Drunken Bungle Whore

Not for the feint hearted this - but after a 2 year struggle we're just about there. So here are the highlights... (or should that be low lights...?)

• August 2002 – house goes on the market
• September 2002 – have offer for full asking price
• October 2002 – offer withdrawn as couple realise house is in Thames Valley (hard to not notice I’d say but there we go!)
• November 2002 – another offer of just under asking price. Accepted as keen to sell.
• December 2002 – offered chance to gazump offer and sell really quick. Decline as it’s the right thing to do.
• January 2003 – buyer from November pulls out – no reason. Gazumper now long gone.
• February/ March 2003 – bearing in mind previous experience accept 3 different offers, everyone aware, whoever sells first gets it!
• April 2003 - Two can’t sell their flats and third one, their buyer pulls out.
• May 2003 – Young engaged couple love house and offer full asking price. Agree sale, get all searches done, measure for curtains, sort insurance etc etc etc.
• June 2003 – One week before exchange, couple split up. House back on market. (Note. About 4 months after this I descover that female of couple had been back with full asking price after 4 days. But estate agent and joint owner of house seem to forget to tell me….. )
• July 2003 – Joint owner decides to buy me out. Should be really quick and straight forward.
• September 2003 – still waiting for written mortgage offer to come through.
• October 2003 – Mortgage company decide they want written evidence that to woodworm has been treated. Every other surveryor that saw it noted that it had been there and was obviously long dead (house built 1904). This guy must have skipped that class.
• November 2003 – Discussions over woodworm continue with solicitors.
• December 2003 – Joint owner agrees to sign a disclaimer relating to the woodworm. Solicitor informs me mid Dec that he’ll be astonished if it’s not all sorted by Christmas.
• January 2004 – Mortgage company now decide that they want copies of the house insurance docs showing them as an ‘Interetsed Party’ before they’ll hand over any cash.
• February 2004 – Insurance company response “We just noticed your postcode, we shouldn’t have insured you as you’re in the Thames Valley so we can’t send out the documents you want” Animated discussions with insurance company take place resulting in documents being issued afterall.
• March 2004 – Joint owners mortgage offer has expired, but not to worry, it’s a small formality and the completion date is in 2 weeks.
• End March 2004 – Mortgage offer not renewed due to joint owner running up colossal credit card debts.
• April 2004 – house back on the market. Loads of offers including one over the asking price! (Has gold been found nearby?) Settle for one on the asking price who is first time buyer and very keen and comitted to moving quickly. All details confirmed and solicitors swing into action.
• May 2004 – all surveys done, everyone happy. Solicitors lacking a sense of urgency….
• June 2004 – Buyer wants an additional environmental survey done as the house is in the Thames Valley (Please look at location of house on this map and tell me how everyone has been missing this point for so long….?) http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.c...db=freegaz&rt= The Thames is the wavy blue line about 2 cm from Wraysbury. And this part hasn't flooded since 1947....
• Mid June 2004 – we sign our contracts anyway as the solicitors are sure this won’t take long.
• July 2004 –I start chasing environment agency. The only engineer who can do the survey is on holiday for a week, but he’ll do it on Monday. (Ever seen the Michael Douglas film Falling Down? Sharp knives are best kept well away from me right now.)
• Mid July 2004 – It’s Monday – where’s the fecking engineer then? Assured survey will be with Solicitors by fax on Tuesday and by post on Wednesday. Survey finally arrives at Solicitor on Friday – by fax.
• End July 2004 – The following Monday! Buyer finally decides all is well, he signs his contract and wants to exhange ASAP! House now vacant posession (another very long story) so completion set for Aug 6th.
• Aug 2nd 2004 - descover the buyer is revising his mortgage offer so can’t exchange contracts till that’s done (WTF was he doing for the 6 weeks we were waiting for the environmental survey?????)
• Aug 3rd 2004 – Buyers solicitor receives written confirmation of revised mortgage offer so we - FINALLY EXHANGE CONTRACTS. COMPLETION STILL SET FOR FRIDAY 6TH.
• August 5th 2004 – I have a sore head, but nothing compared to what I’ll have on Saturday morning!
• Am I the only one who won’t be 100% happy until tomorrow is all over…? Is there anything that could still go wrong…..? If so, stay tuned!

Dream Weaver

Sounds familiar, went through all of that beginning of this year. Not as long as your adventure, but with the wrong outcome.

We were ready to exchange on the Monday after Mothers day, everything sorted, new furniture measured up for new house etc. Mother's day, having a party, and the guy we are buying from gets his best mates wife to phone us and say the deal wont go through - great

The system for house buying in England is crap.

ChrisB

Bucket of bubbles and daisys on Friday then Beth?

JoanUK300

Sounds as bad as ours.....ONLY.....
The people who bought our house didn`t realise they were supposed to move out of their property on the particular day so when their buyer went to move in NOTHING had been packed............long story so I`ll just add we were homeless for the weekend I was so sure this wouldn`t go through, I had visions of moving back on the Monday morning, was the worst and longest weekend of my life...(another tip....NEVER move on a FRIDAY)


Luckily the solicitors sorted it all at 3pm on the Monday afternoon.....BUT the house we are in now still doesn`t feel like ours and that was 18 months ago!!!!!



Joan.

Drunken Bungle Whore

Let's just say I may be indulging in rather a lot of bubbles on Friday Chris - most of them from a nice big green bottle!