The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

Louise.H

sw7 said:

Louise.H said:

Sometimes I think this thread is basically waiting to hear from my solicitor. 

This is where I am at, is it unreasonable to expect a reply to a really simple question quicker than 2+ days? My mum gets replies from them in hours (same solicitors firm, difference is her purchases are a lot more £).

Our solicitor have added a load of disclaimers to their email about delays due to Covid (really?) and the SDLT deadline, amongst other things. One basically says "emails will be printed out, treated as post and dealt with in the order they arrive. Replies can take up to 48 hours".

I understand dealing with things in order and not expecting emails to be read the minute you send them, but printing them out... in this day and age...?

Printing them out?? Wow that is funny. Mine hasn't got anything on their emails about covid delays etc, I'm sure its having an impact of course. I think this afternoon I'll just have to ring them *sigh*.

CLJ2986

Wes121708 said:

We want to try and exchange on or before the 23 of June so we can give our months notice to move out our rental. That way we have until the end of July to get things sorted out at the house and tidy up any loose ends here. If we go past the 23rd we'll have our rental until the end of August which is fine but would be nice not to have to pay the extra rent!
Not sure if we're confident enough to hand our notice in before we actually exchange even if our solicitors give us a date or are we being over cautious?!

Same here, except our date is 14th June and we have no hope. With 5 kids we can't run the risk of not completing by 14th July so already resigned to paying for two house at once cause we still need to move ASAP! Hoping the letting agency will let us hand our keys in early though, which doesn't help with the rent as we will still be liable for the full month. Was thinking of giving them a call to explain the situation and see what they say, anyone have any thoughts on that?? 

asbear

laura_lau said:

asbear said:

laura_lau said:

Good morning everyone. Aaaand it's Friday again... Sending good vibes and wishing good luck to everyone who is awaiting news. I know we can do it, as so many good examples in recent days are showing us, so I'm very hopeful! Now, Just had my coffee, I can start pestering the EA agent to see if they have finally been able to get hold of the seller's solicitor!

I am not sure if I understand your fully story but has your side been ready to exchange and the completion date is set already? Then I think what you could try is pushing your solicitor to chase the seller's solicitor. I think you've done this already but wanted to mention this because of my experience.

A day before our exchange, I called my solicitor and suggested 18 June for the completion date and my solicitor sent an email to the seller's solicitor for setting the agreed completion date. However the seller's solicitor didn't respond until the next day. EA checked that out and it turned out that she was off. I anyway transferred the whole money to my solicitor to prevent any delay but didn't get any news. It was not really hopeful. I called the solicitor firm more than 5 times to chase the progress - couldn't talk to my solicitor directly but left my messages to the person on the phone.

In the next morning, my solicitor gave me a call, told me that he hadn't got any response yet but he will contact the firm directly and find someone else to get the deal done with him. We didn't have the completion date until this moment. But got a call about the confirmation of the exchange of contract around 2pm with the completion date I suggested.

My point is that you could still try pushing your solicitor, for setting the completion date and send the required fund as early as possible once the solicitor agrees with it. To me it looks like the exchange could be done really quickly if your solicitor pushes it really hard.

Hope this helps.

