The Mock Turtle

D’s chain is 3. A family moving from a local house but not selling it, he’s in the middle and a the person at the top moving is moving into a new build. So it should be straightforward but I honestly can’t see it happening anytime soon.

I can’t find anything about what has happened in other countries with house moves. My worry is that we can’t exchange and then the housing market plummets and it all falls through. If we can get to exchange then that at least feels like it might happen.

I know this is trivial in the grand scheme of things but I need to move (Or at least think it might happen) or I’m going to lose my mind.

Housing matters are NOT trivial.

They really really aren’t. I have everything crossed you can find a way through it Chicky.

Well, I have a house at least. And a Tesco delivery slot, so I’m definitely one of the fortunate ones. What will be will be. And thank you, being able to vent my frustration here is a lifeline.

I’m not sure. I mean we can’t even go near our solicitor’s office.

We’ve got a few months to get it done though. So fingers crossed.

Chicky I hope it goes as smoothly as possible!

We're stuck in our rental now. Our flooring was cancelled this morning and we were ready to move in on Friday anyway but I doubt AO will be delivering tomorrow now and my fitted wardrobes are probably not now coming on Wednesday so we're stuck.
I hope I'll be able to visit to at least switch the boiler off and our insurance will cover the house while it's empty.

All we needed was another three weeks.

Here you are allowed to move if you have to.

So no one is moving house then... by the sounds of it. I heard a thing suggesting solicitors might be able to negotiate exchanges and completions where the current owners stay put for a while after completion, until the situation loosens.

Someone moved out on Wednesday further along my road. The movers were all stood in a huddle at the beginning of the day not even trying to maintain distance.

Nope. And my mother has been forwarding every news item she finds about how moving isn't allowed which is totally helping my mental state :woteva:

Our removal people cancelled earlier this week saying they aren't allowed to move people so even if we'd exchanged it as per the original timetable it would still be off. We had an email from our buyers solicitor yesterday saying that they are now advising completing and exchanging on the same day (presumably to get around compensation if there are delays before completion) but we need a steer on the rest of the chain and also to hear what our solicitor recommends but he's not been forthcoming. I just desperately hope that nothing bad happens to anyone in the chain, and that noone gets cold feet/has their mortgage offer revoked and that we can just pause, finish off all the conveyancing and then commit to something once the lockdown is over. I am aware that the likelihood of that is about 1% though :sad:

Chicky! After my BIL's solicitor advised the same, he is now planning to exchange in the next week or so with a completion date of end June. His solicitor is including a clause to cover lockdown/quarantine/isolation. So it's worth asking - I guess it will just take a while for solicitors to work it all through because no one's been in this situation before.

Ooh that’s interesting, thanks emma. We need to get hold of our solicitor next week and see what is happening. All four purchases in the chain are with the same estate agent and we have a very formidable lady looking after all of us so we can get her on the case too.

Update this morning, our sellers need a mortgage valuation to get their mortgage approved which they didn't do before we went into lockdown. Mortgage company have said they need to do one in person (they'd hoped to do an online assessment) so no movement until we are out of lockdown.

The more immediate issue is that I'd already arranged for sky to switch broadband etc. and now I can't get through to them to get them to cancel the move - their messaging system says go to the website, their website says call, and their phoneline says you can only get through if you are vulnerable/keyworker. So how on earth am I meant to get in touch with them?!

Can you tweet them with your predicament?

Arrietty wrote: ↑Mon Mar 30, 2020 11:36 am Can you tweet them with your predicament?

I've done that - fingers crossed they reply or I'm going to have to ring them anyway, our sellers have been on to the estate agent as they've had something through from Sky saying their internet is being turned off next week :argh:

I'm sorry, Chicky, how horribly disappointing and stressful for you.

Thanks Zoom. Worse things happen at sea. At least I know there is nothing to be done in the next few weeks.

I got through to Sky eventually and they cancelled my move so that’s good. It was a mortifying experience though, I use my title (Dr) for most things and the very nice sky lady saw it on her system and then proceeded to give me a round of applause down the phone and thank me for my service. I had to explain I wasn’t a medical doctor :shame:

Oh no

Just had a call from the estate agent. She’s rung round everyone and they are all still in a position to proceed, no one has lost their job or got coronavirus and they all still want to move. So that is tentative good news. The people at the top of the chain have lost their rented place but they should be able to find something else. So we just need a mortgage valuation to be done on the house at the top of the chain, and removal ppl to be allowed to work again and we MAY be ok.