The nervous wait to exchange....
- Thread starter noj
- Start date
Soldato
£40 last time i had to use it with solicitor.
Anyone had a situation where the buyer/seller chain breaks down after exchanging contracts, if so how did it work out? My mum was supposed to be moving near us (moving-in day was today), yesterday evening less than 24 hours before she was due to get the keys we got a call from the solicitor saying the house the seller was moving to the same day had fallen through, the person they were buying from decided last second to not sell the house.
The seller up the chain who pulled out is in breach of contract (?) and has to pay some form of compensation unless they keep to their side of the contract but none of the solicitors can seem to agree exactly what happens next because it's an uncommon situation for such a late fall through. Said seller lives in London and the house they were selling is only their holiday home so presumably they’re the sort of seller who aren't bothered about the cost of any potential compensation they may/may not be liable for.
Person my mum was selling to is supposed to get compensation from us, we have to get it from the next seller who has to get it from the person who pulled out. Whole thing's a mess, everyone has their houses packed up in storage, cancelled utilities, removal vans, etc. and now it looks like no-one is moving anywhere.
The seller up the chain who pulled out is in breach of contract (?) and has to pay some form of compensation unless they keep to their side of the contract but none of the solicitors can seem to agree exactly what happens next because it's an uncommon situation for such a late fall through. Said seller lives in London and the house they were selling is only their holiday home so presumably they’re the sort of seller who aren't bothered about the cost of any potential compensation they may/may not be liable for.
Person my mum was selling to is supposed to get compensation from us, we have to get it from the next seller who has to get it from the person who pulled out. Whole thing's a mess, everyone has their houses packed up in storage, cancelled utilities, removal vans, etc. and now it looks like no-one is moving anywhere.
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Deposit + 10% I think
Soldato
Associate
Keys collected on my first house yesterday. 
Still at my current place until the end of the month so moving over slowly but surely over this week.
Off tomorrow though (Wednesday) and again from Saturday for five days so timing is decent.
The dreaded task of unpacking to deal with and then decorating.
Still at my current place until the end of the month so moving over slowly but surely over this week.
Off tomorrow though (Wednesday) and again from Saturday for five days so timing is decent.
The dreaded task of unpacking to deal with and then decorating.
Spend the 5 days decorating then unpackKeys collected on my first house yesterday.
Still at my current place until the end of the month so moving over slowly but surely over this week.
Off tomorrow though (Wednesday) and again from Saturday for five days so timing is decent.
The dreaded task of unpacking to deal with and then decorating.
Soldato
Mortgage company are sending out a valuer tomorrow which from a mortgage perspective should be the last hopefully small hurdle. We paid under asking and the wife is a Surveyor herself so she says we shouldn't have any worries but worrying is hard not to do.
The buyers on our current home complete on their sale on Friday so hopefully that's one end of the deal all tied up.
The buyers on our current home complete on their sale on Friday so hopefully that's one end of the deal all tied up.
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We got ours valued a couple of weeks back, didn't realise it had gone up much tbh. It's a cheaper house but we were expecting 110 they reckon it'll sell min 140 and given the recent sold on our street should fetch nearer 150 so happy with that.
We've instructed it to go up on the market. Mortgage in principle is being sorted at the moment for nearer the higher end of our budget (292k mortgage).
I understand from the internet normally you don't look around houses until ours is sold but looked at one already and got one booked in for Tuesday. The one on Tuesday has only just gone up for sale.
Assume it's just we cannot make any type of offer until ours is sold? Apart from buying this house i've never moved from one to another.
We've instructed it to go up on the market. Mortgage in principle is being sorted at the moment for nearer the higher end of our budget (292k mortgage).
I understand from the internet normally you don't look around houses until ours is sold but looked at one already and got one booked in for Tuesday. The one on Tuesday has only just gone up for sale.
Assume it's just we cannot make any type of offer until ours is sold? Apart from buying this house i've never moved from one to another.
You can still make an offer. They may just not take as seriously if there are other offers from people that are proceedable (cash buyer or someone who has sold their property already).
If no other offers and your property is on the market what they may do is accept your offer however continue marketing.
Ahh that's good then. What might help ours is one further round has put theres up 30k more than hours, they have open plan downstairs where as we dont and have a drive but no garden. we have a decent garden and can part at front and rear of property, if i was looking i'd choose mine.
We've noticed a 'town house' seems to have a lot more sqm than most of the semi detached houses around here. https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/144489593#/?channel=RES_BUY for example. Not sure if going upstairs to get to a living room would bother me as never had to do it. We're lucky here in that house prices are reasonable, its only the new oakmere homes ones which are around 500-600k.
Soldato
Well we are a little in limbo at the moment. The valuer noticed damp in the chimney breast in the room in the roof. Fully aware of this as we plan to remove the chimney stack so we can open the kitchen up as it runs right through the middle of the house (Still a double chimney breast to remain on the party wall). The only problem is that its slowed everything down so much. We had to wait 5 days for the valuer to add notes to the system when the underwriters questioned it. Then we had to wait 5 days for the underwriters to make a decision. We already had a quote set up for the works as it's the very first thing we planned to do but that wasn't enough. So now we had to pay for a damp and timber report which was done on Friday. Hopefully we get an answer by the end of this week. I understand the process and that the underwriters have to protect themselves but it sure is slow. The annoying thing is the loan to value amount is really low so the risk on their side is minimal.
but can't/won't you use that to renegotiate the price - in a similar situation I thought, conveyancing/solicitor costs of adjustment were not great.
That is a lot of sqft for the money. Here in London that would cost another 200K on top at least.
Soldato
How long does it typically take from end of enquires to completion? No mortgage.
Soldato
Ours took about a week once the solicitors searches were done and all questions from the seller answered or accepted. We exchanged and completed on the last working day before Christmas 2022.
Mind you, our solicitor missed an important search until we pointed it out otherwise it could have been quicker.
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Soldato
Once the report is back and goes to the underwriter they will then issue a value to the property. Obviously if this is less than we offered (We offered less than asking originally due to the works due). My thoughts are they will then value it around the purchase price, my wife is a surveyor and she said if she was doing the valuation she wouldn't have any issues with the sale price (one of the reasons we offered what we did).
Associate
Put the house back on the market on Saturday, had a viewer yesterday lunchtime and then in the evening got an offer for £5k above the guide price!!
The buyers are currently renting, we're hoping to buy a new build so no chain
The estate agent described them as cash buyers, but need to check if they have the cash or it's a mortgage
The buyers are currently renting, we're hoping to buy a new build so no chain
The estate agent described them as cash buyers, but need to check if they have the cash or it's a mortgage
Associate
We had another viewer this morning, they arrived late (deliberately I reckon) so the estate agent couldn't show them round as they had another viewing.
The first question he asked was "will you deal direct with me and cut the estate agent out"
He then said he liked the tv and sofas in the lounge, so would we leave them for him!
Sounded like the kind of buyer who'd be a nightmare to deal with.
The first question he asked was "will you deal direct with me and cut the estate agent out"
He then said he liked the tv and sofas in the lounge, so would we leave them for him!
Sounded like the kind of buyer who'd be a nightmare to deal with.
Soldato
Sounds like you might want to avoid them for sure.
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