The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

laura_lau

Josephgousto said:

we got given Wednesday for exchange - Friday for completion now.... I´m not holding my breath, after all the back and forth over the past weeks!

That's great news @Josephgousto !!!! I'll keep fingers crossed for you, my dates might end up being similar, not knowing that yet though.

laura_lau

BountyBlink said:

laura_lau said:

Good morning everyone, and good luck for this week! 
At the end of last week my solicitor (finally) replied to me and confirmed she received my deposit (pheww) and said she had sent emails to the seller's solicitor asking them for agreement on dates. In the meantime I had reached out the ES, who called me back and said the seller's solicitor had an IT systems issue and everything was down for most of the week and was just starting catching up with things, and they could see there was an enquiry from my solicitor but couldn't get to it until at least the beginning of this week (.... I know, I know, don't even get me started on this!!).
So, my solicitor thinks we might still be able to speed things up this week and she said she would start requesting the funds from the lender. My suggested completion date was Wednesday 9th, but considering we haven't even had reply about exchanging, I am not holding my breath for this week. I'll start with my usual round of emails and phone calls around lunch time,
I chuckled when I saw people mentioning the compulsive email refresh! It's basically the bone structure of my day now! And pretty much 100% of the times is very disappointing! Sometimes I end up in a loop of refreshments and counting how many days have passed since last time I heard from my solicitor, that I waste most of my lunch break!! 

Gahhhh so frustrating for you!!! Home stretch for you now, days rather than weeks and you will be done. 

I know the email refresh is real!!!! 

Cheering you on!!! 

thank you @BountyBlink !!! I'm also keeping fingers crossed for you too!

Caz_Mnaz

@Josephgousto I'd given up and then got a voicemail about 4.30 saying we'd exchanged.... Typically I was in a meeting but it was a nice surprise!! 

sw7

Why is it so difficult to get a clear picture of what's actually happening?

Just requested an update on our long chain, where 2 weeks ago: "one enquiry still outstanding, but hopefully by the end of this week"
Last week: "enquiry is back but solicitor needs to review, hopefully done by the end of this week"
This week: "enquiry raised something that still needs to be addressed, but we're hopefully in a position by the end of the week to proceed to exchange"

The answers are changing slightly, but don't feel any more concrete in terms of moving forward.

Reddington85

Out of curiosity - during the 'searches/random questions' part of the process, how often did those who have completed/exchanged email/contact their Solicitor or did they find the Estate Agent more useful? 

AnnexeRegular

Reddington85 said:

Out of curiosity - during the 'searches/random questions' part of the process, how often did those who have completed/exchanged email/contact their Solicitor or did they find the Estate Agent more useful? 

I'm in the random questions/enquiries part of the process at the moment and finding the estate agent really helpful when needing to chase the vendor. In my experience solicitors generally won't chase up on things.

asbear

Hello there , new joiner to this thread.
I am a first time buyer, and still waiting for the exchange. We got our offer accepted in the late January but still no completion date. It is corporate sale, with no chain at all. It's been total nightmare.

• HSBC lost the track of my mortgage application and I had to chase them nearly 10 times to get it back on track. It got then immediately approved in the next day.
• Seller's solicitor been really unresponsive for a month and then quit which halted everything and took another month to get restarted.
  
• My solicitor continued using the email address of the previous solicitor who has left. This caused another long break in the communication.
• An unanswered enquiry got dropped and came back again recently. My solicitor re-sent those enquires to the seller's solicitor recently.
• And now seller's solicitor claims that the enquires were already answered and nothing more they could do further. My solicitor is looking at their final response.

My solicitor said there's nothing else holding up the exchange but those two enquires. All documents are signed, and deposit is ready in cash. Would it be still possible to complete in this month?

I have never thought it would ever get this far, looking back there was no significant uncertainties at all. All delay came from the mistakes and mistakes. Coming through this journey I look 5 yrs older than I was in January

laura_lau

asbear said:

Hello there , new joiner to this thread.
I am a first time buyer, and still waiting for the exchange. We got our offer accepted in the late January but still no completion date. It is corporate sale, with no chain at all. It's been total nightmare.

