Getting jumpy

I am now getting a bit fed up. I have chased the buyers survey three times and still no dates. Who do I blame, is it the buyer dragging their heels, their mortgage company failing to get something booked in, or a failure by the estate agents to chase effectively?

I reckon that if I don't hear anything by Friday then I will have to look at putting it back on the market and maybe with another estate agent.

Still no survey....

So I am currently running at just over two weeks and still no sign of the survey. I rang the estate agent to chase and they have chased the buyer, who has chased their financial adviser. I am now wondering at what point I would have to put the flat back on the market in order to avoid more delays. I don't want to be left high and dry again. Nor do I want to scare off my buyer.

Useful websites

Really useful site to check property prices in an area:
http://www.ourproperty.co.uk/guides/simple_step_by_step_guide_to_the_buying_process.html

Advice and support (chat forums are very good):
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/

10 days after the offer

I got the notices through last night. This is a letter that the estate agent last night. This is a leter that confirms the offer and also has the details of both parties estate agents.

My letter also has a paragraph abut how my estate agent will try and ensure that the sale goes through quickly. Do I believe them? Not massively but I am sure they will when I start calling them every day to hassle them to do things. Still waiting fof the survey to be booked in.

So you accept an offer, what next?

So I accepted an offer just over a week ago. What happens next?

The first thing that happens is to get the house surveyed. This can take a week to ten days depending on who your buyer is going through and what sort of survey.

The other first thing is that the official notice of the sale is posted which tells both parties what the others solicitors details are.

The "other sale" - what happened

It was a long and stressfull process. In October 2006 I accepted an offer from a lovely first time buyer with a huge £40 grand deposit on my one bedroom flat in Bristol. He offered £123, 500. He came round with his parents, we all got on, it seemed like it would be lovely.

There were a few delays in the run up to Christmas. His survey came through fine and he seemed happy and then my mortgage company lost my title deeds which took a few weeks to sort out. All the time my solicitors secretary was not giving me effective deadlines and kept saying that I might exchange next week, and next week.

Then Christmas got in the way. I moved all my possessions to Edinburgh being optimistic and believing it could not take much longer. Cos the title deeds went missing my solicitor had to take out a couple of indemnity policies in case the flats had been converted before 1983 (or something, they hadn't been but because we didn't have the deeds we couldn't prove it) there was another one which was to do with the flat being on parish land and future owners needing to be protected in case the church wanted money for repairs.

Then..... my buyers solicitors started coming back with queries..... They sent about six rounds of queries through. Each one was responded to by my solicitor in three days and faxed back. My buyers solicitor would then take a week to "put the details on the system" and then around a week to respond. All this took ages and they were asking stupid things like change the building insurance arrangement and what is this space on the plans (it was a hallway - why?)

So it all took aged and we all got fed up. Eventually my solicitor suggested that we say they have to buy the flat as it is or pull out. They sent a very stroppy letter and said they would report to the mortgage company and they were unhappy we would not do everything they asked.

My buyers mortgage application got rejected. Apparently it came down to the fact that my downstairs neightbours (there are two flats in the property) patio was not registered with the land registry. Not sure why this causes a problem for me but there you go. They also didn't like the fact that the buildings insurance has joint liability so both flats insure for 50% of the rebuild value.

Interestingly the same mortgage company originally accepted my mortgage when I bought the place so I can only assume that the report my buyers solicitor sent was so strongly worded that the mortgage company were scared off.

That was the end of that. Four months, lots of stress and nowt to show for it. Also I had moved out of my flat and packed in my job. Luckily I have been lent lots of furniture and got a three month contract to tide me over. I wonder what will happen this time...?

House Nightmares - an explanation

Well, I went through four months of one house sale and it all fell through. I kept wondering if there was an easy explanation somewhere of what happens when houses are bought and sold so now I am back at square one and have accepted another offer I thought I may keep a detail of what happens.