Is anyone moving now?

[JeffreyD]

anarki said:

I did think this thanks, it could be my only option, however I've heard the latency can be quite poor when using 4g which can effect gaming/video conferencing which I do fairly often.

Its fine for work stuff as I have used it when the BB in my office failed and we were past from pillar to post before Openreach finally accepted responsibility.

Can't comment on gaming. Maybe hook up your current laptop to your phone and give it a go, or look into Space Invaders or Pong. Hours of fun.

[The ArtfulBodger]

Wow! Thoughts of pulling out due to broadband issues?!

I take it you weren’t around in the late 90’s Early 2000’s when we had to put up with a shared phone line and a 56k modem?

We are a month in and still using a MIFi for all our internet needs. Luckily no one is into gaming and we both have jobs that don’t rely on fecking Zoom or Teams to get something tangible achieved!

[The ArtfulBodger]

fesuvious said:

You haven't exchanged. Just pull out.

And let this be a lesson to those who ignore the incredibly sensible advice to demand two weeks in-between exchange and completion.

But, no exchange means you're free to pull out, hell you could even leave it to 10:00 on Friday if you wanted to. Such is the stupidity of both the system and the advice to ex & comp same day.

While all that is true can you imagine how pissed off anyone else in the chain would be to hear the collapse of the sale was down to not being able to play COD or have a Zoom meeting!

I know I’m a dinosaur where this sort of thing is concerned - I hadn’t realised super fast broadband was an absolute dealbreaker in a purchase as substantial as a house.

Makes you wonder how all those in the far flung parts of this sceptered isle cope!

[JeffreyD]

The ArtfulBodger said:

While all that is true can you imagine how pissed off anyone else in the chain would be to hear the collapse of the sale was down to not being able to play COD or have a Zoom meeting!

I know I’m a dinosaur where this sort of thing is concerned - I hadn’t realised super fast broadband was an absolute dealbreaker in a purchase as substantial as a house.

Makes you wonder how all those in the far flung parts of this sceptered isle cope!

You can definitely do zoom and teams and all stuff like that over 4g.

[The ArtfulBodger]

JeffreyD said:

You can definitely do zoom and teams and all stuff like that over 4g.

I had to deal with the hell that was Zoom/Teams for Lockdown homeschooling - I hope to god I never have to go through that horror again; super fast broadband or not!

I have a sneaking suspicion the world was a better place before Pandora was out the box - while the internet is a useful thing one of the greatest things for me is it can be switched off; shame vast swathes of society can’t cope without it!

We are on a 4G MiFi unlimited connection through Smarty, £20 a month and it is portable unlike BT et al! Manages just fine with YouTube, smart TV etc. Useful on our boat. Better still when it goes flat/has no signal

[JeffreyD]

The ArtfulBodger said:

I had to deal with the hell that was Zoom/Teams for Lockdown homeschooling - I hope to god I never have to go through that horror again; super fast broadband or not!

I have a sneaking suspicion the world was a better place before Pandora was out the box - while the internet is a useful thing one of the greatest things for me is it can be switched off; shame vast swathes of society can’t cope without it!

We are on a 4G MiFi unlimited connection through Smarty, £20 a month and it is portable unlike BT et al! Manages just fine with YouTube, smart TV etc. Useful on our boat. Better still when it goes flat/has no signal

I get on ok with teams. And it's handy you can carry on your call or conference or whatever in the car or on the patio, but then I'm not really a heavy user.

[V8OW]

V8OW said:

I've just had an offer accepted with a planned pre 30 June completion, so will be joining in with the fun before long. I'm in the process of selling my place to my brother who's a first time buyer with mortgage lined up, and the people I'm buying from have found a house without a chain. Fingers crossed this one shouldn't be too painful!

Week 4 and things seem to be progressing. My mortgage is sorted (thanks Sarnie), Survey is done with no real issues, and my solicitors seem to be on the ball with most searches back and a handful of enquiries gone across to vendors solicitors.

Vendors have their mortgage sorted and their survey is booked in for next week, so hopefully nothing major comes of that.

Still a long way to go, but things seem to be going in the right direction, and hopefully 30 June is still achievable. Most likely delay is going to be on my vendor's purchase (chain free house) as there isn't a stamp duty benefit, but I'd assume they'll want their cash sooner rather than later if it's a straight sale!

[redrabbit29]

fesuvious said:

You haven't exchanged. Just pull out.

And let this be a lesson to those who ignore the incredibly sensible advice to demand two weeks in-between exchange and completion.

