You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
No.. the people buying OUR house are the dodgy ones 😃😃😃
Ruddy Nora!!! 🙂
Nice one @the-muffin-man.
Do you now live somewhere other than Drury Lane?
DrP - do your buyers have daaags? Well dodgy!
My parents decided to move six miles down the road during Covid, while my mother had cancer (which she has now recovered from). I had to travel over from Scotland to Ireland to help with the physical move because my 40 something year old brother who STILL LIVES WITH THEM couldn't get any time off the job my dad got him 25 years ago.
I arrived minimal prep for the move no boxes to put stuff in etc. That hurdle cleared dropped keys off for the sold house headed to the new house to find that the folk they were buying from hadn't moved out. I moved them out on the day into the back garden, with the pathetic previous owner sitting in his car crying on the driveway. Turns out they had defaulted on the mortgage/or not been able to remortgage.
My father, always willing to accommodate was saying things like "sure you can stay a while" while I was tipping them out.
Myself and the wife? We have only ever viewed one house, bought it, and shall be leaving in a box or dribbling to a care home. Buy carefully and buy once. It is a rather wonderful house.
We're currently trying to move, so buying and selling at the same time. We found a house we like and made an offer and accepted an offer on ours the same day. After a couple of sleepless nights before it all got confirmed I started to convince myself we wouldn't get it, so started to list all the things that didn't quite tick the boxes. So convincingly that when we got the news that the vendors had accepted our offer there was almost an Andy and Lou "don't like it" moment.
Hasn't changed my opinion of estate agents either. Would it kill them to call the solicitors once a week and get an update?
Yes!
But .. you ready for the effing saga that is my life 😁😁🤣🤣🙄
My OH's buyer got dropped by TWO solicitors right at the 11th hour - concerns over money laundering!
We were so worried our weird seller would get freaked out by this 'rocking of the boat' that he'd pull out and relist (he already demonstrated his oddness), so basically we've sourced a bridging loan so we can still buy the big house, and sell the OH's house ASAP, but not at the same time as completion....
Hence, we're now paying for:
New mortgage
Her current mortgage
Loans
2 loads of council tax etc...
But... you can't say we haven't tried hard to get this house for us and our families!
Exchanged last month, and compete on 31st May! Whoop whoop!
Now..anyone wanna buy a 3 bed house in Central Brighton?!
DrP
I've bought and sold in the UK, and bought in the US. In the US, at least in my state, generally you are looking at 6-8 weeks from offer to completion, unless by mutual agreement.
The whole system is massively quicker.
What's the catch? 7%. 7% is the standard Realtor (estate agent) commission, split between the sellers and the buyer's agent. Plus the usual costs for stuff like mortgages/surveys etc.
But it is a lot quicker.
But… you can’t say we haven’t tried hard to get this house for us and our families!
Exchanged last month, and compete on 31st May! Whoop whoop!
Sounds expensive, but congrats! I can’t imagine you’d have much difficulty shifting the 3 bed in Brighton, although I guess the main problem is getting rid of it quickly enough so that the assorted financial commitments don’t get too offensively expensive.
indeed...
in all honesty, there were so few houses available for our 'blended' family of 6 that we opted to move heaven and earth for this one!!
DrP
What’s the catch? 7%. 7% is the standard Realtor (estate agent) commission, split between the sellers and the buyer’s agent. Plus the usual costs for stuff like mortgages/surveys etc.
Yeah but i've seen videos on the internet that show what the realtors do for that 7%, they'll do all sorts to sell those houses, just don't take you wife to the viewing...
Now that's persistence DrP! I bet 31st May seems a lifetime away.
FWIW - it now seems really odd that the estate agents, vendor and solicitors I spent months conversing with are now no longer part of my life. The stress is slowly lifting and we are both sleeping better.
I'm not in a hurry to move again any time soon though! 🙂
👍
I'm amazed anyone manages to buy or sell houses in England, the whole porcess is geared up to making as much 'artificial' money for all the people involved, with so much risk and opportunity for it to fall apart, and that's just with a simple exchnage. Lord knows how chains ever complete.
