How long would you cling on to a house for?

annetheman

My tale of house-buying woe is long so I've bullet pointed and added a TL;DR summary - but mostly I'm interested to hear from others: how long have they clung on to a difficult sale or purchase, and in theory, at what point would you reach your limit?

Starting my purchase/sale in Jan 2024:

• Dec 2023, began process of selling shared ownership flat, notifying Housing Association.
• 8 Jan, HA begins exclusive sale.
• 16 Jan, my offer on a house is accepted upon receipt of a very fast mortgage offer.
• HA fails to sell, allows me to sell on the private market at my own price.
• 12 Feb, I receive first of 3 asking price offers on sale with Agency 1.
• mid-Feb, my purchase of House 1 collapses, timelines won't work (seller wants end March completion).
• 26 Feb, my offer is accepted on House 2, 26 Feb.
• early-March, I dump Agency 1 after they bungle all 3 asking price offers.
• 12 March, first mortgage offer rescinded - they do not like this new house's extension.
• 12 March, submit new mortgage application with Santander.
• 23 March, I receive my mortgage offer from Santander for House 2.
• 3 April, I go on sale with Agency 2 - receive 3 new asking price offers.
• Legals begin on house purchase.
• 2 May, my eventual buyer is approved by HA.
• Legals begin on my flat sale.
• 2 June, query Title of the purchase house - half the plot doesn't belong to it.
• 2 July, seller submits Title application to land registry to be able to sell to me for price agreed.
• I propose 23rd August completion - seller agrees, buyer agrees.
• end-July, legals on my sale are pretty much done, buyer has put in notice, wants to exchange mid August.
• 2 August, seller's Title application is rejected - wrong documents sent by solicitor. Must start again (I realise we will not complete on date informally agreed).
• 5 August, new Title application submitted with the right documents.
• 19 August, I decide to break the chain and exchange with my buyer.
• 23 August, buyer and I complete, I move in with my dad - my mortgage expires 22nd Sep.
• 21 August, Land Registry makes final request to seller's solicitor for a statutory declaration.
• 4 September, I submit a new mortgage application, since extension will be meaningless with no Title in sight.
• 5 September, application approved pending satisfactory valuation.
• 6 September, still no response from seller's solicitor, EA says they are just preparing things.
• ... waiting for valuation on mortgage number 2 (nervous due to dodgy extension...)
• 29 September, find out Land Registry rejected 2nd Title application due to no response.
• 4 October, mortgage 2 obtained.
• 11 October, Land Registry receives third Title application from seller's solicitors.
• 17 October, notices are sent to adjacent landowners, expiring 7th November.
• 28 October (probably), I pull out after hearing of an objection which will add further weeks...

Edited to add further timeline from 4th October. I am pulling out week commencing 28th October - 8 months+ into purchase.


Why? I should remind myself! It's the cheapest house on the best street in a zone 3 area in London, 7 minutes walk from the tube station. I cannot afford any other house within 10 miles.
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TL;DR I've broken the chain, living in parents' house, belongings in garage, on second mortgage application for a welll-located house with a dodgy extension and Title issues - 27 weeks in.

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How long could you cling on for?

Myci85

You've submitted your new mortgage application, so I see no benefit to giving up yet, you may as well wait and see if it is approved. 

Is there a reason you think the Title application may be unsuccessful? Or that it might take a long time but should ultimately be completed successfully?

I think in your shoes I'd definitely be continuing to search for other properties, and then I guess if you find something you like, in your price range, that would be the point to start weighing up your options. 

theoretica

Keeping an eye on other properties seems wise - but seems no point in withdrawing from this one unless or until you have somewhere else good lined up.

dander

Well, as someone who is expecting if all goes to plan to actually complete in Feb 25 on a process begun in Jan 24, I'd vote cling on a bit longer. 
For you my reasoning is that it's really just one problem - OK that one problem might be taking a while to resolve and it might be having knock-on issues on the mortgage application, but it sounds like everything else is essentially sound, sorted and everything will click together once the title thing is fixed. If it was an endless stream of new problems and/or the seller wasn't even trying to resolve it, then it might be different. But it does sound incredibly annoying and stressful, but resolvable in the end.

annetheman

Thanks a lot for your thoughts on here, really appreciate it because I wouldn't have made a call about a house in my chosen area that is for sale this morning if I hadn't read them. I am viewing next Saturday. 

Immediately, I have a huge sense of relief knowing that if this house a) fails its re-valuation or if b) the Title issue is still ongoing by end of September, I might have a plan B. By next Saturday, I will know the answer to a) at least.

Either way will be a positive result. 

So I think the answer is I'm clinging on 1 more week...

silvercar

Cling on but keep looking. With your eyes wide open, you have this house if nothing better comes along

annetheman

Just in case anybody in the future finds this helpful (I have found it helpful reading people's nightmare purchases come to an end!) I made an offer of £*25k on another house a few minutes' walk away in late September - rejected and countered above my limit at £*30k.

I didn't really love it as much as the house with no garden Title so it was unwise to have made the offer, but I was at the end of my tether...

Latest: the enemy solicitors have submitted new application 4th October, expedited 7th October, notices of the application were sent to adjacent landowners 17th October, expiring 7th November. 

If no one who received a notice objects by 7th November, we will be exchanging shortly thereafter. I am not convinced it'll happen, this longwinded nightmare always has some more protracted horror when I think it's nearly over.

But I'll edit this if we do, in fact, complete on 20th Nov. That will be 8 months and 25 days after offer accepted. Will be back in 4 weeks...

CherryK87

Omg @annetheman I thought our purchase/sale was taking time but reading your original post was like reading a nightmare! 🙈

Really hope you do get to exchange in November and will look forward to hearing an update from you. 

We are going to be keeping a close eye on Rightmove for new properties in case our sellers decide to completely back out of the purchase or take too long that we might lose our buyers. But it's just hard when I know that the one we have put in an offer for is really right for us and our young family and so far I haven't seen anything else that really compares. 

Not sure how long to give the sellers time to keep looking but I think if they haven't made much of an effort maybe within the next month, that might be our indication to let go and rethink. 🤔

EssexHebridean

I’m crossing my fingers for you - expedited applications are moving VERY fast at the moment - fair play to the Land Reg for that - so assuming there is no issue with the notices I could imagine that the end could 🤞🏼be in sight! 

annetheman

Sorry to disappoint future reader - I regrettably and very sadly formally withdrew today after 8 months and 1 day. A response to notice was registered with the Land Registry; I understand indirectly it is an objection. LR cannot estimate how long it will take to deal with the objection but they allow 2 weeks for responses either side.

I cannot wait any longer.

The house was not in a sellable state to begin with. They didn't have the Title documents in order and I have waited over 8 months for that to be sorted, getting 2 mortgage offers and selling my flat and moving in with my dad to continue to wait and remain proceedable -- now extended indefinitely by an objection...

On top of all of that - assuming Possessory Title is granted shortly after 7th November, for the next 12 years, anybody could make another claim that I would have to defend as my title would only be that of a legalised squatter. So 12 further years of uncertainty (all for £8,488 per sqm of house, which took me off the charts in the area -- but I was okay with).

I feel very sorry for the seller, and very sorry for myself. Just a crap outcome. Hopefully everything works out okay, but I don't know.

Myci85

Really sorry to hear this update @annetheman. Firm believer of things happening for a reason, so keeping everything crossed for you that something better is round the corner for you. But I know it doesn't always feel like it at the time.