Monday 30 April 2012

30th April 2012

The end of April and the end of what seemed like a very long month. We had a BBQ on Saturday for Craig and Helen's birthday. It never stopped raining, so I was outside under the Gazebo and everyone else was indoors. Still it was good. We then out for dinner yesterday to celebrate Craig's actual 16th Birthday.

Everything seems to be going OK at the moment, even the sun is out. We have done some packing and one wardrobe is dismantled. I have now run out of boxes which I have been picking up from around the streets when people throw them out. So far 59 have been filled, sealed and ready to go.

The removal company will be dropping off more tomorrow, along with some bubble wrap and tape. Helen and Kirsty have sorted out her room, so once boxes are here I can pack up stuff for Kirsty which is going into the rental property.

The rabbits are going to our friends on Thursday evening and then Saturday and Sunday will be spent packing up everything else and moving things over to mum and dads. We are not sure yet if the kids will be sleeping over there on Saturday night but certainly they will on Sunday evening. Helen and I will be here until Monday night, getting everything finished ready for the removal van to arrive on Tuesday 8th May 2012.

Next week will be very hectic and all over the place. We have to be up in King's Lynn Tuesday evening and all day Wednesday. Tuesday morning we have to get everyone over from my Mums and our current house, to get them to school and work and to meet the removal firm. Whilst in King's Lynn Mum and Dad will need to get Kirsty and Craig too and from school on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning and afternoon.

After all that it should all settle down again but I think we are ready and everything is covered and sorted out.

Friday 27 April 2012

27th April 2012

So this morning I wake to the news that the Unite union is recommending to its members not to accept the newest offer. The various members will now be balloted and the results of this ballot are due out 11th May 2012 with a final decision on strike action allowed upto 21st May 2012.

We are due to move 23rd May 2012 and so I now have a real headache. The solicitor confirms we have to complete on that day. We have no option the house must be emptied. The removal company keep saying there is no problem but how can they be sure. If they do not move me their terms cover them for liability based on third party actions.

So I have spent this morning considering our options. We could just carry on and hope that the members ignore their union and accept the deal, we could hope that even if they reject it more talks go ahead, we could even hope that if none of that happens the strike does not proceed until after we have moved. All of these options leave us with a big risk and there is no way of knowing what might happen.

The only thing we can do which would keep it within our control is to move out earlier. We are fortunate that we are moving into a rental property and that we have that from whenever we want. We have spoken to the landlady and paid our money so that is fine.

So I have looked at the dates, what Helen can do and how quickly we can pack up. I also spoke to the removal firm about what dates they had free. So now the move has all been changed and the plan is as follows.

Sat and Sun 5th and 6th May - Move everything we need to mum and dads. Pack up everything else ready for removals.
Tueday 8th May - Removal men come and empty the house.
Tuesday 8th May - Helen and I travel upto the rented property after work and meet the landlady, sign the forms and get the keys. We will stay overnight.
Wednesday 9th May - Removals travel up from London and unload into property. We travel back down that night.
Friday 25th May - completion takes place on the property.

As far as I can see it this is our only option. Yes there may end up not being a problem that week when we had planned to move but I just could not take the chance on it. So now it is busy busy busy getting everything sorted out. A few more weeks at Mum and Dad's than we were expecting but I think Dad is the only person to really mind that.

Thursday 26 April 2012

26th April 2012

Great I now have somethng new to worry about. Following the new offer for the fuel tankers to consider it was announced that the deadline for a decision and possible strike action had been extended to 21st May 2012. That is the week we are due to move. Brilliant, so I had a sleepness night when I found that out considering what our options would be if there was no fuel for our removal truck to get our stuff upto Norfolk.

I phoned my removal company and they said that the last fuel strike had not impacted them at all and they did not forsee any problems. Well easy to say that but they of course cannot be sure and if there is no fuel available then there is no fuel. Anyhow I then thought my solicitor could advise and let me know of some provision for this action which would be out of my control.

No luck there either. Regardless of what happens we have to complete on 25th May and the property must be empty on that day. Sometimes you can agree with the buyer an extension but where there is a mortgage involved it is normally not done.

So we have to wait and see if they accept the offer, and if they don't what impact it has. At the moment I have no idea what we will do if the removal company cannot move us out. Our buyer should have no problem he has only a local move from about half a mile away to here.

