OT: venting about v. stressful house purchase

[barnaby1]

I have had the most appalling 2 days and just want to have a moan.

We were suppose to complete on a new house yesterday and things were moving a little slowly during the day with the mortgage company (who appear to be hopeless). Thought everything was finally sorted and the money was going to be released 5 minutes before the cut of time when they suddenly announced that there was a problem with the solicitors bank details (at 3pm). It went from bad to worse then with them announcing that it may not even complete today as it then had to go to head office for approval. Fast forward to tonight and it hasn't gone through today either and will not now until monday morning!!!!!! I have spent the entire day on the phone getting very cross at people who appear not to care at all about the stress they are putting everyone through. Add in the fact that we are the start of a 4 person chain so all the other people now expect us to pay their contract interest which will probably total around £10,000.
I feel like I have aged 25 years in the last 2 days. Now we have the solicitors blaming the bank and the bank blaming the solicitors.

I am never going to move house ever again!!!!!!!!

 

[seashoreCM]

You don't really have to pay everybody else's contract interest or whatever unless and until a court judge orders you to. Most likely lots of negotiation will take place before it comes down to a court case.

If you lose a court case and end up having to pay all that, then you probably did not have a well written home purchase and sales contract. For those eavesdropping, it is recommended to engage a lawyer who knows real estate prior to signing any document, if you are the least bit unsure of what you are getting into.

Disney hints: http://www.cockam.com/disney.htm

 

[wmharley]

she lives on the other side of the pond so things may be different in the UK..

however, here, as a Realtor... if for whatever reason the closing doesn't happen on say Friday, and gets pushed to monday, the closing must reflect the actual date. now you can sign things earlier though..

this will of course change the interest and fees due across teh board. the OP doens't state, or I'm blind, if she is selling or buying...

if she is selling, or in either case, the contracts here, on most state's NAR forms, allow closing to be moved a few days if its due to lender.

if its just the buyers or sellers having cold feet, then penalties can arise. but the contracts usually state that the closing date is an estimate and are dependent on the lender. Seen it happen too many times... has happened personally to me twice... its a suck it up kinda thing...

 

[Katieinwonderland]

Oh I can commiserate!!!

DH and I are a week away from closing on a house, and yesterday the mortgage company told us there was a 'miscalculation' on our loan, and we would have to come up with an additional $18,000 for our down payment!!! We are already putting down $40,000 and don't exactly have a big sack of money we can just take it from! We make good money, and the mortgage isn't that big so we were at a loss as to why this had come up - and now the lender won't return our phone calls! This is with a very well known bank I would NEVER use again!

So now we are six days from closing and have no mortgage! I'm trying to convince the seller to give us an extension whilst DH is trying to find a new lender! I told DH that when we finally closed on somewhere, we were going to live in it until we die because I'm never going through this again!

 

[seashoreCM]

Ohthe mortgage company told us there was a 'miscalculation' on our loan, and we would have to come up with an additional $18,000 for our down payment!!! again!

Do you know the reason and the details for this?

Another role of the real estate attorney is to keep you from being forced into a subprime loan in order to go through with the purchase and not forfeit your deposit.

Properly, the purchase and sales agreement should have a custom clause that lets you back out if the financing does not work out, even if the lender reneges on a commitment and closing is tomorrow. Now the seller might possibly not like a simple custom clause to this effect and your attorney can help out with any minutiae* as well.

* Example: There are standard paragraphs I, II, III, IV, etc. in the contract. Your attorney wants to add under III a subparagraph A and maybe a B. The seller's attorney then wants to add to your A a sub subparagraph 1 or maybe a 2. Then your attorney wants to add to the seller's 2 an a and perhaps a b. Then the seller's attorney wants to perhaps add to your a an i and maybe an ii. Etc.

 

[MrsPooh]

The stress when closings don't happen is amazing. Dd was scheduled to close on a condo on October 13th. On the 7th she was told that the seller had liens on the property and they were trying to work out something.

She needs to be out of her current apartment on October 31st.

Ended up that the seller owed more than he thought and also didn't realize all the liens on the condo. The contract price he agreed to wasn't even enough to pay off the loan and pay the realtor. The liens totaled $12,000!

The contact was cancelled and while dd was faced with trying to find another place that would close in two weeks the seller wasn't punished at all.

She was able to find another place and it will close for the same price on October 30th. It is not as nice as the first one and the stress level she went though was terrible but it is all working in the end.

I'm so sorry you have this mess going on. Good luck and I hope it resolves soon.

 

[barnaby1]

We managed to complete on Monday and we are still living in a sea of boxes but at least we are here. Touch wood so far we have only had to pay contracted interest to the person we were buying from and another fee for the removal men but those 2 alone are about £850. Haven't had any other claims arrive on the solicitors desk so maybe people are not going to try to retrieve it as they are not automatically entitled to it.
It has just put such a damper on the whole move. I am not the type of person to keep dwelling on something - I am usually very much "it is now over so time to get on with things" but I think I am still quite concerned about potential extra costs.
It makes me so mad that my mortgage company were so unempathatic to everyones situation (not to mention hopelessly incompetent about it).
Watch this space!