The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

Kirkii27

laurey0301 said:

Kirkii27 said:

Is anyone in the process of buying leasehold ? I’m just wondering how long it takes roughly as we have agreed a price with the land owner. Our searches have started today on the property we are purchasing but purchasing the freehold at the same time.

I am, the problem with Leasehold is things like the management packs and then enquiries to be raised on those... they take forever We received the management pack on 30/04 and still waiting on enquiries to be answered which were raised just after. Thought we'd be in by now! So timescales are so hard to judge. Roughly, on a good time scale 12-14 weeks.

Did you already agree a price to purchase the leasehold? As we agreed the price a few weeks ago before we got our mortgage offer. The solicitor told me they can do it while they wait for the local searches to come back. Are your local searches back? In my area they taking upto 20 working days.

So I guess I’m looking at around September to
october of getting a date to move in if it takes longer than 12-14 weeks

harsxx

Hi sorry I'm a ftb and clueless to how everything works. We didnt instruct a solicitor until we had mortgage offer. So approx mid April when we instructed the solicitor but end of march when we put offer in we are on week 6 with solicitor but about week 8 since offer on house. We are waiting on enquiries all searches are back . I phoned solicitor today to see how much longer its likely to take but she doesnt know and just said we are waiting on enquiries.  Is there any way I could hurry things along? Or is it just a case of waiting ? I have the sellers phone number does anyone keep in touch with the seller when they are buying ? Or do you just have to wait for solicitors letters to come ? Sorry if I sound stupid but never done this before .

Reddington85

It's nice to be on this thread but also frustrating!
My timeline
DIP - 1/4 - Referred and approved 2/4
Offer accepted - 3/4 - then gazumped and higher offer accepted 4/4
Mortgage appointment and review with broker on 12/4 - Aldermore confirm higher offer doesen't need re-run of DIP. Due to work commitments we had no free time to catch out broker hence the long wait between offer and application going in.
Full application in 17/4
Additional documents requested - 22/4 (direct debit mandate which tbh was my fault!)
Additional documents requested 30/4 (payslip from new job)
Valuation instructed 30/4
Valuation and HomeBuyers Survey received 11/5
Mortgage Offer 13/5
Searches instructed 13/5
(Stamp Duty, Fixtures and Fittings etc all signed weeks ago. I have so far signed more paperwork than I knew was humanly possible)
And now the waiting game.

BountyBlink

harsxx said:

Hi sorry I'm a ftb and clueless to how everything works. We didnt instruct a solicitor until we had mortgage offer. So approx mid April when we instructed the solicitor but end of march when we put offer in we are on week 6 with solicitor but about week 8 since offer on house. We are waiting on enquiries all searches are back . I phoned solicitor today to see how much longer its likely to take but she doesnt know and just said we are waiting on enquiries.  Is there any way I could hurry things along? Or is it just a case of waiting ? I have the sellers phone number does anyone keep in touch with the seller when they are buying ? Or do you just have to wait for solicitors letters to come ? Sorry if I sound stupid but never done this before .

We were all FTB once! Though I seem to be serial mover 🤦🏻‍♀️ hence a bit more knowledge. 

You have done everything right. So my advice;
1. Get a copy of the enquiries your solicitor
have sent the other side (if you don’t already have them) 
2. when you have the enquiries, forward them to your agent you are buying through and ask them to chase vendor and their solicitor to reply and ask them in them email to let you know when they have replied so that you in turn can chad rumour solicitor and know when things are getting done. 

3. If there continued to be a breakdown in communication, you can instruct that your solicitor places you on BCC to any email sent to the other side. This is a good way of knowing when things are getting done. 

4. A lot of the time, solicitors can do a lot of the work nearer to exchange when all replies are sent back, however, I never sit on my laurels and I have to know what is being done and to use the agents to chase 
5. I always keep in contact with my vendors if they have given me their number. My current vendor we are in text communication and it’s sped things up very quickly. 

GioSan

Good to see movement in many cases today - good luck everyone keeping fingers crossed for you all.

My update - still waiting for the Lender to give a nod to proceed for exchange. The solicitor has chased them again today and it has been 5 days, they want to re-confirm the valuations in light of underpinning that was done 20 years ago. So the wait is on...

laurey0301

Kirkii27 said:

laurey0301 said:

Kirkii27 said:

Is anyone in the process of buying leasehold ? I’m just wondering how long it takes roughly as we have agreed a price with the land owner. Our searches have started today on the property we are purchasing but purchasing the freehold at the same time.

I am, the problem with Leasehold is things like the management packs and then enquiries to be raised on those... they take forever We received the management pack on 30/04 and still waiting on enquiries to be answered which were raised just after. Thought we'd be in by now! So timescales are so hard to judge. Roughly, on a good time scale 12-14 weeks.

Did you already agree a price to purchase the leasehold? As we agreed the price a few weeks ago before we got our mortgage offer. The solicitor told me they can do it while they wait for the local searches to come back. Are your local searches back? In my area they taking upto 20 working days.

So I guess I’m looking at around September to
october of getting a date to move in if it takes longer than 12-14 weeks

Sorry i thought you just meant buying a leasehold property not buying a share of the freehold. When was your offer accepted? If your solicitor says they can do everything whilst waiting for the searches then that should be ok. Our searches took 3 weeks to come back. If you have only just had your offer accepted etc you're probs looking at late August/early September providing all goes smoothly..

harsxx

Hi thanks bountyblink for the reply. Think I might just email the selling agent to see when I'm likely to get a reply on the outstanding enquiries and see how much longer it will be . Thanks for that much appreciated. 

Reddington85

Is there a way to find out how long searches are taking? (aside email tennis/harassing my solicitor)

purplebutterfly

@reddington85 try this link for a guide https://www.searchflow.co.uk/news-and-events/personal-searches-turnaround-times/

@harsxx we have been in touch with our vendor throughout as they did their own viewings due to using an awful online estate agent.   We're FTB and they haven't bought or sold for 20 years so there is a lot of hand-holding going on between us, which is lovely.   We've no chain and they already have a deposit on a retirement unit so thankfully, there shouldn't be too many problems (touch wood). 

caz_cardiff87

laura_lau said:

@Natbag and @caz_cardiff87 so so happy to see you both exchanged on Friday! The worst is finally over, it was great to see the good news, you’ve been a great support for me in the past few weeks!
@amyr and @sassypurple also absolutely thrilled to see you completed! Enjoy your new homes, you made it and you are giving us all hope we can do it!
sorry if I’m a bit late catching up with the last few days of messages, I think my stress caught up with my body Over the weekend and I really had to take a break and not think of anything, as nothing would happen at least until today! So now I’m back there, ready to chase the solicitor, to see if her “hopefully we can exchange on the 2nd” has become “we will exchange on the 2nd”. 

Good luck to everyone else, I hope to see a lot more exchanges happening this week!! 

Aw thank you!! Fingers crossed for you. I am completing tomorrow - got the day off work but wont be fully moved till the end of next week.