I spent the rest of the day sorting out cancellation of services. Everytime I tried to do something on line there was an error, either the dates were no good, the new addresses caused a problem or it was simply to early to do the change. Anyhow by the end of the day and several phonecalls we have now done the council Tax, Virgin Media, ADT Alarm, Post Redirection. Thames Water cannot be done until next week.

House contents insurance took up a long time as well. Basically there was so many questions I could not answer regarding the rental property. Is it within 200 meters of a waterway, what locks are on the front door, patio door, back door. Do the windows have locks. Is there an alarm, smoke alarms, when was the property built. I have emailed these to the agent to find out. Anyhow I then had to declare that we would only be using the property at weekends, of course that put a different slant on things. Now the locks must conform the BS3621 and there are many other conditions which must be met, otherwise we would only be covered for fire and not theft of our goods. Not much point in having insurance if that is the case. All our valuable items will be with us so the risk is minimal, tv's, furniture etc but still we need to cover it. Lets wait to see what the agent comes back with, hopefully they conform to BS3621.

Skip is arrriving today, be nice to get rid of all the rubbish down the side and in the back garden.

Tuesday 24 April 2012

25th April 2012

At 12.40 yesterday we exchanged contracts. That is such a relief. I phoned the solicitors first thing in the morning as she had requested and she said she would contact the other side. At 11.30 she rang to say they were ready. She went through to confirm the contract and to see if we were OK accepting a smaller deposit. It was not much short so we said yes. Then it seemed like ages before she rang back to confirm.

I told Helen straight away and then breathed a sigh of relief. I have put myself through hell the past 8 weeks but to be honest it could not have gone much smoother.

I have contacted our rental company to say we would take on the rent starting 12th May and she is coming back to me on that. We can all go up and see around the rental home and also look at the house we are buying. I rang the the owner later in the afternoon to check if it was ok to do this. He said they were going on holiday a few days before but would leave a key with a neighbour who would be pleased to show us around. That was really nice.

He also said that his selling of the house was not dependant on him finding and completing on another one. Basically when we were ready he would be ready, whether that tide in with completion of a new property for him or if that meant him putting his stuff into storage and moving in with his son. That sounds really good, but as we are in no hurry it should all work out for the best anyway.

Things are now in our hands, which is the way I like it.

Monday 23 April 2012

24th April 2012

So after dinner lst night Helen and I were both wondering if our buyer had gone into sign his contract or not. I of course still had my doubts but we would have to wait until the morning to find out.

Well actually we did not. Around 7pm I went out to Tescos with Kirsty to get some shopping, when I got back Helen told me that just after I left there was a knock at the door.

It was our buyer, he just wanted to check out the side access to our property, his solicitor could not help him so suggested to him that he knocked and asked. It seems he has signed his contract and his deposit is paid and so everything should be ready to exchange. He was happy with the date of Friday 25th May to complete and his both he and his wife said they were looking forward to moving in.

So hopefully soon we will exchange.

Sunday 22 April 2012

23rd April 2012

Good weekend. For the first time I feel like we are actually moving. The call from our Estate Agent to our buyer on Friday demonstrated that there was no issue from his side and today he will be going to see his solicitor to sign his contract. I am hoping that the deposit is already transferred, he was going to take a cheque in but the Estate Agent advised him to do it by Bacs. Last night though I had one slight worry, not in terms of the sale going through but just another thing that might delay it a few days. I had received our paperwork from our solicitor for the purchase of our property and one of the notes on there was that you cannot exchange contracts until you have taken out Buildings Insurance on the property you are buying. Has our buyer sorted this out, has anyone reminder him of this. I wonder and I wish I knew this on Friday so I could have got the agent to remind him. Anyhow it might be OK, the solicitors have surely covered this with him as a requirement. I would hope so but do not bank on it.

Spent the weekend clearing out the rubbish from the shed and loft. Decided to get rid of all the wood I had collected over the years. I never throw off cuts away as they are always useful but now it just makes sense not to trasnport it around. Going to hire a skip as i have all had a good clear out of loads of other stuff which basically is just there in case we ever need it but in fact we never do.

Made a bit of a mistake on the finances. Nothing big in terms of a show stopper but big in terms of value. In my figures I had forgot to add the VAT onto the Estate Agents fee, so was £750 out and that is now taken off our money left over figure.

So maybe tomorrow or Wednesday we might have exchanged, there should be no reason not to, unless of course the buildings insurance is not covered.