• HSBC lost the track of my mortgage application and I had to chase them nearly 10 times to get it back on track. It got then immediately approved in the next day.
• Seller's solicitor been really unresponsive for a month and then quit which halted everything and took another month to get restarted.
  
• My solicitor continued using the email address of the previous solicitor who has left. This caused another long break in the communication.
• An unanswered enquiry got dropped and came back again recently. My solicitor re-sent those enquires to the seller's solicitor recently.
• And now seller's solicitor claims that the enquires were already answered and nothing more they could do further. My solicitor is looking at their final response.

My solicitor said there's nothing else holding up the exchange but those two enquires. All documents are signed, and deposit is ready in cash. Would it be still possible to complete in this month?

I have never thought it would ever get this far, looking back there was no significant uncertainties at all. All delay came from the mistakes and mistakes. Coming through this journey I look 5 yrs older than I was in January

That sounds like an absolute nightmare! I can totally relate with looking (and feeling!) 5 years older than in January, as my offer was also accepted back in January, and my purchase is also chain free up and down, with not particular issues showing up, apart from epical delays in receiving pretty much anything, starting from the mortgage offer, to even apparently an agreement in dates. 
I still have no exchange and completion dates agreed, but hoping to get them this week. Sadly it all depends too much on the solicitor's ability to be on top of things, which in many cases doesn't really seem to be their strongest skill. It took me a whole month to receive the contract to sign and to receive an answer to the last 2 pending enquiries (one pending since Feb and one Since April), as everything else had already been sorted. It's now been 2 whole weeks since even the last enquiries have been sorted, but still am none the wiser on when we will be able to complete. I've become a really annoying person towards my solicitor (last week I basically stalked her twice a day until I finally got a reply from her, 4 days later), and my plan for this week is actually to become her worst nightmare, until she confirms she has exchanged. Keep us posted on your progress! I must say that this thread has helped me loads in coping, as lots of people have suddenly received good news and completed quickly afterwards, after a horrendous journey! There's always hope!

Reddington85

AnnexeRegular said:

Reddington85 said:

Out of curiosity - during the 'searches/random questions' part of the process, how often did those who have completed/exchanged email/contact their Solicitor or did they find the Estate Agent more useful? 

I'm in the random questions/enquiries part of the process at the moment and finding the estate agent really helpful when needing to chase the vendor. In my experience solicitors generally won't chase up on things.

I followed your lead and called the EA. It turns out my buyer is waiting on information that I sent through to my solicitor weeks ago, so it was a very useful call!

asbear

That sounds like an absolute nightmare! I can totally relate with looking (and feeling!) 5 years older than in January, as my offer was also accepted back in January, and my purchase is also chain free up and down, with not particular issues showing up, apart from epical delays in receiving pretty much anything, starting from the mortgage offer, to even apparently an agreement in dates. 
I still have no exchange and completion dates agreed, but hoping to get them this week. Sadly it all depends too much on the solicitor's ability to be on top of things, which in many cases doesn't really seem to be their strongest skill. It took me a whole month to receive the contract to sign and to receive an answer to the last 2 pending enquiries (one pending since Feb and one Since April), as everything else had already been sorted. It's now been 2 whole weeks since even the last enquiries have been sorted, but still am none the wiser on when we will be able to complete. I've become a really annoying person towards my solicitor (last week I basically stalked her twice a day until I finally got a reply from her, 4 days later), and my plan for this week is actually to become her worst nightmare, until she confirms she has exchanged. Keep us posted on your progress! I must say that this thread has helped me loads in coping, as lots of people have suddenly received good news and completed quickly afterwards, after a horrendous journey! There's always hope!

Wow that must have been really annoying. We have very similar timelines btw. 😃
I regret two things. Firstly choosing to use the online conveyancer and secondly I've been too gentle to the solicitors. I thought being patient would be the best way to get the best result, assuming they are the same professional as I am in my world. I tried to understand the absurd delays in the communications as they have super heavy workload and they are going to get my work done eventually. However now I realised that I was wrong. Their service does not intend to meet the customer expectation at all. Ignoring customer's emails or calls for a week or two isn't really professional. I am not sure what's their tactic. Quickly replying to the customer's email would be much more economic than being chased via a phone daily and getting bad  reputation. It's lose-lose strategy from any aspect.