Foggies

We're in just the same boat! We accepted an offer for our house wwwaaaayyyyyy back in July. A lower offer than we really wanted but no chain and the buyers said they would exchange quickly and complete when we were ready to move. Too good to be true we thought...... WE STILL HAVEN'T EXCHANGED!!! and my nerves are in shreds. Marc rang their financial bloke directly and told him that if they didn't get their *rses in gear we were pulling out so now we appear to have got things moving and they are signing at the weekend and exchanging on Monday we hope!
Good luck to everyone cos house selling is a pain in the **?!

Claire

rumbletum

My god Tina, I would be livid. I agree with Tazzy though and think you should call their bluff, tell them if they want in by Xmas then they can forget about their stupid list. If the estate agent wont side with you, then I would tell them you are taking it off the market, because you have had a rethink and will put it up with another agent... might work, what have you got to lose. I wish I could offer some constructive advice but I tend to get all worked up and leave the confrontations to my husband as he is very calm and not prone to ranting and raving like me.

Got my fingers crossed that it will work out right in the end.

plumber39

Like they say you have'nt sold anything until you've got the money in the bank."I SHOULD KNOW"
Still praying that day will come!

tinaj

Thanks guys for your support and suggestions. I have responded to their innane questions, mainly with 'carried out by previuos owner' answers. I have also given them a date, 28th Oct to exchange by if they don't then we wont be able to move out before Xmas. We know they are desperate to move in before then so it might kick them up the ar** a bit.

We are spending Saturday tidying up again and are hoping to get some viewers around on Sunday. Hopefully that will scare them into action. If they do drop out then we could just about sell it in time to leave when we have planned. But we need to get some other buyers on the back burner now!!

Trying to stay optimistic, but my brain is buzzing like a chain saw and I don't think I will be sleeping much tonight

Pollyana

OOOH Tina, you poor lamb. Makes me even more glad all I had to do was scrub the kitchen floor, paint over the Blu-tak marks and walk away.
I shall keep everything crossed for you, and hope when I get back on here that theres some better news. At least once we get over there the systme is so much easier, as Dotty described. Here it really is a joke - how do they get away with this stuff.

Pollyana

MrsDagboy

You have my sympathy tina & all the others with problems, we had 4 or 5 buyers & 18 months of hell selling ours over there. During that time it was constantly "under offer", longest it was actually on the market was about 2 weeks, they just kept pulling out after stringing us along for months, usually for no good reason.

All made even more stressful by the fact that we were over here in Oz with an empty house in the UK which was costing us a huge amount in mortgage. Completely useless solicitors, including our own, the one redeeming thing was that our estate agent was very good & ended up doing more for us than our solicitors did. Not fun!

The system over there really does need a shakeup. Selling here, well in Qld at least as dotty has described, is a breeze compared to that.

yafm

Now be a little bit fair we have had all the same problems as everyone else with this being our 4th buyer and we cannot fault the estate agents he checked all the information give and then some but people tell LIES. They change their mind and will not admit it at the beginning

mOST of our problems have been caused by slow and lazy solicitors who do not care they are being paid to pull their finger out. They keep the papers for 7 weeks and THEN see something they missed or ignored at the beginning and the mad panic begins As for £40 for an indemnity you are lucky ours is costing us £240 plus VAT to say the original builders of the house in 1932 will not complain about the garage we erected with all the relevant permits 18 years ago!%%%*** BE FAIR not all estate agents are at fault and they do work very hard but it is behind the scenes and you do not realise how much money they save you by getting the answers and pushing rather than leaving it to solicitors who charge like wounded bulls by the telephone call and letter :lecture: :scared:

Rossi

We have just told our buyers that we are going to Oz at the beginning of November to validate visa'a and are gonna be gone for at least 3 months so will be unavailable to sign any paperwork til our return, you should have heard the panic in her voice

Little white lie but they're not to know

Budgie

A friendly solicitor (yes, there is such a thing!) told me that all this red tape has got worse because of a recent case, when a solicitor was successfully sued by their client (for a large amount) because building regulations were not properly checked, and part of the property they bought was'nt strictly illegal.

Solicitors and agents are now so petrified of being sued, that they are producing these ridiculous lists of questions which are purely to cover themselves, not to benefit their clients in any way.

An extension to our house did not have it's final building inspection while being built, and so we were forced to pay for the buyers indemnity insurance, even though that part of the property was over 20 years old, and the council said themselves that there were no problems with it, that it was old enough to be "written off", and that the other inspections done prior to completion were acceptable. Madness!

Mind you, buyers can be just as picky. While we were selling our house a few months ago, me and the wife were standing at the back of the house showing it to the couple who had bought it. The house backs on to a cricket pavilion in the local park, and the couple asked us if any noise ever came from it. My wife replied that about 5 years ago there was a small party in the pavilion, but that it finished early and we hadn't heard any noise from them since. Lo and behold, a few days later we get a letter from their solicitor saying "Please provide details of what happened at the party"!!

Bella

Selling a house in England is an absolute nightmare and I vowed never to do it again whilst in the process of selling our house.

Why oh why do people ask questions like those you are being asked so far along? As you say it is unreasonable and infuriating.

When we found ourselves in a position of believing everything was going through and then it wasn't, we got on the phone to the agents and said we wanted the house back on the market by the following Monday as we weren't prepared to wait for ever. No idea if this made a difference but it all went through pretty sharpish thereafter.

I cannot sympathise/empathise enough with your predicament. I felt murderous at times.

Good luck.

tinaj

Update

I have calmed down a bit now and it doesn't seem to be as bad as we thought. The list WAS sent by the Solicitor- what an ar** sending it a week before we are supposed to exchange, what is wrong with these people?
Our buyers say they know nothing about the list and are happy with what they have seen. They reckon they are keen to exchange and complete asap. The Solictor they are using is a 'property lawyer' that says it all to me, they are worried about being sued.

Lets just hope it all goes through on the 28th we have a week from them to confirm the flights!

I still wont be able to relax until I get that exchange through.

footie chick

Fingers crossed Tina that the exchange hurry`s up so that you can carry on and make those all important plans.

footie chick

cinderella

Best wishes !!!

Amanda&Paul

Fingers crossed for you - reading your story has made me hyperventilate (our sale is still at the early stages).:scared:

joh117

We had the same problem with my hubby's house only the guy wanted work doing like guttering lowered and stupid things like that. He tried dropping the price numerous times and stalled at every stage.

He hadn't applied for a mortgage after 5 weeks or paid to get searches done.

We held out and refused to drop the price. They had it in their minds we were leaving for Oz on the 5th July so thought they would push their luck.

Funny cos we are still in the UK and had no intention of leaving before November.

Hang in there. If they are serious they will sign and if they are time wasters you do right get it straight back on the market. That will make their minds up quickly one way or the other.

Fingers crossed for you.

I have told Shami that we are not moving once we find a house in Oz ever again

Jo