The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

amandacat

laura_lau said:

Hello, I am new to the forum and please let me know if I'm posting in the wrong thread! I am currently awaiting my mortgage offer, and it's taking absolutely forever! This Thursday it will be 12 weeks since I submitted the full application. Does it usually take that long, when there are not specific issues holding it up? Just wanted to check this is the place where I can share the whole story with others who are going through the same process?

Oh no that does sound like a long time. Mine was via a broker-application went in on the Monday and I had the offer by the Friday. Mine was a straight forward case though-large deposit/low LTV. Employed income. 
Is yours a bit more complex? Have you asked for an update?
The mortgage forum on here is really helpful for mortgage related matters and you might get some ideas about how long others are taking on there. 

Natbag

laura_lau said:

Hello, I am new to the forum and please let me know if I'm posting in the wrong thread! I am currently awaiting my mortgage offer, and it's taking absolutely forever! This Thursday it will be 12 weeks since I submitted the full application. Does it usually take that long, when there are not specific issues holding it up? Just wanted to check this is the place where I can share the whole story with others who are going through the same process?

Yep, this is the place to vent, share frustrations, compare timelines and support each other through the ridiculously stressful process that is buying/selling a house!
That does seem like a long time, but the housing market is so backed up at the moment it wouldn't surprise me. Have you chased them for an update?

Insomniac101

laura_lau said:

Hello, I am new to the forum and please let me know if I'm posting in the wrong thread! I am currently awaiting my mortgage offer, and it's taking absolutely forever! This Thursday it will be 12 weeks since I submitted the full application. Does it usually take that long, when there are not specific issues holding it up? Just wanted to check this is the place where I can share the whole story with others who are going through the same process?

Have you checked with your lender where it is?  Ours was stuck, but only took 2-3 weeks, after submitting all our documents, I called to check if anything was missing, and i was told my contract of work (as I am a contractor), so pay slips were not accurate representation on what I get paid

Redwino222

That is an incredibly long wait.  Have you asked what the hold up is?

My mortgage came through in about a week.

has the valuation been done? 

amyr

Our buyer has agreed in principle to completion before 13 May... !! All forms have been signed and posted by us both, so exchange could be as early as this Friday. 

Trying not to get too excited yet (particularly as our last sale failed on day of exchange) but all signs are currently looking promising.

