At the end of April, we were chasing the idea that we could move house on the 2nd May, there were phone calls, more calls, updates, up to the minute updates, latest updates, and then the news one of the houses in the chain needed to complete some more paperwork that their solicitor had overlooked. Sinking tummies, more waiting, more patience required and more distraction needed.
On Wednesday, May 10th a call from the estate agent selling my home. There was positive news, all required paperwork had now been completed, queries answered, and a chance that if all solicitors were ready perhaps we could look to exchange at the beginning of the following week. At last, the end was in sight, a chance to move forward, out of the stagnated stilted life that had occupied my head and mind for weeks. Then an hour later phone call number two of the day, the person at the bottom of the chain, the person who had kept us all waiting, hanging on and wondering had decided to pull out!
Just like that, a chain collapses. Months of form filling, calls, anticipation, payments for required processes, mortgage applications, surveys, searches, removal company visits, and in a moment it all tumbles around you.
What are you left with? Hope and trying to maintain positivity to fill your head that will overflow into your life to ensure all will be well, in the end. Whenever that may be.
Now I know with absolute certainty why moving house is stressful. You are reliant on the goodwill of others, their word and their actions are not binding but built on trust. Trust of a complete stranger you have never met, who has no connection with you, any action to answer and can hide behind others if they change their mind with no financial recompense. This is why our house buying system in England is so stressful, time-wasting, costly, and extremely unsatisfactory.