The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

BountyBlink

Text this morning from our vendors they want a date in June to work to. They only instructed sols & ordered searches last week so this will be tight! 

Both parties above us have moved upteen times before so know the process, will be quick on enquiries and will chase their solicitors hard. Our mortgage offer expires 13 June, so we are up against it lol! 

BountyBlink

Natbag said:

A ball of stress over here again this morning, thanks to my seller messaging me directly yesterday to say that either we commit to a May completion date by the end of this week or they are putting the house back on the market. Joy. Desperately trying to get hold of my solicitor to see if this is possible (I doubt it, as she's extremely non-committal to anything) and basically flailing around trying to beg anyone who will listen to help save this chain. Also trying to beg my ex to just vacate the property to allow my sale and purchase to complete, but of course he's continuing to be a selfish **** and won't do it, even though the 6-week delay that's caused this is on his purchase.

Oh no!!!! Sending out all the positivity to the universe for you that everything comes together and it all happens quick! 

amandacat

Natbag said:

A ball of stress over here again this morning, thanks to my seller messaging me directly yesterday to say that either we commit to a May completion date by the end of this week or they are putting the house back on the market. Joy. Desperately trying to get hold of my solicitor to see if this is possible (I doubt it, as she's extremely non-committal to anything) and basically flailing around trying to beg anyone who will listen to help save this chain. Also trying to beg my ex to just vacate the property to allow my sale and purchase to complete, but of course he's continuing to be a selfish **** and won't do it, even though the 6-week delay that's caused this is on his purchase.

Oh no not what you want to hear! I really hope you can get your solicitor to commit to this. I have been doing the same, pushing for a completion date in May and my solicitors will commit to this and are chasing seller's solicitor but seller's solicitor doesn't seem to care less and just said they will deal with it when they can in the next 2 weeks. With a bit of luck you can get things moving, you must be so stressed :-(  

BountyBlink

amandacat said:

Livingincolour said:

Drem1992 said:

We're still stuck on the enquiries, I don't know exactly what the solicitors have asked, is that normal? Am I allowed to ask what enquiries they have raised? I'm guessing a few of them relate to our survey which they have a copy of.
On Monday last week they just said they'd sent enquiries the week before and were still waiting on a response from the vendor. 
I'm just getting bored now, I'm so fed up of our tiny 2 bed rented flat, because of lockdown there's so little to do at the moment and I really wish we could be in our house painting walls and digging up the garden already!
I know I'm being inpatient because we're only 10 weeks in and comparatively that seems very quick, I suppose I was hoping things would move faster as we are FTBs and the vendors are moving into rented. Trying to distract myself but really getting fed up with this ridiculous, complicated, unnecessarily drawn out process. Surely there must be a better way to buy a house than this!

I don't want to freak you out but we are into week 17 of our purchase, also chain free FTBs & we were totally convinced we would have it all wrapped up by week 12. We swing between total infuriation and resigned acceptance on a daily basis! 

It is the enquiries that are holding ours up, there is a handful outstanding and our solicitor refuses to exchange without them being satisfied. I would definitely ask yours for a list so you have a grasp on what they are - basically we've found the more visibility and information we have, the easier it is to be patient. 

We are in a similar position with just enquiries holding us up, we didn't see the enquiries raised initially. However, we did receive a letter about 3 weeks ago where the solicitor reported on the findings so far. This included the 20 odd questions raised, the 18 answers that were satisfactory and the 2 outstanding. We then a week later received a further letter detailing the search results, there was nothing of any concern and the solicitor said in the letter than if we wanted to raise anything in relation to the searches we could but if they didn't hear from us then they would assume we don't want to raise anything. 
We are stuck in limbo as the seller's solicitor hasn't replied to the last 2 enquiries and so exchange/completion dates can't be agreed until they do. I mentioned in another reply on this thread that I chased this via the EA who said the seller's solicitor said they had dealt with these enquiries but had received a fresh set of enquiries off my solicitor following the searches and needed to now deal with these. I was in despair as was told I would need to wait at least 2 more weeks to hear anything else. However, having re read my letter from my solicitor following the searches, it is clear they haven't raised any further enquiries and so the seller's solicitor are for whatever reason either lying to the EA or have made a mistake . 
This process is ridiculous!!

Oh no!!!! We had similar “he said / she said” with our sale, it got so stressful that I sent an email to my solicitor requesting I was on the copy to each and every one of their emails - that worked and sped things up a lot lol 

Natbag

Thanks all, I am so stressed and my solicitor won't answer her phone. Arrrrrggghhhhh.