Friday 20 April 2012

20th April 2012 - additional

So we are very very close now to exchanging. The Estate Agent spoke to the buyer this afternoon. He has confirmed he is going into Solicitors on Monday with his wife to sign the contract. He was going to take a cheque in for the deposit but agent advised him to get hold of the solcitors bank details and pay by Bacs. He agreed with this and said he would get straight onto it.

He is happy with our proposed completion date of 25th May 2012 and had no problems with anything at all. That is really good news and if all goes well we could be exchanging some time next week, and then we can relax and be in control of everything again.

20th April 2012

Feeling much more positive today, well after all the sun is out and the rain we have had all this week seems to have past. I will fix that though, I have put the towels onto wash.

At around 5pm last night I got an unexpected call from our solicitor. She said that she had finally spoken to the other solicitors and the quote for the indemnity insurance is £193, which is fine and she also said that both parties had everything in place and it was now just down to our buyer to go in and sign. She did go onto say that the insurance did not actually need to be sorted out until completetion, I wish someone had mentioned this in my many calls to them this week. The thing which was bugging me was that I thought it had to be agreed and in place before the buyer went into to sign. Would have saved me a lot of stress and she did appologise.

So now it is just upto our buyer to get his act together. I spoke to our Estate Agent today and he said our buyer and ourselves are at the opposite end of the spectrum. He had never come across a buyer and seller so far apart in how they do things. He said we are proactive, efficient, (pain in the backside I think he meant) whereas our buyer lets things drift and leaves it to others to tell him when things are ready. This has been my problem but hopefully we are near the end now.

Today my Estate Agent is going to call the buyer and I have emailed him a list of things I want him to stress to him. These include confirming that he is going in on Monday to sign, to find out how and when he is going to transfer his deposit, make him aware that both he and his wife have to sign the contract, ask him what date he is looking at to complete based on the fact we want at least 4 weeks, but once we have that we will go with his date. We also asked them to point out to him that he needs to instruct his solicitor that he wants to exchange as quickly as possible now and remind him that he is paying them and not the other way round.

So I am hoping for a call back from the Agent later on today to find out how the conversation went. I hope he contacts him, it is difficult though being a teacher, he is unavailable for most of the day.

Anyhow I spoke to the Agent who we are buying the property from to give her an update, it seems though that the owner did not get the property they had wanted. That is a shame as I know they really wanted it but that is the good thing about us renting first, we have no problem with how long it takes to complete that purchase.

With regards to the rental, the Agent rang me this morning to confirm all checks had been done now and everything was OK, she is just waiting for me to give her a date for when we will start the rental, we have said either Saturday 5th May or 12th May 2012 but I need to exchange first before comitting to this. She was Ok with this and I told her I would ring next week.

So sit back and enjoy the weekend and pray that our buyer sorts things out and we can exchange sometime next week.

Thursday 19 April 2012

19th April 2012

I am honestly not sure how much more of this I can take. We seem so close and yet to me it seems like we are miles away. For some reason I have this doubt in my mind that this is ever going to go through.

I am trying to work out why I have these feelings, worries and concerns and I think it may actually come down to our buyer. He is not the most of dynamic characters, seems very unaware of the processes and also seems very unwilling to chase or hassle his solicitors to move quickly on this.

So much so I have no confidence in him at all. I do not trust that he is going in next Monday to sign the contract and pay the deposit, after all he said last week that he had a days holiday owing from his school so would sort out this week, next we know he is planning to go into the solicitors late on Monday afternoon 23rd April 2012.

It was his fault for the delays. He realised at the last minute that he had not had a home buyers survey done. This was then done first week of Easter and he was told to expect the report before the Easter holidays. At the end of the Easter holidays we find out he is still waiting for the report. So why on earth did he not chase it up to find out where it was. We could have said a week or so on the things that are now being sorted out now.

Also we were told that the contract had been posted to him. Why has he not done, as we have, and got it signed and posted back to the solicitors.

He seems to be a slow and uncertain person. What he needs is a rocket up his backside. In an effort to do this my Estate Agent is going to call him tomorrow - Friday, to make sure he is going in on Monday to sign. I have asked them as well if they could point out to him the problems that his slowness is causing us now. On the strength of last weeks call to him where he said everything was fine and he would sort out this week, we put down the deposit on the rental property, here we are a week on and no more progress has been made.

The other thing making me fed up is that on Tuesday we were told we needed to take out an indemnity insurance to cover the works which were done before we moved in. Depsite agreeing to this and our solcititors putting many calls into the other solicitors they have so far not come back to them. So in my mind now is this because there is a problem and the buyer is not happy or is it because it is something so easy for them to sort out that it is not a priority for them until Monday. Whatever it is it would be nice to be told rather than them not reply to my solicitors.