But, no exchange means you're free to pull out, hell you could even leave it to 10:00 on Friday if you wanted to. Such is the stupidity of both the system and the advice to ex & comp same day.

That's really poor advice in my view. It's not quite as simple as "just pull out". The whole house sale and purchase is so emotionally taxing, it's dominated our whole life for over 7 months now. It's caused huge stress, sleepless nights, depression at one stage.

We've spent a lot of money on the process too - and there are also other legal issues which we've had to resolve.

As for your comment about ignoring sensible advice about exchange/completion scheduling - that is not always possible. We're having to exchange/complete on the same day. Not ideal but due to Covid and buyer mortgage delays, and then our own mortgage offer expiring next week we have no option.

[redrabbit29]

Sporky said:

I had that leaving my first flat for my first house. Didn't get it moving to the second house. I think it is mostly nerves - doesn't help that everyone and his dog like to tell you how stressful moving is, when mostly it's boring. I recommend an occasional repeat of "this, too, shall pass".

Thanks Sporky, that sounds a logical approach. I think you're right, I struggle with significant change quite badly.

I've had a sick feeling all day that I'll be leaving this flat in two days forever and will be in some new place that isn't mine (other than on paper), and I'll never really feel comfortable. I've also started coming up with the most ridiculous reasons why it's a bad place to move to.

It's funny too as I have this thought "the current owners are selling it and escaping because it's bad... the fact they've even marketed it is a bad sign". Like I said, ridiculous really.

[Evoluzione]

redrabbit29 said:

That's really poor advice in my view. It's not quite as simple as "just pull out". The whole house sale and purchase is so emotionally taxing, it's dominated our whole life for over 7 months now. It's caused huge stress, sleepless nights, depression at one stage.

We've spent a lot of money on the process too - and there are also other legal issues which we've had to resolve.

As for your comment about ignoring sensible advice about exchange/completion scheduling - that is not always possible. We're having to exchange/complete on the same day. Not ideal but due to Covid and buyer mortgage delays, and then our own mortgage offer expiring next week we have no option.

We're about 12 months in, I bet it won't be far off 14 when we're done.
If we ever get there.

[The ArtfulBodger]

redrabbit29 said:

That's really poor advice in my view. It's not quite as simple as "just pull out". The whole house sale and purchase is so emotionally taxing, it's dominated our whole life for over 7 months now. It's caused huge stress, sleepless nights, depression at one stage.

We've spent a lot of money on the process too - and there are also other legal issues which we've had to resolve.

As for your comment about ignoring sensible advice about exchange/completion scheduling - that is not always possible. We're having to exchange/complete on the same day. Not ideal but due to Covid and buyer mortgage delays, and then our own mortgage offer expiring next week we have no option.

What’s the hold up for exchanging this week? 3 more working days left of the week, phones and internet are functioning........

We weren’t 100% certain exchange was going to take place until the day before it actually happened, everyone was aiming for the agreed dates though.

I don’t buy the Covid thing - we exchanged on the 19/3/2021 and completed 26/03/2021 everyone managed to do the right thing and keep out of harms way for a few weeks - this at a time when rates were sky high unlike now - hell, you can pretty much live a normal life at the moment, I couldn’t even get a bloody haircut while ours was going through.

[The ArtfulBodger]

JeffreyD said:

I get on ok with teams. And it's handy you can carry on your call or conference or whatever in the car or on the patio, but then I'm not really a heavy user.

In the car?! I make do with keeping an eye on the road ahead

[Sporky]

Mildly ridiculous perhaps, but an understandable over reaction (hope you don't mind me putting it that way). Try to remember why you liked the new place. It'll be home, and that will be ace.

[redrabbit29]

Evoluzione said:

We're about 12 months in, I bet it won't be far off 14 when we're done.
If we ever get there.

I really feel for you. It actually took us nearly 3 years to actually sell and move. The first time we sold, just before we exchanged a legal issue came up. It ended up costing us over £15k to sort out - blame leasehold law for that!

It also took us around two years to resolve.

We put our flat back on the market in September and look to be moving soon. I felt I rushed a bit due to the stamp duty holiday and the thought of trying to save some of the £15k we lost in the legal issue. Hopefully the house lives up to our expectations. My partner is really excited but I'm not (hopefully that will change)

I really hope things improve for you, it is so demoralising and exhausting when you're in limbo, waiting day-to-day and week-to-week for an email, or a call, or an update. It really did dominate our lives and caused a lot of arguments between us when we were both really worried or upset about something.

