'I don't believe it!'

Today was supposed to be exchange of contracts, with completion next Thursday. 

We are having to have a three day move, starting on Wednesday and finishing on Friday.

We have a 4 owner chain. The bottom of the chain is a first time buyer, then our buyers and then the house we're buying. The current owners are moving into rented or with family. Short and simple.

Exchange is normally started by the solicitor of the bottom of the chain and works its way up. By lunchtime our solicitor had heard nothing from our purchaser's solicitor. It turned out that there was a funds release issue with the first time buyer. This was resolved but the window for exchange closes at 3.30pm.

At 2.55 my solicitor rang to say he'd contacted our vendor's solicitor to agree exchange. She'd responded by saying that they would not exchange unless we agreed to a rider re coronavirus, which basically said that if one party contracted the virus and was unable to complete, the completion would have to be renegotiated. Sounds very sensible, except that if we accepted the rider it would leave us exposed. It needed all three parties in the chain to agree to include the rider to avoid one being unfairly exposed. Our solicitor said that with just 30 minutes to go, there was no way two other solicitors could be briefed and explain and gain agreement from their clients. 

So I told our solicitor to tell the vendor's that the rider was not acceptable at such a late time in the process. Their response was that they refuse to budge and insist the rider is included or they won't exchange.

Of course the 3.30pm deadline passed and we now await developments on Monday, just a day before our removers have to commence work. From what I can make out neither our vendor or their agent knew anything at all about the rider and were as nonplussed as everyone else at this late development.

I’m sorry to hear of your dilemma and had not heard of such last minute riders, which surely would be pertinent for any untimely illness and not just Coronavirus.

I’m moving all of my belongings out of my Durham home next Wednesday and Thursday, taking everything in to storage near to Kirkcudbright and hoping to complete on Friday. 

A Coronavirus rider would be a nightmare, especially trying to get English and Scottish law to merge.

Having been through a fair few conveyancing transactions and commercial lease negotiations in England and Scotland over the years, one thing I learned early on was to have some direct line of contact with the vendor/purchaser, on either side if in a chain, to be used only as required but to ensure that solicitors were acting on instructions from their clients, not taking things into their own hands as some are apt to do. 

Always a stressful time sda, I hope it all works out for you.

It wouldn't have been a problem if the rider had been attached to the original contract as the solicitors would've sorted it weeks ago. Mind, these are the same solicitors who ignored our contract enquiries for three weeks and only sending them to the vendors for responses when our solicitor sent a chaser email. If they'd been efficient we would've been moved at the end of July.

The rider basically says that any party's solicitor can declare a 'delay event' so that completion doesn't take place. Default reinstatement occurs 30 days later, though best endeavours are promised for earlier resolution. No costs are claimable for either side. Delay events are lockdown, self isolation, failure of banking system due to coronavirus. There appears to be no requirement for evidence or appeal, just the solicitors say so.

Many years ago we were moving on the Thursday before Good Friday (4 day week end seemed a good idea at the time). Out of our house by 12 mid day, keys handed over.

Sat outside the new house waiting for the go ahead, not helped by the fact that our vendor had had the phone turned off (pre mobile days). By 3 we got them to agree for the new phone service to be enabled so we could make calls to find out why the solicitors hadn't completed.

Turn out their vendor had had a flat roof extension built and no completion certificate. All solicitors threatening to close up for the weekend. Then our solicitor asked how old was the extension? Turned out to be 23 years old so the completion certificate was irrelevant. Still held up for a further hour whilst their solicitor (conveyancer) got legal confirmation before the transfer could complete.

We insisted that we didn't want to complete on a Friday.

Back in 1993 we moved house on a Fridafy. We were halfway through emptying the removal van when my bank manager turned up to tell me we hadn't completed on the sale because my solicitor had gone bust.

The Law Society appointed another solicitor to sort things out and she advised us to squat in the house for the weekend, which we did and the finances etc were sorted on the Monday. But that weekend was stressful. If we'd completed on a Wednesday there's have been two weekdays for the solicitors to sort it out. But on a Friday we had to wait the whole weekend.

Our move once was held up due to a bank transfer fee from our buyers not being received, grand total £55! Went and sorted it, after they came back from lunch and just in time as they were about to go home as it was POETS day.

Next time I move will be in a box
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Richard

In 1973, we moved from Aberystwyth to Cardiff. We engaged Pickfords. They arrived on time at Aber, and packed their pantechnicon. They departed, having told us that they would be going to their local depot first for lunch. We locked up and left in our Beetle. We arrived in Cardiff and got to the brand new house. There was a car outside. It was a man from Pickfords. Their van had been stopped by the police in a check, in the Cambrian Mountains, and had been condemned for having an ineffective parking brake. Our wordly possessions would not arrive until the following day at best. A great start!

Luckily our parents lived near Cardiff.

Cymro

There'll be lots of inconvenient repercussions  that will probably occur due to a short time span between exchange and completion. Having to keep the removers onside, booked for the 19/20/21 , but not able to confirm arrangements 'til the 17th at the earliest is one,

Not being able to order broadband and phone line changes 'til the 17th at the earliest, when we take up residence on the 20th. I'm told such changes require a 10 day minimum.

Post redirection will probably not take effect straightaway.

We need to buy a washer dryer for the new place but can't order 'til we know a completion date for sure. The same applies to a fridge freezer as our old one is staying with the new owners of our current house. Lockdown hasn't helped as supplies and choice are limited because deliveries have been held up.