I’m feeling the pain and frustration tonight too. 3 houses in a chain, nothing very complicated.
We should have exchanged contracts today, or yesterday, or was it Wednesday? to move next week. Our buyers has finally sorted themselves out after months of delays, not helped by a less than stellar performance by our solicitor. Pieface there is right, it’s all just an illusion of work being done, passing things back and forth to each other with no real value being added. Our buyers have had terrible advice from their conveyancer and surveyor, leading to all sorts of delays. I sort of feel sorry for them - they are first time buyers. FENSA Certificates for >22 year old windows anyone? (The windows predating FENSA itself by several years). “Rising damp” was another show-stopping issue created by the surveyor which then magically resolved itself with nothing other than asking where exactly he had seen it, as we’d like to know ourselves.
By 4pm today we still had no word on exchange so following up with the solicitor, it seems that, having had 6 months to prepare, our sellers can’t now vacate for another 6 weeks at least as there’s no removal companies in the north west available at all this month (???) and they’re then going on holidays. Which is all well and good except our extended mortgage offer will have expired again and our buyers will be homeless long before that. So on Monday it either all goes ahead quickly, or not at all and everyone is back to square one.
The solicitors say they don’t negotiate dates, that’s for the agent to do; the agents say that’s absolutely for the legal firms to sort and they’d never interfere, but after 15 minutes on the phone the agency principal finally agreed to at least speak to her client.
Why is this so difficult - at every moment, the whole chain is teetering between complete success or failure. It shouldn’t have to be like this!
Currently we’re still stalled due to our mortgage. The underwriting team simply don’t believe my contractual status or projected income. I’ve had to get my German boss to write a letter, in English (he’s the most German, German I’ve ever met), detailing who I am, my contract rate, start and end dates and annual income. Print it out, sign it, scan it and mail it directly back to the Halifax.
Our buyer is getting really twitchy. For some reason they’ve moved out of their rental having given full notice and are now shacked up in a hotel. I can’t give them a completion date as we get 0 feedback from HX - they take upwards of 2 weeks to review documents and then all you get is “you need to give us this” with no detail or outcome expectation set.
We’ve been a HX customer for 18 years, never missed a single payment, overpaid when we can. I’ve contracted via various means (direct, through an agency, via an umbrella) to the same customer since 2017, our end customer is a Norwegian government health agency it’s the most stable contracting gig ever. Halifax have a reputation as the best contract-based underwriting outfit going. The last time we upped our mortgage with them it took two days. So far we’re on about day 90.
Our broker (L&C) used to be brilliant. They now swing between apathetic and downright incompetent: they rejected some payslips as they didn’t have my name on them, I had to screenshot and highlight the field with my name. It wasn’t difficult, it said Payee and right next to it was my name. There was a similar tale about bank statements.
The whole process has been stupendously $4it.
Yep, took 2 years, 10 months and 10 days to find a buyer and then a further 2 months and 15 days to finally move in. The constant stress and anxiety about will they turn up to view, will they buy, will they pull out, will stuff get broken in the move, will they approve the mortgage etc…. I don’t want to move ever again.
A good solicitor is worth their weight in gold. We bought and flipped some 'tricky' commercial property that had old convenants in place that our solicitor sorted and then a non standard house and used the same solicitor throughout.
The buyers solicitors of our commercial property were absolutely useless to the point we put in a £1k per month cash penalty which the buyer agreed to which made us an extra £7k!
Our solicitor emailed the other day as they were archiving files and noticed £7.20 in our account - told them to donate too their charity of choice (local hospice).
The solicitors has been there years - 'our guy' looks like he's wearing his dad's suit and the whole place has a musky air of paper filing efficiency about it - I loved going there and signing documents etc.
Our sale just fell through because of the massive delays with the halifax. Absolutley fuming.
