Chain stress - what can I do?

tazgirl

Hope someone can help as this is driving me mad... sorry if I've ranted about this before, but I really need advice now - will try to keep it brief:

- we're in a chain of four - and the person at the top of the chain has been muttering about pulling out for the last few weeks, and we got a call from the agent at 5 last night saying that unless we exchange today he's putting his property back on the market

- we offered on the property we're trying to buy at the end of March, so it's only been three months. We've been ready to exchange on that house for a few weeks (contracts signed, money with solicitor), and the sellers have been ready to exchange with the top of the chain for the same period

- we've all been waiting for our buyers to be ready to exchange - the delay is caused by our flat being leasehold - our buyers wanted to check the option to extend the lease (currently around 72 years, priced to reflect this), and whether the Ts&Cs of the lease would change if extended. They're BTL, so no emotional attachement. Our freeholders are usual corporate pirates, and slow to respond to solicitors - and of course, everything has to be done by post :mad:

- throughout the process we've kept estate agents/solicitors up to date on a weekly basis, and as we understand it, we're now all ready to exchange in the next few days. Noone seems to believe this though and I'm sick to death of being threatned by estate agents who all tell a different story

- the person at the top of the chain's agents thinks he can get a cash buyer to exchange and complete faster than the chain and are accusing us of mucking about

What on earth can we do now?

We aren't in a position to exchange today (we could borrow money from family that would allow us to exchange on purchase without exchanging on sale, but won't do this as it's too great a risk) Is this man bluffing or just being an idiot? I'm getting tempted to just tell them all to stuff their houses and move to the other side of the world!!

silvercar

the person at the top of the chain's agents thinks he can get a cash buyer to exchange and complete faster than the chain and are accusing us of mucking about

Ye right. He can get a cash buyer for presumably a reasonable sum of money? So why hasn't he done so? If he does find a new buyer they will still be a few weeks from exchange. Even cash buyers look after there money and do surveys and proper legal work.

Ignore the agent. You are working as fast as you can, if he intends to get a cash buyer to move faster let him try. In a fortnight he will be phoning you and asking if you are nearly ready to exchange.

Dead_Eye_Jones

well you can only exchange when you are ready to exchange! Try not to stress about it, it will happen when it will happen and if its not meant to be it wont! Agents will say and do anything to manipulate you, dont believe a word they say. Ever! Easier said than done though !

The most you can do is keep on the phone and keep hassling, put some pressure on, mabe it will hurry people up? If its post ya waiting on then you'll ahve to be patient. Perhaps reassure the doubter that you are keen and this will happen - stress that sticking with you will still be quicker than going elsewhere, he has to wait for a new buyer to show and then wait for them to go through the paper work - minimum of 2 months surely?! Whereas even with delays - you'll be quicker (maybe?).

Personally Id never buy a leasehold for this reason, imo flats are for renting. Ive heard so many nightmare stories like yours - it really needs to be tightened up. The last instance I heard about from a friend involved the freeholder complaining about unauthorised work and effectively held my mate to ransom, the work was done by a previous owner - ultimitely their solicitor should have spotted it I guess but by then it was all too late. Right old mess .

Best of luck.

tazgirl

Dead_Eye_Jones wrote:

Personally Id never buy a leasehold for this reason, imo flats are for renting. Ive heard so many nightmare stories like yours - it really needs to be tightened up. The last instance I heard about from a friend involved the freeholder complaining about unauthorised work and effectively held my mate to ransom, the work was done by a previous owner - ultimitely their solicitor should have spotted it I guess but by then it was all too late. Right old mess .
QUOTE]

Yes, we'd never buy leasehold again - unfortunalty we didn't have a very good solicitor when we bought as FTB and the perils of this weren't pointed out... (also we're in Greater London, so didn't really have a choice budget-wise as so much cheaper property is leasehold). Much as I hate to say it, HIPs would have solved all of the problems in our chain, as everyone would have had the info up front.

Latest is that our buyers have all the information, now just need to read and sign contract... however, people at top have revealed that they've sacked original estate agent and been told by new agent that they can get a significantly larger amount of money now (6 months since it originally went on market), so have said that unless we exchange by EOP tomorrow, they're going back on the market with new agent for increased price... idiots!!

silvercar

people at top have revealed that they've sacked original estate agent and been told by new agent that they can get a significantly larger amount of money now (6 months since it originally went on market), so have said that unless we exchange by EOP tomorrow, they're going back on the market with new agent for increased price... idiots!!

They are idiots to believe everything an estate agent says. That said they do seem to be spinning a line here. One minute their agent has a cash buyer for them, next they are going to re-market! Ask them if they are serious about selling soon or not. Have they found a house to buy? If they have, I'm sure they don't want to wait or they will risk having to pay more for the house they want.

Doozergirl

Communication is key with chains. If there's an agent or a solicitor in the chain that doesn't keep tabs or pass on information quickly, there's always someone going to get itchy feet - usually the person at the top because it's more stressful to sell than it is to buy (you have no choice in what you sell and no control over what a buyer does when problems arise).

If you can try to establish personal contact, you'll find information flows quicker and you'll be much better to reassure him yourself (as long as you know exactly what's going on at your end!). It's doubtful he'll find a cash buyer if he's already fourth in a chain, but I think his main issue will be that he can't see what's holding things up so a word from you might just hold him off from doing anything.

Three months down the line and an official collapse of chain later, I looked up our buyers number in the phone book. I should have done it so much sooner. Fingers crossed we've managed to get the chain back on track by sending someone to an independent mortgage broker. You'd think an estate agent might be able to come up with a solution as simple as that to keep the sale going through. :wall:

Jorgan_2

Get your solicitor to contact your vendors solicitor & give them an update as to what the current situation. This way there are no chinese whispers, things being mis-understood or misinterpretted (sp).

Try & see things from your vendors point of view, they have been waiting 6 months to move & are getting frustrated at the lack of progress.

clutton_2

none of this is your fault !! try to realise that quite often, no matter how hard we want to shout at and push "professionals" - they will work in their own way at their own speed. You alone cannot resolve this whole chain, dont take on board this huge stress - easier said than done, i know .... best wishes

tazgirl

Thanks guys - I've basically offloaded this all onto our solicitor. He's said that there's no way that it's feasible for us to exchange in 24 hours time, but we could early next week. He's also said (and we've passed on up the chain) that if the people want to set deadlines/pull out, he needs to hear that from their solicitor - which should establish how serious they are!

You're right - there's nothing more we can do at the moment. We've got a couple of back up plans - first ringing the people we want to buy from and telling them that we'll wait for them to find a new house to buy, or approaching our BTL buyers and asking if they'd rent our flat back to us for 6 months while we find a new property to buy! Feel better now I've got a 'plan b' in my mind...

tazgirl

Jorgan wrote:

Get your solicitor to contact your vendors solicitor & give them an update as to what the current situation. This way there are no chinese whispers, things being mis-understood or misinterpretted (sp).

Try & see things from your vendors point of view, they have been waiting 6 months to move & are getting frustrated at the lack of progress.

I know! I'm imagining how annoyed I am today, and x-ing it by another 3 months! Hopefully nice rational solicitors can sort it all out one way or another...

robwend

Jorgan wrote:

Get your solicitor to contact your vendors solicitor & give them an update as to what the current situation. This way there are no chinese whispers, things being mis-understood or misinterpretted (sp).

SPOT ON! and tell the estate agents to phone your solicitor in future instead of you!! thaTS what i did, then you let them whine at the sols secertary lol.they are bullying you and must not be allowed to get away with it