Is anyone moving now?
Discussion
We are having a very frustrating time. My wife and I are both freelance - I’m a writer and she’s an actress, so income can be very up and down, good years and bad years. This makes the getting of mortgages quite tricky sometimes - but we have also always tried to keep our outgoings fairly low. But now we are selling our medium sized property, and are going in with some friends who are selling a similar property, and we are going to buy a big place with land and do some glamping/holiday lets as a side hustle.
The problem is that every single house in the 800k - 1m band is being snapped up in hours. Houses with land and outhouses - just what we are looking for. And it’s all people moving out of London and cashing in. We are in Kent. The landscape has changed in six months, and now it seems like we won’t be able to do it at all, if the landscape stays the same.
Houses in the 300k - 500k bracket seem to be not shifting at all. We’ve only had a handful of viewings.
Moving seems now a distant dream...
The problem is that every single house in the 800k - 1m band is being snapped up in hours. Houses with land and outhouses - just what we are looking for. And it’s all people moving out of London and cashing in. We are in Kent. The landscape has changed in six months, and now it seems like we won’t be able to do it at all, if the landscape stays the same.
Houses in the 300k - 500k bracket seem to be not shifting at all. We’ve only had a handful of viewings.
Moving seems now a distant dream...
Our solicitor said things are going mad with people rushing for stamp duty deadline, so much so that they’ve been asked to stop taking on new clients by their insurers due to high risk of getting sued if the deadline is missed. They’re all flat out so don’t think they’d have time anyway. Feel a bit sorry for folk who have just purchased as it sounds like most places are in the same boat.
Thankfully we now exchanged, been in the process since about November last year so nice to finally be moving after various stops and starts along the way.
Thankfully we now exchanged, been in the process since about November last year so nice to finally be moving after various stops and starts along the way.
Fast Bug said:
We were ready to exchange and then the guy were buying from decided to make an overpayment on his mortgage and not tell anyone so his redemption statement was wrong. We were meant to be completing tomorrow. He has been an utter nightmare throughout the whole process 
I withdrew all of my offset savings after the redemption statement was done but it did not hinder the exchange nor completion. ajap1979 said:
Anyone experienced searches taking a ridiculous amount of time to come through? 3 months and counting for our local authority and drainage searches to come back. Getting very nervous.
Crikey! I thought ours were bad at around 5 weeks - our solicitor had to chase them up. Thankfully, we're finally all set. Exchanged contracts yesterday and completing on 1st June.Our buyers' idiot solicitors are being idiots again.
First we had the list of stupid questions:
"Where is the garden room?" Well, you see that timber-clad building at the end of the garden? The one that takes up nearly the entire end of the garden? IT'S THAT.
"Was an internal wall removed to form the kitchen-diner?" There isn't a kitchen-diner. There is a kitchen, and a dining room. They are separated by an internal wall, which has not been removed.
"There has clearly been an extension. We require the details of the grant of planning permission." There clearly has not been an extension. Wait a minute, are you looking at the right house?
Turns out they weren't looking at the house their buyer is buying.
Now they're denying receipt of a draft indemnity policy for the lack of building control on the garden room (which is not actually subject to building control). Except we've got an email from them, confirming receipt of said draft policy.
First we had the list of stupid questions:
"Where is the garden room?" Well, you see that timber-clad building at the end of the garden? The one that takes up nearly the entire end of the garden? IT'S THAT.
"Was an internal wall removed to form the kitchen-diner?" There isn't a kitchen-diner. There is a kitchen, and a dining room. They are separated by an internal wall, which has not been removed.
"There has clearly been an extension. We require the details of the grant of planning permission." There clearly has not been an extension. Wait a minute, are you looking at the right house?
Turns out they weren't looking at the house their buyer is buying.
Now they're denying receipt of a draft indemnity policy for the lack of building control on the garden room (which is not actually subject to building control). Except we've got an email from them, confirming receipt of said draft policy.
edc said:
Fast Bug said:
We were ready to exchange and then the guy were buying from decided to make an overpayment on his mortgage and not tell anyone so his redemption statement was wrong. We were meant to be completing tomorrow. He has been an utter nightmare throughout the whole process
I withdrew all of my offset savings after the redemption statement was done but it did not hinder the exchange nor completion. Exchanged this morning (2 weeks later than planned!) and completing tomorrow. Guy has been a complete pain throughout the process, but we're pretty much there now!
So ours has taken a turn for the worst today, 14 weeks in since selling/buying, people below me are about 17 weeks in.
People above pushing for completion next Friday, exchange today/tomorrow after the bloke above took out a policy due to an argument over sewage outlet, which has been holding us up. All ready to go.
Contacted solicitor/estate agents to feed back to below about next Friday to see if that was acceptable. 2 hours later get a call back expecting a yes or no to be told the house below us.. it has just come to light that they need a management pack to sell it. it could take between 4-8 weeks to turn up and there's no ETA.
So as well as doing a 12 hour shift I've spent most of the day shouting at people.
Were number 3 in a chain of 5, number 5 has said no thanks and wants out now.
I'm switching from day shifts to nights tomorrow so usually a good opportunity to drown sorrows but I'm going to go smash out a big leg session at gym instead.
People above pushing for completion next Friday, exchange today/tomorrow after the bloke above took out a policy due to an argument over sewage outlet, which has been holding us up. All ready to go.
Contacted solicitor/estate agents to feed back to below about next Friday to see if that was acceptable. 2 hours later get a call back expecting a yes or no to be told the house below us.. it has just come to light that they need a management pack to sell it. it could take between 4-8 weeks to turn up and there's no ETA.
So as well as doing a 12 hour shift I've spent most of the day shouting at people.
Were number 3 in a chain of 5, number 5 has said no thanks and wants out now.
I'm switching from day shifts to nights tomorrow so usually a good opportunity to drown sorrows but I'm going to go smash out a big leg session at gym instead.
We moved in January and all went well. The movers packed for us and everything; we had all the windows open, and we stayed in one room while they did all the others.
Only issue I can see is that there's so much moving going on so getting a booking in might not be straightforward - we were fortunate in that we could book about 6 weeks in advance.
Only issue I can see is that there's so much moving going on so getting a booking in might not be straightforward - we were fortunate in that we could book about 6 weeks in advance.
rah1888 said:
Sporky said:
The conveyancers at our family's solicitors are excellent. There are good ones out there.
There are, but they are very much in the minority.Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff