URGENT - exchange today, need help!!

JennyW_2

lynzpower wrote:

good advice from LR there.

Personally speaking, Id try & meet them halfway and give them max 350

i agree, this is good advice, however they may try and pull this stunt again?

cuffie

How annoying. As if you haven't been through enough stress? I can't believe some people.... Good luck anyway - hope it all works out. Keep us posted. xx

matto

I think if you were going to call their bluff you might go the whole hog and offer an even lower figure.

Duckman_2

There is another option that noone has raised yet. There's no reason you have to exchange today, you can easily just call off the exchange and say you want to think about it for a few days because of what you see as an unreasonable demand. This would put the pressure back on the vender. Bear in mind they have probably already spent in excess of 750 on solicitors and other bits and bobs, and will also loose out if the sale falls through.

PrincessG_2

OK, here's the story.....(part 1)

We accepted an offer on our house back in early April. We weren't sure what we wanted and didn't want to get involved in a chain so thought we'd probably move into somewhere rented for 6 months. Our buyers wanted it for their student son and said they didn't want to complete until August sometime. We thought "Great, that gives us 3 1/2 months. That would probably be enough time to find somewhere to buy." We looked around a bit and found a nice flat (2nd floor in a block) in a lovely area which ticked every single box, plus it was vacant and had no chain. We made an offer and agreed a sensible price (we're in early June now by the way). When we got the survey back it mentioned a crack on the outside of the bathroom wall. Major alarm bells start ringing here. OH talked to the surveyor and he said it's probably nothing major, there is a glass tell tale (thing used to monitor if crack gets bigger) on it and someone must have put it there so they should know something about it and we should also check that the building is fully insured. So we wrote to seller asking them to find out through management co what the history is. Everything went quiet, completely dead for over a month. No word from solicitor, estate agent, seller or their solicitor. By this point we didn't hold much hope and started quietly looking for something else. Meanwhile, things had progressed really quickly with our own sale and we were in the middle of moving out and getting all our stuff into storage.

to be continued...

annie-c

What happened next?????

rchddap1

Love to find out myself. Cracks and lack of communication....doesn't sound good.

PrincessG_2

(part 2)

So then we were stuck. We had to move out of our place, in the middle of a purchase, couldn't find anything else we liked. We didn't want to sign up for a minimum 6-month lease and then have to move out in 2 months because we'd bought somewhere. We put all our stuff in storage and for the first 2 weeks we house sat for some friends. This was amazing, like having our own place. Sadly it was only 2 weeks. Then, a friend who had just bought his place said we could rent a room. He'd only been in a month and the place needs A LOT of work, but it would be somewhere to sleep so we took him up on the offer.

We kept on looking for other things but found nothing which came anywhere near the flat. Our financial adviser (he's been amazing) told us that the mortgage co would only keep the offer open until 6th October. This was a bit of a worry because we got a great rate (just before BoE put up the base rate) and it would be a shame to lose. By now we've all but given up on the flat.

Finally, we receive some information about "the crack". It's useless. There is a letter from the insurance co saying everything is covered but other than that it's just a few snippets of information they got from other residents. All they can tell us is that "the crack" has been there for donkeys years and someone seems to think it isn't structural. Also, a few other flats have sold in the past few years without any trouble so what are we worrying about. Not much to go on really.

to be continued....

PrincessG_2

(part 3)

This is were it got really tough. We know that this place has everything we want and we can't find anything that comes close. Many would say to be patient and our dream place might come up, but I had been checking the internet sites everyday for 6 months now and was really losing hope. And besides, we had found our dream home, it just wasn't quite as perfect as we thought. We weighed up the options (and prices around) and decided that we really wanted the flat. Our financial adviser was really helpful (again) and arranged for a structural engineer to have a look and give us the thumbs up/down. He also arranged for the sellers to pay half. The report came back saying that the crack wasn't structural and the place isn't falling down. Phew, but it's still quite a risk because it's still there and it will be still be there whenever we want to sell (hopefully never if it's always this difficult to buy and sell).

Oh, I forgot to mention the £750 which was the reason for my original post! In our first survey there was something about some repairs that would be needed to the balcony. We didn't really think much of it and figured it's part of life if you buy in a 40 year old building. However, our solicitor had mentioned it their solicitor and they said they'd take £750 off the purchase price so that we could "fix it at our leisure." Fair enough, who would complain about that.

Once our minds were at rest about "the crack" we were happy to proceed and just had to wait for the mortgage offer. This took a while (as I'm sure many of have experienced) and involved a bit of extra work from the financial adviser - he really has gone the extra mile to make things work out.

It gets even better. Our solicitor (small local firm who were great with dealing with our sale and were so far great with the purchase) retired and sold up to a big chain. We just got a letter saying as of next week you should call this number and use this address. Great, just as we're waiting for our mortgage offer and then getting ready to exchange and complete. Fortunately, the conveyancers who were dealing with us also moved to the new firm. Unfortunately, as with many solicitors, it was impossible to get through to them on the phone. It would take 2/3 days to get to speak to someone who could help.

to be continued..... (part 4 should be the end, I hope)

PrincessG_2

So we get to this week. We've been lodging with this friend for 2 months now. It's really getting us down. The house is pretty basic, cold, no living room, downstairs bathroom, no carpet/floor covering and in rather seedy part of town. It's been a few years since either of us have lived in a shared house, we haven't got any of our stuff, just a bag of clothes each which we packed in the first week of August when it was considerably warmer than it is now. The solicitor is useless and having told them that we really want to move on Friday 20th, we can't get hold of them. OH rang up and said we're going down. When we get there, they have all the documents prepared for us to take, read, sign and return. They're all ready to exchange and complete by Friday. Why couldn't they say that on the phone??



I was furious that they have asked for more money at the last minute. They say that because everything has taken so long (not really our fault) they have been caused considerable expense because the place has been sitting empty (surely that's the risk you take with a BTL). You hear about this happening to people but never imagine it would be you. OH is much more level headed than me (fiery redhead that I am) and keeps telling me that we decided a while ago that this is the place we really want to live and we weren't expecting the £750 price reduction in the first place so it's not the end of the world to pay it. I think that this has caused so much hassle and we are taking on a risk in buying it that they are lucky we are still going ahead in the first place and haven't offered them less money. Grrrrrrr.

Rant over. Sorry if I have bored you all. I just need to let of steam. I feel completely drained and stressed out by the last 6 months and now I feel weak for not standing up to them. Thanks for lending me your ears/eyes. The solicitor just rang to say that we've exchanged and they'll ring tomorrow when it's all completed. I really hope this place is worth it.