Help calm me. House buying and selling stress

Sure you will appreciate the water meter Shandy. I understood that it is compulsory to install one whenever a new occupant goes into a property.

Back in 2003, just prior to my move from my large family 5 bed house, with large garden to small, terraced 3-bed house, I discovered that the water rates on the new small property (no water meter) was just over twice as much as I paid in the property I was leaving (with meter), although for most of the previous two or three years my DiL and son as well as myself had lived there. One of the first things I did was get a water meter installed.

Nice to see you back Whiff, sounds as if you have had a very busy time with you home over this last year.

Like others I have also pm's Craftyone - no reply. For whatever reason, she seems to have totally cut herself off from GN.

Hi I never went anywhere. And have been here everyday.

Since Craftyone left I have sent her a PM every weekend. But no reply.

Why I stopped openly posting was one of the posters here I had a issue with on another thread. As I am a polite person if she said anything nice I would have to say something nice back and to be honest I didn't feel like it.

But I have been on GN everyday on this thread and others via PM or online.

But after a message from kissngate decided to be back.

I have been following all your highs and lows . And sending PMs.

All the work on my bungalow will be completed next month. Having the 2 bedroom windows replaced, living room and hall decorated, lights fitted on the outside of the front and back door and new hall light. Paving with soak ways replaced in the back and front garden. Then my green house can be put up. Then everything is done. Just the garden to finish planting. And then growing some veg with my grandson .

Also taken 4 Covid tests. But not wasting resources. My daughter and family had Covid mid January. Luckily they are only had limited problems. Unfortunately my brother and sister in law didn't get off so lightly . And have been very ill with it. They have been out of isolation for 4 weeks and are finally starting to improve. Luckily they could stay at home throughout.

I get my first jab on Wednesday and they have their's on Thursday.

I will still be sending PMs and emails to those I have since December.

But will post if I can help in anyway.

Thanks for letting us know Pittcity. That’s reassuring.

I have heard from Whiff. She is another taking a break from posting but is still reading posts.

I was just thinking about Whiff too. Always enjoyed their posts.
Crafty one said she was dropping out but Whiff just stopped posting.

Just wondering if anyone has heard from Craftyone. I hope she is well. She was such a wonderful support for everyone on this thread.

The period between Exchange of Contracts and Completion can be any length of time. When I moved back in 2003, it was usually approximately four weeks - which was great as it gave that time to make all the arrangements with removers, utility companies, etc. etc.

When I asked my Solicitor (the same ones) for four weeks this time -the laughed at me and told me I was living in the past. This was, of course, pre-covid - so nothing to do with that). I was told that the very most I could hope for would be a week, more likely two or three days). I was hearing, increasingly, then of this being carried out on the same day - and told them I could not even think of going along that route.

I really do not understand why this is - and cannot even think as to how Removal companies manage with such short notifications. Indeed, I was actually advised to accept quotes from two or three companies to give myself more options when the time came, which appeared, to me, to be very unethical.

In the end I signed my contracts eight days before the date I had requested for completion - but (in a very small chain of three), as the ones at the bottom used an on-line conveyancing company who could not be reached -the actual exchange came about only three days before Completion. Close to several nervous breakdowns at that time!!!! I was fortunate in that I kept the removal company in the picture that week (I did only accept one quote), and they worked with it.

Nothing is really settled until Contracts are exchanged. No money from me was paid at that date -all the money for my purchase was paid out from my sale price on the day of Completion - but once signed contracts are exchanged that is when a legal contract is in place.

Good to hear of those who are now at the end of this increasingly difficult and stressful road, s sorry for Kissngate, and at least they can now just be 'buyers' and that does give them some extra options.

You make it all sound so easy Shandy

We have a rolling deposit in our chain. The first buyers are paying it and it is passing up the chain with full payment on completion day.
We remember our last move day where we sat outside for hours waiting for completion and were invited in by the seller who was still hoovering. We rang the solicitor who said to go ahead if invited.
Fingers crossed it goes smoothly this time as surely electronic payments are much improved ????

Yes, the system here is tricky Spice101. I made my offer on the bungalow and offered the asking price, but the seller said she wanted to continue to allow viewers to see if she could get more money. Luckily for me the others offered asking price as well. She then asked me, as the first viewer, to offer over the asking price to secure the sale. If she had been a dishonorable person and someone offered more than me she could have accepted it. We call it gazumping here. I spent a tense ten days waiting for the house to be taken off the market.

