The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

JS21

Firsttime2021 said:

sw7 said:

Does anyone else have a solicitor who is using an online progress-tracking portal? If so, what has the experience been?

Our solicitor uses a platform called Hoowla. It looks to have the capability to upload and transfer all documents through it, but our solicitor has required them by post. And for some reason they yesterday went in and marked all the sections for showing progress on the mortgage, searches, enquiries, etc. as 'completed', leaving the next step as 'exchange'.

We've been in that position for several months already so I don't know what suddenly prompted them to update it...

Yes!! Ours are using this particular one, they don’t update it, it’s sat at 33% for a month. 

My solicitors are crap at communicating with me, I’m ready to pull my hair out 

I think it's hit and miss as we've actually had a really positive experience with ours, they're completely online and have their own portal inc. journal where we can ask/answer questions and they post updates with questions/queries and confirm receipt of documents/let us know new documents have been uploaded to the reports section. They were recommended to us by my sister and BIL who have used them for their previous 2 home purchases as well as business property purchases in the last few years. We were also recommended a different solicitor used by multiple family members and it was a split bag with 50:50 saying good and bad things! I'd been lurking for months reading all the horror stories and was worried we'd have a horrible experience but the solicitors we're using have been complete amazing and extremely responsive - even responding within 10 mins to confirm receipt of a question or to thank us for replying to theirs! 

We're almost at exchange point - the seller's side just need to answer 3 minor outstanding enquiries and I'm beginning to get impatient as we're all hoping to be completed by end of June (they have also said this as they have 2 young kids and the extra cash saved on stamp duty will help with upcoming school fees). We have a short chain: Us (ftb) - seller - sellers moving into empty property so are hoping they answer these soon! All the paperwork; mortgage forms, contracts, deed transfer forms etc. were signed and sent back to solicitors a month ago who have confirmed receipt and said there's nothing left to do on our side except transfer deposit as soon as the queries are answered and exchange date agreed.

We also wanted to book in a 3rd viewing as we've not seen it since we offered back in March and at the time, each viewing was only 15 mins. This viewing is mainly just so that we can measure up the rooms, spaces for freestanding appliances and things such as curtains which we'll need to order and to double check the minor work we will need to do once we have keys. Do most people do a final viewing before exchange or is it something sellers don't really like to agree to?
We're keen to get things moving/be prepared to order items as soon as we've exchanged/almost completed as we will only have limited time off from work to move.

ZSC

ZSC said:

So we are due to complete on Friday 🎉 our solicitor has said she will contact me for authority to exchange today .... but havnt heard from her yet. Is it normal to do that at any point in the day?

Well just given the authority to exchange... eek!! I just hope our solicitor can get in touch with theirs ... I have a feeling that won’t be an easy process 🙄🙄🙄

Drem1992

I think we're finally there! Our survey through up a few things which turned out to be errors on the surveyors part! So the surveyors are refunding us in full and redacting the report, I'm still not completely sure whether I should order a new survey but presumably the surveyor would have covered themselves if there was anything major, so I'm not sure a new survey is going to add or change anything for us and really not in the mood for any more delays!
Our vendor seems quite sure she'll secure a rental property this week, and then we should hopefully be aiming for the the first week of July all being well! 🤞🤞🤞

Firsttime2021

Miraculously had an email from the solicitors just now with our search reports. All seems fine. 

just waiting for my parents solicitors to answer enquiries, they’ve had for a month!! So mums got on the phone to her solicitors to pull their !!!!!! in to gear. I’ve emailed my solicitor back asking how many enquiries were sent. Probably get an email back in a month!!!.

we will get there one day. 

laura_lau

Firsttime2021 said:

Miraculously had an email from the solicitors just now with our search reports. All seems fine. 

just waiting for my parents solicitors to answer enquiries, they’ve had for a month!! So mums got on the phone to her solicitors to pull their !!!!!! in to gear. I’ve emailed my solicitor back asking how many enquiries were sent. Probably get an email back in a month!!!.

we will get there one day. 

Your story really confirms what I suspected for a while now: that 90% of delays are due to solicitor's slowness or lack of communication. I knew I was right, but it's nice to have the proof of it, ahah! You'll definitely get there, hopefully soon! At least you can be certain your sellers will never suddenly pull out of the sale!  

