House sale and purchase

gaga its the most frustrating thing waiting for it all to fall into place
Its about time we took on the system they have in Scotland it would save people some money and peace of mind.

I hope it all sorts its self out for you

Gagagran All the sympathy in the world. I simply don't believe how complicated and long-winded the process of buying and selling houses in England can be. I think it must be the only country in the world where you have gazzumping and whatever the opposite is. (Surely not gazzundering as that must refer to the po under the bed.) I have bought houses in New Zealand on a handshake, returned to the UK, transferrd a deposit and we've all done the final bit on the appropriate day a few (3 or 4) weeks later. The houses I have bought in the UK – even ones for cash – have gone through such a long rigmarole, I felt like moving into a tent. You can spend weeks with your whole world packed into cardboard cartons before you finally get to where you were supposed to be ages before. I wish you lots of luck and hope it's all sorted out properly soon.

gaga I sympathise. We were in a similar position last September - also in a chain of four. A week before we were set to move, suddenly everyone except us had a problem. Our seller's forward sale fell through. The people who were buying our house had a problem with the survey on their house and their purchaser got the jitters; then their mortgage was held up. We sat it all out like piggy in the middle. It was all an enormous scramble in the end, and if the people we were buying from had not agreed to move out and rent until they had found another property, it would not have happened at all! I was several shades greyer by the time we moved and DH's blood pressure went through the roof, but hang in there - it'll all come together I'm sure. Let us know how you get on.

gaga So frustrating! I was in your position almost exactly a year ago and really felt we would not move...but it did all fall into place..later than we had been told /wanted. I do remember the anxious waiting and hideous lack of communication!

Perhaps that is a campaign worth pursuing..improving the process of selling /buying property.

gaga my sympathies, house buying and selling is always stressful, I know as I always had to do it on my own as himself had already moved each time!

It was worse for you because of the short time between exchange and completion, it is more usually 4 weeks which gives you time to make all the other arrangements after exchange. Presumably there was a good reason for this? If you can avoid such a short gap when it does all finally go through it would make your life a lot easier.

Do keep us informed so we know when to stop sending you sympathy and when to cheer.

Speeding it up was supposed to be what the idiotic seller's pack was meant to do. It didn't – it was just one more layer and one more expense. You're so right nanaej improvement is badly needed.

My daughter is in a similar position. They had sold their house and found another, reached exchange of contracts and their buyer's purchase fell through. They decided to carry on with the exchange, found another house, put in an offer, but that fell through. They then completed and moved in with me about 6 0r 7 weeks ago. Since then they have made two offers that have fallen through (one because the seller was getting divorced and didn't really want to sell and was stringing them (and the estate agent) along. However, they have now found another house that is not in a chain, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I love having them with me, but it's exhausting as the little girl is 3yrs and the baby boy is coming up to 5 1/2mths. The little girl goes to bed, but at sometime in the night she climbs into bed with her parents, so they don't get a good night's sleep and occasionaly she awakes with nightmares, so none of us get a good night's sleep. I spend a lot of timing washing bottles and feeding babies.

One day I will be able to see my dining table again without everything piled up on it!! Half their stuff is in my attic and the other half is with my SIL's parents.

It sounds as though I'm moaning. I'm not! It's a delight to have the grandchildren living with me!! And I can at least escape to work during the day and have a rest!!! That's what I tell me boss!!

janthea We had my DD and her OH plus 2 DGC with us for three months after they sold their flat. SiL was doing up the house and easier to do without them in it! Lovely to have them, lovelier to see them move into their own home! Got our own back when we moved here...SiL did our house up so we lived with them

absent trouble with the sellers pack was it did not have the info that was needed. I feel that all the searches /surveys should be prepared by the seller. Then they know possible hitches in advance of selling and can
a) put them right or
b) reflect in price

This would make it more possible to make offers legally binding as in other countries.

My other daughter lives in Luxembourg and I think that there, once you put in offer, you are pretty much tied in - unless the bank refuses you a mortgage.

nanaej An additional problem was that banks and other mortgage lenders didn't trust the sellers' packs so stuff had to be duplicated.

Yes it would need a change in the law to make the packs legally acceptable and liable in law for any false statements etc.
Also maybe no offer should be allowed until it is accompanied by a mortgage offer. Would maybe slow things down in one way but once offer made could proceed without current anxiety and frustrations.

Heartfelt sympathy, Gagagran. We finally exchanged this week, after accepting an offer last January (sorry!) from a buyer who had sold to a buyer who had sold to a first time buyer. We were supposed to have completed in time for said first time buyer to benefit from the stamp duty holday which ended with the financial year, but no such luck, here we are right at the end of May. It has been the longest four months of my life. Talk about stress and worry - I have even been too down in the dumps to post on GN (though reading the posts has saved my sanity). There must be a better way. Keep us all informed as to how it's going.

Thanks everyone - it really helps knowing that positive thoughts are flowing our way. I think I could manage better if I just had to keep myself upbeat but DH, though he is a rock in many ways is a glass half empty type and that takes it out of me. I'll post again when there's any news - fingers crossed!

Gagagran I know exactly how you feel we are going through the same thing.

We signed the contracts 2 weeks ago and our conveyancer has been phoning the solicitors for the other side every other day since. He has been told that they have not had the result of the Local authority search which was instructed in April through an Agent who the solicitors can only contact by email. This is rather than doing a search of the Local Authority direct (which in this area is no more expensive and is turned round in under a week)

I have today told our selling agent that is a load of B....ocks. Having worked in a solicitors most of my adult life I know how long it should take. A local Authority search in this area takes 4 - 5 days. Where there is no chain, only a buyer and a seller, no mortgage (or the mortgage has been approved) I have turned it round in a week (rare but it has happened.)

