The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

BountyBlink

Louise.H said:

BountyBlink said:

Louise.H said:

Taking out insurance with the solicitors so can hopefully get survey costs etc refunded if they do it again before exchange. Apparently they got worked up by the idea of a surveyor going in - either something to hide or just very nervous. Agents deemed them a nightmare client so I may well need some hair dye when all this is over. 

Sorry just chiming in here lol! We were in your vendors position perhaps. So basically we put our house on market for an “aggressive” price and our buyer that offered £8,000 less we said to our agent ok, but that is not subject to any survey. So our agent made it clear to our buyers that they could have a survey done but we would not drop a penny, our buyers chose not to have a survey, but maybe this is what’s happened with your vendors? 

Our house was 1930’s semi and clearly the roof would need attention, bathrooms and kitchens replacing etc, and that was all taken into consideration when we had it valued. 

Feel for you though because it must leave you with a feeling of uncertainty now! Hope it all works out well for you. 

Thanks for a perspective from a sellers point of view, your situation sounds a lot more normal; our offer was for asking price and there was no communication before they backed out then returned which was annoying as I had never planned to use the survey to drop the price. I made it clear to the agents I will do my best to alleviate any further concerns the seller may have but hopefully the survey should be the the last point that causes issue *crosses everything*. 

Oh so horrible for you! It’s so hard isn’t it because you never know peoples intentions! We just had to exchange and complete on our sale as top of chain after 4 months saying they would go into rented backed out and said they were looking for a property in one road for past 5 months!!! So our vendor pulled out of her purchase, which meant we had to complete and go into rented because otherwise our buyers wouldn’t wait and doubtful we would sell quickly, and we knew our vendors would remarket if we had to. 

It’s all so stressful isn’t it?! 

I would ask for a second viewing before you pay out on survey or searches,  if I were you with the agent and vendor and if they don’t agree to that I would be very reluctant to proceed with your purchase, as the commitment and motivation of your vendor would seem very low. 

Given what’s happened to you the agent I’m sure would agree with you to this!!

What do you think you will do? 

mat1964

update on my 2 sales and 1 purchase.  My GF's buyer still doesn't reply to messages from the EA and his solicitor gave the agent short shrift when he called yesterday.  I have asked our solicitor to see if he can find out what is going on.  We may consider re-listing if they refuse to communicate - it's very odd.  We don't think he's had his mortgage offer and not sure if searches have been requested.   Meanwhile we have just over 3 weeks until the deadline set for exchange on our new build after which the developer has said they will withdraw the offer to pay our SDLT.

laura_lau

I have an update from the EA: the surveyor booked the valuation in for today, so hopefully it will go well and I'll get a mortgage offer by next week, so we can discuss exchange and completion dates with the seller's solicitor!
Today marks 12 weeks since I submitted my mortgage application. I hate all this uncertainty, and the fact it's lasting so long!!

Natbag

mat1964 said:

update on my 2 sales and 1 purchase.  My GF's buyer still doesn't reply to messages from the EA and his solicitor gave the agent short shrift when he called yesterday.  I have asked our solicitor to see if he can find out what is going on.  We may consider re-listing if they refuse to communicate - it's very odd.  We don't think he's had his mortgage offer and not sure if searches have been requested.   Meanwhile we have just over 3 weeks until the deadline set for exchange on our new build after which the developer has said they will withdraw the offer to pay our SDLT.

How long ago was the buyer's offer accepted? Has the buyer done identity checks? If the buyer hasn't yet shown proof of funds/mortgage in principle/sale of memorandum then they have not yet proven themselves as a legit buyer, and if they were ignoring all communication I wouldn't hesitate to find someone who is as quickly as possible.

laura0289

Hi all newbie here.

 I have been reading the posts from the last couple of months and seems to have been a very stressful time for you all. 
Our timeline 
July 2020 - house on market, offer made in October but we rejected as it was too low. 
Jan - accept offer but fell through due to mortgage. 
Feb - accept new offer and instruct solicitors on sale.
24thMarch - offer accepted on our purchase house and solicitors instructed. 
Mortgage application in but got declined two weeks after, so new application with a different lender submitted. 
15th April searches ordered and paid for. 
Our buyer ordered his a couple of days later. 
Been advised our searches should be back on the 4th May. 
28th April - i answered our buyers solicitor enquiries. My solicitor is waiting for our searches to come back before raising his enquiries. 
28th April- mortgage gone to full offer which is great news 
So now just the wait. Wish we knew rough how long it'll be until exchange. The good thing is our buyer is a FTB . The house we are purchasing there is no chain so hopefully that means the process will be quicker 🙏 
Good luck everyone 

