Four BIG things that went wrong when we were selling our house….

We accepted an offer on our house in August 2025 but didn’t actually move until the end of February 2026, which is seven months. Even by UK standards, that’s a long time.

It was a really stressful few months because at various points it genuinely felt like it could fall through at any moment. We got there in the end though and we’re now in what is definitely our dream house… or it will be once we’ve finished making it ours. 😁

Looking back, there were a few moments that caused delays or unnecessary drama, so I thought I’d share them because if you’re in the middle of a house move, it can feel like it’s only happening to you.

To start on a positive, our buyers and sellers were lovely throughout and that made a huge difference. Genuinely, on move day (which is a whole other post) our buyers Dad helped us dismantle beds and our sellers unpacked all our food shopping into the fridge and cupboards. 

Our buyers were first-time buyers and our sellers were selling their childhood home after their dad had moved into a home and sadly passed away, so we had a small chain of three. It also meant that, apart from us, no one seemed to be in any real rush.

Once we accepted the offer, things went quiet for a bit while mortgage offers were sorted and the usual searches were started. At that point everything felt fairly straightforward and we were told to expect around 12 to 16 weeks, which we were absolutely fine with.

Then the survey happened and that’s when things started to get a bit more complicated.

The first issue was a crack above the front door that the survey flagged as possible subsidence. We knew it wasn’t, but we still had to pay for a specialist to come out and confirm that. He was there for less than five minutes before telling us it wasn’t subsidence, he also checked a chimney breast and had a general look around the house to check a few other issues that had been highlighted on the survey. He was there for less than half an hour so being charged £650 for what felt like a very quick visit was painful.

The next issue from the survey turned out to be the biggest one of the whole move. We didn’t have a dropped kerb for our driveway and the buyers’ solicitor decided that we needed to apply and pay for one before the sale could go ahead.

Our solicitor immediately said no to that and went back suggesting an indemnity instead, which is what normally happens in situations like this. The frustrating part is that she didn’t actually tell us any of this at the time because she assumed it would be resolved quickly.

There were a few other minor things on the survey, but we were told not to worry about them because it’s an older house and nothing was unexpected, so we tried to just let those go.

Then everything went quiet again, which we assumed was normal, but when we tried to get hold of our solicitor for an update, we couldn’t reach her at all. No emails, no calls, nothing for over a week. Then she got in touch to say she was leaving in a couple of days and would be handing our file over to someone else.

It turned out she left in difficult circumstances and the new solicitor inherited a lot of unfinished work.  Our new solicitor was so apologetic about the lack of communication and told us she would take a day of so to look through our file and get up to speed.

When she did reach out to us the nest day, she explained that the buyers’ solicitor had been very difficult about the dropped kerb and was refusing every solution that had been suggested. This was the first time we’d even heard that it was still an issue, which was frustrating to say the least.

At the same time as this was happening, we were copied into an email from the buyers solicitor to our buyers and estate agent where we were being described as being awkward and un-cooperative because we hadn’t signed a document in person. He even went as far as saying he had concerns about whether we were who we said we were because we hadn’t gone in with ID to sign documents.

Our solicitor pointed out that in 2026 most solicitors accept email signatures because of all the ID checks that happen behind the scenes anyway. We didn’t even know that there was a request for us to sign anything as none of this had been communicated to us before by our old solicitor. Again, because she had thought it was an unreasonable request and was arguing that it wasn’t appropriate but had we known, we absolutely would have just signed whatever was needed in person. 

We ended up speaking to our buyers directly to reassure them that we weren’t dodgy, and the director of our solicitors raised a complaint with their firm. Suddenly, the requirement for an in-person signature disappeared.

Just when we thought things couldn’t get more complicated, the weather got involved. You might remember that ridiculously rainy weekend because that’s when our kitchen roof decided to start leaking.

We let the estate agent know straight away and made sure the buyers knew we would fix it. To try and keep things moving, we even offered to get quotes and reduce the price so they could deal with it themselves, but quite rightly they preferred us to sort it before completion.

That was fine, but it did take time because every roofer in the area was busy dealing with the same issue after all that rain and obviously, it wasn’t cheap to fix. 

Meanwhile, the dropped kerb situation was still dragging on, so we spoke to our buyers again. They told us they weren’t actually that concerned about it and that it was their solicitor pushing the issue. At that point, we told our solicitor we were prepared to walk away because it felt like we were constantly fighting against someone who wasn’t even acting in line with their own clients.

She passed that on and we fully expected the whole chain to collapse.

That conversation happened on a Friday, and the following Wednesday we got a call from our solicitor saying everything had been agreed and we were moving. Exchange and completion were set for the following Tuesday.

The buyers had basically put their foot down and told their solicitor they would change firms if he didn’t accept that we weren’t going to apply and pay for a dropped kerb.

I got that call while I was sitting in the hospital waiting for an appointment and I cried. Proper cried. After months of thinking it wasn’t going to happen, it suddenly was and I was so relieved! The issue just went away completely and all of the the other smaller issues on the survey were never even discussed. 

Even though being given less than a week to organise a house move after waiting seven months was chaotic, I didn’t stop smiling all week. Until moving day that is because obviously, after the way the lead up to the big day went, moving day was never going to go smoothly, was it?

I’d love you follow me on Twitter and it would be amazing to see you over on my Facebook page and on Instagram. If you’re interested, you can find out more about me here and while I’ve got your attention, if you’re wondering why some of my posts lately are a little bit less frugal then have a read of this post. 😉

Do your future self a favour – Pin this post for later.