Moving home is far too stressful

I don't think anyone would say that the system is running as smoothly as it could, I would agree it is a nightmare straight from Hell.
We put our house up on the market in May 2013, it sold in just two days and we were thrilled. We have been saving for years almost everything we can to buy a home near our family. Exchange and completion were going to be close so we moved in with family, sharing a single room with two children. On the day of exchange the buyers pulled out citing 'personal reasons'. We have since come close to selling and it fell through again due to problems lower down the chain. At every step we have considered moving back to our old home but it is so much cost, time and disruption that we have believed the assurances that 'you are nearly there' for months only for the goal posts to move again. I have experienced solicitors taking as long as possible to reply or not replying at all, in once instance the solicitor just left the firm and we didn't find out for a couple of weeks. Everything had to be reviewed by another solicitor. Needless to say I changed solicitors after that. We now have a good (local) solicitor and estate agent but if buyers lower down the chain delay paying fees there still isn't much anyone can do.
I'm never doing this again.

It is now Jan 2014 and we are nearly there...

I know people have had worse experiences and I can only sympathize with them.

the whole system that is in place at the moment sucks,and should be got rid of, or at least massively simplified , every little step of the moving process seems to take weeks,when we all know it could be done in a day or two if they got on with it.It is way to complicated.I don't know who thought all this stuff up,but it is time it is got rid of.

It's a nightmare straight from hell.

We timed our move badly and the market crashed. Result? Price is down by 1/3 and we've been on the market for 3 years.

We accepted a rubbish offer 4 months ago and still have no sign of a date for exchange of contracts. So we've lost 3 houses we wanted to buy because other people have been able to sell more quickly and actually move.

Now it's just before Xmas 2013, the office parties have started and we haven't a clue what's happening about our sale. We just cancelled all our moving arrangements because nobody will tell us what's going on and we daren't just guess.
I think it's sadistic to do this to anyone and I would never keep anyone waiting like this!

If the blasted buyers try to tell us to move at 2 weeks notice for completion, I will probably feature in my local Crown Court reports on a charge of violent assault.

"Our conveyancing has now so far over 4 months"

Do it yourself.

This is a typical legal smokescreen (sit on it for months) so you can be charged megabucks for a process that is in fact very simple.

You can do it yourself in less than 7 days; in fact it is possible to complete in 48 hours!

Given that in the average week for a solicitor there are about 40 hours. Our conveyancing has now so far over 4 months taken 520 hours! Multiply that by the 5 solicitors invoved. That now becomes 2,600 hours. Having read recently that the average time spent on a house sale by a solicitor is 8 to 10 hours (x5=40 to 50). Can anyone tell me where the other 2,550 hours are hiding?

too true,how anyone manages to buy a house in this country is beyond me

Dear people!
Whatever you do, try never to move just before Christmas like I did in 2006.
My buyers went away, my solicitor went away, there was no one to even assure me that the
whole deal would not collapse.
I did move eventually, but the stress nearly ki11ed me!

It took me nearly two years to sell my newly renovated house, (helped ultimately by a huge drop in price), and by the end I was so heartily sick of the whole process that I was even prepared to allow the buyer a little extra off after his surveyor (confirmed by a free damp survey) found. a few damp patches. I am in the process of buying another house, and despite it being a probate sale with no chain and me being a cash buyer, I was given a completion date that worked out at 8 weeks. The vendor is keen to get his hands on his late fathers money, and the EA even asked me to instruct my (very good) solicitor asap, and STILL it will take at least 8 weeks. Four weeks to completion only seems possible if its done without any of the so-called professionals being involved.

I really do know how you all feel. We sold our house in October 09 and were told our buyer was ready to proceed, What a Joke, He didn't even have a mortgage in place!! We are now almost in Feb 2010 and still waiting. We were told yesterday by our Estate Agent that all was sorted and we could expect a phone call from our solicitior to confirm Exchange and completion Dates. I did get a call from my solicitor saying the enquiries with our buyers Estate management company have still not been answered !! And Estate Agents wonder why the are disliked so much !!

