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?

So after accepting an offer on our house last November (and many months of drama in between then and now), the buyers have agreed to exchange/complete on Weds. On Thursday their solicitor raised a legal issue that could result in the deal falling apart; it's not something I can do anything about at all. It should and could have been raised months ago. No resolution was reached on Friday as buyers' solicitor was away and not responding.
The estate agents are telling me that the issue could be resolved on Monday (it's a legal question that the EA knows nothing about) so exchange/completion could happen on Wednesday. I've pointed out that this gives me only Tuesday to pack up, move and clean. The place is largely empty for various reasons too long to go into, but we would still need to organize things quite quickly on Monday evening if this is resolved.
Is this normal? Or am I being unreasonable to think that a little bit of notice is expected? I did have a plan to move stuff over the weekend but am not doing that as this matter may not be resolved so do not want to move and then have to move back.

I suppose it depends on the legal question. If the EA doesn’t understand it I’m not sure I’d be relying on them for an estimate of when things will happen.

Is there an issue with the title?

Also you can move exchange - if that works for you of course.

It's a conflict between the solicitors -- mine agreed months ago to give an undertaking with registering a deed of variation, which theirs seemed to accept. The argument now is that mine will agree to one level of effort (the max permitted by their firm) and theirs is insisting on a higher level of effort (best endeavours). The deed is registering a fairly simple change to the lease agreement. It's odd because this should have been addressed months ago, but their solicitor seems to have decided to raise it now.
I don't believe anything the EA says anymore, because he's clearly just making things up! Tried to tell me last week that if I didn't agree to exchange/complete on X (v unreasonable) date I would be making a family homeless!
First time selling in the UK, so while I know it's bonkers here, I'm trying to figure out if expecting me to take one day to move out and clean is normal bonkers or truly bonkers bonkers!
Moving exchange date is tricky bc supposedly there's a stamp duty deadline, but it magically moves around at the buyers convenience. I've tried to accommodate them on this, but I have a hard stop at the end of this week or I'm out.

That’s really tricky @JoeMummy 😡. It’s so annoying when this could have been picked up months ago, I’m in a similar situation whereby now ready for exchange but waiting to sort something which only came to light 7 months in. I’m sure they can sort it. I’m not a conveyancer so maybe there are considerations I haven’t my thought of, but I am a lawyer - are you saying your solicitors won’t undertake to use “best endeavours” to register a deed of variation? 😳 That seems madness

Apparently our sellers solicitor thinks exchanging in mid November with completion at the end is possible. Just waiting for the report on title now!

That's good that both solicitors think that it's possible.

Surely there isn't much more to do really?

I wish I could remember what the process is to be sure but I’m guessing not a huge amount to do. We will definitely find out more this week. My solicitor has been away but I’m expecting some documents this week.

It seems like we're in a very similar position as @YetiRosetti, just waiting for an expedited land registry amendment to come back. It was submitted by vendors solicitor last week, once through we'll be ready to exchange and complete.

Our offer was accepted back in April, I can't believe it's now October and the issue with the LR title only came to light less than 2 weeks ago. This should have been sorted months ago. Sigh. At least it's a short chain, we're in rented and vendors moving to an empty property, hoping for early to mid November completion.

Our kids are so excited, they're going to choose paint colours and we'll decorate bedrooms before we move in.

Has it been sorted between the solicitors yet?

I was just googling and it could be an insurance issue. Professional indemnity insurers advise against giving best endeavours apparently!

We had an undertaking issue when we bought, but thankfully the matter needing the undertaking was resolved, so it went away.

My firm prohibits me from giving any undertakings at all.

I couldn’t give an undertaking. It has to be a partner with assistance from our risk team.

Can I join? We’re selling from abroad - we rented out our family home whilst completing an overseas contract. We’ve extended and so need to sell. The house got valued in spring at 385, our tenants at the time said they wanted to buy it so we pulled it off the market. Then they changed their minds and by the time they’d moved out we’d lost the spring market. It’s been on since July with a couple of non proceedable offers. We dropped down to 357 last week and someone offered 320 today. So depressing - we bought it 6 years ago for 314 and have spent about 20 grand on it. We’ve said no but I feel very low about it! The market is so depressing and we’re losing money on the bloody place every month as we pay bills and mortgage.

We’re meant to be simultaneously exchanging and completing tomorrow

We’d hoped to exchange sooner, and our solicitor is not confident on the rest of the chain being ready tomorrow we found out earlier

Everything crossed it’s straight forward tomorrow, not sure I’ll sleep well tonight tho 😂

Keeping everything crossed for you all. I got my hopes up last Friday. The people who had noted interest phoned the estate agent to say they were putting in an offer on Monday subject to two things. Come Monday, no offer ...still no offer now, and they're not replying to the agent. Just why??? Our onward purchase has given us one more week, but fairly clear that they are losing faith in us . DH and I have decided that if we lose our onward purchase we'll think about coming off the market for the winter, fix the plaster in the hall (superficial cracks but need scaffolding to repair, so possibly off-putting) and try again in the spring.

I think it was probably insurance I suspect the firm would need to clear any deviation from the usual undertaking with their insurers. It finally got sorted out I'm not sure how or when or why because I was being told different things by different people. Exchange/completion was today. At the last minute a crucial piece of info (completely outside my or the buyer's control) was discovered to be missing, but it got sorted with about an hour to spare before the the end of the day. What a process...

Sounds stressful but HUGE congrats to you!

Currently in the will we/won’t we exchange today uncertainty. It was suggested last week, we agreed it was fine, solicitor emailed on Tuesday to check. Nothing since. Bought insurance anyway and sent it over. Daren’t book in removals until we exchange but radio silence so far. Such a horribly draining process, especially in a chain, I could not do this again.

Good luck, I really hope you manage to! And congrats to you @JoeMummy! Hope the physical move was ok. Yeah the process is unbelievable.

i am still waiting to hear back from the land registry, @ErlingHaalandsManBun hearing back the same day got my hopes up but not to be for me! I’m hoping it doesn’t indicate a problem. Have you heard any more @littlecrocodiles ?

We have our report on title and mortgage deed etc. there are a few ongoing enquiries re subsidence but we shall have to wait and see how they go. Solicitor still thinks we will be able to exchange / complete in November.

We didn’t move today - bottom of chains lender had a final query and didn’t release funds or even confirm their would be until late afternoon

Hearing funds were transferred just before 5pm, but we of course were packed and ready to move so had to get some airbeds to sleep on

Oh God, how annoying @Trying81 ! Will it definitely be tomorrow?
I think our solicitor may have been a bit optimistic when she told us a few weeks ago that late October/early November would be a realistic prospect for exchange and completion. Every tiny question is taking weeks. I wish all solicitors, vendors and sellers had a 2-hour Zoom call right at the start to sort everything out! All questions answered immediately.

Yes we believe today is the day - funds are all ready to go for everyone so should be speedy too - we hope

All the solicitors sounded stressed yesterday - so I’m hoping they’ll prioritise us to get us off their desks.

Worst night sleep ever sharing an airbed with a toddler

Good luck for today 🤞

Best of luck @Trying81 🤞🏽