Not quite "telling it as it is"

moneyistooshorttomention

Cor blimey...and theres me all lined-up to leave an item that my buyer "might" want (if it were in good order) there outside for the Council to remove (because it isn't in good order) and I will darn well have to pay them for the privilege myself.

Hmmm....

Other item buyer "might" want is in very good condition and about to be sold to a friend.

Don't want the blimmin' cooker myself - as its turned out not to be Zanussi quality (as used to be) and I'll be taken the blimmin' thing with me to do until I can get "mine" in time to come.

phoebe1989seb

Not currently selling/buying, but when we were moving two years ago we eventually bought the third house we'd offered on, having pulled out of the first two......the first 'cos we just realised it wasn't *the one* and the second 'cos we found out both vendor and their EA were being economical with the truth -

On our second viewing of the house (200 miles from the one we were selling) we spotted some apparent building work being prepared for on the land at the rear of the house. This was a gastro pub car park with 6' fence separating the garden of said pretty Grade 2 listed house from views over open fields, views that were I obscured from upper floors of house.

Us - "what's going on over there? It looks as though they're preparing to build something........"

Vendor & EA - "Oh, we forgot to mention, there's a couple of small bungalows being built"

As we'd already had our offer accepted at that point and had merely returned to do some calculations on the amount of work required (it was a project), we rushed off to check the planning portal for info on this imminent building work.......

Turned out the owners of the pub ad decided to build some rental properties on half the car park and planning had been approved for two large, two-storey *executive* homes. We queried this with the EA, who brazenly denied this was the case and assured us that bungalows were being built there. We withdrew our offer and one year on two huge houses (not bungalows!) sprung up obscuring the lovely rural views and hemming in the pretty country garden that was part of our reason for picking the house in the first place.

Suffice to say the house took forever to sell and eventually sold for less than half the original asking price

moneyistooshorttomention

I remember you mentioning that particular "dirty trick" a vendor tried to play on you Phoebe and thinking you had had a lucky escape there and wondering how on earth vendor thought they would get away with that.

At least, to date, I think I'm still on course with "both sides", ie my buyer and vendor. But I was planning on inviting my buyer round and meeting them face-to-face after Exchange of Contracts and generally being helpful and explaining how everything operates, etc. I wont be doing that now I've realised that they couldn't Exchange immediately anyway from their pov (so whats all that about that I am apparently holding THEM up then?:cool:).

silvercar

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Re using a different removal firm. Its not always possible. I have chosen the firm carefully (in fact same one as I used last time) for both level of service and price quoted and I have no need whatsoever (of myself) to try and find a replacement firm for them. I've already verbally booked them and just have to confirm the date and pay the deposit to them. I scanned a load of firms and have chosen the best one for me...so wouldn't be prepared to change anyway (quite apart from breaking the verbal agreement I already have in place with this firm).

I would be more than a little upset if I found a replacement firm to suit someone else and ended up with higher bill and/or worse service than I have arranged to have.

That is what we said. In the end we had no choice. The chain wasn't ready to exchange before date X and everyone was agreed that completion had to be before date Y. So removal firm had to be told that if they couldn't do the verbal agreed move on the date we now needed I would have to go elsewhere. Completion couldn't be delayed because someone in the chain had an expiring mortgage offer and couldn't get an extension to it.

tim123456789

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Add: tell phone/broadband

agreed

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Add: tell gas/electric/water.

not necessary before completion. They will be connected on move in day even if you don't tell them until a week after. (though obviously you have to read the meter yourself in this case)

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Add: tell friends etc

can you really not tell these after you have moved?

tim

moneyistooshorttomention

Re mortgage agreement length, I have assumed that people will take their own responsibility for themselves (same as I have for myself) and that my buyer accordingly has a 6 month mortgage length agreement (plenty of time). If they haven't...well..then I'll leave it down to them to sort their own mess out personally and find someone else to provide them with a mortgage instead and am guessing my worst case analysis would mean them imposing a delay of a couple of weeks or so whilst they found another mortgage provider.

Might just be a little difficult to tell friends after I've moved...in the event that I am moving some distance and would have to go in for many hours of travel back and forth to get in farewell meals with them (or do without those meals). Hence I'm doing that before I go (though hoping that my friends will come and visit for holidays obviously after the event:)).

