The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

mm1985

Doodlebugs said:

mm1985 said:

Today is just insane, just had another call from estate agent saying that buyers at the bottom of the chain (our buyers buyers) are saying completion has to be on the 14th or else it can’t be done for a couple of weeks as they’re out of the country....I’ve now given up. We’ve boxed up our kids toys. With them not at school I’ll have no choice but to unpack them 

Did your buyers get their contract to their solicitors in the end? If exchange is tomorrow does that not give enough time for Thursday still? Fingers firmly crossed for you.

buyers would not have got there until 5pm and their solicitor said this would be too late for anybody to meet them there to take contract so they posted it for guaranteed deliver before 9am. Solicitors are saying this is not a enough time to draw funds down for completion on Thursday. Friday is an option of course but we suggested Monday to ease pressure for everybody. 

All the buyers at the bottom said is we have to exchange on Thursday because we are going out of the country for a long time...they have not given an ultimatum or spoken to EA or solicitor. This is all their email said. EA has tried to call and left a message but they have not got back to them yet so only time will tell now 

Charl1706

I got my enquiries back on Tuesday (5th) and I’m having the agonising wait for my solicitors to review the search results and replies. Hoping this doesn’t take too long so we can organise our completion date.

WiseOwl00

DairyQueen said:

You are right to do a thorough job of checking. I'm amazed at how many people buy 'blind'.

We were approaching exchange on our purchase when, two days before Christmas, our solicitor emailed his enquiries report (with 23 attachments). I read the report and noticed a footnote on the first page making reference to a very unusual covenant. It had not been highlighted as of particular concern but I read the attached covenant anyway. Turns out that the current owner had bought a property which gives a neighbour complete control over any structure on the land. That includes so much as a garden shed. Can't even paint the door without his permission let alone build the extension we had planned.

This is a 1990s build but it has more restrictions than a listed building. We would have withdrawn from the transaction had we been informed at the time we made our offer (mid September). We are fuming as we have now incurred most of the costs of purchase but it is very unlikely that the neighbour will agree to revoke the covenant. The deal is therefore very unlikely to proceed. Meanwhile, we are stuck in limbo waiting for the vendor to contact his neighbour snd report back.

Had I not thoroughly checked all the points mentioned by the solicitor we would have bought the property unaware of the nasty surprise lurking down the line. Worse still, we would have been encumbered by a property that would have been very tough to sell as any well-informed buyer would run a mile.

Better to withdraw from a purchase than to take-on a white elephant.

I believe I read your thread on this. Your story is actually the reason I inspected the restrictive covenants really closely when I received them! Mine state that I cannot run a business in any of the buildings, or build anything forward of the house. Luckily we weren't planning to do either.

I can't believe that one has such a restrictive covenant - that would have likely made us withdraw as well. Your paying thousands and thousands of pounds, why on earth should you be restricted by your neighbour (of all people) in such a way?! It sounds just like renting. I wonder how such a restrictive covenant came about? I hope you have more luck with your future property search.

WiseOwl00

We've (well, mainly me!) spent a good few hours reading through all the searches, fixtures and fittings, property information forms, etc. making sure we're happy to go ahead. Raised all my questions with the solicitor - just questions about logistics and legal terminology. Contracts were signed on the weekend and dropped off at the solicitor's office. 

We're now literally just waiting to hear back from the seller's solicitor regarding my solicitor's enquiries. I know the vendor has already replied to the enquiries, so literally just waiting for their solicitor to send them across. Once they've done that, and our solicitor and ourselves are satisfied with them, we can look at exchanging! Honestly, after all the stress I've dealt with over the last 6/7 months, it still doesn't feel like it'll ever happen! 

amandacat

I had some positives news from my solicitor this afternoon. She said the buyers searches came back the end of last week and the buyers solicitor said they need to inform the lender of everything and then we are ready to exchange. Might be as early as next Monday. That’ll be 2 months from offer to exchange, would’ve been less without Christmas. 
I’m not one to count my chickens so will see what happens, I’ve read too many threads to know last minute issues occur so
will update as I hear more. 

TrudieinLondon

My chain was complete end of September. Just 3 in chain. Me in the middle. I have signed all stuff for my purchase. Should I have signed something for the property I am selling as well? My solicitor is fine when I get to talk to him but most of the time I get no communication at all. Estate Agents from either side don't contact me either. I emailed solicitor Thursday but no response. Its really hard to plan removals/packing when you've got no idea of timescales or even if its going through at all. I need to get rid of some furniture too but don't want to do it too soon in case it all falls through.
Also, I got some searches back ages ago but no sign of the local authority search. The local authority says 35 days at the most but its been about three months. I'm worried its gone missing in the system somewhere.

DairyQueen

WiseOwl00 said:

DairyQueen said:

You are right to do a thorough job of checking. I'm amazed at how many people buy 'blind'.

We were approaching exchange on our purchase when, two days before Christmas, our solicitor emailed his enquiries report (with 23 attachments). I read the report and noticed a footnote on the first page making reference to a very unusual covenant. It had not been highlighted as of particular concern but I read the attached covenant anyway. Turns out that the current owner had bought a property which gives a neighbour complete control over any structure on the land. That includes so much as a garden shed. Can't even paint the door without his permission let alone build the extension we had planned.

This is a 1990s build but it has more restrictions than a listed building. We would have withdrawn from the transaction had we been informed at the time we made our offer (mid September). We are fuming as we have now incurred most of the costs of purchase but it is very unlikely that the neighbour will agree to revoke the covenant. The deal is therefore very unlikely to proceed. Meanwhile, we are stuck in limbo waiting for the vendor to contact his neighbour snd report back.