Best of luck

[redrabbit29]

The ArtfulBodger said:

What’s the hold up for exchanging this week? 3 more working days left of the week, phones and internet are functioning........

We weren’t 100% certain exchange was going to take place until the day before it actually happened, everyone was aiming for the agreed dates though.

I don’t buy the Covid thing - we exchanged on the 19/3/2021 and completed 26/03/2021 everyone managed to do the right thing and keep out of harms way for a few weeks - this at a time when rates were sky high unlike now - hell, you can pretty much live a normal life at the moment, I couldn’t even get a bloody haircut while ours was going through.

Due to the money laundering rules I think or at least lender rules. They must by law have 7 days between mortgage being agreed and the release of funds. So despite our buyer now being ready, they still have to wait until next week.

I know what you mean about Covid.

The biggest issue was a leasehold problem on our own flat - to do with the fire safety certificate. A story which is so long it's not even worth starting!

[V8OW]

redrabbit29 said:

Due to the money laundering rules I think or at least lender rules. They must by law have 7 days between mortgage being agreed and the release of funds. So despite our buyer now being ready, they still have to wait until next week.

I know what you mean about Covid.

The biggest issue was a leasehold problem on our own flat - to do with the fire safety certificate. A story which is so long it's not even worth starting!

On the 7 day thing I noticed something similar on my recent mortgage offer. Assuming it's the same thing it's a 'mortgage reflection period' which dictates what is effectively a 7 day cooling off period. However this can be waived by the borrower if they want to speed things up, so could be worth investigating this if that's the last hurdle.

[redrabbit29]

V8OW said:

On the 7 day thing I noticed something similar on my recent mortgage offer. Assuming it's the same thing it's a 'mortgage reflection period' which dictates what is effectively a 7 day cooling off period. However this can be waived by the borrower if they want to speed things up, so could be worth investigating this if that's the last hurdle.

Thanks V8OW, I will ask our estate agent tomorrow to raise this. They've been pushing for a quicker exchange, just to give us a day or two before completion so I will check to see if they've considered this

[The ArtfulBodger]

redrabbit29 said:

V8OW said:

On the 7 day thing I noticed something similar on my recent mortgage offer. Assuming it's the same thing it's a 'mortgage reflection period' which dictates what is effectively a 7 day cooling off period. However this can be waived by the borrower if they want to speed things up, so could be worth investigating this if that's the last hurdle.

Thanks V8OW, I will ask our estate agent tomorrow to raise this. They've been pushing for a quicker exchange, just to give us a day or two before completion so I will check to see if they've considered this

Fingers crossed that’s a way forward for you - Your EA is making the right noises; just need everyone else to listen them!

[ovlovlover]

talksthetorque said:

Our buyer has pulled out after 7 weeks, after many promises of we want the house, they can't wait to move in, etc etc bullst bullst. Still in the "Angry about being dumped" stage. alcohol may be consumed tonight.

Strangely another refurbished house very similar to ours but cheaper as it is in a different area where we knew they were also looking has come on the market and sold within a couple of days.

Edited by talksthetorque on Tuesday 27th April 18:51

Sounds very similar to our situation. Very annoying. We sold ours again quite quickly though so fingers crossed for you.

[SunsetZed]

anarki said:

Need people's thoughts - I'm due to exchange and complete this Friday but a massive showstopper has reared its head last minute.

FTTC broadband is no longer available to the property due to lack of space in the cabinet and there's no ETA on space becoming available. Which leaves me with 2Mb ADSL as the only option for the foreseeable.

It was showing as available all throughout Jan, Feb and March. I've spoken with aquiss, zen, BT, Plusnet, etc and all say they can't tell me when it would be available and won't put me on a waiting list due to them not being able to meet customers expectations.

Also put up a tweet to openreach asking for an ETA and they replied saying there are no plans to upgrade the cab.

I literally cannot live with 2Mb internet. I feel like pulling out the property purchase but would feel like a massive doing so and I'm obviously going to lose money (sol fees, surveyor costs) that I've already stumped up for.

Starlink broadband is not available. 4g speeds are ok outside but I can't test inside the property as I don't have the keys, so could be utter ste indoors.

I can't believe in 2021 the UK infrastructure for broadband is so poor in some areas, utterly ridiculous.

Can you speak to the neighbours and see if they have FTTC broadband and then get the appropriate Wi-Fi / cabling setup so that they could share with you temporarily?