Our sale just fell through because of the massive delays with the halifax. Absolutley fuming.
Sorry to hear that, it just shows how there is a complete lack of process or procedures with this, we've gone from banks being averse to assessing risk, to now being averse to accepting any risk.
Weirdly we're with Halifax just now, usually always had Nationwide, but as i've banked with Halifax for 30 years they gave us an assessment and it was the opposite of yours, quick and easy, the only query they had was if i should borrow more at the time, this was only 2019!
My experiences with the Halifax bank have been universally terrible, from the minor not giving me a credit card as although I am born and bred in the UK and have a stellar credit history (to the point where other companies fall over themselves to lend to me) I had to go into a bank with 2 forms of photo ID for them to let me have a £2k credit card (it was a zero fee foreign use card).
The worst was having meetings with mortgage advisors there who all seemed to be like middle aged dinner ladies who refused to listen to what we wanted (pretty basic mortgage) and tried to get us to sign up to all sorts of stuff we didn’t want.
Completely inept in my experience, I just try with them occasionally now for entertainment value as it’s like being in a weird sitcom with them.
We exchanged today, almost 6 months to the day that sale and purchase were agreed. Moving in 4 weeks. Not ideal, but our vendor eventually agreed to have his daughter pack them up whilst they’re on holidays so it’s not delayed further at the risk of the chain collapsing.
I estimate there’s about £25k in professional service fees tied up in the chain, but none of the agents or solicitors seemed remotely interested in agreeing a completion date so that they all get paid. It was like watching some sort of weird adversarial dance going on via email. It wasn’t exactly a negotiation required - we’ve all agreed to buy or sell the houses in turn - so why all have this brinksmanship over a date to complete the whole thing.
In contrast, the mortgage through Principality was suspiciously easy. I’m just waiting for something to go wrong there!
Expecting to exchange next week. Bit - ok, very - apprehensive at this point about everything falling into place neatly. Fingers crossed etc.
Good luck flaperon & import!
Have just realised we’d know nothing of the events of today if our agent hadn’t casually asked for comment on an email they were .ccd in on from our buyer’s solicitor to ours. Not a phone call or email from our solicitor to us. Helpful, considering they had a 5pm deadline. I can see me firing our lot.
It was like watching some sort of weird adversarial dance going on via email. It wasn’t exactly a negotiation required – we’ve all agreed to buy or sell the houses in turn – so why all have this brinksmanship over a date to complete the whole thing.
This is what I found... I mean, until completion, a solicitor doesn't get paid.. yet they seem to give zero hoots about the process!
Our exchange took two days - in teh end I took things upon myself, and rang BOTH solicitors to tell them which number to call, and who to speak to..!!
DrP
Sooo.... tonight is my last night in the flat!!
I'm bout (i hope) 95% packed. Sorting out the rest tonight after work..
Removals men coming bright and early tomorrow, and duping the stuff in a spare room in the new house.
Don't actually complete 'till Tuesday, but the vendor said it's fine to dump stuff... Hope he doesn't nick my bikes!!!
Went to the bank to transfer LOTS of £££ To the solicitor via CHAPS - that's a very thorough process!
And, it looks like the OH has had an offer on her house £25k more than the last offer, so if that pulls off it will be worth the initial financial hassle!
Am I stressed.... does the pope poop in the woods..... !!
DrP
Hope it all goes well.
We were supposed to exchange on Monday, but it didn't happen after the buyers decided that they didn't like the idea of electronic signatures and decided that they needed paper copies.
If it slips beyond next week I'll lose my favourable mortgage offer. Pretty much decided that if this happens I'll sell to someone else, even if it means taking a hit on the purchase price.
it's SUCH a bad process isn't it - I feel for you TBH.
So much messing about isn't there! sigh..
DrP
We were supposed to exchange on Monday, but it didn’t happen after the buyers decided that they didn’t like the idea of electronic signatures and decided that they needed paper copies.