Wednesday 18 April 2012

18th April 2012

Isn't it funny. You look for months ahead for rental properties and properties to buy and find only a handful which would suit. You keep checking sort out a shortlist and still keep checking for anything new to come on the market. You research and research. All homework is done. You have done as much as you can and you then proceed to rent and buy the best properties available to you at the time.

The all of a sudden once you have committed yourself other properties become available. Now I am not saying that we would change our mind or are not happy with where we are going it is just that now since we have sorted ourselves we receive details of other suitable rental properties and properties to buy.

Having seen these properties now available my only regret is on the rental. There is one now available which is much better than we have secured, much bigger, not much more in cost and better presented. Anyhow as we will not be in there for long I am not too botherered that we might not have the best rental.

Still in a funny mood. I can go from one minute thinking "great everything is in place now we are going to be moving and exchanging soon" to "oh what if he does not go in on Monday to sign the contracts, we might not move at all", it is really strange the way my mind switches so quickly.

I still start to do things and then think, no hold off, wait till we have exchanged in case something happens. It is silly really, he has done everything needed to show us he is going to buy, he has paid out a fair amount of money now so there is no reason why he should not proceed, but there is just this nagging uncertain doubt in the back of my mind.

Tuesday 17 April 2012

17th April 2012

So today I decided to just wait. No chasing no hassling just get on with life and wait for our solicitor to tell us we are ready to exchange. I cannot take not sleeping at night any longer.

Well that plan lasted until midday. Our Agent rang to advise that the Solicitor had reviewed the survey and wanted to see that the small extension we have meets builing regulations. We do not have any idea when that was done and for a moment I was in a bit of a state. He then went onto say that if we did not know we could arrange a simple indemnity insurance to cover the buyer. Phew I thought, so I got straight onto our solicitors and asked them to organise.

All afternoon our solicitor tried to contact the other solicitior, they kept ringing, leaving messages and holding on but no one came back. I was getting stressed again and wondering why the solicitor should be ignoring them.

Anyhow just before 5pm our solicitor rang back. They had spoken to them finally, it appears they were waiting to talk to the buyer before ringing back, would have been nice to have told us.

They will arrange quotes for the insurance, tell us how much and we tell them which one to go for, another cost for us but who cares at this stage. We also know now for sure that our buyer has arranged an appointment with the solicitor to go in on Monday evening to sign the contract and transfer the deposit. So at least we have that knowledge now and know that we should be exchanging contracts early next week, Tuesday or maybe Wednesday. So now just get on with life and expect now something next week.

Fingers crossed.

Monday 16 April 2012

16th April 2012

Its hard to explain the emotions I have at the moment. It is really weird. On the one side we have now secured the rental property as mentioned the other day. That is a huge relief as there are not many available.

We have today put in an offer to buy a property in the Kings Lynn, this has been accepted and the ball is now rolling on that.

However the nagging thing which is still not resolved, and in my mind just keeps dragging on and ultimately effects the progress of the first two things mentioned in this post is the exchange of contracts to seel our house.

Until that happens I find it hard to be happy that we have had an offer accepted or that we have a rental property. Everything depends still on our buyer sorting out his side and getting us to the exchange point. As days pass I keep thinking that something is going to go wrong. There is no reason to, on Friday he told the agent he was 100% certain he would buy still and would sort it out this week, but there is just something nagging at the back of my mind all the time.

Once we exchange on our sale, we are pretty much there. Having got the rental property now the purchase of our new house can really take as long as it takes. There will be no stress for me on that, unless of course it takes longer than 6 months which is how long we have the rental property fo.

The rental company are pushing us for a date to start renting, I cannot give them that until we exchange. I have tried to get our Estate Agent to find out for us when this week it will be but as normal no news comes back. Sometimes I wish I could just talk to our buyer directly and find out exactly when he plans to finalise things. Sitting waiting is so frustrating but I have to believe in human nature, and hope that he does as he promised last week and sorts things out this week. If we get to Friday with no news I am sure I will be very uptight again.

At the moment I am quite relaxed, just that nagging doubt sitting in the back of my mind.

Come on Mr Buyer give us some news.

Sunday 15 April 2012

15th April 2012

Well things seem to be acutally progressing. On Friday our Estate Agent managed to talk to our buyer. He said he was still 100% sure that he was buying our property and said he would sort out things this coming week. He was just waiting for his copy of the survey to come through, which we have found out was posted a couple of days before. So assuming this has now been recevied then there is no reason why he cannot pay his deposit and sign his contract.

