The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

climbthatwallseegar

flyingv said:

climbthatwallseegar said:

Sorry some of you are still going through so many ups and downs. This really is so horribly stressful. Everything seems to have stalled both sale and purchase wise for me and I have no idea what is happening. I put some music on earlier to try and calm myself and the first song that came on was "Sitting in Limbo" by Jimmy Cliff followed by "You can get it if you really want" I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Sale: after chasing for days my solicitor finally updated and told me there are 8 enquiries still outstanding with my freeholder (a Housing Association). Last week she told me there were just 3 and so another 5 have just appeared out of nowhere. I asked for the list of questions and my heart sank as I know some of them may take them a while to answer. On the other hand some are ridiculously mundane ones I answered weeks ago ("where is the bike storage located") but apparently the buyer's solicitor wants those answers officially in writing from the HA.

Purchase: after pulling out on the purchase of a problematic house with a dodgy seller, I viewed several over the weekend. The EA for one of them has sent an e-mail today asking me to confirm my interest by the end of today with my offer and other details. I don't know if this was an error but he managed to attach e-mails from all the other interested parties with their offers, bank details, mortgage in principle information etc. Good job I'm not interested in the property as not sure if this EA is unethical or incompetent! The last house I viewed is potentially of interest, I need to put an offer in but I'm wondering if there is any point when my sale is so up in the air..

BIB - this is my story too.  Buyer had received all responses back from my solicitor, now there are another 6 enquiries some of which have been answered already. For example, will the mortgage be satisfied on completion, and confirmation of up-to-date service charge which I KNOW they've had already.  !!!!!!, how many times do they need things answering.  Getting fed up now.  I just know the LA will string this out, they are useless at the best of times.

Your playlist did make me chuckle though

It's so infuriating. I honestly thought the end was in sight but now here we are with yet more queries. The flaming bike storage is in front of the property and I told the buyer and solicitor WEEKS AGO how to secure a bike locker, e-mailed who they needed to contact and the cost. However the solicitor seems hard of learning and doesn't seem to grasp that the lockers are owned by a third party so I cannot just hand the buyer a key to one of them.

They are now querying the cost of a parking permit and asked if I will give the buyer any spare visitor permits I have. I said I would happily hand over all spare permits and they cost a miniscule £2 a year. Despite this, the solicitor 'needs confirmation in writing' from the HA about the cost for the buyer's own car permit (it is also £2) which I don't understand because the buyer doesn't have a car or plan to get one as she told me she only ever cycles?!

"Can seller confirm they will leave the blinds in the bedrooms" YES. Take the blinds. Take the clothes off my back if it will end these enquiries and I can get a Completion & Exchange date. 

I am so stressed and fear that this sale is not going to go through and I won't ever be able to move. Know I'm being dramatic and these are all first world problems but...arghhhhh.

Natbag

@climbthatwallseegar - that does seem particularly pedantic, but I think with solicitors, anything with a cost, no matter how tiny, they will always try to get everything covered in full detail in writing. I did laugh at the clothes off my back comment, that's exactly how I feel right now! Take the clothes off my back, take my first-born child, just get it done please! 

climbthatwallseegar

@Natbag yep, at this point I think I'd give up one of my kids if it meant getting this whole thing wrapped up. I just need to decide which of the two I can do without

I've been following your ups and downs which have actually given me hope as I can see you've been through the wringer and it all looked quite bleak at one point but you will hopefully come through the other side very soon!

sassypurple

GioSan said:

We are also towards the end of the process (we that's what I think )) - The only hold up is the completion certificate on the extenstion done 21 years ago, the work was inspected throughout but no final inspection. Reaching out to council to arrange an inspection seems like a dream - they are not responding on any channel...I think we will wait for one more week and then agree a sale without it...dont want to loose out on the end of June date! I think need to make some compromise.

Could you get around this with a indemnity policy we had one on our sale as we couldn't provide any information on the kitchen extension on our house as it was done before we purchased it so the indemnity covered the lack of building regs paperwork and planning permission. Only cost about £120 and our solicitor sorted it out.

