The nervous wait to exchange....

  • Thread starter Thread starter noj
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All was going well for us... until we've just been told the completion date is now looking to be 25th June not 25th April! Beyond angry as we now have to make sure our buyers and their buyers are OK with that along with being on an 8% mortgage at the moment as we didn't see the point in remortgaging for a few months....

Argh!
 
Chains suck, it only takes one party to throw a spanner in the works, and depending on the size of the chain there are multiple points of failiure...

First time buyers, cash buyers, and sellers with no upward chain realy need to realise how much power they have... you can totally call peoples bluff with that BS...
 
ChrisD. said:
Personally I wouldn't bother, they'll pick up absolutely everything to cover their arse.
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1500% this

The rpoert our 2nd buyer had was passed to us and was full of..

Possibly
Could
Might
Further investigation needed

Over the absolute minimal things...

Water marks caused by a leak in back bedroom... simply sloppy wallpaper paste haha
Further investigation for knotweed... as there are generic other weeds in front garden
Due to age of property possible wall ties failing... based on a patch of different color mortar where a window was removed
Posting on chimney stacks needs addressed (it did) but not at the 7k the buyer thought it would cost to fix

The kicker for me was the surveyor stating no proof of electrical check.nor safety within 5 year.
There was a torch on top of the consumer unit that hand a strap attached, had said said been simply moved aside the date on the assembly sticker would've shown it had been done about a month prior.

Utter laziness on more than one count from the surveyor and as above its just blatant arse covering.
Ours also mentioned no drain assessment... this was as we'd had no issues with drainage
Also suggested a full structural survey as houses of this age typically use wood for the floor construction which can be prone to insects... despite there being no insect issues lol

Ultimately I'd like to.think that cost him a good few hundred quid as he clearly had no intention of completing on the date we agreed at the start costing us our initial new build.
 
For what it's worth, when I sold my nans house I gave them a 2k discount for little stuff like dirty but not blocked or leaking gutters...

Then they came back and asked for a further reduction in the form of me paying for an indemnity policy for the conservatory, and a gas cert and and electricity cert.

I point blank told my solicitor 'no deal' I'll put the house back on the open market.
It was a bit of a game of brinkmanship on my part but it paid off.
The sale went trough fine.

People will try to nickel and dime you and it adds up, especially if the house was already competetivley priced. And you cant blame them.. A few grand saved on purchase price will go a long way to redecorating or whatever, but it's sold as seen at the end of the day.
 
Yea I’ve already warned the agent I have no movement on price. The house is 80 years old, the price already reflects this. If it was an immaculate 10 year old house, it would be more.
 
Of course you have to get to know the local market... If you're confident it's well priced for what it is then you have 2 choices... Call their bluff or take a low ball offer.

If you know they are already semi committed then on the quiet, that's a bit more leverage for you.

But it's a gamble if they are a 'good quality' buyer... As they might just say no, and look elsewhere. You have to be confident you are priced competitively.
 
LiE said:
OK so here is what I was expecting from the buyer, massively overkill and vague. I suspect they are being overly cautious but could be angling for some reduction in price if they get the "expert" to confirm costs for these "things". No idea what they are talking about with regards to drainage and structural

I said to the agent, I have absolutely no room to move on price so if it comes to that then the sale is dead in the water.






It concerns me that they haven't even started searches yet and are waiting for these things first.
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Our buyer was a bit like this. Unfortunately for them, their experts were "damp proof specialist Inc" who came to assess a leaky chimney and damp walls (1880s solid brick no dpc....).

Surprise surprise they quoted for....... A damp proof course. I asked about the chimney and he said "ah yeah we don't do them".

Buyer went ahead with a dpc injection and the chimney was conveniently forgotten by the team that didn't do chimneys and the selling agent.

They were young and that's that.... I did email the agent saying absolutely under no circumstances am I reducing on any findings.

If they haven't even done searches I'd say 100% they aren't serious.
 
dlockers said:
If they haven't even done searches I'd say 100% they aren't serious.
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I dunno what to think. They’ve paid for a survey and are paying for experts to come out. Odd behaviour if they aren’t serious. Agent said the buyer admitted to being overly cautious.

Time will tell. I’ve asked the agent to find out what exactly they need an expert to look at structurally and drainage.
 
LiE said:
I dunno what to think. They’ve paid for a survey and are paying for experts to come out. Odd behaviour if they aren’t serious. Agent said the buyer admitted to being overly cautious.