People are twarts! They expect the earth and can't be arsed to put themselves out. 🤬
I did a 2.5hr round trip one evening to make sure my contracts where dropped in with my solicitor on time! The people we were buying off found it difficult to visit their solicitor in the town 5 mins down the road from them.
@DrP - Good news! You'll be completed in time to put the Jubilee bunting up at your new place! 🙂
Well done DrP, in a few months it will all be forgotten in a dim and distant past.
We lost our purchase on Monday due to the delays in HX sorting the mortgage. Vendor even took the house completely off the market.
On Tuesday the mortgage came through.
On Wednesday we had a viewing to fix the sale side of things.
Accepted an offer on Thursday. Pleaded with vendor to reconsider, to no avail. So we’re back hunting for somewhere to move to.
This process is utterly awful. Hope things work out @flaperon. The Norwegians I work with are even more horrified now they’ve seen it fall apart both ways for us.
I’ve been trying to negotiate an offer process on a house the last 6 weeks. Originally told by the agent any offer needed to be 100k over asking. Eh no thanks. Made an offer which is what it was worth to us. Agent replied that it wouldn’t even be considered and they had a massive list of cash offers so thanks but no thanks. Rang me today saying, would you like to have your offer considered - all our buyers were either fictitious or can’t now get financing for it. I’ve said we will think about it and get back to them. He’s rung me 4 times since leaving vms basically pleading for an offer as it’s cash unconditional. We might do it but with current economic climate we need to think about how much we offer. It’s a house for my mum to live in so has to stack up for her and us.
duping the stuff in a spare room in the new house.
Don’t actually complete ’till Tuesday, but the vendor said it’s fine to dump stuff
Speaking from experience, don't do this if you have any other alternative at all. You have no leg to stand on other than "the vendor said it’s fine".
Elaborate please....?
Apart from him looking at my stuff, what issues could we face?
DrP
I'm probably being a bit paranoid/ seeing the worst in folk, but a friend of mine had a seller who thought they had (verbally) agreed that he could move his stuff out a day after actual completion. (Saturday rather than Friday).
Communication on the completion day went south - the seller disappeared for the day and when he reappeared in the evening was under the impression he was moving out the next day. Cue lots of stress. In the end it was OK, but you will be leaving your stuff in a property that isn't actually yours. What happens if completion doesn't take place and the seller blames you (or your solicitor/ estate agent)?
I'm sure it will all be fine, but I'm just suggesting caution.
[Edited to take account of my poor memory and whiskey consumption this evening. Point still stands though].
Ah... well... I've few options tbh, and even IF completion is delayed, my stuff isn't going to be a cause or issue!
DrP
Originally told by the agent any offer needed to be 100k over asking.
That sounds completley bonkers, I mean why put it on the market for 100k less than you want? makes no sense unless the agent is trying to get buyers emotionaly invested/put them on the back foot and sweezing more cash out of them.
Houses are sticking again around my way now (mid Derbyshire), some comedy prices being asked and they're not selling. Perhaps we've reach peak in certain areas.
Agent replied that it wouldn’t even be considered and they had a massive list of cash offers so thanks but no thanks.
I wonder if the agent is panicking because the seller has asked them why they didn’t pass on the offer.
Exchanged contracts in my chain yesterday so the move is definitely going ahead.
That sounds completley bonkers, I mean why put it on the market for 100k less than you want?
Because, Scotland.
So, errr, are you moved in then!? 😬😬🤔
YAASSSSS!
ruddy tired, but loving it!
Honestly... such a long journey coming to an end is a relief!
It's was filthy, so though we completed in the afternoon of Tuesday, we spent most of the afternoon once we got the keys cleaning and vacuuming....
Kitchen area mostly done... OH not got her kids yet, so not done their bit...
My kids are LOVING their rooms.. had been sgaring for 3 years, so this is great!
And...double garage!
DrP
We got there, at last!
A few late nights and early mornings of packing, but we’re now Wirral residents.
