I am cut off from 75% of my wardrobe so I haven’t felt very fashion-y, but I’ve commented a few times and wanted to let you all know I’m lurking.

Waiting to move has been a nightmare. We were cleared by the city (it’s a new condo and there was a COVID backlog) on Dec 7. The seller’s lawyer took until just before Christmas to give the 30 days’ notice for closing in the contract. That expired yesterday.

In the interim, my bank has spent weeks trying to get corrections on the title, which we just got last week, and asking for insurance information that we just found out is proprietary and won’t be given. No one has clarified if this is an impasse or not - when we ask our bank contact, we just hear “the team is working on it” and “I will check.” The bank is incapable of giving any timelines, even when pressed repeatedly.

In the meantime, the seller (who is an RE developer) is “flipping out” and is threatening to charge us for going over the 30 days. He can’t close any of the units until all three (or maybe at least two?) are ready, so he can pay off his mortgage at once. My bank sucks, but they’ve been waiting on info relating to HIS title and insurance. Plus, his lawyer waited almost Christmas to start the clock, for reason I can see...and there have been three federal holidays during these 30 days.

We’ve pushed and pushed on all of it, to no avail—the bank has flatly refused to agree to any timelines until it has the info it required. The delays in getting that info have not been our fault. I have no idea if the seller was pushing his people during this time to get the info needed to our bank. I also don’t know why waited until the last day of the 30 days to finally flip out. I’ve been flipping out for at least a week, as it was clear we weren’t closing. Anyway, it’s not clear yet if he can charge us penalties or not. His threat came up too late on Friday for any of it to be straightened out before the weekend.

I am starting to despair, but my husband is convinced there is too much money at stake for the bank (we used a BoA team in Ithaca, where this would be a very large transaction though it’s kind of small potatoes for NYC... long story as to why). The seller also can't really terminate the contract (he has closing the whole building to think of, and would have to start over on a new buyer and delay things for months again). The bank, lawyers and seller probably do have to figure it out, so as not to lose money, but I still feel the deal can go south.

Meanwhile, I don’t deal well with having no timeline and feeling helpless, so I’m at my lowest point emotionally since the pandemic began. It doesn’t help that it’s winter and life is same-y and boring each day. I know we are all going through that, but the COVID limbo would be easier for me if it were the only limbo I’m in right now.

I hope you all are doing at least slightly better. Thanks for the space to vent. Xoxo

4 years ago