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?

I'm so sorry @StrawberryThief1930 It's awful isn't it.such a rollercoaster

@nonevernotever oh typical?? We had this last year when we were conducting viewings. We had torrential rain, a named storm and viewers booked in!! We thought they might cancel and want to rearrange but they didn't. For some reason the drain outside the house became blocked and started to overflow. It looked hideous. We didn't flood or anything but no-one wants to see that when viewing a property do they? The council came and cleared it the following day. Never happened before and never happened since and we have been here 13 years. Sods law it happened on the day of the viewing. Needless to say it put our viewers off straight away and we could tell it had put them off before they even made it through the door. They never directly said it was that in their feedback but we knew it was. They kept looking at it and expressed their concerns. It was obvious they didn't believe us when we said it was a one off. But to be fair, why would they?

I really hope its cleared up before your viewing and doesn't affect it.

Good Luck!

@ErlingHaalandsManBun we finally exchanged at about 4.30pm today. Our removals are booked to load on Monday ready for Tuesday as we have a long distance to travel it’s not feasible in a day. Needless to say it’s been stressful but we finally got there!

it’s great that your buyers are happy to continue now. I hope you find somewhere you love soon. Keep us posted.

Mortgage offer received 🥳

@moving300m oh yes!!!!!!! I am so pleased for you. It seems to have been a long time coming but you must feel so relieved. Its almost over!!

Hope moving day goes really well. Good luck with it xx

Well done!!! You must be so pleased!

we are now officially in the new house! Beds up and made. “Happy tired” for sure.

best of luck everyone

Lots of happy news since I last checked in!

We moved last Tuesday, everywhere is pretty much straight now and we’re just doing the little things like bathroom cabinets and towel rails. Really love the house and the neighbours on both sides are lovely.

Ah I'm so happy to read of you in your new homes! I've started thinking that no-one actually ever moves, it's just an endless cycle of offering and then things falling through whilst sending all your money to various surveyors and solicitors. Very glad to be proved wrong!
We're meeting a builder at the property this week to get a price on the work that needs doing. Quite nervous about that tbh! And the conveyancing has thrown up an issue about a responsibility to contribute to upkeep on a right of way that is no longer needed or used... No idea how long that will take to sort. The house really needs weatherproofing so every storm is making me nervous!

So pleased with some of the latest updates!! Hoping for some positivity for us all!

I just need to run something by you guys cos me and DH are so baffled and quite annoyed about this. Had our buyer put an offer in on our property at the end of July. Did nothing for weeks, took about 3 weeks to appoint a solicitor and has basically dragged this sale along with slow responses. Anyway, long story short, sent over the fixtures and fittings list, didn't charge for anything, leaving blinds etc. We have a few fixtures that were in and done by our previous owners when we moved in 9 years ago. These include a TV stand fixed to the wall, a shoe cabinet by the front door and some light fittings in the downstairs and upstairs hallway. Buyer asked through our solicitors for the TV stand to be removed. When we moved in, we were unsure how to do this without causing damage so ended up just using this for our own tv. We said we were not willing to do this as we would likely cause damage and would have to make good and the house was sold as seen. Solicitor has come back insisting that buyer wants the TV stand removed, the shoe cabinet removed and the light fittings changed back to a bulb. We went back to our solicitor and asked our legal standing with this as to us, this constitutes DIY that should be done when she moves in. We've said we'd change the light fittings (despite us not being the ones that put them there) but is it an insane request to demand we remove the TV stand and shoe cabinet? Surly she should do this herself when she moves in?! I would have thought her solicitor would advise her this is not a normal request and to sort this herself after completion!

@VimtoQueen90 wait so are these built in fixtures? I am just trying to picture them.

Its definitely a bit of a weird request and I agree she should arrange to do that herself when the property is hers. Its up to you how much you push back with this and how adamant she is that this is done. But you would be within your rights to say no to that request I think.

Is this a fairly simple job for you to remove them? I mean, would it take long to pull them out? If so I guess you could do what she requests but NOT until contracts have been exchanged. No way would I be doing this until then. If she pulls out you would be left with any potential crap and damage this would leave behind.

Also I would make sure that she fully understands that the removal of these may well cause some damage and that you will not be held accountable for this is any way. That she fully accepts that this is a possibility.

As far as I am concerned though its sold as seen and any built in fixtures and fittings come with the house. It would be like someone requesting you pull out and dismantle some kitchen cupboards before they left. Its a bit bonkers!

@ErlingHaalandsManBun Its crazy, you wouldn't move into a 1930's house and request the old woman who's selling it rips out the fireplace! Unfortunately if it was an easy job, we'd just do it ourselves but when we looked into it for the TV stand when we first bought, it looked like the way it had been fixed would cause significant damage to the plasterboard so we ended up leaving it cos we didn't want to wreck the house after we'd moved in and we are not DIY people lol.
She's coming to see the property with a builder shortly (as she didn't want to get a survey) and I'm nervous she's going to bring it up in which case we were just going to say our solicitor advised us not to remove any fixtures and leave it there. I'm anxious she'll pull out over this and it just seems so trivial, like we'll remove it to avoid losing our onward purchase but our solicitor agrees we shouldn't have to incur costs if the house was sold as seen so we may try and get a professional and charge it back to them and see how that goes down..
We're just annoyed that we already said no and the solicitor has asked again!

