week if not daily to ensure we don’t lose the purchase by not pushing our buyers and their solicitor. I really hope it all works out for you in the end and they start taking proper action

@moving300m it is honestly beyond ridiculous and I think the hold up is not really bothering our buyers. They are an older couple who are buying their first house together after both divorcing. His sale went through last year and he moved into a rental. Her house sold and then they looked for property themselves and took their time with the process viewing almost every property in our area in their price range. There was almost 3 weeks between their first and second viewing on our house at which point we learned we were shortlisted to 3. After the 2nd viewing it took them another week to put an offer in.

During the time of the sale going through, it has taken so long that our sellers pulled out but she was able to continue with her sale to completion so she just moved in with her OH into his rental. So they are in absolutely no rush. They also would have liked to be in the house by the end of the Summer, which is obviously not happened so now I think they are stalling a bit because they don't want to be moving in Winter and would prefer to try and push this into next year now. Especially since they are now happy in their rental. So we try and push and push but it makes no difference. They clearly are in no rush for this and are not interested in putting pressure on their solicitor.

We have no choice really but to ride along with it. The market is too slow to try and put it back on and find someone else. It makes no sense for us to pull out. We wouldn't get out any quicker. 🙄

How far off do you think you are now? Surely it can't be much longer for you?

@ErlingHaalandsManBun i just can’t comprehend the selfishness of people with no thought to anyone else. Surely you’re in a process and need to accommodate everyone as much as possible not just work to your own timeline without thought for anyone else. We were really clear about our expectations to both buyers and sellers to ensure we were all on the same page. It will hopefully be early oct to suit our sellers who are away for two weeks at the end September which was prebooked before they accepted our offer and explained to us. Hopefully our buyer agrees to the proposed timescale and we can exchange soon, no real reason why not, but still no feedback following the survey which was almost two weeks ago now.

@moving300m It really is a bit shit isn't it? We practically pleaded with them and their solicitors to hurry up and sort things or we would lose our onward sale and it made no difference at all. We kept saying they were going to pull out but they didn't really seem to care. They would not be rushed, and that was that. Not even shown that much empathy that we have lost our house. I honestly wish we were in a better market and could find other buyers quickly or we would definitely have told them to 'do one' a long time ago.

Strange no word from the survey but I can only imagine there is nothing to tell you which is why you have no news. I would think if there was an issue you would have known about it by now.

Hope you can agree on an exchange and completion date soon and this whole sorry business is soon over for you. x

I agree, I have been saying this for years. Until probate is granted, NOBODY owns the house for sure, so therefore nobody should be selling it. As it is now, with this being allowed when I think it ought not to be, at the very least any reputable agent should only be listing such a property as 'potential FUTURE sale, currently awaiting probate' on all ads or paperwork.

@ErlingHaalandsManBun your buyers do sound truly awful. I am sorry you’re in this position. Would threatening to pull out push things along? It did work on our buyers to get the survey done but we had calculated that we still had time to find a buyer as long as they were proceedable and chain free and in our area houses are moving fast and ours is reasonably desirable due to price and size. So I understand it’s sort of an empty threat that you may not want to risk becoming reality!
I really hope their solicitor okays the paperwork and things get moving before the end of the week.

No. We offered on that one as well. Increased by £100k after being told that would be enough only to be told actually they need another £50k on top.

Guys, I'm losing my mind with our buyer 😭 2 weeks to appoint a solicitor and now 2 weeks further and nothing has been done! Been hassling our agent and they've said she was unaware what the next steps were so will now be getting her mortgage offer and booking in the survey. Should this have been the estate agents job to advise her to book in the survey or her solicitors? We've lost nearly a month because despite her selling a property (I assume maybe her ex partner is handling it), she clearly doesn't realise she needs to be doing stuff 😭

Fuckkkkking hellllll I don’t know how anybody does this more than once. It’s a complete nightmare. I was so stressed yesterday that I started to think I was making myself ill with it all and might as well just not bother. And everyone on here is having such a crap time.

Our contact at the solicitor keeps going AWOL. I spoke to them nearly 3 weeks ago because we hadn’t heard anything back from an email - they’d been on annual leave but this, that and the other was happening. Then my DH rang at the end of last week only to be told they were on leave again and would be back this week. Just had an email from them and nothing has happened in that time at all, still in exactly the same place we were three weeks ago. This is four months since the offer was accepted, and the solicitors were already in place and had done checks and stuff from a previous attempted purchase that fell through. I don’t know what they’re doing.

@HappyCrochetHooker tell me about it!!!!!

We sent stuff to our buyers solicitor who insisted they cast their eyes over it before we did anything with it. She STILL hasn't looked at it. We have chased and chased and are still waiting for her to give the go-ahead so yet again she has single handedly held up our sale.

We lost our ongoing purchase due to her monumental delays and we are also 4 months in and just don't seem to be getting any further along. She also 'won't allow' our buyers to book a survey until she has given the go ahead for work to be done. But if she isn't giving the go-ahead then nothing can happen!!! Once again our sale has stalled.

It is beyond frustrating. I mean, what is she doing?? When anyone tries to call or email her she is 'busy'. This is so damned stressful its unbelievable and so many times we have been so stressed we have been tempted to pull out. I do wonder whether it is all worth the bloody hassle.

@VimtoQueen90 are you selling to a FTB? Is that why they have no idea what they are supposed to be doing? No wonder you are frustrated. Yes, the EA should be giving them guidance if this is the first time they have done this. Or their Solicitor even.

Bloody hell @ErlingHaalandsManBun what is that all about?! Why the hell is she so involved in them booking surveys and stuff, is she their interfering mum? That’s so shit about losing your houses due to other people dicking about! The whole thing is maddening.

I also have that thing where I don’t know how any of this works, only have glimmers of understanding from what I’ve read on here and online so I’m not always sure I’m asking the right questions. So I could go back to them and say ‘Why has it taken three weeks to not even start this report you already said you’d started?’ And they could just say ‘er, that’s how it works, you ignorant fool, it always takes this long, it’s how it’s done.’ They probably know they have that power over me 😆

@ErlingHaalandsManBun no this is the crazy thing! I think I'd have more patience if they were an FTB, but it's someone selling their house due to a divorce and purchasing one for themselves! I don't understand how they can be selling a property but have no idea how to purchase another one?! We're buying a new build and they want our chain to have progressed before they'll give us the incentive we want on our plot and we can't do this until she starts pulling her finger out! If we hadn't spent all weekend chasing it, we probably would have gone on a few weeks with 0 being done and a month has already passed!