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?

Argh lender won’t process our mortgage application because seller hasn’t done the EPC. House is less than 10 years old so it seems everyone assumed the original was still in date but there doesn’t appear to be an original one. I’m frustrated that we’re already encountering delays that should have been entirely preventable and this is only the beginning.

@thismusthappen When I had the Building Society surveyor out for the house I am selling - he was there around 15 minutes. He looked around the house, looked at the roof and the garage. Did nt bother going in to lofts - did ask whether I insulated the loft with spray foam - this can make the house unmortgageable. The Level 2 Survey was around 3 hours and that's when you get the questions and they did go in the loft!

I thought that it was a legal requirement for EA to have a valid EPC before they can list? Ours expired whilst we were listed and they asked us to get a new one for it to remain listed

Yes he wasn’t here long and just looked around and asked if extension was over 10 years old. I’m curious as to how much detail they feedback to the lender. can the lender stipulate off the back of the valuation that planning, building regs etc need to be provided before they will lend? With our previous buyer we were providing indemnity policy for some work

I thought the same because they checked we had one and it’s the same EA. It’s been ordered today so hopefully will be done early next week and uploaded by the end of the week. Almost 2 weeks lost of the mortgage process though which is annoying.

Can I ask opinions about viewings?
Do you show people around yourself or leave it to a professional?

We’ve got two in the next few days and as we have a very lively puppy I’d asked for the estate agent to do any viewings so that I could take him out of the way while they do so. The second viewing is accompanied but my husband has just informed me that the email he received about the first one says it’s unaccompanied, I definitely asked the estate agent when she called to arrange the date, and she came back and said no problem after looking at the diary.

I can arrange for someone to come and take the puppy out for me if necessary, it’s Saturday but my husband has to go into the office for a meeting which can’t be rearranged, but I’m in two minds. Obviously I know my house and can tell someone about it but I’m not professionally trained to pad a viewing out in the way that an estate agent can.

We didn't have an EPC when we listed our house. We didn't realise it was a requirement until we got to the solicitors paperwork. It was so easy to get it sorted though. Our vendor had one in date when we started this process but it went out of date last month so they need to sort it now because we haven't completed so technically is now needed. Helpful for us as the house has changed in 10 years.

@MadisonAvenue personally I think leave it to the professionals. Also we met our vendors when we bought this house and found it kind of awkward going forward. They used a cheap EA who didn't do anything beyond first viewing. Even once they moved they were like "oh we accidentally sent a parcel round can we collect it" and it was annoying. This time we haven't seen our buyer or vendor. That being said I would show someone round if it's the only option as I wouldn't want to turn away prospective buyers...funny as our EA only did viewings, they never offered us doing them.

I’m with you in the annoyance of this, entirely preventable delay. Hopefully it won’t cause too long of a delay. When we had ours done, we found a local self employed man. He can the next day and issued the certificate in the afternoon.

Can I join you for a virtual cry?

I have bought and sold many times so I am fairly relaxed about the whole process, but this is the worst it’s ever been.

went on the market last August (bad time of year should have waited till schools returned). Lots of viewings but no offers so reduced. Changed agents as they were naff. Sold in March with new agents after another reduction.

Our buyers are very keen as house is perfect for their needs (disability needs), their buyers want theirs but the chain below them has now collapsed twice (estate agent just called).

Our major problem is that we’ve relocated and had to take on a rental property so have bills, rent and mortgage for 2 houses which we can’t afford to keep doing forever.

Even if chain completes again next week, we’re looking at another 3mths for new buyers to get all their paperwork done.

how long do we keep this going, we’re going to run out of savings which is paying the rent soon. Our 1.5% mortgage rate expires in Dec which will mean a massive hike in monthly payments. I’m worried NatWest won’t give us permission to rent it out and we’d have to get a buy to let mortgage.

just as well there’s nothing to buy in our new area.

our only other options are to sell to buying companies who’ll no doubt slash loads off at last minute, or find a new build estate further afield who’ll buy our house.

sorry for the self pity moan

@Katkincake I truly empathise, this is similar to the situation we were in, we did go with the part ex on a new build option as we were just absolutely sick of chains and relying on other people. Do you know why the lower chain has collapsed? Is it something about that house?

@NeverGoingToMove sorry to hear you’ve had it too.

Glad you’ve managed to find a new build though. I looked this evening and sadly the ones near us are too far away for getting son to school. Just got to hang in there and hope it doesn’t collapse again.

Are you close to moving in?

@Katkincake sorry that sounds so rubbish. It's just so stressful with a chain. The people pulling out could sell their searches to the next person to speed things up but it's still so annoying the extra delays.

The house we are buying, we are the forth person to have an offer accepted. All 3 of the other buyers lost their buyer and had to pull out. Just seems to be happening a lot at the moment. It might be useful if you can find out why people are pulling out.

Our vendor has come back to us and confirmed they had the boiler looked at less than a year ago and we have the docs so that's all fine. They also answered all our other Q's and offered to meet us to show the heating/hot water on so we are feeling a bit more positive about it. Apparently during the winter months the heating was actually on a timer despite being empty as one of the previous buyers requested this.

@Katkincake that's a pain, I hate that nothing is fixed until the very final stages.

We're moving on Thursday, all being well but it has taken almost a year and a lot of money down the pan to get to this point!

@OtiMama thanks for support. Sounds like their loss of sales is your gain. Pleased that your boiler concerns are put to rest. We’ve had ours coming in twice a day whilst house has been empty, which reminds me it does need a service.

