The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

never_again_123

Just wanted to say good luck to everyone here. Back onto the roller coaster ride from tomorrow for us all I guess!
We're on our 2nd buyer after the bottom dropped out of the chain mid December (offer was accepted & full chain in place beginning of Aug!) Our vendors have said they'll wait for our new buyer to catch up,  but our mortgage offer runs out 3rd March 😬 Our new buyer is cash, but it's going to be super tight & who knows how it'll all go. Fingers crossed🤞 Definitely taking the "what will be will be" approach in 2021 (well will try 😆), as Aug to Dec 2020 was so ridiculously stressful & looking back over things, everything totally out of our control.

Drawingaline

Fionaanne141 said:

Nearly just fell off my chair, my solictor (who hasn’t exactly been the most responsive) has just sent me an email. She’s clearly trying to get ahead of the back to work chaos. 

Same here! Although ours has been pretty decent throughout. Just to say she is chasing our buyers solicitors for the enquires they promised would be sent next week. Three and a half weeks to try and complete 😱😱😱 trying to stay optimistic, but next week marks six months since we viewed the property we are desperately trying to buy 🤦

DairyQueen

Slithery said:

DairyQueen said:

Apologies for the rant...

A warning re: enquiries. These are not just box-ticking, last-minute exercises as problematic issues can fall out of the woodwork, and often do so at a late stage of the purchase.

Just when we thought we were over the line....

Having waited almost 6 months since our buyer offered, our sale will complete on the 13th Jan. No issues with our property but plenty of issues with buyer's mortgage. We are lucky that we are not in a chain as buyer has nowhere to sell and we have another property in which to stay until we complete our purchase.

Our purchase (offered in September) was well-advanced (or so we thought) until our solicitor dropped a pre-Christmas bombshell. Turns-out that there is a very restrictive covenant on the property we wish to buy. A neighbouring property sold the land on which it was built and they have retained the right to control the appearance of this house and its grounds. Any structural or aesthetic change, including garden buildings, requires their permission. Also, they must approve the design. 

We couldn't even change the colour of the front door without their say-so and we were planning a garden office, kitchen extension and conservatory within the first 6 months of ownership. Our plans are covered by permitted development rights so we should have been good-to-go on day one. Now, at this late stage, the deeds have revealed that we are buying a property with similar restrictions to a listed building. Worse, as any changes would be at the discretion of a neighbour with a vested interest and zero accountability.

I am fuming. We have incurred the majority of the costs of purchase, including a structural survey and searches, and were hoping to exchange in January. The post-lockdown bunfight of last summer means that there is currently nothing on the market, other than 'problem' properties and/or those seriously overpriced, within a radius of 20 miles. Despite being cash buyers we will almost certainly miss the stamp duty holiday even if we found a 'no-onward-chain' property tomorrow.

We have been misled. The vendors and, possibly, their agents must have known about this covenant. Presumably they naively thought it wouldn't be noticed by our solicitor or, possibly, that we would still proceed having committed this far.

Wrong.

This is a potential show-stopper so it should have been mentioned when we made an offer in order to avoid wasted time and costs on both sides. It may not be an issue for some but it most definitely would be for most, and it is for us. We know there was a previous buyer who pulled-out 4 months into the process and we were told by the agent that she just changed her mind at the 11th hour.  Ahem...... Really?

The EA and solicitors have been closed since Xmas Eve so we have been unable to raise the red flag to the vendor. Yet more time wasted. We know the vendors are coordinating this sale with the purchase of an empty property so that transaction will be jeopardised if this sale falls-through.

It's one thing to selfishly waste others' time and money but this is also a spectacular own goal. Stupid. Really, really stupid.

This is why spending £6 online to get the title plans and deeds for a property before even deciding to view in the first place is recommended. You should have known about this before your first viewing.

Firstly, we are in one of the areas where the property market went crazy so anything decent often went under offer within 48 hours of listing. Secondly, even had there been time to undertake this kind of due diligence before viewing, covenants are often not noted on the land registry docs. Thirdly, covenants of this type are unprecedented on a freehold property. Fourthly, this is so restrictive that it was always likely to jeopardise the sale so should have been brought to our attention when we offered.

WorkHealth

We are just selling with exchange imminent and completion pencilled in for 14th but very nervous of more restrictions. We just have to get a few things out of house tomorrow and bin a few things and all our paperwork is with solicitor - contract, transfer deed etc, all questions answered, mortgage fine and survey fine and searches done. 1 related transaction which started earlier as AFAIK is ready to exchange and complete now. Solicitors back today just hoping can push exchange through asap. We have already moved so house is empty but its a different area so hope that doesn't get banned but after tomorrow its only the keys and EA should be able to handle that. 
Just hope buyer, their solicitor and bank can move quickly - think once exchanged its safe but if we can't get to exchange pre lockdown could be held up for some time if same as March. They've been fast so far so hopefully OK. 

WiseOwl00

So glad the solicitors are back open today - this whole thing is starting to make me feel so anxious! Hoping our solicitor raises the enquiries asap. 🤞🏻

tervozina

Our solicitors have sent us completion statement today so hopefully we will exchange and complete tomorrow as planned

Sotts

tervozina said:

Our solicitors have sent us completion statement today so hopefully we will exchange and complete tomorrow as planned

Great news 

Drawingaline

EA rang, apparently buyers solicitors have finally done something. Enquiries have been raised! We are hopeful there is nothing in there that can't be fixed with an indemnity policy, so just frantically checking my email for contact from my solicitors so I can turn it around ASAP. This may finally happen!!!

mm1985

Just got a call from estate agent to say everything still looks good for a move next week...she also said that she is envisages new sales to be stopped under tighter resrtictions but hopes that existing sales can still go ahead so to continue like the move will continue but I’m finding that difficult to do...hopefully we’ll all get some clarity at 8pm tonight. And if the move does go ahead it’s looking like it’ll be done with two kids in tow instead of at school 

mm1985

And now a call from solicitor saying we are good to go for next week...fingers crossed this 8pm speech doesn’t change anything