The nervous wait to exchange....

  • Thread starter Thread starter noj
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Rabtech said:
Our buyer is now threatening to pull out due to the delays, they have set a deadline of 17th September. Our solicitor is now scrambling to try and get things through with our vendors new solicitor. Trying to get the buyers solicitor to stretch to the end of September by the latest. Contract pack is finally through, searches ordered on the new place.
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When was the offer accepted?

It's infuriating how long and dragged out the buying process is - it's totally broken.

I became really frustrated with no movement or updates from either the agent or the Vendor's solicitor when I was buying my first house last year and gave a deadline of the end of April for the SDLT holiday. When it was extended, they seemed to relax even more and said we've now got more time. My response was that I saw the extension as an opportunity to find somewhere else and not wait longer for this place and I think I must have triggered something, as I had contracts by the end of the week :cry:
 
So, we've just our house survey done turns out there are quite a few issues. Three of the major ones are, the rear bay is shot, the wall ties need to be inspected and because the consumer unit is old a rewire is possible. How much is a rewire likely to be for a 3 bed house around Greater Manchester?
 
Old CU doesn't necessarily mean you need a full rewire (which for a 3 bed house could be upwards of £7k-£8k+ and with the need to make good in every room (not somewhere I'd want to live while it was going on which could take weeks / months).

Our house is 1950's, it had a 30+ year old CU and the replacement with an all singing all dancing one was about £350 installed. We then had parts of the house with no earth to the lights that we did as we got round to doing each room (before plaster) and that probably worked out at about £100-£200 per room (3 or 4 needed doing). Most of the rest of the cabling is the original stuff from the 50's or whenever the previous owners had extra sockets added and it's perfectly fine.
 
A consumer unit will come up on a survey if it isn't up to the latest regs and they change quite often, that doesn't mean it's bad nor does it mean the wiring is bad in the rest of the house. The surveyor will always flag it as an issue to cover their own backside and tell you to get it inspected by an electrician.

That said, if it is old and doesn't have full RCD protection, you might want to get it updated.
 
Lonewolf said:
So, we've just our house survey done turns out there are quite a few issues. Three of the major ones are, the rear bay is shot, the wall ties need to be inspected and because the consumer unit is old a rewire is possible. How much is a rewire likely to be for a 3 bed house around Greater Manchester?
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House we bought was only 20 years old. They flagged 'red'. Apparently they always do if regs have changed
 
Indeed, replacing a CU is a few hundred quid normally so tiny in the grand scheme of buying a house. Anything older than about 10 years will probably be flagged as "doesn't conform with current standards" however it doesn't mean anything really - just the surveyor covering their own backs at this point. If you're really worried pay a trusted sparky £50 to visit the property for 30 minutes with you and take a quick look around.
 
Skillmister said:
A survey will flag gas/electrics as "red" if they don't have an inspection report available from within the last 12 months in most cases.
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I guess this pretty much never happens unless the seller gets it done specifically to help sell the house? I've never known anyone get one done
 
413x said:
I guess this pretty much never happens unless the seller gets it done specifically to help sell the house? I've never known anyone get one done
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Rental properties will almost always have one (I think they need to have one done every 12 months by law).
 
Meant to be completing on Monday... We are still waiting on a "formal letter" from her buyer but I understand missives have been signed. Also waiting for a deed which she needs to sign to sell her flat which we currently live in.
Going to drop the security and a couple of other documents at the solicitor tonight.
Fingers crossed it all goes well as I've got a fridge being delivered to the new house on Tuesday! Living in a sea of boxes is very annoying, but almost packed and been busy touching up paint and filling holes. I'll be using command strips for the picture walls in the new house and not nails as was used here!
 
Looks like we're starting the process again, after being gazumped last month (2 weeks after the offer was accepted), it looks like we're going to have an offer accepted tomorrow. Let's see where we end up...
 
Unseul said:
Looks like we're starting the process again, after being gazumped last month (2 weeks after the offer was accepted), it looks like we're going to have an offer accepted tomorrow. Let's see where we end up...
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Should be illegal. I can't understand why it isn't!
 
413x said:
Should be illegal. I can't understand why it isn't!
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I don't think it should be illegal, but I do think there should be at least some measures to prevent it. Like the seller fronts up for the survey, the lawyers fee's etc, and then gets the cash back once the purchase is completed (if not completed, they don't get it back).

EDIT - I mean I'd like it to be illegal, but being more realistic.

EDIT EDIT - If the buyer pulls out, then the buyer is responsible for those costs.
 
Unseul said:
I don't think it should be illegal, but I do think there should be at least some measures to prevent it. Like the seller fronts up for the survey, the lawyers fee's etc, and then gets the cash back once the purchase is completed (if not completed, they don't get it back).

EDIT - I mean I'd like it to be illegal, but being more realistic.

EDIT EDIT - If the buyer pulls out, then the buyer is responsible for those costs.
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Yes. Would mean the buyer at least doesn't lose out financially. Its ridiculous you can get to 1 day before exchange. Everything paid for... Gazump!
 
Our lack of mortgage offer currently holding everything up. Rang our broker yesterday to chase up, and he said we showed as "Satisfied" against all the criteria and the survey/valuation matched the purchase price so all looked good. Got a message a bit later which said the lender is looking to issue the offer this week.

After that, our solicitor has said we can start looking at exchange and completion dates, so fingers crossed everything goes OK; the wait is awful.
 
We exchanged on Tuesday. Completion not so far away.

I just find it annoying when you ask for the simplest of things, they then take ages to come back to you regarding them.

The sellers have been great, we were updating each other as the process went a long.
 
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