The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

birdmadgirl8

FTB_Help said:

If anyone else joins this thread and leave with their house before me I'll sue you! 🤣

I'll take that 😂😂😂

Drem1992

We got our home buyers report back a few weeks ago and have had a big of stalling moment whilst we worked things out. After much investigation we decided everything on it is fairly manageable and weve decided to proceed, the valuation was almost spot on as it was, and the vendors went down £7500 during our initial negotiation and knocked £10000 off before we'd even viewed due to lack of interest. Understandably they weren't particularly keen to negotiate any further. We're going back on Tuesday to have a 3rd viewing, take some measurements, have a slightly closer look at things raised by the survey.

We've now given the solicitors the go ahead to start searches, these are due back around the 20th and I'm hoping that if they and the queries all come back ok we should be able to get contracts signed and exchange. 

What are people's thoughts about same day exchange and completion or is it worth splitting them up a bit? We're in a rented flat and will have a few weeks cross over anyway, the vendor will be moving into rented aswell. We just want to move asap!

amandacat

I’m part of the go slow brigade. 

Vendor/vendors solicitor still haven’t answered all of the enquiries sent at the start of March. They’ve responded twice, both times only partially answering the enquiries. They’ve been chased again but still no further update.
My solicitor told me a week ago I’d be sent a report on the answers to enquiries so far but still nothing has come through. 

My searches are due back in a week unless that gets delayed as well. 

I’m desperate to get moved in, 9 weeks living with the in laws is taking its toll due to the lack of space and independence. I’m also desperate to complete because I’m in a very stressful job and can’t look for another job until I complete or it’ll affect/probably result in withdrawal of my mortgage offer.

As much as it seemed a good idea to sell first, relocate and rent/move in with family, in hindsight knowing now I wouldn’t get a rental and the difficulty of living with family long term, I wish I’d entered a chain by taking the time to find an onward purchase.  The irony is the house I’m buying went on the market the same time as mine so I could’ve avoided all this mess and still ended up in the house I wanted. You live and learn!  

MrJeeves1

Hello everyone. I'm new to the thread and it seems like this is a good place to vent! We had an offer accepted on a maisonette flat at the start of October (!!) and there is still no sign of completion (no chain, flat is empty). The vendor is selling two flats in the same maisonette, the other one has also not completed due to similar delays. The vendors solicitor is absolutely hopeless.. we are currently awaiting for them to get back to us on enquiries because they sent planning permission and other responses for the other flat. They just seem to take a million years to do anything and I'm at the end of my tether.

The other recent delay is around a ground rent issue, as our solicitor was worried it would be seen as too much by the bank. It's now been changed to 250 p/y and increasing by 25% every 25 years (was originally doubling), which seems like a pretty normal ground rent and I don't see why there would be an issue with it (flat is in London). But we've been waiting on the all clear from the bank on this for 3 weeks ridiculously (and we lost a week because the original letter from our solicitor "didn't arrive"). 

To make matters worse we are due to collect a puppy in three weeks, so really really want to move by then. It's so tempting to just give an ultimatum of the end of the month, but ultimately we don't want to lose it.

birdmadgirl8

amandacat said:

I’m part of the go slow brigade. 

Vendor/vendors solicitor still haven’t answered all of the enquiries sent at the start of March. They’ve responded twice, both times only partially answering the enquiries. They’ve been chased again but still no further update.

This is one of my constant worries as a vendor. I've responded to every query immediately (always same day), often in the middle of stressful work days. I don't want to upset our buyers, or slow anything down. Then I discovered recently: a. buyers' solicitor has sat on some responses from my solicitor for weeks; b. not all my answers have been passed back to buyers' solicitor (from mine); c. some answers from other parties have not been passed on, 'gone missing', even though my solicitor has the same email trail as me. 
My concern is that our buyers will think we're  being slow/difficult. In reality, solicitors on both sides tend to let things stack up a bit...and then miss crucial details as a result. This is why I think it unlikely that my vendors (of our onward purchase) have any control over their solicitor's silence.

The slowness is excruciating though. Totally with you in that brigade!

Londoncheesecake

Hi
Newbie here! 

We are near the beginning of the process but hoping to complete before June 30th?! Feeling abit twitchy with the wait, risk and mortgage approval!
We actually took our property off of the market and had an offer from a previous person who viewed which we have decided to go with!

Cash buyer put an offer on our house 23/03 with criteria to move in by 30/06, no survey they are awaiting searches and we are completing the questioning phase with the solicitor. Our EA says this will be a smooth process and so far so good.

We quickly found a house we really liked and had our offer placed 03/04 with official confirmation of purchase 08/04
Our sellers are downsizing so happy to leave by 30th June and have an empty bungalow they want to proceed to buy. 

So far we have instructed solicitor to start searches next week and await the paperwork from the seller. 
We have booked a home buyer survey earliest time (abit of a queue) week commencing 26/04/21
Have put our mortgage application in 09/04/21 with Santander (fingers crossed MA says it’ll be okay!- porting and asking for extra) 

Our solicitor says that there should be no reason why we can’t complete in time but who knows?! I’ve frightened myself with reading some horror stories!! 

