The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

amyr

@Natbag and @amandacat Wahoo! Lovely to see positive news and wishing you both lots of luck for the next few weeks. 

n0438

amandacat said:

Hi, not had time to read all the updates since last time as at work but just wanted to report in some good news!
Final enquiries answered, completion agreed for next Friday :-) 

Yay, fantastic news 🎉

Natbag

Thank you so much @BountyBlink, @amandacat and @amyr , that's really kind

Lemonyrose13

What fab news to be going into the weekend for so many of you! Its lovely to hear many of your journeys will soon be over! 

For us however, we now have a week of no news ahead of us as our solicitor is on holiday! The last of our searches were due back beginning of this week but haven't materialised yet and we're waiting to hear back about the enquiries made to our vendor. Once all that's received though, we should be good to go! Fingers crossed it all comes in whilst our solicitor is on holiday and we can move quickly to exchange after that! I'm not too sure how I'm going to cope with no updates for a week though! 

amandacat

Lemonyrose13 said:

What fab news to be going into the weekend for so many of you! Its lovely to hear many of your journeys will soon be over! 

For us however, we now have a week of no news ahead of us as our solicitor is on holiday! The last of our searches were due back beginning of this week but haven't materialised yet and we're waiting to hear back about the enquiries made to our vendor. Once all that's received though, we should be good to go! Fingers crossed it all comes in whilst our solicitor is on holiday and we can move quickly to exchange after that! I'm not too sure how I'm going to cope with no updates for a week though! 

It will all happen all of a sudden for you, I have gone from being stressed on Wednesday as enquiries still not back and EA telling me it would be w/c 17th May to hear anything else to today unexpectedly being told we are there and can complete in a week.
This is exactly the same path my sale took in January as well, suddenly all happened within a day out of the blue.
Good luck, this process is terrible, I didn't sleep a wink last night. 

laura_lau

Natbag said:

laura_lau said:

Congratulations to those who have exchanged and/or completed today! As someone else said, seeing people who complete is the thing that keeps me going! I had an update from my solicitor yesterday saying that she sent me the contract to sign (I hoped to receive it today but the postman didn't leave anything for me..) and that she can't yet agree dates with the sellers because there are still 3 outstanding enquiries she made back in March which haven't been satisfied. I was so disappointed, I was under the impression that the enquiries were done and dusted and we could agree to exchange next week! I called the EA this morning so that she could also directly chase the seller's solicitor, but apparently she is off sick. Has any of you had any experiences of an outstanding enquiry about the LPE1 from the Landlord or Property management company? I have the feeling it is something that is out of hand of the seller, so it might take forever?

Me, I think, from a similar perspective that it was to do with another property lower in the chain. If it's a clause on the estate management fee contract that the lender doesn't like, or similar, it can be really complicated and long to resolve. In my chain, the lender refused to lend, even with an indemnity policy, so the company had to be convinced to sign a deed of variation, which then had to be signed by the developer, which then had to go to the Land Registry for amendment (that bit can be expedited for a fee), and then back to the lender for sign off. It has been ongoing for maybe 2-3 months already and we are only able to progress because the chain is being broken by that person and they are staying with family temporarily. As a third party, they won't give you much information I'm afraid due to data protection, not without that person's consent, but it could be a long and frustrating process. Sorry, that's probably not what you want to hear, but I would try speak to your solicitor about potential timescales for the issue to set expectations.

@Natbag thank you  for your reply. I don't think it has to do with the estate management fee contract though. I think it is more to do with a generic info detail about the lease, as the solicitor sent this enquiry a while ago and hasn't got an answer. "Please provide a completed LPE1 from the Landlords/Management Company (with relevant enclosures)". She then added this comment for me "(what has been provided relates to freehold properties whereas you are of course, purchasing a leasehold property)." I don't really understand her comment on this, to be honest, but then I'm not an expert.
In the mortgage offer the lender only put as condition "Lease Details: Our legal representative to confirm on or before submission of the Certificate of Title the unexpired term of the lease, level of ground rent and service charges, confirming no unusual increase pattern, adequate maintenance provisions and no onerous obligations."
I have all these details as they were specified in the lease and I have seen the unexpired terms in there and the amount of ground rent (zero as it's a share of freehold) and the service charge (75 a month including building insurance), I have seen the accounts of the maintenance provisions and they seem ok and I can see there are no weird expense patterns. So I think the lender will be happy with the solicitor sharing these info from the documents they already shared with me months ago.  Which is why I think the enquiry is from the solicitor and kind of independent from the lender.

laura_lau

Natbag said:

My update, just spoke to my solicitor - I called her desk phone and she answered, woah! - and she has said the vendor and 1 buyer have agreed to our completion date of 3rd June, we are just waiting on the 2nd buyer to agree, and hopefully we can exchange the end of next week. I really hope so, fingers crossed. Really hoping for that agreement to come back today so I can rest a little easier this weekend. I just want to get exchanged now, I'm trying so hard not to get excited until then, we are so close now so I'm a nervous wreck.

That's amazing!!! congratulations and I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!!

Natbag

@laura_lau - I think sometimes they take offence if the company is able to hike the charge, as they can't determine future affordability if those fees rise by an undetermined amount. Hopefully it's a simple case of just needing some paperwork, but anything leasehold can cause issues. Will keep fingers crossed it gets sorted soon!
Thank you too!  

Dadto3Boys

We had agreed to an "allowance" of £1500 towards new windows, as they aren't in as good a condition as expect and not secure. Apparently it is just a deduction from what is paid, so Land Reg/mortgage don't need to change.
Despite our Sols explaining to EA and vendors Sols - they are insisting on changing all the docs... hummm fun.
For our buyers they have now asked for support on planning we had approved (June 2020) and building regs. This is available online, I have given the link and even provided the updated plans and Structural Calcs behind our planned extension. Obviously this has no value to us now, but feels awkward. 
Fingers crossed for end of June completion.

goodwithsaving

So upset. Had an offer accepted on a perfect house (to me) last week, had everything ready to go and my vendors pulled out. It's the worst process. The English system is horrible