Had a bit of sweaty palms as we were halfway through the journey north before Barclays released the funds for our buyers to start the chain moving at 3pm, but it all came together nicely by 4:30. I was just glad that I wasn’t one of the removal guys having to turn around and drive the return journey at 10pm after that day and could just fall onto a mattress instead, the celebratory champagne bottle still standing on the kitchen counter unopened.
It’s about 8 months since we actually viewed the house, so we’d built up a completely different picture of it in our heads. Everything is much larger than we remembered.
Bonus points for the sellers leaving behind a whole lot of useful furniture and bits as they’re downsizing.
And the garage key came with a retro MBR key ring!
Excellent news.
Just under two weeks to go here.
Transferred the deposit to the solicitors yesterday. Nearly a bloody disaster there - despite forcing me to check twice (and again by phone) that I'd got the right details for their client account, the woman in the branch typed a 7 instead of a 9 and didn't notice.
And the garage key came with a retro MBR key ring!
And…double garage!
I like the priorities here.
Congrats everyone. We finally moved on Thursday, now officially North Derbyshire residents. Just under 6 months from accepting an offer to moving, it's a long old process!
Welcome to Derbyshire!
I’m bang in the middle. 😀
Good to see things completing for folk. You get to the stage where you think it will never happen.
Thanks @the-muffin-man it was starting to feel like it wasn't meant to be but fit there in the end!
Holy thread ressurection, Batman!
So we have an our initial MIP approved, so now is the time to get serious.
What am I about to let myself in for???
Looking at new builds, but that could be a drag as many on the developments we have looked at are sold out with very few remaining. And how long until they are completed. Anyway, I just hope we can get it done before Christmas LOLZ
Looking at new builds, but that could be a drag as many on the developments we have looked at are sold out with very few remaining. And how long until they are completed.
Don't forget to allow for a new build inspection by an independent company.
Youtube it, its quite an eye opener 😉
Oh don't worry, I've watched tons of them. My eyes will be peeled when we got to look.
What am I about to let myself in for???
Stress, Stress and more Stress!! 🙂
Are you in a long chain? If so - add a bit more stress on top as someone will be bimbling along without a care in the would taking an age to get back to solicitors about simple things!
We're in the very early stages, lots to happen in the coming weeks. Getting this place valuated etc. It's all new to me (I've only ever rented) but my gf has a few moves under her belt. Absolutely no idea how it will pan out.
The in-laws put their house on the market 9 weeks ago and move into their new house today - possibly the most straight-forward move I have ever known! Just waiting for the call that they have got their keys and I am trotting down to go and give them a hand with a few bits at the new place.
Crossing fingers here for completion tomorrow. October seems awhile ago now.
So first valuation complete. Serious profit to be made on this house. Told that demand has slowed, but still very high compared to normal levels and that would likely sell within a week. It's a 2016 new build and very desirable area. Let's see. Off to view houses this weekend.
If any market crash/recession could hold off for a month or so that would be great.....
Yay, completed today.
Just the 8 months of faff as a cash buyer and an empty property with no chain. Persimmon Homes, their agents and solicitors are utter muppets. Now the joys of Scottish power and prepayment meters begins, two wasted trips to top ups that don't work and the call centre is now closed for the night. I'll be getting the meter swapped to a credit one ASAP.
Glad to hear you're in @midlifecrashes
We have been looking at a Persimmon new build site. Their communication has been really poor, not answering phones or emails. And they have nobody available to do viewings this weekend as their staff member lives in Liverpool and it's too far to travel....
A new build site shouldn't have the boundary issues we had, so you ought to be better off than us.
Ours is an existing house Persimmon bought to use a chunk of the garden as access to their new estate, a new bridleway subway under the railway. Once work was completed they sold it on again (to us) but didn't have their ducks in a row for the land registry or anyone else, or seem to have heard of ducks, or telephones, or have access to the plans used to build the underpass.
So the stress has already begun. We found two plots (new builds) that are currently available that we really really like. However, we can only reserve once ours is sold and they wont be ready until March next year. So, if we sell quickly and they are still available, it is likely we get hit with early repayment on the current mortgage and then into short term rented accommodation.