Firsttime2021

laura_lau said:

Firsttime2021 said:

Miraculously had an email from the solicitors just now with our search reports. All seems fine. 

just waiting for my parents solicitors to answer enquiries, they’ve had for a month!! So mums got on the phone to her solicitors to pull their !!!!!! in to gear. I’ve emailed my solicitor back asking how many enquiries were sent. Probably get an email back in a month!!!.

we will get there one day. 

Your story really confirms what I suspected for a while now: that 90% of delays are due to solicitor's slowness or lack of communication. I knew I was right, but it's nice to have the proof of it, ahah! You'll definitely get there, hopefully soon! At least you can be certain your sellers will never suddenly pull out of the sale!  

I am so grateful of knowing we don’t have the issue of sellers pulling out, my friend at work started the process at the same time as me and is on tenderhooks to exchange. 

And also the fact we don’t have to pack up and move our belongings is a huge bonus. It’s taken 6 years to be in the position to buy the house from my parents so my husband and I are just relieved all the work we’ve done so far will have been worth it. Our mortgage offer expires 31st august so fingers crossed we will be done by then. 

My mum is furious it’s down to their solicitors who haven’t bothered to reply to enquiries. but then they haven’t been on top of their solicitors like I have. I’ve emailed, called, annoyed and badgered the life out of mine. This for us is our forever house it’s not a castle compared to some but it will be ours and something to pass onto our two children hopefully. 

Sacher50

Week 6 since our offer was accepted (FTB, no chain). Mortgage offer came through last week and today our solicitor sent us the deed to sign. We're also received the summary of our buildings survey and nothing major was found, I hope that holds true when get the full survey.
Annoyingly, our vendor has had to find a new solicitor as his old solicitor couldn't process the title changes required to turn his house conversion into two registered flats. Thankfully he's found a new solicitor and the EA told us the contract pack should be sent out soon. Hopefully this will be with our solicitors in a week's time and they can start their work.
It'll be "interesting" to see if our solicitor has any capacity to work on our purchase until July, once the Stamp Duty Holiday is over.

6 weeks gone, aiming to be in before week 16 (my partner's birthday).   

Rachylou1981

BountyBlink said:

Rachylou1981 said:

Hi all
Been trying to work out when it's appropriate to start chasing for a completion date. 
Currently, mortgage & valuations sorted, all buyer queries have been answered, contract & transfer signed but searches are still underway. Do they need to be back first?

What kind of questions should I be asking/what other things need doing before I start suggesting completion dates? Don't want to run before I can walk

You could do the same as I have suggested to Bella above. Now is the time to be chasing your agents for explicit details on chain and where they are on matters. A chain will exchange at the speed of the slowest link. We have been ready to exchange for months but we will be as fast the top of our chain now... hope that helps... 

I did this & vendors EA responded immediately saying all is great & we can talk dates when we know where my buyers are so it's my EA who is the slow responder. Will call tomorrow to chase but I think they are ready. Fingers crossed. Thanks again  I copied your query wording

sw7

JS21 said:

We also wanted to book in a 3rd viewing as we've not seen it since we offered back in March and at the time, each viewing was only 15 mins. This viewing is mainly just so that we can measure up the rooms, spaces for freestanding appliances and things such as curtains which we'll need to order and to double check the minor work we will need to do once we have keys. Do most people do a final viewing before exchange or is it something sellers don't really like to agree to?
We're keen to get things moving/be prepared to order items as soon as we've exchanged/almost completed as we will only have limited time off from work to move.

I don't know whether most do, but it would definitely be normal to ask for a final viewing. Provided it's not literally before exchange and potentially going to delay things, I think most sellers would be reassured that you're making plans to move in. We did it a few weeks back and was reassuring for us as well.

Glad you've had a decent solicitor. We asked friends for recommendations but when we contacted those recommendations, they didn't respond. Too popular, perhaps? Ours are fast in replying to emails but you can count on them to ignore at least one question per email (and I've also tried sending only one question, but then you get half a response!).

Lorann_86

Selling our property has been given a mid July estimate for completion. Had some enquiries for info they have already had. Annoying but not worth stressing over as it's the first lot of enquiries. If that is all they ask we will be fine. Mid July work for us. Would prefer it to be before July 12 but I think our searches and enquiries are holding it up so not much we can do.