The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

dungabeagle

Closed down my help to buy ISA yesterday! Feels like a big step- but I am now endlessly refreshing my banking app to see if I can see the closing statement I need!

I was told last week that the title report & documents to sign should be with us any day now- still waiting on them but our post is slow at the best of times! Fingers crossed they arrive soon as I just want everything signed & done so we can lock in the 23rd for completion!

Jamierez

Tiglet2 said:

Jamierez said:

Like everyone else, we're stuck in a slow process with sellers who don't seem to be in a hurry. They are divorcing and moving into rented but have been slow to respond to the estate agent and the solicitors at every step. Our timeline has been:

• We accepted  an offer on our house in 10/09/2020.
• We had an offer accepted on a property in 09/11/2020 (this was our 2nd property as the first fell though very quickly).
• Mortgage application done and dusted early December 2020
• Searches started early January completed mid-January.
• Informed sellers are going to buy properties - 15/02/2021
• Our buyer went ape as did we and 2 weeks later, sellers changed their minds.
• Contracts for the property we are buying still haven't been sent to us (delays on the sellers end). My solicitor has promised she has everything now from the seller and the contract is being sent this week.
• Sellers still haven't found a rental despite desperate to keep us from pulling out "It is very important for their relationship both together and with others that they get this deal done !"

We are now coming up for 5 months since we had our offer accepted and 7 months since sold our property. There is a scarcity of the size of property we are buying in our area so we feel we have limited options as the market is not moving. So stuck in this limbo desperately trying to hang on to our buyer. He has been good and we will drop our price to keep him if needed. Scratching our heads as to what to do next. We even spoke with the EA to see if we could incentivise our seller but he said they didn't need incentivising! 

I don't want to worry you but buying from a divorcing couple is not usually a good idea.  Do you think one half of the couple doesn't really want to sell?  Are they also going through matrimonial solicitors for the Consent Order as to the split of proceeds?  Are they amicable?  Hope that they are both keen to move on and into rented to accommodate you, but it is not always clear whether or not they are being honest with you.

All supposedly amicable (they are still living in the same house, separate rooms). I have my suspicions on whether one of them is dragging their heals from what the EA has said to me but just speculation on my part. I have asked where they are in divorce proceedings but didn't get an answer. Would this make a difference?

On the good news front, all the paperwork has been completed and sent to us yesterday evening The contracts are now signed ready to be hand delivered. I am now going to push for exchange and set a marker for a completion date. They just need to find a rental property and I fear that if I don't set a deadline the incentive is not there for them to move.

ohdarn

SlowlyLosingIt said:

So my solicitor has been delaying the exchange for 2 weeks, I've sent 30 emails (not an exaggeration) relating to money laundering documentation and they have now gone back one year of my uncles statements (plus his proof of work, share statements etc) in relation to a 3k gift. It's like they are just delaying as much as they can. They email me at 8pm asking for another thing drip by drip. We are no chain buying an empty property. Is this normal? What can I do to make her stop, and just bloody exchange?

We had something similar, forms after forms with the same info on, but it needed to be on a certain piece of paper with a certain letterhead on it.
I also don't get why they can't ask for all the things they need in one go.
Instead it's one thing one week, then another thing the next etc.
I don't know what's normal anymore.

Natbag

Jamierez said:

All supposedly amicable (they are still living in the same house, separate rooms). I have my suspicions on whether one of them is dragging their heals from what the EA has said to me but just speculation on my part. I have asked where they are in divorce proceedings but didn't get an answer. Would this make a difference?

It depends if it's amicable. I'd assume they already know and agree as to how they are going to split the equity in the house if they are already so far into the selling process. My ex and I had already agreed to 50/50 and confirmed this in writing to our solicitors, so there was no issue. If they are contesting the split, then that could delay things, but they'd be mad to sell the house whilst not in agreement as it would only waste everyone's time and money. I' not sure their solicitor would allow it. But really, you can't ask, they certainly won't tell you if you do, so there's not much you can do other than trust the process.

ohdarn

So our buyer floated the idea of completing this Friday.
Awesome!
Except he neglected to mention that his solicitor didn't have any of his mortgage offer paperwork.
So it's been two and a half weeks since his mortgage offer was approved and we're still no further forward.
We've rang the estate agents to see what's happening and they said they'd find out and ring us back.

Which they didn't.

Which marks the 782nd time someone has said they'd ring us back and didn't.

And now they're on holiday.

But we persevered and were told that no one can get in touch with either the buyer or their solicitor.

This would be business as usual considering the abundance of morons that appear to be involved in the property market, but as the buyer had mentioned a completion date and it seemed as if there might be an end to it all, the fact that there now seems to be complete radio silence is somewhat hard to digest.

I'm reminded of that quote from Clockwise,

'It's not the despair, Laura. I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand.'

Natbag

@ohdarn - this is exactly how I feel. It's never-ending, just rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. 
Hope you get some good news soon.

Insomniac101

I'm still alive... just, I switched off for Easter as I knew nothing was going to happen.  Today have been told our sellers are getting impatient with us and we are the same with our buyers solicitors who raised this last query to the freeholder last minute before exchange! now 4 weeks later we are still waiting

Natbag

@Insomniac101 - urgh, I feel for you. At least you're receiving some communication. Pretty sure my solicitor and both estate agents I'm chasing for updates have gone on annual leave. My buyer is becoming impatient, but until the last enquiry comes back on my ex's purchase then we are all stuck. And it seems to be one of those that could take weeks as well - I need to complete this month and I'm pretty sure that isn't happening now.

mistrihelen

We were supposed to exchange today/tomorrow and all agreed to possibly move on the 15th. Just heard our vendor is awaiting something in the post from their solicitor which needs to be returned to them before we can exchange... argh! Why suggest dates if you're still hovering by a post box? Why post when they're close enough to pick up? Why does no one have any sense of urgency?

dungabeagle

So I have had a letter from the solicitors! Yay! 

It is... not the letter I needed (with the title report & contracts) but it does tell me that the letter I need will follow!

Not entirely sure why I needed this one too but never mind, I’ll file it away with everything else just in case- very glad I invested in an accordion folder right at the beginning of the process!