We had a very good day up in Kings Lynn on Saturday. The primary objective was achieved by securing a rental property. I was quite shocked at its condition and was sure Helen would not want it but she surprised me by saying it was fine. I have never rented before and she said the condition was to be expected. The house is Ok and will serve its purpose of getting an address so we can get Kirsty a school and a place for us to go up to at Weekends and holidays as well as somewhere to move our stuff to when we complete here and now saves us costs of storage fees and removal costs from storage to the rental property.

Whilst up there we arranged to see 4 properties which we had shortlisted. We have looked a lot at properties and most are just in the wrong area. I had my favourite which turned out to be terrible. Firstly the driveway did not have a drop down onto the main road, but more than that it had quite a deep slope up and I would be surprised if the bottom of our cars would not have scrapped onto it. The owners both had big jeeps with big wheels, maybe that is why. Anyhow the first things the owner says is "excuse the messI have just finished repairing a wall with some damp on it. He said he had repaired another one recently but knows that when you fix one problem it moves somewhere else. So straight away I am looking at the walls and the condition was very poor. The front room was very small and Helen noticed that the ceiling, where the chimney had been taken out was uneven. The rest of the down stairs was OK but it was upstairs that really decided it for us. They had converted the loft into a loft room, it was done very well and there was nothing wrong with the room. However the stairs to access it came straight down into the master bedroom, there was not even a door on the master bedroom, just open plan. I would be surprised if anyone brought that with that set up.

We looked at another property which has been on the market for a while and in our price range. It was massive, but unfortunately it was in our price range because of the condition. If it had been well maintained then it would be worth 60k more. It would need that amount spent on it to bring it up to a decent standard. So we ruled that one out.

Another property, which was closer to town was very nice. The garden was really lovely and the house had just been extended, so it had 4 bedrooms. Kitchen was a bit small but the house was in very good condition. It was on a small road though so parking was tight but it did have a driveway. The main problem for me was that it was quite a walk to the nearest bus stop. 10-15 minutes, after which it was another 20 minute bus ride to Craig's new school. That would be unfair for him and to far for Kirsty eventually when she is out and about on her own.

So the last property and one I was not sure about. However on viewing it I really loved it. We went there before viewing it and walked to Craig's school - 6 minutes, we then timed the walk from the house to nearest bus stop - 5 minutes. There is a primary school we had looked at for Kirsty - 2 minutes away. The property is detached, it has 3 double bedrooms, a kitchen diner the same size as ours in now, the main living space is 3 times as big as our front room now. It has two toilets as well as a garage and work shop and a conservatory. The only thing it did not have was a 4th bedroom. This made Helen unsure. For me the only problem was that it was not a traditional house as I expect, you know front door, into halway and rooms of that. This was the front door has been moved to the side of the property and comes into the kitchen as the owner has built the downstairs toilet where the front door was. The overall condition was excellant, he is a builder/handy man by trade and has done all the work to a very high standard.

Later on we decided to go back for another look. I had said to Helen that if we have guests we can always put them up in our room and we can put a sofa bed in the conservatory. After all all the other properties surrounding it are bungalows, so no one looks over it and of course we could put blinds up. We also noticed the suns position, it was ideal for me, it sets over the front of the property so the main living space is cool as it the conservatory. After the second look both Helen and I were very keen on it.

So much so we are going to put an offer in tomorrow.

It is getting exciting now but we just need our buyer to get their act together and exchange contracts this week. The renetal company will be chasing me shortly for a date for us to start renting and I cannot supply this until we have exchanged.

Friday 13 April 2012

13th April 2012

Well not sure where to start. Just to say that past couple of days I have been very low and unhappy. It has all been caused by a phone call we got on Wednesday 11th April from our solictior. They rang to say everything was now in place, mortgage offer was received, all searches back and Ok. They went on to say that they had spoken to the buyers solicitor and they were just waiting for the client to go in and sign the contract and pay the deposits.

So on Thursday the we wait for the good news phone call. Around 11.30 the phone rings and it is our Estate Agent. He says he has spoken to our buyers and the solicitor has sent out the contract in the post to them. He does not know why but that is where they are at. So we ring the solicitors and ask them to find out what is going on. Two calls they put into the other solicitors and no phone call back.