Unless of course we get unbelievably lucky and find a buyer willing to wait until then. Estate agents saying 3-4 months for completion at the moment.
We've just started looking in Sheffield as first time buyers. Thought maybe the viewing/offer process would be a bit calmer than renting, but it seems just as mad so far!
Good luck to everyone, wherever you are along the process. We've been in for around 2 months now, the stress finally starting to ease.
Took us just over a year from selling our flat to moving into the new place. Selling and buying in Bristol, our place was sold in a couple of weeks, took us 2 months to find somewhere but properly lucked out. Then had to wait 6 or so months for our sellers to find somewhere. In a complete chain our buyers then decided they wanted ££££ off the price at a very late stage (despite them being in at a very good price and everything going up in the meantime), and so we called their bluff, politely declined and sold again to someone else within days for more.
I still can't get over what a terrible process it all is, the unprofessional attitude of some solicitors bordering on malpractice, and just how much work/chasing you have to do yourself despite paying out for a supposed service.
I will say that Ocean estate agents in Bristol were well worth their commission. Not perfect by any means, but they stepped up to the mark on a couple of occasions when it looked like the sh1t was about to hit the fan.
Still can't quite believe we got through it, and where we've found ourselves, but my advice to anyone about to start the process is ensure your resilience levels are properly topped up!
Well we’re due to complete our sale on the 1st of August. Found a place to buy, surveys all done, mortgage offer received. All great.
We were planning to break chain for a couple of weeks. Condition of which is that we’d have exchanged prior to chain break so nobody could back out on us in either direction. Except…
Spoke to our solicitor (chocolate fire guard made of m1 service area chocolate coins remelted) today who suddenly revealed they’d done absolutely nothing on our purchase as they’d not received the legal pack from the vendors.
So now our chain break is looking like a 3 month unknown with the risk that it all may fall apart again.
Why is this process so unbelievably cr@p?
Oh and our mortgage offer will expire on 30th September.
Seriously considering jacking it all in and trading in on a new build.
So a bit of an update on this. I'm relucntant to start talking about it as I feel it will just jinx it all. We accepted an offer for the asking price around 2 weeks after it went on the market, great! At the same time we'd viewed houses, including new builds. We lucked out and found a great house that is all but finished and will be ready in September. Our buyers are chain free, I believe they are currently renting.
We're now about 2 weeks into the process, mortgage application got approved really quickly, about a week and solicitors instructed. We have the contracts for the house we've bought and will hopefully be signing them and returning them tomorrow/Tuesday. We have a few things to check with them first which we found in the contract. So, it all seems great so far.
I was very nervous at the start as the buyer of our house viewed and agreed on his own and then brought his family back the following week. I was really worried she wouldn't like it and the offer would be pulled. But they viewed and all was good.
I'm now constantly worrying it's too good to be true and that the buyers will pull out. We appear to be in a great position, I really hope it all works out.
We could be new residents of Congleton very soon.
I’m now constantly worrying it’s too good to be true and that the buyers will pull out. We appear to be in a great position, I really hope it all works out.
Same here, it’s been a right pigs ear of errors and delays including 10 weeks of Barclays sitting on our buyers mortgage and it being paused by an underwriter and not being able to ‘un-pause’ it?? ended up with our seller re-listing her property due to the delay, our mortgage deal ending in 12 days time, promises and deadlines came and went with no resolution. All this has meant 8 months of stress which came to head on Friday when the plug was about to be pulled on everything and the mortgage gets approved!
Now it’s a mad rush to exchange tomorrow or wednesday and complete on the 25th.
We still expect it all to come crashing down like a house of cards and have not celebrated as it’s wrung out any emotions we had long ago.
We still expect it all to come crashing down like a house of cards and have not celebrated as it’s wrung out any emotions we had long ago.
