The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

bigkenny1975

@FTB_Help I would have avoided them but the solicitor they recommended was actually one we were going to use anyway based on a personal recommendation
@Natbag it is just frustrating isn't it? I reckon it is all going to be ok, all they need to do is occasionally update me and I'd be happy

Natbag

bigkenny1975 said:

@Natbag it is just frustrating isn't it? I reckon it is all going to be ok, all they need to do is occasionally update me and I'd be happy

Exactly! That's all I ask, but it seems that solicitors don't care to waste time on reassurances without any actual paperwork to give to you.

Emillz89

daniel_owen_uk said:

Sad day, after over a year searching and finding "The One", we have just pulled out of the purchase
Searches showed a mine shaft in the back garden (untreated), and with us wanting to extend that way we made the decision it wasn't worth the risk.  That and the potential risk to any future sales.
Gutted is not the word.

Oh gosh why don't the sellers and estate agents just list this stuff in the first place on the advert! Yes it will take longer to sell but at the end of the day it is there and will be discovered by buyers at some stage!

GoingOn30

Good afternoon all, looks like I am ready to get back on this waiting to exchange ride again! 
It's our first time selling and we are also wanting to onward purchase, I feel no less nervous than when we were first time buying 4 years ago!
I'm feeling frustrated after a false start with our solicitors, me instructing them to proceed with conveyancing for our sale last Wednesday and then hearing nothing for a week, only for them to say "oh, did we not email you paper to complete last week?" when I rang them yesterday....
So anyway, our timeline so far is below. We are racing to complete within the stamp duty holiday (as is the rest of the world it seems), our solicitors have generously offered that we may pay an "urgency premium" of £400 + VAT should we want them to hurry along the parts of the process that are within their control, anyone got any thoughts on this?

Selling
12th March - offer accepted 
18th - Buyers mortgage app submitted
22nd March - memorandum of sale issued
31st March - Buyers survey took place,
31st March - ID check at solicitors, conveyancing questionnaires completed 
Buying
29th March - offer accepted
31st March - Memorandum of sale issued
31st March - our build survey booked for 19th April
31st March - Meeting with our mortgage broker, full application to go in 1st April 

ohdarn

It's been a while but if anyone can remember my last post, our lender, TSB has decided they no longer need the valuation paperwork sending to them by the conveyancer. 
Because they wouldn't let anyone see the valuation paperwork.
And it didn't exist anyway.
Good news was that our buyer has finally had their mortgage approved.
Helpful hint for prospective buyers, if you wait five months before applying for your mortgage, it might result in your vendor losing their mind.
Apparently our buyer wants to complete on Friday the 9th April.
Everyone seems cool with that. Except no one is sure when we'll exchange contracts. We just get a shrug and a 'probably sometime soon'.
We ask if they want the deposit money or the funds required to complete and get a similar response.
Our conveyancer seems to be taking the laid back approach to the house buying process.
Which is reassuring.
Personally I don't think they've looked at a calendar to see if there's two bank holidays coming up.

Natbag

GoingOn30 said:

 We are racing to complete within the stamp duty holiday (as is the rest of the world it seems), our solicitors have generously offered that we may pay an "urgency premium" of £400 + VAT should we want them to hurry along the parts of the process that are within their control, anyone got any thoughts on this?

Hi, welcome! If you stand to save more than £400 in stamp duty, I would absolutely bite their hand off. As you can see from some timelines on here, everything is taking months and months, especially if searches in your area are slow to come back. I think things are getting worse as so many more people have joined the process since the extension was announced, and with Covid, homeworking, demand and many conveyancers yet to take delayed annual leave I think it will get worse before it gets better. I think to complete before the end of June you'd have to be seriously lucky.

ohdarn

GoingOn30 said:

Good afternoon all, looks like I am ready to get back on this waiting to exchange ride again! 
It's our first time selling and we are also wanting to onward purchase, I feel no less nervous than when we were first time buying 4 years ago!
I'm feeling frustrated after a false start with our solicitors, me instructing them to proceed with conveyancing for our sale last Wednesday and then hearing nothing for a week, only for them to say "oh, did we not email you paper to complete last week?" when I rang them yesterday....
So anyway, our timeline so far is below. We are racing to complete within the stamp duty holiday (as is the rest of the world it seems), our solicitors have generously offered that we may pay an "urgency premium" of £400 + VAT should we want them to hurry along the parts of the process that are within their control, anyone got any thoughts on this?

Selling
12th March - offer accepted 
18th - Buyers mortgage app submitted
22nd March - memorandum of sale issued
31st March - Buyers survey took place,
31st March - ID check at solicitors, conveyancing questionnaires completed 
Buying
29th March - offer accepted
31st March - Memorandum of sale issued
31st March - our build survey booked for 19th April
31st March - Meeting with our mortgage broker, full application to go in 1st April 

'For the low low price of £400 (plus VAT), we'll do the job you're paying us to do.
But properly.'

jonners666

Everyone (except apparently the top of the chain) called solicitors to give authority to exchange this morning.

Still nothing, because no one has heard from the solicitors at the top. Exactly the same as what happened yesterday!

Emillz89

GoingOn30 said:

Good afternoon all, looks like I am ready to get back on this waiting to exchange ride again! 
It's our first time selling and we are also wanting to onward purchase, I feel no less nervous than when we were first time buying 4 years ago!
I'm feeling frustrated after a false start with our solicitors, me instructing them to proceed with conveyancing for our sale last Wednesday and then hearing nothing for a week, only for them to say "oh, did we not email you paper to complete last week?" when I rang them yesterday....
So anyway, our timeline so far is below. We are racing to complete within the stamp duty holiday (as is the rest of the world it seems), our solicitors have generously offered that we may pay an "urgency premium" of £400 + VAT should we want them to hurry along the parts of the process that are within their control, anyone got any thoughts on this?

Selling
12th March - offer accepted 
18th - Buyers mortgage app submitted
22nd March - memorandum of sale issued
31st March - Buyers survey took place,
31st March - ID check at solicitors, conveyancing questionnaires completed 
Buying
29th March - offer accepted
31st March - Memorandum of sale issued
31st March - our build survey booked for 19th April
31st March - Meeting with our mortgage broker, full application to go in 1st April 

Oh what a faff! We had a false start too  and I'm only buying as a FTB. Our offer was made start of oct last year, we intrusive our solictor at that point, the surveyor was fully booked for a month, the lender did a virtual valuation before the survey came back, our mortgage wasn't approved for 6 weeks until the end of November due to covid etc, then mid December I assumed all our searches were back etc but it turns out that our solicitor hadn't even received the contract pack from the sellers!! They actually withheld it untill their own mortgage was approved, due to one of them being furloughed, so our solicitor didn't received the contract pack untill the week of xmas. They were started on 4th Jan and came back mid Feb.
Its been so slow!
With the £400 urgency fee they suggested, I cannot beleive they have even suggested that, they should treat everyone equally and in order. So basically the people who have paid that now are getting special treatment over everyone else's. Is it too late to change your solicitor?! I would definitely look into changing!

Natbag

@jonners666 & @ohdarn - hope you both get some news and progress soon. It's soul-sapping isn't it?!