Not sure if I'm after advice or reassurance...

jolester

Hi,

As my title suggests I'm not really sure if I'm over thinking things but...

We are in a fairly small chain of buying and selling. We're in the middle, the people we are buying off are moving into a vacant property and the people buying from us are in no chain (parents buying for child to live in) My solicitor is brilliant (using the estate agent solicitors and so are our buyers) and so is their system (all electronic, print off and upload documents etc) The couple we are selling off are using their estate agents solicitors (so are the trustees who are selling to them) who appear to be running 100 paces slower than our solicitors.

Anyway, the above may be irrelevant, my main concern is we started the purchase on 27th July, we have had numerous documents sent to us which we have completed and returned immediately, we have had all the searches undertaken and returned, mortgage has been confirmed, all we seem to be waiting for is a fixtures and fittings list and the vendors response to a list of outstanding standard enquiries (regarding extensions, electrics, windows, gas etc) which they have failed to complete and return to the solicitors. It was originally sent on 31st July, then solicitor chased on 7th Aug and resent the forms out but still haven't had them returned even though our solicitor keeps chasing. Would a vendor be likely to retain this information for any particular reason?

Also, the house we are selling is quite old (1898) our buyers have their homebuyers survey booked for next Thursday. I have been reading through the threads on this site of people requesting advice based on their returned homebuyers reports (should they pull out if work needs doing, should they offer less money etc) and I note that most of the advice is they aren't buying a brand new home so some work is to be expected and category 3 with gas/electrics etc is because surveyor isn't an electrician etc) but also picked up that surveyors tend to go overboard to cover their back? The house we're selling isn't expensive (only £115k) but internally looks very good (IMO) a lot of the home improvements we have done ourselves (replacing kitchen doors, bathroom tiling etc so it's not perfect) but I've read of some surveyors saying kitchen doors don't close perfectly etc - some of ours don't, are they likely to bring things like this up? I may just be stressing over nothing but I just don't want them to feel they have an overwhelming list of problems with an over cautious (if there is such thing) surveyor considering the age and price of the house.

Final question is our buyers only have a mortgage in principal (with their current mortgage company) but are due to see their mortgage company this saturday to "finalise" things. Is there usually much that can go wrong with a remortgage for a buy to let?

I'm sorry for the wordy thread but as I'm sure you can appreciate I'm getting a tad stressed and just want everything to go through quickly and smoothly !! (As I'm sure we all do !)

Thanks for any response you may have

Thrugelmir

jolester wrote: »

Would a vendor be likely to return this information for any particular reason?

Your buyers haven't even received a mortgage offer yet. So what's the rush (from the vendors perspective). As no point in incurring any costs unnecessarily.

but also picked up that surveyors tend to go overboard to cover their back?

Surveyors are providing a professional service. So it's the least I'd expect. As what they say determines what actions both the lender and the potential purchaser take.

Hoploz

You are indeed in a small but slow chain, by the sounds of it.

F&F should be one of the first things to be returned by the seller, but maybe they've held on to it because they haven't made their minds up yet on a few things?

I would be more concerned about the enquiries not being answered - do they not have the required certification etc and they are trying to rectify?

It could just be that the enquiries have actually been answered but your solicitor has not yet reported to you? Sometimes they get all the paperwork in, then prepare the pack for you to see all at the same time, usually after mortgage offer is all confirmed.

Likewise it has taken a while for your buyer to get to survey stage, I would have expected it before now. Fingers crossed they get their mortgage offer - it is dodgy ground to be incurring costs on your purchase when you do not yet have a confirmed sale, as it were.

A HB survey is not as in depth as a building survey. However if there are small things you have time to attend to then why not get the jobs done? If you think your boiler looks a bit old then I suppose you could have a service on it and in doing so obtain a gas safety certificate to show the buyer that it is ok (for the moment!)

jolester

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Your buyers haven't even received a mortgage offer yet. So what's the rush (from the vendors perspective). As no point in incurring any costs unnecessarily.



Surveyors are providing a professional service. So it's the least I'd expect. As what they say determines what actions both the lender and the potential purchaser take.

Thanks for your reply,

I just re-read what I wrote, I was meant to say, would the vendors be likely to retain the F&F info and enquiries info for any reason?

our vendors don't know what position our buyers are in, and though it would help with the purchase we are not dependant on sale to purchase the property we are buying.

From our point of view if our sellers are deciding to take some carpets etc (which has been mentioned) then we will need to relook at our priorities of what we buy for new house

jolester

Thanks Hoploz,

I too think it is dragging now! I know it is still within a "normal" timeframe of moving but seems slow considering the uncomplicated small chain !

Our vendor is a builder so has done a lot of the work himself, I'm wondering if maybe he doesn't have all required certification which he may be trying to get checked and sorted now?

Thrugelmir

I meant to say earlier also that your purchasers purchase maybe moving slowly. There's many factors in getting a chain complete.

jolester

Thrugelmir wrote: »

I meant to say earlier also that your purchasers purchase maybe moving slowly. There's many factors in getting a chain complete.

I asked the EA of our sellers if there are any problems with the house they are purchasing (with same EA, deceased property) and they said that everything was going smoothly with it which is why I don't understand them not getting the info back, they have said their mortgage has been agreed so I really can't think of any reason other than there is a problem with the work undertaken as to why they wouldn't send this information back?