fak’s foughts

The estate agent called me after lunch to explain that they would hold the keys. That’s nice. Apparently we had exchanged contracts.

Called my solicitor about 5 minutes ago and oh yes, they had exchanged by the person doing so hadn’t told me or told anyone else to tell me. Also had to remind them that I was changing address tomorrow and provide them with the new temporary one.

So far I have updated the address on my mobile phone, my credit card, my car insurance and my house insurance. It’s going to cost an extra £105 over the £60 move fee to transfer my internet provider so I need to do some research on that.

I’ve also managed to extend my storage contract.

No exchange again today. I finally found out in an e-mail (after I had placed a call to find out whether or not I was going to sleep tonight – it seems not).

They’re apparently happy to exchange tomorrow (funny, they said that on Friday), except that my solicitor is out of the office so someone else is going to have to deal with it.

I’ll be giving them an ultimatum tomorrow – exchange today or the deal is off. After tomorrow I won’t have e-mail access or mobile phone reception anyway so there will be no opportunity to negotiate.

Is it just me or are there more and more requests on the interweb for other people to do an individual’s thinking?

Instead of consulting a specialist, or (heaven forfend) use their own brains, there are a multitude of posts asking for others to make decisions and in some cases make diagnoses.

Let’s see shall I do some research and use my brain, or specialists brains, in order to make a decision to invest in shares/take up a sport/diagnose a lump, or ask a bunch of random people on the internet?

It’s a tough one, certainly. And yet I think my financial and physical health is better served by people trained to do so.

I may start replying that of course they should learn to swallow fire with petrol and no training, as after all my cousin Bo does it and no harm has come to them.

Idiots.

I saw an amusing thing in Homebase as I was meandering aimlessly amongst the grow-your-own section. Next to the gooseberry plants and peppers were blackberry plants. Otherwise known as brambles.

I’ve spent a lot of time removing brambles from my gardens, I’m not about to pay to put them in.

I’ve had dealings with a lot of solicitors this week and have determined that they are all a waste of space.

One lot don’t know when their clients are signing contracts.
One lot take 5 days to find one number.
One lot has predictably run a trust into the ground.
One lot has been unable to exchange contracts leaving me spending the weekend not knowing if I am buying a house or not. Try again Monday, a week after the original exchange date (with the completion date slipping by a week).

Finally spoke to the estate agent. Apparently it’s all something to do with the removal of a hot tub from the property they are buying.

I’ve told them that I’ll have to withdraw the offer if it isn’t the 6th, so we’ll just have to see. They know that I am living on a sofa and that only lasts another week, and that I can’t start any new job until I move. I’m pretty sure that’s all I can do (I can’t cancel the insurance as the temporary password they gave me has locked me out of my account).

If I lose the house, I lose the house. There are other houses. I can rent somewhere until I find one. I just can’t look at anywhere to rent until I know one way or the other if this is going to go through.

Day 3 – no contract exchange. Apparently the people I am buying from did not sign the papers on Monday as they had said they would. They are not signing until tomorrow.

Added to that they don’t think that they will make the 6th July completion date (apparently they need to give their movers two weeks notice – so were the estate agents lying when they said they had provisionally booked them?). Potential new completion date is 27th July.

I have told my solicitor that I will have to seriously consider revoking my offer if that is going to be the completion date. I have to be out of my mate’s spare room in a week’s time. I can buy somewhere else between now and the 27th.

Time to start looking again, and cancel the insurance I was told I needed to transfer over for Monday.

Tried to exchange contracts yesterday (couldn’t do so before then as the people I am buying from couldn’t get time off work in order to sign their contracts until then). Phone tag happened all day, no exchange.

I called my solicitors to leave them a message confirming I was happy for them to exchange today (I have to do this each day). Didn’t hear anything back, so dropped them an e-mail to find out if they got my voicemail.

Apparently the other solicitors aren’t in the office today, so we have to try again tomorrow. Which means I have to call back again tomorrow.

Until exchange happens I won’t know if the provisional move/completion date I’ve been given is the final one. I can’t change any addresses. I can’t book vans. I can’t pre-reg for BJC.

I’m considering training as a solicitor – they don’t seem to actually do any work (7 months and counting on the estate work they should have done and haven’t).

Got back from Lestival at midnight last night to find the last set of documents from the solicitor regarding the house purchase. Answers to queries, copies of guarantees, etc. It includes the form where you say whether you’re in a chain and whether you have any requirements to a completion date.

Before I made my offer I checked out the condition of the chain. The people I am buying from had already had their offer accepted and the person they were buying from would break the chain in order to get a swift resolution. Great. Hopefully I’d only have to spend a couple of weeks crashing with a friend.

I’ve since had correspondence indicating that if I didn’t get a move on they would lose the house they had offered on.

All looking good for a fast turnaround between exchange and completion, so I decide it’s not worth putting the proceeds of my sale into a high interest account as it won’t earn anything if it’s not in there for at least a month.

Cut back to last night. I start reading through all of the documents and find the part regarding moving dates. “Preferably the school summer holidays – after July 25th”. WTF? This was signed at the beginning of April.

Who the hell thinks 4 months is an acceptable timeframe? And why the hell did no-one tell me this sooner? I would not have made the offer if I was going to have to wait until the end of July (I have been telling prospective employers that I will be available from 1st July).

Hopefully the estate agent will get back to me with a more reasonable completion date (I told them asap and will be annoyed at anything after June) otherwise I am going to be very grumpy as not only have house prices fallen, but I am out of pocket in terms of storage costs, interest on my proceeds, and potential earnings. I will also have to find somewhere else to live in the meantime (whilst having to pay insurance from date of exchange) all of which is further stress and expense.

Finally got the go ahead to sign stuff in order to exchange contracts. Call up to make an appointment and the only time they have is tomorrow afternoon. Damn, I’m in Bristol then. I ask to check whether it could be Friday – no they don’t do appointments on Fridays. Thursday morning? No. OK, I’ll make a 160 mile round-trip and sign tomorrow afternoon.

Oh no, I can’t they’re now booked up. The earliest I can sign stuff is next Wednesday. That’s a week from now.

I am able to go round there right now and take the 10 minutes required to sign this stuff, after 10 weeks of waiting and I have to wait yet another week. This is just so frustrating. This is stuff that has to be done to even exchange contracts so the clock doesn’t even start ticking at signing (and either side can still back out).