FtbEmz

Another small update from us...we’ve now received our mortgage in the post from Santander so I’m hoping our solicitor will have received theirs or will receive theirs shortly. Our solicitor wrote to the sellers solicitors last week regarding the contract so waiting to hear on that front and our survey is booked for week commencing 10th May.

mat1964

Natbag said:

mat1964 said:

update on my 2 sales and 1 purchase.  My GF's buyer still doesn't reply to messages from the EA and his solicitor gave the agent short shrift when he called yesterday.  I have asked our solicitor to see if he can find out what is going on.  We may consider re-listing if they refuse to communicate - it's very odd.  We don't think he's had his mortgage offer and not sure if searches have been requested.   Meanwhile we have just over 3 weeks until the deadline set for exchange on our new build after which the developer has said they will withdraw the offer to pay our SDLT.

How long ago was the buyer's offer accepted? Has the buyer done identity checks? If the buyer hasn't yet shown proof of funds/mortgage in principle/sale of memorandum then they have not yet proven themselves as a legit buyer, and if they were ignoring all communication I wouldn't hesitate to find someone who is as quickly as possible.

the offer was around 20 March - after one viewing - the EA said he had shown them an AIP and he has appointed solicitors.  However, since then he has failed to respond to the agents, his solicitor won't say anything and hasn't responded to the draft contract sent by our solicitor - so we really don't know where we are.  We have now asked the EA to try again and if he doesn't respond this time we will re-list.   

Natbag

mat1964 said:

Natbag said:

mat1964 said:

update on my 2 sales and 1 purchase.  My GF's buyer still doesn't reply to messages from the EA and his solicitor gave the agent short shrift when he called yesterday.  I have asked our solicitor to see if he can find out what is going on.  We may consider re-listing if they refuse to communicate - it's very odd.  We don't think he's had his mortgage offer and not sure if searches have been requested.   Meanwhile we have just over 3 weeks until the deadline set for exchange on our new build after which the developer has said they will withdraw the offer to pay our SDLT.

How long ago was the buyer's offer accepted? Has the buyer done identity checks? If the buyer hasn't yet shown proof of funds/mortgage in principle/sale of memorandum then they have not yet proven themselves as a legit buyer, and if they were ignoring all communication I wouldn't hesitate to find someone who is as quickly as possible.

the offer was around 20 March - after one viewing - the EA said he had shown them an AIP and he has appointed solicitors.  However, since then he has failed to respond to the agents, his solicitor won't say anything and hasn't responded to the draft contract sent by our solicitor - so we really don't know where we are.  We have now asked the EA to try again and if he doesn't respond this time we will re-list.   

That's very little progress for six weeks. I'd have expected searches to have been requested and a survey to have been booked by now - although it might be that they weren't planning on having one. I think you're right to let the buyer know that if they don't respond and/or show any progress by tomorrow you will put the property back on the market. They sound like they are going to be difficult to deal with, and better to realise that and get out now than when you're close to exchange and have to start over at that point. The market is still so busy, so hopefully you'll get another buyer quickly, and a committed one - fingers crossed for you!

mat1964

Natbag said:

That's very little progress for six weeks. I'd have expected searches to have been requested and a survey to have been booked by now - although it might be that they weren't planning on having one. I think you're right to let the buyer know that if they don't respond and/or show any progress by tomorrow you will put the property back on the market. They sound like they are going to be difficult to deal with, and better to realise that and get out now than when you're close to exchange and have to start over at that point. The market is still so busy, so hopefully you'll get another buyer quickly, and a committed one - fingers crossed for you!

Thank you.  So we've just found out via our solicitor that the searches have been requested - but no mortgage offer yet - why they wouldn't volunteer that before I don't know.  Their solicitor has told ours that the searches are due back in 3 weeks time and they will then raise enquiries after that (right up against our deadline).  Our solicitor asked if they would raise preliminary enquiries now given our deadline, but they won't, which is not desperately helpful.  So at least there has been progress on my GF's sale, but it's a shame the buyer and his solicitor are so elusive.  

k8withan8

Hello everyone, FTB here new to MSE. We had our offer accepted on 15/03 and today have been asked to send our mortgage deposit to our solicitors. How long after sending your deposit do you typically exchange contracts? Thanks