Further, on the removal firm front, with it being such a long-distance move, there ain't no way Hosea I'm having a firm that I wasn't at least reasonably "comfortable" about having. It's going to be a rather more complicated move than load up, drive there, instantly unload, so I'm not going to trust any Tom, !!!!!! or Harry with doing that for me and I expect my buyer to accept that that is reasonable (ie because it is).

silvercar

Re mortgage agreement length, I have assumed that people will take their own responsibility for themselves (same as I have for myself) and that my buyer accordingly has a 6 month mortgage length agreement (plenty of time). If they haven't...well..then I'll leave it down to them to sort their own mess out personally and find someone else to provide them with a mortgage instead and am guessing my worst case analysis would mean them imposing a delay of a couple of weeks or so whilst they found another mortgage provider.

We all make assumptions that other people are sensible. The main earner of the couple buying from us had taken a mortgage with only a 3 month window for completion on it, the lender wouldn't extend and he had given in his notice and was moving jobs to one where there was an initial probation period. So he informed me that the completion date could not be moved without him not being able to get a mortgage and the chain collapsing. We couldn't have exchanged earlier because our sellers had problems getting consent to sell from their lenders (long story). It really was a case of accepting the short time between exchange and completion or not moving. So yes we did lose our tried, tested and recommended removers, but the alternative was not moving at all.

moneyistooshorttomention

I don't know that we all expect others to be sensible, but its true that I expect that personally from people (and I guess a lot of us have that expectation).

One quick lookaround at the world indicates there's an awful lot of right idiots out there...so it may not be the best bet to assume my buyer isn't one of them.

But...I can only work on the basis that they are sensible and my overall conclusion is that they are sensible (if a bit selfish) and can only spare a certain amount of thoughts as to what they are up to, as they've got a much easier situation than I have to deal with. They are only having to do one transaction and a local move, whereas I've got two on my plate/a long-distance move/at a time of life when I feel people (including myself) should have long since been "settled" where they want to be.

Guess its one of the things that comes with age, ie rather than trying to find out if other people are being sensible and trying to change them if they aren't...I'm much more inclined to just assume they are being sensible and think "More fool them..." (most of the time anyway) rather than trying to change them if they aren't.:rotfl:. You can only batter your head against a brick wall so many times...before you give up and just start counting the advantages of being sensible yourself..:rotfl:

Riggster

Why 4 weeks between exchange and complete? I ended up with 10 minutes, with removals van all packed. Admittedly I would have preferred a week.

It's a long story, but I ended up buying privately from a developer. They were "very keen" to sell to me as they were avoiding EA fees and had the chance to sell within three months of buying the property and making £££ (I already had a mortgage offer in place on the property and my building society didn't have a six month buy/sell rule).

My buyer was desperate to buy my house. Very competitive price and suited him down to the ground.

I knew everything with my house was fine, 15 years old, boiler serviced, no crazy extensions. I knew the house I was buying was fine, building regs in place, all tricky covenant questions answered. There was no reason for any delay and my mortgage offer was running out, having been extended numerous times.

I realised I held all the cards, so I threw a strop. Rang the vendors, my buyer and my solicitor and told them we were all going to complete on Friday the 28th in 8 days time, or it was all off (all I risked financially was a few hundred quid solicitors fees, and maybe a couple of hundred quid deposit with removals firm).

Turned out fine. The vendors have their £££ and are presumably on holiday in Barbados and my buyer is chuffed to bits (and has subsequently bought me a pint).

Sometimes it just needs someone to say c'mon guys, lets do it. In summary, if everyone wants to do it, exchange date is rather academic. It's the will to do it and completion that matter.

moneyistooshorttomention

Its 4 weeks because that's the norm and that's what I need and I've explained why I need it many many times (including in this thread) and don't intend to explain yet again for time number 101. Bored of doing so. End of.:wall:

Fortunately, in my case, I'm the one who "holds the cards" anyway and I chose a buyer and vendor in accordance with my needs.

Aright...has anyone else got any vendor or buyer "not telling it like it" thoughts?