It put me in a bad mood, I could not sleep last night wondering what was going on. As far as I knew our buyer what to get this all sorted before he had to return to work next week. I was up with a headache for a few hours and then up again at 6.30am.

At 9am I rang my Estate Agent to ask what was going on. Could he contact our buyer and find out what the situation is. He said he would call them and get back to me. At 10.40 my solicitors rung me, they had to chase other solicitors again but finally spoke to them. It appears that our buyer has still not received his home buyers survey which was promised to be delivered to them before Easter. They also said there was no chance of an exchange today.

So I tried our Estate Agent again but he was on the phone and would call me back. Getting so fed up with this now but what can we do. It is one thing after another, we might just tell the buyer that unless we exchange today then instead of giving them 4 weeks to complete we want 8 weeks. See how they like it being mucked around. It is no problem to us, all we want to do is exchange so we can put a deposit down on a rental property.

Never ever doing this again, it just takes over your life and is so frustrating that so many people have control over everything and we have no control at all.

Wednesday 11 April 2012

11th April 2012

Well another week on and still no progress. No one rings you with anything. You get no updates even just to say it is still progressing. No one tells you what is going on. Our solicitors do not even see our emails we send them until we ring and they find it. We have to ring we have to chase. But when we do no one knows what is going on because they have not chased, so from our phone call they then try to find out.

Wouldn't it be nice to ring up and someone say, "ah yes we chased them yesterday and this is where we are at"

Is anyone progressing the searches or is it just left until someone who is doing the searches decides to do something. Does anyone chase? Does anyone care.

Who knows, we don't. We feel totally out on a limb, no idea if we are days away from exchange or weeks. It is so so so slow. Seriously why does it take so long. So fed up now, waiting waiting.

Still up to Kings Lynn on Saturday to view some properties and also look at a rental one. It looks ideal but we cannot do anything about it because we have not exchanged. So frustrating.

Wednesday 4 April 2012

4th April 2012

So once again the buying and selling property process demonstrates why it takes so long to buy and sell a property. When solicitors were engaged 4 weeks ago, I had assumed that they would be getting all of their things in place whilst the mortgage application was going through. That would mean, once approved it would be simple to exchange and any delays they came across could be sorted out whilst the application and survey were going on.

Well how stupid to think that would be the case. Those early weeks were effectivley dead weeks. We have found out now that only last week were searches requested and it turns out that one is still waiting to come back and the Environmental search has been referred. No one can tell us exactly what this means but our solicitor says this can sometimes happen and is not unusual and could be related to things such as the Electricity sub station we have at the end of the garden.

That is all fine and will be sorted out but an exchange next week is now unlikely even though the mortgage offer is now through.

Here is an idea, why not carry out the searches early on, giving time for these delays to be sorted and not have an impact on the end of the process.

The whole thing seems to be poorly organised and structured and a simple transaction such as ours, takes 50% longer, in my view, than it needs to. I would hate to be in a chain with buyers and sellers with all sorts of problems if this is what it is like for a straight forward sale.

The buying and selling of property needs an overhaul in my opinion.

Tuesday 3 April 2012

3rd April 2012

Finally starting to feel better. I have had this heavy cold, man flu whatever you want to call it for over a week now. Had the shivers, aches and pains, and lots of congestion. Helen has it now but is getting hot instead of the cold, Craig is over it and Kirsty has so far survived anything.

We had the home buyers survey done on our house yesterday. that was very encouraging. Nice man who talked us through what he had found and would be reporting back. For some reason I thought as the client was paying he would not be able to disclose to us what he would report. Anyhow basically he said he found nothing and the only amber light would be the roof, which although is still doing its job, is the original one and would therefore be getting towards the end of its life, in fact the same was said on the survey we had done when we brought it. Other than that it was fine.

He then called into the Estate Agent to advise them, and said his report would be out in a few days. The Agent rang our buyer to tell him and found out that he was planning to go to his solicitors today to sort some things out. I am still not clear as to whether the mortgage has been approved or not, he just said it was proceeding, whatever that means, so once again we will sit back and wait for someone to call us with news. It has certainly helped the stress but sitting back and letting things happen.

We got an email from the solicitors yesterday saying that the buyers solicitors were asking for a copy of the guarantee for the guttering we had done. This was included by me in the pack I sent into them weeks ago so it was a bit frustrating that they were asking for it as I am sure they have had it. Anyhow after a little while searching around I found my copy I had taken. So I scanned and emailed it across and he kindly confirmed receipt of it. I am hoping now that that was the final thing from our side.