Rabbid Gerbil obviously thinks that ALL homebuyers are thick if they can be persuaded to pay out on the biggest investment of their lives by something an Estate Agent says they should buy! I've had many letters of thanks as well as flowers and chocolates because I've got time, experience and patience to help the people I deal with. Unfortunately having worked for both corporates and independents the corporates are so governed by targets that the agent is forced to work within rigid parameters and is definitely not employed to think, working for independents is like a breath of fresh air because you are actually allowed to treat the customer as a person in their own right instead of a target figure.

My experience as has shown me that choosing the right solicitor will make a major difference in how stressed you get over delays. Don't ever go with a solicitor recommended by the estate agent, use work of mouth and ask work colleagues of their good/bad experiences with local solicitors. As a general rule, a solicitor that an estate agent recommends will be a "herder". That is, they herd clients in and out on mass, are very impersonal and no amount of pushing will make them go any faster or keep you updated properly. Avoid like the plague. Going with a local solicitor will most likely allow you to visit them, they will meet you face-to-face, and you'll get a vibe of who you are dealing with. Knowing that you can just pop-in and harass them will make them more likely to work for you.

The job of an estate agent is to sell a house, whatever house they think they can sell you. They are Sales People with the title of "Estate Agent". In terms of their opinion of value, it should always be taken with a pinch of salt and would give compulsive liars a run for their money. "oooh we've got lots of interest in this property" as they wipe the cobwebs from the door, and "ooh this is such a good deal for a house this size" as you stroll through something that would double up as an stone shed. Always do your homework as a buyer and compare the property you like to anything similar with a different estate agen.

I have now been an Estate Agent for 25 years and I could write a book about the p***s I have dealt with in that time. People who want access to the main roads and railways but don't want to hear them, people who ask for a rural location but say its too far out, people who want to be near a school but don't like the sound of children, money grabbing vendors who think their house is better than anyone elses, who dump one purchaser for another because they can make more money, money grabbing purchasers who want to knock the price just before exchange. The list is endless. But always remember something, when you as the 'Great British Public' are sodding about playing people off against each other your poor estate agent is just trying to earn a living like anyone else. The difference is if you go to work you expect to get paid regardless of the amount of work you do an Estate Agent can work his socks off but if he is dealing with a w***y seller or buyer he doesn't get paid anything.

I last moved house 6 years ago and like the original 'griper' this took a year to do.Fron April 2000 to March 2001. Initially things were very slow which to a point suited us as we still had a few things to do. The 1st buyer cam liked it made an offer close to what we were askign all went well for 2 weeks and he dissapeared, never seen again 2nd came and wanted the huse for her older family, refused and didn't make on offer because it was too far to walk to get where the car would be parked (25 yards).
Several others came made sill offers so were refused. One couple came like the house made an acceptable offer we accepted, and things started to move. After a month they re-visited looked around again and started picking holes in the decor, new kitchen, bathroom tiles (all new) and made a fresh offer 10 grand less. Refused
Eventually an airline pilot came saw it gave us our asking price and we moved. 11 months and 17 days from when we put it up for sale.
Estate Agent - brilliant! Could not have done without him.

Property owners are nothing but conned in this country. House ownership is nothing but an abrogation by society of its reponsibility to house people adequately and reasonably.

"Cheap housing for key workers" what does that really mean?

It means that if you are not defined as being a "key-worker" you will be ripped-off.

The "key-worker" is also going to be ripped off, but they may be unaware of it for the moment.

Oh yes, a nightmare. This is my ninth home . We have lived here 3 years and did a quick sale by part-exing our semi for this detached- just to get away from bad neighbours-again! The only hold-up was the kid nextdoor smashing the windows while it was empty! Happily it stopped after we moved in.