@VimtoQueen90 I swear to god that buyers are getting more and more ridiculous with demands and things they want doing before they move in these days. Like, do you want me to decorate it for you too while I am at it? 🙄

I mean, you buy a house 'as is' don't you? Yes you may have things you would want to change but surely that means that YOU do it when the house becomes yours. Its mad. We have literally been jumping through hoops for our buyers with their demands and we got to a point where we said enough is enough. We will be doing no more. If you want anything else done you do it yourself when you own it.

@ErlingHaalandsManBun This is exactly how I feel! We would never have asked our sellers when we bought to remove these things cos I feel it's common sense you do it when you own the house!! 😂

They're here currently and nothing has been said so far about removing things...but we heard them talking about costs for something im assuming we'll be hearing back with more ridiculous requests later this week 🙄

They've been...the TV stand did come up at the end. She asked if we'd remove it and we said we're not DIY people, it was here when we arrived and our solicitor advised us not to remove any fixtures. Think builder (turns out to be ex partner she's selling her house with) was a bit embarrassed by the situation and said he'd remove it and it wasn't a hard job. She then dug heels in a bit to say that meant she had to dispose of it and she didn't want to and we just looked at her..almost to be like ..and? So that's that and I've emailed solicitor to advise them of what was agreed. Probably not the last we've heard of it though, I feel like she's going to try and come at us for other things, but maybe this whole house sale has just made me pessimistic about humans 😂

The problem with these buyer requests to remove items such as the TV stand and the shoe cabinet and the sale falls you have gaps and walls to fill. Meanwhile you have to return the house to the market. Tbh you might not get much time between exchange and completion - to start faffing around removing items - I would go back and say items will remain in situ. This buyer sounds a right PIA.

@Gunz I'm hoping it'll be the end of the issue now we've said we won't remove them and advised the solicitor the builder said that he'd do it himself! There's no way we'd do it before exchange or completion, it's just such a ridiculous request! I understand chancing your arm if we'd fixed it there but her solicitor should have advised her before asking a second time that we're not legally required to do this and it constitutes DIY 🙄

I'm so pleased to hear good news and that some of you are now moved and in your new homes. That's wonderful to hear.

Fairly stunned by the demands to start dismantling fixtures though!

Our viewers who came in the downpour last Friday with water pouring down the external walls are coming back for a second viewing! I'm stunned.... I just hope that they offer and are in a position to move quickly before our onward purchase falls through. The roofer who was due to come today has had to postpone because of serious illness in his family but has promised he will be here this week (and it's supposed to be dry most of the week, so fingers crossed they, or one of the other viewers who have booked put in an offer.

I’ve been reading this whole thread and can’t believe how lucky we have been! Some of you have had an awful time of it. 😣

We had an offer accepted mid-May, then all went quiet and nothing much happened for weeks - I had a bad feeling and then we got the call end of July that the sellers had pulled it off the market. Went straight out that weekend viewing and luckily found a house we loved straight away. Offer accepted 4th August and we complete this Friday! I’m in rented, sellers house is empty so no chain at all. Our solicitors have been amazing, and we would have completed earlier if it hadn’t been for the mortgage offer taking so long. Which was extra frustrating as they’d already offered to us for the previous property, we were borrowing £30k less on the same incomes!

Anyway we have been so fortunate, yet it’s still stressful and exhausting. I just want to be in there now. And ironically we’ve bought a house with lots of the things we DIDN’T want! Just goes to show it’s worth viewing all sorts as you might fall in love with the unexpected.

What is a reasonable length of time before asking your solicitor for an update? I think it’s been 2 or maybe 3 weeks since draft contracts were received and searches authorised?

Joining this. We are struggling to sell our house. Similar houses either side of us (which were pretty much identical but without the dormer loft conversion we have) recently (within the last 2 years) went for 10-15k more than we are currently asking for ours. However, we've had just one viewer after our recent price drop.

We desperately want to move as our house. While it was great for us before we had our son (now 3), it really isn't suitable now. (Small terrace, central location to our city and a tiny courtyard patio garden).

A perfect house nearby came up and the seller has provisionally accepted our offer, but won't take the property off the market until we get an offer on ours. That's to be expected and totally understandable, but I am worried we will lose that house while we try to find a buyer for ours.

Definitely now.

I'd probably word my chaser around the receipt of the mortgage offer (checking they have it) and asking where everything else is up to. Rather than, 'Oi! Where the buggery have you gone?' It's good to have an excuse to chase, I feel (potentially I'm rather too British in this regard!).

Got photos taken today. House we were going to view tomorrow, and were keen on after weeks of nothing, has been snapped up after three days.

Grrrrrgh.

This is exactly my plan. I just haven’t received the formal offer yet - it should arrive soon as my broker has it (and she thinks my solicitor will be able to access it, too).

Our buyer has just pulled out. After dragging her heels for weeks not doing anything about the sale and 3 visits, she's not given a reason to the agents except 'shes changed her mind'. Furious. The red flags were there from the start, I wish we'd taken notice of them. Probably because we wouldn't remove the fixed furniture she didn't like for her 🙄 House is being remarketed but we only have 5 weeks to sell again before our developers put our plot back up for sale. This is the worst process ever

Thats so frustrating, why do people do things like that!