Hope it all ends well! It's sad that such a positive thing should be dragged down by the incompetence of others.
We have friends who move every 2 to 3 years. I don't know how they have the energy to do it. Once in 25 years was enough for me! 🙂
Urgh @MrSmith, that fills me with more dread now. Hopefully it works out. We're just about to sign our contracts and send them back today. Couple of small errors which have been sorted quickly.
Thought I would update this. Things have progressed, but the radio silence is deafening. Everything is good at our end, the new build is due to be finished end of next week. We now have a completion date of 23rd September, but just need to buyers solicitor to confirm they can meet that. All we are waiting on are the searches to come back for our buyer. I can't see it throwing anything up as this is a new build, only 6 1/2 years old. We now have just under 4 weeks to go, but a date for exchanging isn't confirmed. We need to book a removals company and start sorting the house. But this all seems like it could be in vein.
Welcome to that dead-zone time where nothing seems to be happening!!
We ended up booking a removals company as we were as certain as we could be that things would go OK. We did take cancellation cover out though - just in case! 😬😱
We did have a date pencilled in that we were working towards though. Have you got that?
Yea, the 23rd September is the date everyone is working towards.
We have a couple of removal companies coming to quote us in the next few days, so will ask about cancellations or moving dates.
I am also constantly worrying that the buyers will still pull out, even though we are this far on mortgages have been approved etc.
Sorry to say - that worry won't go away until you get the phone-call on moving day to say all has gone through!!
We’ve had a 23rd September deadline today also. A date when our buyers mortgage offer runs out and the chain potentially falls apart.
We’ve been waiting on a grant of probate for ages which we’ve told is ‘NOW….NOW! Being looked at.
Crystal ball anyone! Will it won’t it all fall the f apart!!!!
Our mortgage offers runs out in October….who knows how much less we’ll get this time with changes in rates etc
So...close...
Almost there now. Final contracts signed, all searches completed. Just waiting to exchange now. Removals company booked, boxes for packing arriving soon. I haven't had a drink in about a month, I'll be having a few when this is all done.
stcolin if you dont mind me asking did you go with a Persimmon house? If so does it have a garage and have you had a good look inside?
No, we didn't. We breifly looked at a Persimmon development near Buxton, but the build dates didn't quite suit and it wasn't our first choice for location.
Well, here we are, 3 days before completion and silence. Not exchanged, our buyer 'forgot' to send back the signed contracts last week. Everything else we're told, is done, searches etc. They paid their deposit last week, again, so we have been told. We have chased everyone today, left messages for our solicitor, the EA, and nothing. Utter incompetency. We have removals booked, broadband ordered, and the majority of the packing still to do with 3 days to go.
You're bringing back memories I'd buried! 😬
Amazing how something that occupies your every waking thought can be parked to the back of your mind.
Signed contracts thing isn't major though if everything else is in place.
Fingers crossed for you. 🤞
[img] 
[/img]
Sorry about that @the-muffin-man!
There's only us and our buyer in the chain too, so I would have thought things would have been easier. This is obviously going to the wire.
Sorry to spam this thread now. A completely sleepless night last night. Spoken to the removals company who have given us until 4pm to either cancel or move our completion date. I think I've just resigned myself now that it wont happen, even at all. This basically feels like one long panic attack from yesterday. Nobody is giving us any reassurance that this can and will happen by Friday. Our solicitor has zero empathy, even failed to acknowledge that we'd sorted the buildings insurance yesterday.
The house is half packed, we have a dog sitter to organise, a van to book, and time off work for tomorrow and Friday. Yet everyone who is now in control seemingly couldn't care less. It's going to be a very long very stressful day.
Jebus, that sounds awful. Sorry for you stcolin, I've only done a move once and our purchaser was also our seller so it was pretty easy, still not a process I'd like to repeat again.
That sounds utterly shit. I know you said you'd checked everything, but have you rung the buyers conveyancer? The buyers themselves? Just asking that because you said "we're told". Chinese whispers.
I hope it all works out.