laura_lau

Thank you for your replies! I'm glad I'm in the right place. So, this is the timeline:
22/1 I made an offer on a flat and it got accepted
27/1 I instructed the solicitor and on 29/1 the searches were ordered
2/2 I sent all documents to solicitor as they requested me
4/2 application was submitted and accepted by lender 
5/2 lender sent details of documents I needed to submit
9/2 I arranged and received an offer for mortgage protection - this offer will now expire on 10/5
11/2 I sent to the lender all the documents they requested
19/2 Lender requested further documents - I submitted them on the same day
26/2 Lender asked for further documents - this is the only thing that I think could have caused a delay, as I wasn't able to send it straight away: a portion of my deposit is a gift from my brother, and I was clear on this since the beginning so the broker selected only lenders that were happy with it. I had already provided signed letter stating it was a gift etc etc, Here they requested proof of gifted funds, a few months of my brother's bank's statement and a certified copy of his ID, plus a copy of his proof of address. It took me a couple of weeks to get my brother to send me all the documents.
12/3 I sent proof of gifted funds to lender, document was accepted 
25/3 nothing from lender, I chased for updates. Lender came back asking for evidence of gifted deposit physically being in my account (couldn't have they told me on 26/2??) 
26/3 Brother makes bank transfer
27/3 I contact my bank (Barclays) to ask them to produce a statement with a matter of urgency (Easter bank holidays were now looming). I am told by the customer service representative not to worry, the statement has been requested, I will receive it in the post in 7-10 working days (spoiler: it never arrived) and I will be able to download it from the cloud within 24 hours.
29/3 Having waited more than 24 hours without the statement appearing on my cloud, I contact Barclays customer service again. I am told by another representative that I don't need to worry, as the statement has indeed been requested on the 27th, and I will be able to download it after 24 WORKING hours (so, 3 working days). So 1 working day still to go...
30/3 statement finally appears (a whole working day early!) and I promptly send it to the lender. 
(in the meantime searches had arrived, all sort of documents and enquiries from solicitor, vendor, legal work, homebuyer report, etc, all happily carried out)
14/4 I enquire with the broker. Lender replies they still have a queue of cases to assess and I'm in the middle of the queue. According to their estimates, it will be 11 more working days before they get to my case. Broker tells me it is indeed taking a bit too long, so he'll try and escalate to prioritise my case.
23/4 I chase the broker, once again, and while I wait for him to come back to me about the lender's reply, the vendor's EA calls me (it wasn't the first time, but this is the most significant) to ask for updates and why I haven't received a mortgage offer yet. I explain her about the 11 days, and that I've been very unlucky with lender, as I haven't been made aware by them of anything really holding up my case in particular, and she informs me the lender is really getting impatient. Should I mention that the vendor has kept the property on the market this whole time? Which obviously adds to the stress. I agree to update the agent on Tuesday 27th.
Half an hour later, the broker comes back to me to inform me that he managed to escalate my case, and the lender has agreed to my case and instructed a surveyor to carry out the valuation. The surveyor will contact the agent directly to arrange an appointment. As soon as they receive the report, they will move my case to offer stage. Over the moon, I call the agent back to let her know.
23/4 I speak with the solicitor, to enquire if we are all ready with the legal work, and she confirms almost all her enquires have been answered satisfactorily. We are only missing my mortgage offer. She is of the opinion that, if we receive the mortgage offer by end of April, I might be able to exchange around mid-May.
27/4 (today) Nothing. I call the EA to ask if they've been contacted by the surveyor. They haven't. They tell me it usually takes 24-48 hours max to be contacted by the surveyor. I chase with the broker again, and he replies technically it hasn't been 48 hours yet, as the valuation was instructed on Friday. He'll chase anyway (so he said).

Sam2030

Stressed out our buyer said they would wait a month after our completion date at the end of March fell through. we are number one in a chain of six. Everyone is ready apart from number six we have been waiting for them to review there enquiries for the last couple of weeks, got an update today that they have reviewed them but there are some points still outstanding so obviously not ready they are aware that our buyers could pull out but nobody seems to be bothered about this our estate agent is constantly chasing there agent. 

bigkenny1975

So, today's saga started with an email to the solicitors at 6am authorising exchange again. I purposely didn't chase as this time as yesterday was exhausting. 

Got an email from the solicitor at 4pm saying they keep missing the vendors solicitor and vice versa. So, I sent an email back saying we will just have to try to exchange and complete on the same day tomorrow.

Then I got a call at 16:58 saying they literally exchanged two minutes earlier! Funds set to transfer tomorrow first thing then I get the keys!!!!!

Thanks to everyone here for keeping me sane. Good luck with your purchases. 

hippocrates1

Got an email with an update from the estate agent today. They were obviously dead pleased with themselves. But it’s the same update they gave me two weeks ago. I despair. 

The outstanding enquiry was that the parking space was missing from the deed.

they have said ‘The original solicitor I bought the house with has confirmed today that the developer held a signed transfer of the space’

Anyone know what this means? Or have any idea how long it will take to sort before exchange can happen?

Sam2030

bigkenny1975 said:

So, today's saga started with an email to the solicitors at 6am authorising exchange again. I purposely didn't chase as this time as yesterday was exhausting. 

Got an email from the solicitor at 4pm saying they keep missing the vendors solicitor and vice versa. So, I sent an email back saying we will just have to try to exchange and complete on the same day tomorrow.

Then I got a call at 16:58 saying they literally exchanged two minutes earlier! Funds set to transfer tomorrow first thing then I get the keys!!!!!

Thanks to everyone here for keeping me sane. Good luck with your purchases. 

Excellent a success story good luck in your new home