Will be reading and keeping up you updated! 

LAD917

birdmadgirl8 said:

This is one of my constant worries as a vendor. I've responded to every query immediately (always same day), often in the middle of stressful work days. I don't want to upset our buyers, or slow anything down. Then I discovered recently: a. buyers' solicitor has sat on some responses from my solicitor for weeks; b. not all my answers have been passed back to buyers' solicitor (from mine); c. some answers from other parties have not been passed on, 'gone missing', even though my solicitor has the same email trail as me. 

My concern is that our buyers will think we're  being slow/difficult. In reality, solicitors on both sides tend to let things stack up a bit...and then miss crucial details as a result. This is why I think it unlikely that my vendors (of our onward purchase) have any control over their solicitor's silence.

The slowness is excruciating though. Totally with you in that brigade!

Some things that have helped me: 1) I ask for my solicitor to blind copy me on responses to the other solicitor 2) I do status checks with the estate agent weekly to confirm common understanding - e.g., "My solicitor has provided A, B, and C to the buyer's solicitor. D is still outstanding, with an estimated date of X/Y. Please let me know if this matches your understanding and if the buyer is waiting on anything else." Caveat: some people find this annoying. I don't care, it's the way I work, and I set these expectations upfront with the solicitor and EA. I also don't go with low-fee solicitors or low-commission agents. I expect service, and I'm willing to pay for it.

GoingOn30

Drem1992 said:

What are people's thoughts about same day exchange and completion or is it worth splitting them up a bit? We're in a rented flat and will have a few weeks cross over anyway, the vendor will be moving into rented aswell. We just want to move asap!

I was wondering the same Drem. I do think having at least a few days between would be helpful in terms of having certainty of when you'll need removals done, but at the same time we are trying to make the stamp duty holiday and may not have a few days to spare come June!
I am hoping for completion some time around 22/23rd June just because I don't think my nerves could take it if we are pushed to the absolute deadline!

Welcome LondonCheesecake, you sound on a very similar timeline to me so far so we can be stressheads together for the next 12 weeks! Do you know if you solicitor has sent the contract pack to your buyers solicitor? Great that you've got a cash buyer so no worrying about their mortgage application!

birdmadgirl8

LAD917 said:

Some things that have helped me: 1) I ask for my solicitor to blind copy me on responses to the other solicitor 2) I do status checks with the estate agent weekly to confirm common understanding - e.g., "My solicitor has provided A, B, and C to the buyer's solicitor. D is still outstanding, with an estimated date of X/Y. Please let me know if this matches your understanding and if the buyer is waiting on anything else."  Caveat: some people find this annoying. I don't care, it's the way I work, and I set these expectations upfront with the solicitor and EA. I also don't go with low-fee solicitors or low-commission agents. I expect service, and I'm willing to pay for it.   

********

Thanks for the advice - I do the weekly checks and updates already (with all parties) & have been more specific with EA since discovering gaps in info passed along chain. Blind CC is a good idea, but maybe a bit late in process to introduce it. We didn't cut costs either and chose agent & solicitor most likely to do best job.

Anyway, buyers' perception of process is least of my worries really. I'm trying to find ways of stepping up pressure on vendors' EA and solicitor (who I'm not paying and didn't choose). As far as I'm concerned this is negligence (no replies to anyone for over a month) & I need to know vendor is pushing hard to get a response too.

Would knock on a few office doors (given lifting of restrictions) if they weren't quite so far away.

birdmadgirl8

MrJeeves1 said:

Hello everyone. I'm new to the thread and it seems like this is a good place to vent! We had an offer accepted on a maisonette flat at the start of October (!!) and there is still no sign of completion (no chain, flat is empty). The vendor is selling two flats in the same maisonette, the other one has also not completed due to similar delays. The vendors solicitor is absolutely hopeless.. we are currently awaiting for them to get back to us on enquiries because they sent planning permission and other responses for the other flat. They just seem to take a million years to do anything and I'm at the end of my tether.

The other recent delay is around a ground rent issue, as our solicitor was worried it would be seen as too much by the bank. It's now been changed to 250 p/y and increasing by 25% every 25 years (was originally doubling), which seems like a pretty normal ground rent and I don't see why there would be an issue with it (flat is in London). But we've been waiting on the all clear from the bank on this for 3 weeks ridiculously (and we lost a week because the original letter from our solicitor "didn't arrive"). 

To make matters worse we are due to collect a puppy in three weeks, so really really want to move by then. It's so tempting to just give an ultimatum of the end of the month, but ultimately we don't want to lose it.

Hi there! Ooff - that timeline is similar to mine and we share the joy of a useless (vendor) solicitor. Sooooo frustrating! Yours sounds like it should have been a more straightforward process than ours - not that ours was complicated - so you have my sympathy there. That ground rate is very similar to something we pay in greater London, so can't see the issue either. Totally see why you'd want to be in before the pup arrives - like living with a toddler! Hope you get some good news this week.