My partner and I are in the middle of buying a house, which has dragged out now since July when we made our offer. It took six weeks to get a mortgage offer back and thankfully that was approved, but now the housing developer at the top of the chain is playing silly buggers threatening to remarket our sellers plot (they are part exchanging their house which we are buying) if we dont exchange asap. Weve only just had the searches done and the solicitor is sending these to us to review over the next day or so, but every day it seems I have the estate agent or the parr exchange company ringing me basically bullying me into hurrying things along.
I'm now having the added stress of worrying what will happen with mortgage offers if further lockdowns happen and the uncertainty around brexit.
Is anyone else in the house buying process at the minute? Its certainly ul there with the most stressful things I have ever done and that includes saving myself from drowning once. I think I'd rather go through that again over this.
If you've got an offer, then that should be valid for x months, no? Have you had the mortgage valuation? Happy with the building survey if you had one?
If these things are in place, what's preventing you from exchanging? I'm in your position, but bottom of the chain is the last sorted. Chain has been rebuilt twice over the last 7 months, hoping to exchange this week. My understanding is that if you've exchanged, you should be OK to complete even if there's a lockdown.
So I can understand why developer is pushing to get exchange done. Bit of an empty threat on their part tho, as a new buyer won't be quicker.
In a chain the normal problem is things moving too slowly rather than too fast. It sounds like you are the ones slowing the chain down so I can understand them wanting to chivvy you up a bit. Its a big thing in your life so you a right to take your time, but you can expect that to not suit everybody else in the chain.
There is a lot going on right now with covid and brexit but TBH there is always something and always reasons to delay for now. Once you are in it'll be water under the bridge. I'd do what you can to speed things up (eg getting documents promptly rather than waiting a day or so), but take you time when you need to.
It's just the searches pack from the solicitor that's outstanding and once we have that we can exchange if we are happy with what they report. Survey, valuation etc were all completed and happy with those. Hopefully it's an empty threat the whole pulling out thing as it would be a shame for them to do that rather than wait another day for royal mail to deliver our search pack for us to sign.
Same, and about the same timescales.
1) These things take time.
2) We're in atypical times, everything is taking longer than normal.
3) The developer is likely sabre-rattling. They'll know as much as anyone that if they relist it resets the clock and any prospective new buyer will be starting again from scratch with searches, mortgages etc. They'd be utterly stupid to do that.
4) If they're ringing you, you're lucky. I have to hound mine like cornered rats.
I don't envy OP, we moved last year when things were 'normal' and that nearly killed me.
House moving seems to bring out the very worst in people, I vowed to never do it again.
My Mum was an Estate Agent for years, I've never met an honest one. They're lazy, impatient and lie to a point approaching pathological lying as they do it really before they've considered if the lie. will make reaching their goal easier by doing so, mostly they want to create an air of urgency. When Mum worked for Persimmon is was part of the "unofficial training".
Just stay polite, tell them you can't exchange without having the survey back, as if they need to be told that, and you'll update them as soon as you've seen it. If you're bold enough, tell them you can accept "losing" the house if they need to remarket it, as if they're going to find a buyer and put a deal together from scratch any quicker. You could lie and say "in the current situation" you're getting cold feet anyway and pass the stress back to them, but that would make you as bad as them.
they are part exchanging their house which we are buying
Sounds like the developers want to have their cake & eat it, but I guess it is normal with part exchanges that the develpers never actually possess the pexd house? But they certainly won't want to go back to square one - unless someone has offered them more for the plot. Just keep all parties informed where you are & chase up whoever you need to when you can.
* still waiting on exchange of contracts on sale of wifes house that got cancelled at start of covid..
When was the offer accepted?
How has it taken ~3 months to get the searches pack back? That sounds like your solicitors are slowing things down - I can understand the others in the chain questioning this. I'd be questioning your solicitors.
Also, given the offer was accepted a while ago, I'd be concerned about calling their bluff - house prices have risen significantly since July and around here (Devon) the market is going crazy, they probably could re-market and get more for the house.