@NeverGoingToMove wow Thursday, that’s not far away. Hope moving day goes smoothly.
sorry to hear it’s taken a lot of money for you too.

I’m hopeful our chain will be back up & running again. This last break was due to buyer losing their job. Time before theirs buyers had lost their sale. The house sold in 2 days so I’m hopeful it’ll go quick again. Didn’t know you could sell searches on. They might want to do that with redundancy looming.

@NeverGoingToMove hope all goes as planned Thursday. They really isn’t long to wait!!

I know I need to focus on way stage of this process at a time, but I am a worrier. Despite not being anywhere near to actually moving I am already worried about the logistics of it and feeling overwhelmed about how much ‘stuff’ we have. Although on the other hand I do think a good sort out (long over due) will be good.

Waiting to hear if the mortgage valuation was ok and if our buyers will be having a survey. Once we know we will book our survey.

we need to return the onboarding paperwork to the solicitor, haven’t rushed to do this and after the last collapse we are expecting a huge abortive bill to be added upon completion this time

I know this move is needed for us as a family. More space for our growing DC. But part of me also worries about eh change for them and how well they will take it as not something they have experienced before.

@thismusthappen

i know what you mean about over worrying and thinking about every eventuality. It’ll all be fine, like you say try and face each step at a time.

despite chain collapsing I’m having 2 days at our old house to start throwing stuff and packing up. You can never start too early.

Don’t worry about the kids they’ll adapt. My son (11) has had 3 perm homes and 2 temp homes over his life with our 2 relocations. He’s finishing his 3rd primary school to start secondary in Sept & has made friends each time without bother. But settling now as I think it’s important to give them stability in secondary school and college.

went to see a bungalow this morning that had come back on. I loved it for its potential to expand & a beautiful garden (my dealbreaker) but husband has vetoed it due to high starting price (which it is) and small bedrooms. He’s determined to a huge list of things without increasing the mortgage in a more expensive area. We’ve had to have a sit down to go through our list of non negotiables and compromises and convince him we have to borrow more

Things are finally happening. The EPC has been done, mortgage broker is working on our application, sellers solicitors have been instructed and our solicitor has opened our purchase file (and charged us even more because our purchase price is higher than anticipated - yay for us).

I had initially asked to hold off on searches until the mortgage valuation is done but I’m worried it’s going to delay things. At what point did you all tell your solicitor to crack on with things?

We’ve been on the market for almost two weeks, we’ve had two viewings with no more lined up as of yet.

I did the viewing on Saturday, they were an hour late because after being held up in traffic they then decided to have a drive around the area first and the estate agent had another appointment following so I offered to do it so he could get away. It was a family who are moving into the region for work but from speaking to them they didn’t sound as if they know which part of the region they want to live in. On previous weekends they’d viewed in neighbouring counties and as far as 50 miles away from us.
I think they’re definitely a no go, especially as the estate agent has messaged twice for feedback and has had no response. All felt a bit of a waste of time really.

Lady yesterday, moving back into the area to be near family after living away for many years. She’d apparently viewed five properties yesterday with more today so we face a lot of competition there.

We're making some progress, ours is a private sale and the vendors are going into rented, we're also renting so no chain thankfully.

Mortgage application gone in and they did the valuation today. Solicitor is submitting the searches. Need to book survey, a relative is a RICS surveyor so just need to find when they are available and when vendors are free.

We still haven't told DC yet, DH is reluctant to just in case it all falls through, personally I think they should know. They know the house and will be so excited. Don't think I'll be able to keep my mouth shut too much longer.

@littlecrocodiles how old is your DC? I'm amazed they haven't picked up on it, you must be good with not talking about it. I had to tell my 4 year old in the end as he had twigged things. Now he keeps thinking we are moving this week, every week 😂

@NeverGoingToMove is Thursday still the day! Hope it goes well for you.

We are having the buyers on our current house done Friday, so shall see if anything comes of that. Hopefully not. Buyers have done it all backwards as searches, enquiries and review of the contract have all been done by their solicitor. We are waiting on some enquiries and some bits the vendors are doing for our purchase but they seem quite on the ball.

@OtiMama it is indeed, packers tomorrow, moving Thursday.
We talked about it a lot to our 3 year old but it has taken so long, he's just over it 😂

We did give him a box to pack on Sunday which he got very into but then it turns out he thought we would have two houses and was rather unimpressed that we'll only have one.

We've completed! Sat outside frantically gobbling a maccies before the massive removals lorry turns up😄

Whoohoo! Excellent news, congratulations.
DH gone to the solicitors to pick up paperwork for us to sign.

@NeverGoingToMove got to love the little people and their thoughts on moving house! I am so thrilled for you, hope it all goes well.

Our vendors have confirmed/actioned the things we asked from the survey. They are obviously keen to get their money as they have been so quick, which is great for us. We are just waiting on a couple of enquiries our solicitor has sent to theirs and then should get the contract.

Our buyers have the pack/contract apparently and have said they are reading/signing to return early next week. The survey is being done tomorrow on our house - they have definitely done everything a bit backwards! Just hoping there are no surprises from that as I feel if all ok we must be near exchange now!

Congrats @NeverGoingToMove!! Now for the great unpacking!

We were supposed to exchange on Wednesday, but our solicitor didn’t get one last document from the mortgage company organised in time. It’s a form for our 19 year old daughter to sign, who will be living with us. And we had to remind the solicitor about it! They’ve had this info since February 🙄

Still not received the document to sign, and I’m doing all the chasing. Didn’t even hear from our estate agent yesterday. I’m definitely pretty stressed right now.