The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

NAC2809

So yesterday I emailed my solicitor yesterday to ask if she had sent any enquiries with regards to my searches (which were received last Thursday)
She replied (within minutes, I nearly died) to tell me she would have them done today, and at the latest tomorrow (Wednesday). 

I also asked her opinion on whether or not it would be feasible to complete by the 14th May and that didn’t get answered.
I have annual leave planned in and explained that would be a good time for me providing the chain agreed.  

Her response was to confirm that’s what I wanted. No expression of opinion. She copied in the estate agent, who this morning confirmed to me that everyone in my chain has agreed to the completion of the 14th. 

I’m just so worried that because shes not sent any enquiries yet (she did say tomorrow at the latest, fair enough) and the time for responses that it’s just not feasible to be done in 2 weeks. 

I asked her professional opinion again if she thought it was achievable but that question got ignored again. 

If all of this doesn’t happen on the 14th it’ll be my side that’s caused the problem since I’m at the bottom of the chain. 

Does anyone else think it’s possible? I’ve had such a carry on even getting to this point I’m so fed up. 

Thanks in advance haha 

Drem1992

NAC2809 said:

Does anyone else think it’s possible? I’ve had such a carry on even getting to this point I’m so fed up. 

I suppose it depends how on it your vendor and their solicitors are? Our enquiries I believe were sent 2 weeks ago but I know our vendor only went through them last week (because she texted me) and our solicitors haven't had a response from the vendors solicitors yet about them (I emailed today to ask).
We're at the point where searches are back, the enquiries are the only thing between us and exchange 😬 I'm not even sure what the enquiries are about and what's outstanding, presuming it's a few things from our survey and anything that came up in the searches.

Caracal

Hello! FTB here. Been following this thread for a while. Good luck to all! This is us so far:

6/4 - Offer accepted / Solicitor Intructed
8/4 - Paperwork recieved from solicitor, signed and documents returned. Searches submitted.
8/4 - Mortgage application submitted
12/4 - Survey booked for 10th May
13/4 - Valuation booked for 7th May
18/4 - Hard search on credit file, mortgage case with underwriters
24/4 - Draft contract and PIF/Fixtures and Fittings form recieved
26/4 - Appointment booked to review documents with solicitor for 7th May

All progressing well so far. End of next week/start of following week is a big one for us (hopefully valuation etc goes ok, plus survey!) but keeping everything crossed. Possible issues:
- Searches in our area taking 11 weeks!
- Vendor hasn't decided whether to rent or buy for her next property (this is my biggest worry!)

So just waiting now! Heartwarming to hear of people completing today, that's excellent news!

chammer

FTB too! I managed to finally have a simulations exchange/completion last Friday (THANK THE LORD)! It's taken since early December last year to finally finish the process!

If I could give advice to any other FTBs, it would be to take control of the process once searches come back and push the solicitor on each step. "My LISA requires a 30-day notice, has it been requested..?" "Have you requested the drawdown for the mortgage..?". On multiple occasions I asked these types of questions and surprise surprise, it hadn't been done (hence a exchanging a week later than planned). It took a complaint to the solicitor's managing partner to finally be taken seriously. We ended up getting some money back. This is a well reviewed (4.9*) solicitor, so it can happen with any of them!   

BountyBlink

Natbag said:

OMG the estate management company have agreed to sign the deed of variation! We still aren't out of the woods yet, and now we'll have to wait for HSCB to update their paperwork, and for the solicitor to get everything together to issue the title deeds and contracts to my ex - and of course she's not back until May 4th - but it's a big relief. Going to start pushing my boyfriend's buyers to make sure they are completely ready in preparation, and I think we won't be able to exchange for at least a couple more weeks, but thank **** is all I can say today.

@BountyBlink - the issue was that the mortgage lender on my ex's purchase would not lend based on an estate management fee contract, and if he could not go ahead with his purchase he was refusing to allow the sale of our house as he still lives there, which meant my purchase could not proceed and the whole chain was threatened with collapse. It's been dragging on for weeks and wasn't looking good, but thankfully my ex has been proactive, doing most of the research and negotiating himself, and has managed to persuade them. The solicitor was ready to admit defeat.

Sorry just catching up. Oh the stress you must be going through!!! How are you still standing??? You poor thing! 

BountyBlink

Here is the current timescales for nationwide searches - https://www.searchflow.co.uk/news-and-events/personal-searches-turnaround-times/

Louise.H

Rollercoaster yesterday morning!

Got a voicemail come through quite late saying to ring the agents asap, they were closed by then so I had the night to angst about it - husband said I was being too negative but had a bad feeling. Sure enough upon ringing got told seller had changed mind and taken house off market. Only been a week since offer accepted so not lost any money but still disappointing. Just coming to terms with having to start looking again when call back from highly embarrassed agent saying mind has changed again and would we still buy it!? Said yes but walking away if any more changing minds. This is why I don't move house very often - always something to turn my hair grey. 

Caz_Mnaz

Erugh! I would try your best to exchange in record time in case they change their minds again! 

Natbag

@bigkenny1975 - congrats, I'm so pleased for you! Good luck with the move and enjoy your new home
@NAC2809 - solicitors won't commit to anything, mine is exactly the same. They don't answer your questions, or only vaguely, often they don't even reply. I would be sacked if I worked in that way!
@Louise.H - oh heck, hopefully they won't mess you around again now - maybe try arrange a second viewing so you can discuss it with them directly, find out why they wavered and ask for reassurances?

Livingincolour

Hello!

Long time lurker, first time poster & first time buyer currently in the process of buying a chain free leasehold flat in London. 

We started the process at end of December and the vast majority of it has been plain sailing with almost everything being turned around very quickly, to be honest we were feeling pretty smug about how well it was going but are now having a massive reality check!

We were anticipating having everything wrapped up by end of March which was in line with the end of our contracted rental tenancy, we asked for a short extension but our landlord wanted to move a family member into the flat so asked us to move out - we obliged and have been in temporary accommodation (various airbnbs) since then, it was a nice novelty at the start but starting to wear a little thin. 

Everything is in place bar a handful of enquiries that need to be answered by the management company, they've had these for months now but just will not return them? Our solicitor has been excellent and is chasing our vendor's solicitor (I am CC'd on all comms) and we are in direct contact with our vendor who is also personally hassling the management company to have them returned but we just seem to have hit a roadblock and have no idea when they will reply, it could be today, it could take months. I have looked up the company on trustpilot and google reviews and it is pages and pages of woeful 1 star reviews so I don't have much hope of a quick resolution. 

We're pretty patient people but I must admit we're starting to get pretty frayed, is there anything else we can be doing to try to force them to reply? Is it going to help/hinder if we try to contact them directly? There's some text on their website saying they will only deal with solicitors. Any advice/morale support appreciated!