We are in a similar situation, thought we had a complete chain then the place our vendors are buying fell through. Luckily we are in rented so as long as we can complete before our mortgage off expires its all good.
If we were to apply today, the same mortgage would be 0.99% more expensive!
How has it taken ~3 months to get the searches pack back? That sounds like your solicitors are slowing things down – I can understand the others in the chain questioning this. I’d be questioning your solicitors.
It was the mortgage offer that took a month and a half, during which time our solicitor advised us not to have the searches instructed as they were non refundable, so should the mortgage not be offered to us we would be put of pocket for a lot more money. Might be solid advice during normal times but in hindsight I should have told them to do them in the background. You live and learn.
We've only just had the searches done and the solicitor is sending these to us to review over the next day or so
What are you reviewing? There are either issues, which need a position taking on then them (indemnity insurance, rectification, ignoring etc) or there aren't - crack on.
Do your solicitors need a chivvy up?
Offer accepted July, Mortgage offer back 6 weeks later. Searches ordered Sept and returned to solicitor Oct - sounds about right to me.
Tell the estate agents to bog off, it's how they earn their fee by hassling everyone involved and BSing about progress if required.
It was the mortgage offer that took a month and a half, during which time our solicitor advised us not to have the searches instructed as they were non refundable, so should the mortgage not be offered to us we would be put of pocket for a lot more money.
I'd say that's not great advice from the solicitor - totally not your fault but in the current climate I'd be wanting to run everything in parallel. Searches are a few hundred quid, so not really significant.
True that everything is taking longer to sort, I was hoping to exchange this week and complete next. But removals can't do till the 2nd at best.
We're exchanging today (hopefully!) and completing next week. Compared to the previous 3 houses we've bought there have been all kinds of issues but none are really covid related, more a mix of substandard communication throughout the chain thats nearly scuppered the whole thing a few times now.
How we can live in the 21st century and carry on with such an archaic process for buying and selling houses is beyond me. 4 people in our chain so quite short but our solicitor in the middle can only speak to people either side and not the top who are the ones seemingly pissing about. Theres no concept at all of getting on a call together and asking simple questions to get confirmation immediately. Massively frustrating. Luckily the estate agents dealing with our purchase have been brilliant, 90% of the communication has come from them.
How we can live in the 21st century and carry on with such an archaic process for buying and selling houses is beyond me.
Too many vested interests in not improving things. Delays = costs/higher fees.
Maybe. But I mean, our solicitor had to do a check yesterday (which takes time) to confirm that our sellers solicitor is actually a solicitor and not a baddy who is going to run away with our money!
What if your solicitor is charging a fixed fee?
We sold our house in July - the buyers searches were taking weeks to come back so she bought search indemnity insurace. Not sure what it involved in detail, but it meant she was good to go pretty quick once that was in place.
We had an offer accepted on another house and instructed the solicitors to start the searches straight away as we knew they were taking a long time to come back. Good job we did because we only just got the mortgage offer this week due to me being furloughed creating all sorts of delays.
Currently living at the in-laws and looking forward to getting back our privacy soon and getting out of their hair!
Rest easy that with rumblings about negative interest rates, your mortgage isn't going to get more expensive if you need to reapply.
Rest easy that with rumblings about negative interest rates, your mortgage isn’t going to get more expensive if you need to reapply.
What does that really mean though..... You won't be getting a negative rate mortgage....
I secured a rate middle of September for January and have watched the same mortgage go up 0.3% -citing uncertainty in the market for the increase.......
Edit 0.03% not 0.3
How we can live in the 21st century and carry on with such an archaic process for buying and selling houses is beyond me.
This has certainly been my takeaway from the whole thing.
the developer is unlikely to actually pull the px deal - they are doing it to put pressure on the chain, which (based on your description so far) seems fair - its not their fault you've had bad advice. Push your solicitor hard (call them twice a day) to get things moving quicker and you'll be reet
Op, I understand to this to some extent. Buying a house but job not do safe and house prices in the area are dropping so little concerned I may have paid to much.
But these are uncertain times so rational thinking is taking a bit of a back seat.