Natbag

climbthatwallseegar said:

@Natbag yep, at this point I think I'd give up one of my kids if it meant getting this whole thing wrapped up. I just need to decide which of the two I can do without

I've been following your ups and downs which have actually given me hope as I can see you've been through the wringer and it all looked quite bleak at one point but you will hopefully come through the other side very soon!

Yes, same, child 1 or child 2, hmmmmmmm. LOL.
Thank you so much. Yes, it has being quite a long and stressful journey and it has nearly broken me at times. Not quite over the line yet, but just glad to be at this stage after everything!

laura_lau

sassypurple said:

GioSan said:

We are also towards the end of the process (we that's what I think )) - The only hold up is the completion certificate on the extenstion done 21 years ago, the work was inspected throughout but no final inspection. Reaching out to council to arrange an inspection seems like a dream - they are not responding on any channel...I think we will wait for one more week and then agree a sale without it...dont want to loose out on the end of June date! I think need to make some compromise.

Could you get around this with a indemnity policy we had one on our sale as we couldn't provide any information on the kitchen extension on our house as it was done before we purchased it so the indemnity covered the lack of building regs paperwork and planning permission. Only cost about £120 and our solicitor sorted it out.

@sassypurple sorry I'm jumping in, as that's exactly the problem I have! I am buying, and it looks like one enquiry is pretty much holding up, as my solicitor is refusing even to consider talking dates until these enquiries are sorted! The previous owner opened a passage in the kitchen wall to living room, and the current owner doesn't know if they got planning permissions or even freeholder's permission, as she didn't ask when she purchased. My solicitor said they need to provide those, and if they don't, they must provide me with an indemnity policy to cover the absence of permission. I have no idea what this means for my purchase, as my solicitor is very cryptic. How long did it take for you to arrange that? Is it a quick thing to do? A matter of days? Weeks? Thank you!

FtbEmz

Solicitor’s assistant emailed back to say she’s let solicitor know that we’re keen to progress and as soon as the documents (forms, contracts etc) are to hand they’ll be in touch. Last week was told this should be ready this week so here’s hoping we’ll hear by the end of the week.

Natbag

Asked my solicitor 2 questions yesterday and chased on them today:
1) Have all parties agreed to the proposed completion date yet?
2) When can we exchange?
She has finally replied. And only answered question 1. Which I knew the answer to 4 days ago. Don't even know why I am surprised.
Pretty sure exchange isn't going to happen this week, as was previously mentioned. SIGH! 

catclaires

@laura_lau I'm expecting to need an indemnity policy for some electrical work done on our bathroom a few years ago for which I've (most annoyingly) managed to mislay the electrical safety certificate. I tried to pre-empt this by mentioning it to my solicitor when we submitted the property info forms and asking if we should just get one immediately - she said to wait and see if the buyers' solicitor asked for one and that if we do need to purchase one, it won't hold anything up. Also, when we bought our current house, our solicitor made the vendors get one for the lack of FENSA certification for new windows, and as far as I could see from the toing and froing, it didn't delay things. I also had one for a leasehold ground rent issue when I sold a previous property. The impression I've been given from all three is that these policies are very standard and can just be purchased pretty much instantly - hope I'm right and that it's the same for the policy you need too!

catclaires

Hi to everyone on the thread, by the way - there are some truly stressful stories on here - I'm so sorry for everyone's horrible experiences but am very glad to see that many people are finally progressing and seem to be towards the end of their sagas! We're currently buying and selling (luckily with no chain above or below us) - it's relatively early days, but we've done everything we can from our side at the moment. I'm trying and failing not to obsess. Our mortgage is supposedly approved subject to valuation - but no date has been booked yet for the valuation - it's all a bit slow for my liking. The valuation on our house is due next week, so I'm slightly stressed about any undervaluing resulting from that, particularly as our buyers are FTB with a 95% mortgage - the EA seems to think it'll all be fine, but we'll see!

I'm sure I was much more relaxed/patient the previous two times I bought a house (and the one time I sold) - I think this buying/selling at the same time lark (which I've not done before) is guaranteed to cause stress!