Had I not thoroughly checked all the points mentioned by the solicitor we would have bought the property unaware of the nasty surprise lurking down the line. Worse still, we would have been encumbered by a property that would have been very tough to sell as any well-informed buyer would run a mile.

Better to withdraw from a purchase than to take-on a white elephant.

I believe I read your thread on this. Your story is actually the reason I inspected the restrictive covenants really closely when I received them! Mine state that I cannot run a business in any of the buildings, or build anything forward of the house. Luckily we weren't planning to do either.

I can't believe that one has such a restrictive covenant - that would have likely made us withdraw as well. Your paying thousands and thousands of pounds, why on earth should you be restricted by your neighbour (of all people) in such a way?! It sounds just like renting. I wonder how such a restrictive covenant came about? I hope you have more luck with your future property search.

Your covenants are pretty standard. Other common types prevent people from keeping (farmyard) animals, or allow neighbours access to shared drains/cables, or prevent tall fences at the front of a house. Nothing scary.

The covenant with which we are taking issue was created in favour of the property that originally owned the farmland on which the house we wish to buy was built in the early 1990s. The vendor of the land still owns the neighbouring farmhouse and somehow managed to agree this draconian restriction with the builder of the four houses that are now his near neighbours. The owners of the farmhouse (and their successors) have the right to control the external appearance of all four properties in perpetuity.

We have now received a response from the vendors advising that the owner of the farmhouse is now in a care home and his wife is deceased. The farmhouse is inhabited so I suspect that a son/daughter is now in residence and poised to takeover the property (and covenant) when the poor, old gentleman dies.

The vendors are therefore using the covenant-holder's situation as a reason for not addressing the problem of the covenant. They have offered to purchase indemnity insurance to cover our risk but they seem to be missing the obvious. We don't want an insurance pay-out if we are obliged to remove an extension in the aftermath of successful legal action by the covenant-holder.  What we want is to keep our extension and to have a major impediment to a future sale removed.

An indemnity policy is not the quick solution that the vendors assume.  Their solicitor is now suggesting completion dates whilst we are on the verge of withdrawing from the purchase. Not exactly singing from the same hymn sheet.

Good luck with your purchase. Solicitors do a good job of the standard legal stuff but it's worth doing your own due diligence as they don't necessarily flag something that can cause massive problems down the line.

DairyQueen

mm1985 said:

Today is just insane, just had another call from estate agent saying that buyers at the bottom of the chain (our buyers buyers) are saying completion has to be on the 14th or else it can’t be done for a couple of weeks as they’re out of the country....I’ve now given up. We’ve boxed up our kids toys. With them not at school I’ll have no choice but to unpack them 

Huge sympathy. This must be mega-stressful. Are you exchanging and completing on the same day? I ask as usually a completion date forms part of the contract so, once exchanged, it can't be changed.

The practice of same-day exchange/completion has been introduced during the pandemic to alleviate the risk of any party not being able to move on the completion date because they are infected or have been instructed to self-isolate. But it could create major problems in circumstances such as your's. Total nightmare to have your moving day threatened at the 11th hour. Indeed, without advance exchange someone could pull-out of a sale/purchase on the eve of exchange/completion and the entire chain would collapse leaving everyone's lives in a state of chaos.

Moving home is stressful enough but this new practice has raised the barrier to a new level. Regardless of whether this applies, I hope that common sense prevails and that something can be done to rescue your situation. I really feel for you.

DairyQueen

We exchanged on our sale before Christmas and, fingers crossed, the movers will show-up as planned on Wednesday (completion). We are already living elsewhere so contents will be in storage until our new home is purchased.

Buyer is not moving-in until next week so, with his agreement, we are paying for cleaners to do a top-to-toe of the property on Thursday. We would like to leave it as we would wish to find it and using professional cleaners has saved us loads of time.

We had the place decorated last March in anticipation of listing the same month. Lockdown intervened so finally went on the market late June, and went under offer third week of July. Six months from offer to completion and ten months since we vacated in anticipation of selling. It's been a long road but no sign that we will be in a new home anytime soon as our purchase is now in jeopardy.

I say 'never again' after each house move but negotiating our hideous conveyancing system is a necessary evil. All who are posting here have my sympathy as it's rarely a stress-free process.

mm1985

DairyQueen said:

mm1985 said:

Today is just insane, just had another call from estate agent saying that buyers at the bottom of the chain (our buyers buyers) are saying completion has to be on the 14th or else it can’t be done for a couple of weeks as they’re out of the country....I’ve now given up. We’ve boxed up our kids toys. With them not at school I’ll have no choice but to unpack them 

Huge sympathy. This must be mega-stressful. Are you exchanging and completing on the same day? I ask as usually a completion date forms part of the contract so, once exchanged, it can't be changed.

The practice of same-day exchange/completion has been introduced during the pandemic to alleviate the risk of any party not being able to move on the completion date because they are infected or have been instructed to self-isolate. But it could create major problems in circumstances such as your's. Total nightmare to have your moving day threatened at the 11th hour. Indeed, without advance exchange someone could pull-out of a sale/purchase on the eve of exchange/completion and the entire chain would collapse leaving everyone's lives in a state of chaos.

Moving home is stressful enough but this new practice has raised the barrier to a new level. Regardless of whether this applies, I hope that common sense prevails and that something can be done to rescue your situation. I really feel for you.

Exchange was agreed for Tuesday (today) with completion on Thursday. I myself would not have booked to go anywhere until the move was confirmed with exchanged and if I was in the position of the buyer who is going away I would not email to say completion has to happen on Friday, I’d be calling the estate agent to have a conversation and discuss options. They have left the everybody in the chain in complete confusion. I think I’m going to dread answering phone calls today as I’m very much expecting it not to go the way we want it to