GoingOn30

Good morning all. I need a place to vent as my buyer and EA have been a bit useless, I feel really let down by our EA! The member of staff in the EA who has been leading on our sale was talking about the mortgage broker applying for the searches and clearly has got muddled between a mortgage broker and a solicitor, and this may have set us back by over a week as it resulted in a delay to the new memorandum of sale going out when we finally clocked that there was a new solicitor as well as a new broker involved
They know we are trying to make the stamp duty holiday and we have £12k on the line here. 
On the other hand our purchase is going really well and our vendor and their EA have been brilliant. 
See weekly update and progress since last week in bold below. 
Is it too soon for us to start talking about remarketing our flat for sale if no enquiries are raised by Friday? I am so !!!!!! off!

Selling

12th March - offer accepted 

18th - Buyers mortgage app submitted

22nd March - memorandum of sale issued

31st March - Buyers survey took place,

31st March - Our ID check at solicitors, conveyancing questionnaires completed 

9th April - Draft contract pack sent to buyers solicitor.
19th April - I ask our EA to chase buyer as no enquiries raised yet by their solicitor
21st April - Our EA says buyer has "uninstructed his mortgage broker and instructed a new one", confirms searches have been applied for
27th April - I escalate concerns to head EA as still no enquiries raised. Head EA confirms buyer has a new SOLICITOR as well as broker, new memorandum of sale issued to new solicitor at my request. 
4th May AM - Our solicitor confirms still no enquiries raised by buyers solicitor 

Buying

29th March - offer accepted,
31st March - Memorandum of sale issued

1st April - Full mortgage application submitted

8th April - Desktop valuation complete at agreed sale price - mortgage now at underwriting stage
16th April - Draft contract received, searches applied for 

19th April - Full build survey done - no major problems identified 
20th April - Enquiries raised 
26th April - Emailed vendors EA to ask for few things identified on the survey to be rectified 
6th May - woodworm assessment to take place

climbthatwallseegar

Morning all. Sorry to read about everyone's ongoing stresses. I'm sitting here in complete limbo as well. My lender has a copy of the Damp report they requested for the property we want to buy. If they refuse to release the mortgage funds until the problem is fixed then I'm essentially stuck as the Seller has apparently told the EA he will not fix it.

I e-mailed the EA and asked if there is any other agreement we can come to following some suggestions on this thread and he hasn't responded at all. My solicitor is very little help. I e-mailed outlining the issue and asked if she could relay everything to the seller's solicitor because in all honesty I'm not sure I'm getting the full story from the EA (he is generally unresponsive and evasive on the few occasions he replies) and was hoping she might have some guidance as well. She replied "thanks for your e-mail, Iook forward to the update from your lender"

So looks like it will be back to the drawing board for me, looking for another property. Meanwhile hoping the sale of my property will complete by June (buyer wants to benefit from the Stamp Duty holiday) but again, sitting in limbo as there are outstanding enquiries. They are actually on my side but I need the answers from my freeholder and so far nada despite chasing several times.

mat1964

Had the survey done on my sale this morning.  Surveyor was only here just over an hour.  He was a bit concerned over the flat roof, but I showed him a video from a drone inspection I had done recently and he didn't inspect himself (the roof is in good condition as I had it inspected before I put the house on sale).  Other than that, he found some minor rotting of external window frames which he said were an easy fix.  Have to wait to see what else he puts in his report and if the buyers want anything else done or the surveyor suggests a separate roof inspection given his comments.

Am hoping my GF's buyer gets his mortgage offer this week.

2 weeks today to the exchange deadline set by the developer for our purchase (I think we will need an extension)

lzzwzz

Hi all, 
FTB here, long time reader but first time posting (apart from the odd question!)
I had my offer accepted on 20th April so I'm in the really early days still. I've had my mortgage offer through and have instructed my solicitor.
I've also provisionally booked a homebuyers survey for next week, however I'm thinking of pushing that back as I don't believe the vendor has found anywhere to move to yet. The EA has said she'd keep me informed, but I'll probably phone at the end of this week and see what progress has been made.
It feels like it's a bit too early to have the survey? Any advice would be appreciated!

amandacat

lzzwzz said:

Hi all, 
FTB here, long time reader but first time posting (apart from the odd question!)
I had my offer accepted on 20th April so I'm in the really early days still. I've had my mortgage offer through and have instructed my solicitor.
I've also provisionally booked a homebuyers survey for next week, however I'm thinking of pushing that back as I don't believe the vendor has found anywhere to move to yet. The EA has said she'd keep me informed, but I'll probably phone at the end of this week and see what progress has been made.
It feels like it's a bit too early to have the survey? Any advice would be appreciated!

I wouldn't have the survey done yet or have any legal work done yet (unless you are on a no move no fee deal). Definitely don't order searches yet. If the seller pulls out as they can't find anywhere to live then you risk losing the money you have paid.
This has sadly happened to me in the past.
However, if you are keen to get things moving and are happy to take the risk then go ahead. Some people are prepared to risk it but I personally wouldn't make that same mistake again.