Once the offer is accepted, the 'Memorandum of Sale' is issued, which shows the offer has been accepted, and has details of the vendor/buyer's solicitor details. We each then have to instruct our solicitors to start searches etc, people needing a mortgage have to organise that, it can take a long time plus they need a 'mortgage survey' to see if the lender will take the risk. Cash people like me can just organise a survey to check the condition of the property. Not everyone bothers having a survey. If a survey brings up any costly problems, people often negotiate the offer price down. Sometimes they walk away at this point - my friend paid £600 for a survey only to find the whole bungalow needed costly underpinning.

Buyers don't have any contract with the seller until they exchange contracts. We have to pay out for surveys and solicitors costs for searches, and if the sale falls through, there is no comeback. I have wondered a few times if my seller had changed her mind, communication was so slow.

Exchange can take months, six months for me. Timing usually dependent upon searches being returned, satisfactory surveys, and with an onward chain, the seller finding somewhere to move to. When the contracts are signed at exchange the buyer pays a 10% deposit, and the completion date is set, normally a week or two weeks later. Some people are exchanging/completing in one day because of Covid, but my seller wanted a week in between to guarantee the completion date. I've successfully transferred all the funds and hope my solicitor manages to transfer the balance on the 11th! I have every faith in him.

I'm glad it's all over

I'm a little confused with your terminology. Here when we buy, we make an offer if that offer is accepted we sign a contract that among other things includes an agreed settlement date. The settlement date is the day the purchaser pays the balance of the agreed amount - a deposit having been paid within 3 days of signing the contract - and takes possession of the property. The settlement date can be any time agreed to by both parties. When we sold our place it was 150 days but when we bought this one it was 54. The most common time is 90 days. And that is that, everyone knows what is going to happen and when.
Usually a purchaser would make the contract conditional on a building and pest inspection being satisfactory and have 14 days from the signing of the contract to withdraw on the basis of that result.

You talk about an offer being accepted but the vendor still being open to other offers, signing the contract, exchange and completion.

Our system is stressful enough but yours seems to be so much more so when anyone can pull out at any time and until you are in your home you really don't know what is going to happen.

Sorry I meant to say I have researched water meters and am now glad I have one. I will get a water butt and continue my water saving ways, I always save the shower water in a bucket whilst it is heating up, only do a wash once a week, etc. One of the bore holes ran dry in South Africa when we were there - not having the choice of flushing the toilet for a while was horrendous.

I've just changed my address on my driving licence and discovered it runs out in January 2023. Have have had to pay £14 to renew and update my photo from my passport. Moving house has hidden costs!

kissngate - what a crazy system this is that people finish up in your situation.

We have "smart" water meters in our area, so they keep an eye on leaks etc. No need to read them.

Having a water meter should mean much lower water bills for a single person. I think they are quite widespread now.

We've had a water meter since we moved here 18 years ago and our bills are much less than they used to be, even when there were 5 of us here.

Great going Pittcity. I've slowed down on my move admin after the tax office farce this morning. They were saying I still owed them over £1K - but as far as I'm concerned I've been paying them back for three years. Turns out I have repaid the bulk of it and only owe £98.41, which I've just sent off by cheque. I don't trust them further than I can throw them.

Ah kissngate, I'm so very sorry that the sellers bent the truth to attract you to buy their property. So lucky you can stay with relatives, although I remember you have a long journey ahead of you. Good luck and keep us updated.

I've just come on because I've just discovered the bungalow has a water meter, not sure how I feel about it.

Solicitors tried twice to exchange but no joy. The chain wanted to exchange the day before completion next week which we wouldn't go for, we pulled the plug. Going to live with relatives temporarily. Good luck to everyone completing in the next week or so.

What an exciting week. Now we just hope that the actual moves go smoothly!

Congratulations to you all !. Hope things continue to go well.

I've spent an hour on the phone to Virgin Media and got a big price drop, although we'll be without broadband for a few days. So I've got to sort out more mobile data!!
Can't get through to house insurers but removals are booked and paid for.
Mail redirected.
Water and gas/electric both notified through apps and no need to read smart meters.
There's such a big list of admin tasks to get through. So glad that I can leave DH to pack.

So glad I now have something to keep me busy.

Congratulations Pittcity! Sorry I'm late just been holding on to HMRC forever, finally got my tax sorted out.

Fingers crossed for good weather for moving, I was a bit put off by my gardener coming today because the weather looks 'iffy' for next week.

Congratulations to Shandy, Luckygirl and Pittcity! ??????
Pittcity your relatively quick transaction gives me hope that if/when we downsize that we will be as lucky.

Congratulations pittcity, good luck with the move.

Congratulations Pittcity.