I am fed up with our Agent he seems to be more on the side of the buyer than working for us. I have had to be a bit "Maggie" today and remind him that we can always stay here - do not have to move.

Such a stressful time for you gagagran I wish you a speedy end to it all.
It really is about time that a better system was implemented - it surely cannot be difficult - 2 perfectly sensible ones have already been mentioned!!
Why has all this tripe gone on for so long?

Further to my "ranting" on Wednesday - had a phone call from agent yesterday, the missing local search has arrived. Documentation is being sent by email to our buyers who will get it back to their solicitors by Wednesday of next week - Solicitors will be shut until then for the Jubilee. Fingers crossed they do and we can exchange contracts and agree a completion date.

Wish you could get things done by being polite!

gagagran when I worked in new house sales this kind of thing happened on a regular basis mainly at the bottom of chains as in your case,the other buyers should not have been tied into a date until the FTB was in receipt of their mortgage offer and the solicitors are at fault for this,they should have known that the accounts have to be certified for 3 full years before any building society or bank will consider any offer if they don't they are not doing their job properly.I hope that things get sorted for you and also be aware that once the accounts are certified and received everything else can be done very quickly by couriour between solicitors to speed up the completion.Wishing you all the luck in the world for a speedy outcome.

When a Solicitor is instructed to act they will ask who is providing the mortgage. They do not investigate the finances of the Client. They are, in effect, acting for the Lender as well and have to confirm to the Lender that the Title to the property is good etc.

No date should be fixed for completion (moving date) until all parties are in a position to exchange contracts and complete the sale.

A buyer can always ask the prospective lender for an "Offer in Principle" before they start looking for a property which, of course, would be subject to survey and valuation and (if necessary) accounts.

We are feeling the stress (as you will see from my posting above). There are only 2 in the chain, us and the buyers and it is their solicitors who have let us down in not chasing up a local authority search. Well that is what we have been told, but I have no way of checking that is correct, it could be that our buyers instructed the solicitors to delay for some reason.

We are at the search stage now, having accepted an offer a couple of weeks ago; it's like being in limbo. But some of you will know how uptight DH was getting - so it's a relief to know that other DHs get stressed too! Hey ho! Good luck to us all.

I once threatened to pull out and that soon got everyone motivated! I do agree that 'being nice' does not always worked as we have been through some terrible sale and purchase situations but we have also been through some great ones.

When selling out last house it took 33 hours between the purchaser viewing the house and exchanging contracts! Yes, I do mean hours! OK, they didn't need a mortgage but this was only 3 years ago and it had taken us ages to find a buyer until I decided to show people round myself instead of the agent and we ended up with 2 people wanting it.

Well done to you AlisonMA it just goes to show how quickly it can be done,when I was selling property the times that I went to the Land Registry office's are too many to mention,solicitors think that they hold the monopoly on these things but everyone should know that the searches can be applied for and picked up by hand on the same day as long as everything is in place,I have even at one time collected the mortgage offer for one client as it was issued on a Thursday after 3pm and completion was the next day,so nothing is impossible its just Sols bumping themselves up to justify their huge costs.

I hope some of you will agree that the English system of selling/buying houses is a total disaster- open to gazumping and gazundering right up to the last minute- with huge chains that can collapse at any minute - a nightmare. The Scottish system is much better.

Well fellow GNs we are still here amongst our packed boxes of possessions and still waiting for the chap at the bottom of the chain to get his act together. Apparently he is just about ready now (been hearing that for weeks) but he is using one of the "cheap as chips" conveyancing firms (all done for £300 type offers) and they are VERY slow to respond/act.

Fortunately our vendor is being very understanding and our buyer -poor girl - is pressing Mr Snailpace as hard as she can to get his finger out so that we can exchange and complete soon after. There are endless texts, emails and phone calls seeking information - but still we wait.

I think the worst thing is the not knowing where it's at and what is causing the delays and then we hear bits from estate agents and solicitors and don't know who to believe.

We have had to cancel services lined up at the new address again and the removers are still on standby waiting for the go ahead. Will it ever happen or are we fated to live in cardboard box central for ever? Help - need cheering up!

Gagagran Hang on in there. Sooner or later there will be action. The vendor of the house I bought before the one where I now live didn't really want to sell. His wife had divorced him and wanted her share of the house's value. Whenever he was needed to sign a document or something, he couldn't be found and various legal clerks would sent out around the neighbourhood pubs to try and track him down. This caused lots of delays but I finally got to move in about a month after it was all supposed to happen

I turned up with my dog on a lead and a moving van full of furniture and the vendor was sitting on the front doorstep, sobbing into a pint of beer. Nothing had been packed up. His friend eventually managed to get him to go and my movers could eventually start unloading the van. Bit of a problem in the basement – a huge wardrobe was wedged diagonally across the hallway and the basement front door had no lock.

Bit of a problem with the second van load – because of the delay it was dark and I had already had the electricity disconnected in my previous house. However, we managed the second load only to find that my then partner had locked himself out, leaving the only front door key on top of the television in the sitting room. "Aha, the basement door has no lock," I said but it turned out that in the interim the aforementioned partner had wedged it shut from the inside with some lengths of wood he'd found somewhere. We had to borrow a ladder from the pub on the corner and climb in through an open window in a bedroom.

I swore I would never move again and would only leave that house feet first. However, I moved without much effort – but some delay on the part of the vendors – two years ago. This house will be going on the market as soon as some bits of painting are complete. Fingers crossed…