When we moved I think it took 4 working days for Post redirection to start. Luckily our postman was the same as a friend who lived in the next road so he just put it through her door until it kicked in as we were not moving far. You are obviously moving quite a distance though ( 3 day move) so that would not be an option! 
My nephew runs a Removal company and he said at present it is very busy but with 7 day window rather than the usual 14 day E-Comp. window. 
There are also quite a few company’s taking advantage of the situation and offering  Covid Safe removals ie offering to sanitise the house before they unload into the new house ( a good idea and Nephew is doing the same) but also excessive soft furniture wrapping and charging silly premiums for it. 
Good luck with the move and enjoy the new part of the world you are going to.

SDA I hope the Exchange went ahead today

Lancy wrote:SDA I hope the Exchange went ahead today

Nope.

We started chasing our solicitor at 10am and the vendor's agent was chasing theirs. Our buyer was hassling their's too, but all were reliant on the first time buyer's solicitor at the start of the chain. The first time buyer is the one who has been pestering and pestering to get the move done early.

Eventually we learned that, for some reason they had completely forgotten what happened on Friday and appeared to be happy to ignore the transaction. This was corrected by mid afternoon, but by then it was too late to get everything authorised all over again.

So we wait on today, with the removal firm not happy at all that we'll be exchanging the day before they're supposed to start loading.

Oh and we're only moving 3 miles, but as the new place has a double garage some way from the house, it makes sense to reduce loading on completion day by putting a lot of the stuff, especially that which is going in the garage, on a second wagon for collection Wednesday and delivery Friday, That reduces the work to be done on Thursday in loading and unloading.

N

T'is done, t'is done.
Even though our solicitors office lost all telephone and broadband service from first thing this morning, we exchanged contracts at around 4.15 this afternoon. Completion is due at midday on Thursday and the removers are turning up tomorrow to start loading.
What a relief!

Good, pleased you got it sorted out

It seems we did the right thing then. We built our own bungalow and moved in once ready, no problem. Our only involvement with a solicitor, was when we bought the land.. Although it was a bit of a headache getting tradesmen on time.

This is our tenth house purchase in 44 years. I'm constantly surprised at how solicitors can make a relatively simple transaction so complicated. I mean, insisting on a new clause in the contract when there's just 30 minutes left in an exchange window is surely totally unprofessional and incompetent.

That’s really good news SDA, I’m pleased it’s all been sorted and best of luck with the move.

I’m picking a hire van with tail lift up later this morning and so begins a long day of toil. Completion has been delayed until next Tuesday, to suit the very small chain below me, but as I have somewhere to go, that doesn’t affect me at all.

When I leave here in the Kingham tomorrow afternoon, it will be to leave my house keys in the care of my local estate agent and I won’t be back.

Best of luck with yours Kingham.

We've been toiling at packing for what seems like months and you get inevitable frustrations. I have to replace two 'treasured' light fittings with pendant wire and bulb holder. Surprised to discover that I had only one in my DIY stache, so a visit to B&Q yesterday morning. They sell the whole thing in a pack, wire cut to length etc, for £4.50. Took down and fitted the replacement old one and tested its bulb. Nothing! Found the other bulb I'd set aside and all worked fine. Now I'm down to no bulbs for the other light that I need to replace and all my stock of light bulbs is packed away deep among the stacks of cartons in the garage. Doh!
Phone and broadband service can't be swapped 'til 3rd September, at the earliest, so it's mobile only from Thursday.
House insurance organised
Mail redirection a miserable failure. Tried to organise it last night. Went through all the Royal Mail front end hoops and for some reason after my card was accepted and the one time pass code authorised, the RMG website said the transaction failed. Three times I tried. Came to the conclusion their system is faulty, but annoyed that they let people spend ages filling in pages of data and then reject at the end, when the card issuer clearly says the transaction is authorised.

I’m sure a neighbour can give you a light bulb. Makes a change from a cup of sugar! 
It is so annoying when it takes so long for broadband to change but guess it is no different to camping and tethering the phone to a tablet etc. We have a great mobile deal where we can change the plan every month to suit being at home or away. I think £9 for 4 Gb and unlimited calls , texts and data rollover for what we have not used.  We even got father in law off his PAYG for a £3 a month for texts and small data for when out and about etc. I didn’t know people still did PAYG! We only have broadband at home really as stream a lot on catch up on the TV. 
We filled in a form in at a main post office for redirection. Something still to be said for paper and pen!

rgermain wrote:......

Next time I move will be in a box
--------
Richard

If you can move in the box just make sure you bang long and hard on the lid before they put a load of earth on top.

Just grabbing a break in box shuffling.

Well we did it.

Completion went very smoothly and we had to rush to get out in time.

Got to new house, Mrs SDA having got a message from the vendor's agent that 'the key was in the circular thing to the right of the front door on the third shelf'. Well we searched high and low but couldn't find anything that resembled a shelf. There is a circular feature to the right. A small raised bed surrounded by a low box hedge, but no sign of a shelf anywhere. Agents number was on answer phone. Eventually we got through but they were adamant that we'd got the message right. Then the penny dropped. The raised bed had a gravel surface with shards of broken pottery on top and amongst the pottery were three shells and, sure enough, nestling under the third one was the benighted front door key. We were in. Shades of 'send 3/4d we're going to a dance'.