Time will tell. I’ve asked the agent to find out what exactly they need an expert to look at structurally and drainage.
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Maybe they are first timers and read the survey and had kittens... Easy to see that scenario the way surveys are written...especially if you know nothing about houses.

Do you have any info on them.. Are they first time buyers? Are they in a long chain they are relying on to buy?

I know when I bought my place I made it very clear I was a cash buyer /no mortgage /money in the bank and could get things moving as fast as they could keep up with.
That's a powerful negociating tool.
 
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mattyfez said:
Do you have any info on them.. Are they first time buyers? Are they in a long chain they are relying on to buy?
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What I know is that the buyer owns a house in London, and she is doing a let to buy. So effectively chain free, by releasing equity from her house in London and changing it to a let. She works with mortgages in some way, not sure on the details. I believe she is buying our house together with her sister and sister's partner. I don't know much about them, but I believe they are renting and could be where the inexperience is coming from as they are effectively FTB.

Hopefully I can get some more info today from the agent.
 
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So the drainage might be because I left the metal rod in my outside drain, I use it to scrape the leaves off the grate if some fall in. (usually those tiles are positioned over the hole to prevent leaves but I move them when draining the hot tub).



Structural could be a blown brick that was poorly suck back on. I hadn't actually noticed this one until I put the house on the market, so it's been like this since I moved in 10 years go. Either that or the lintels have flaking paint and could get flagged.

 
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LiE said:
So the drainage might be because I left the metal rod in my outside drain, I use it to scrape the leaves off the grate if some fall in. (usually those tiles are positioned over the hole to prevent leaves but I move them when draining the hot tub).



Structural could be a blown brick that was poorly suck back on. I hadn't actually noticed this one until I put the house on the market, so it's been like this since I moved in 10 years go. Either that or the lintels have flaking paint and could get flagged.

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From that 2nd picture it doesn't look structural, it was just a brick thats come out (probably when windows were changed) then poorly put back in.

Do they mean the crack on the left? If your house is 1950s that looks/sounds very minor.
 
We’ve just moved, only a mile or two from our previous place.

We used Birchall Blackburn, I’d say avoid them as they were extremely slow and vague.
 
Buffman said:
From that 2nd picture it doesn't look structural, it was just a brick thats come out (probably when windows were changed) then poorly put back in.

Do they mean the crack on the left? If your house is 1950s that looks/sounds very minor.
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I'm just guessing what they may be referring to at this stage, but I have asked for more info on what needs a structural expert to assess.
 
LiE said:
but I have asked for more info on what needs a structural expert to assess.
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They won’t provide any clarification on the things they want assessed. So I told the agent that there’s absolutely no room for me to drop the agreed price. Let’s see what they say to that.

The buyers aren’t coming across well. One detail they did share is the Artex they want checking for asbestos is in the bedroom and also the living room. Which is odd, because the living room is wood chip paper, not Artex…
 
LiE said:
They won’t provide any clarification on the things they want assessed. So I told the agent that there’s absolutely no room for me to drop the agreed price. Let’s see what they say to that.

The buyers aren’t coming across well. One detail they did share is the Artex they want checking for asbestos is in the bedroom and also the living room. Which is odd, because the living room is wood chip paper, not Artex…
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Sounds like they don't really know what they are doing... But if they are paying for all this then that's their problem.

If you are confident you are priced right I'd just let it play out, but also prepare to go back to the open market!
 
mattyfez said:
Sounds like they don't really know what they are doing... But if they are paying for all this then that's their problem.

If you are confident you are priced right I'd just let it play out, but also prepare to go back to the open market!
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They are coming across very naive.

I’m not pleased that it’s going to take the best part of 2 weeks for all these checks before she will start her searches. Or pull out.

It’s priced very well.
 
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LiE said:
They won’t provide any clarification on the things they want assessed. So I told the agent that there’s absolutely no room for me to drop the agreed price. Let’s see what they say to that.

The buyers aren’t coming across well. One detail they did share is the Artex they want checking for asbestos is in the bedroom and also the living room. Which is odd, because the living room is wood chip paper, not Artex…
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Warn of warning, if it comes back as asbestos you legally have to disclose it assuming you don't end up selling to that party.
 
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Had another email from our solicitors to tell us Redrow have now said it's back on for 25th of April.

Both relieved but also really annoyed they told us that it was slipping by 2 months as it just caused stress dealing with everyone in the chain.
 
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