I've done all that, but no one has been able to get a response from the seller's solicitor, not even the seller herself. About 2 weeks ago I told my solicitor to suggest exchange and completion dates, as the final enquiries had finally been satisfied. I suggested 2nd of June as exchange and 9th June as completion. My solicitor sent an email to the seller's solicitor to propose the dates, this was on the Thursday before the bank holiday. I then agreed with my solicitor to send my deposit in readiness for exchange, which I did last Wednesday (2nd June). And that's pretty much it. Since the Thursday 2 weeks ago, when my solicitor proposed dates, we haven't heard back from the seller's solicitor. Last Thursday, since a week had passed and my solicitor said they were chasing but they were receiving no reply, I started calling the EA. They called me back Thursday afternoon saying they had spoken with the seller solicitor who said their IT systems had been down for 3 days and they were catching up, and they wouldn't be able to answer my solicitor's enquiry until early this week. On Tuesday, after my solicitor confirmed she had chased again and had received no response, I called the EA again, and they again called me back repeating what the solicitor had said the week before, but admitting they hadn't been able to speak with the solicitor. They said they called the seller to ask if she had any pending enquires to answer, and she said no, but she also hadn't heard from her solicitor in a while. I told the EA that there are no enquiries, and what the seller's solicitor is calling an "enquiry" is actually our request to exchange and complete. Yesterday, same thing, I called and this time the agent didn't even call me back. I called just now, and they didn't even answer this time, I got redirected to another branch! They said they will let me be called back, but I'll call them if within 2 hours they don't call me back! My solicitor confirmed yesterday evening she chased again in the morning but got no reply.
So It's ridiculous that after 2 weeks we still have received no reply about dates, and, according to the EA, the vendor doesn't know anything! I'm even starting to think that someone is lying here, and maybe the vendor changed her mind and is trying to secure a higher offer? That would be incredibly stupid, considering my offer was accepted on 22nd January, so it's been almost 6 months, why running away literally days before proposed completion?

I feel your pain. It was so difficult to cope with the mental pressure. Was the seller also frustrated and desperate to get this deal done when you called her? One action you could do would be setting a deadline for exchange and completion date. I don't believe that the whole firm have no capacity to make an urgent deal. They are possibly prioritising the deals they might miss if they make any delay.

In my case, I announced my deadline to "completion before June" last month because of the stamp duty holidays. And pushed my solicitor, EA and seller like crazy. The seller finally gave a very tight deadline through the EA - 5 working days to exchange. It was really scary moment for me but also thankful for them doing so, because I was going to pull of at the end of the month anyway.

If you can wait until the next month and really want the house, probably only choice is waiting. Otherwise putting deadline could be a real game changer, you should really mean it though.

I hope some great things would happen to you today!

m4x1ne

Louise.H said:

Sometimes I think this thread is basically waiting to hear from my solicitor. 

This is where I am at, is it unreasonable to expect a reply to a really simple question quicker than 2+ days? My mum gets replies from them in hours (same solicitors firm, difference is her purchases are a lot more £).

Absolutely. I just sit at my inbox refreshing in vain. I haven't had any replies at all since early April. As it stands atm 2 days sounds amazing to me

asbear

laura_lau said:

asbear said:

laura_lau said:

Good morning everyone. Aaaand it's Friday again... Sending good vibes and wishing good luck to everyone who is awaiting news. I know we can do it, as so many good examples in recent days are showing us, so I'm very hopeful! Now, Just had my coffee, I can start pestering the EA agent to see if they have finally been able to get hold of the seller's solicitor!

I am not sure if I understand your fully story but has your side been ready to exchange and the completion date is set already? Then I think what you could try is pushing your solicitor to chase the seller's solicitor. I think you've done this already but wanted to mention this because of my experience.

A day before our exchange, I called my solicitor and suggested 18 June for the completion date and my solicitor sent an email to the seller's solicitor for setting the agreed completion date. However the seller's solicitor didn't respond until the next day. EA checked that out and it turned out that she was off. I anyway transferred the whole money to my solicitor to prevent any delay but didn't get any news. It was not really hopeful. I called the solicitor firm more than 5 times to chase the progress - couldn't talk to my solicitor directly but left my messages to the person on the phone.

In the next morning, my solicitor gave me a call, told me that he hadn't got any response yet but he will contact the firm directly and find someone else to get the deal done with him. We didn't have the completion date until this moment. But got a call about the confirmation of the exchange of contract around 2pm with the completion date I suggested.

My point is that you could still try pushing your solicitor, for setting the completion date and send the required fund as early as possible once the solicitor agrees with it. To me it looks like the exchange could be done really quickly if your solicitor pushes it really hard.

Hope this helps.

I've done all that, but no one has been able to get a response from the seller's solicitor, not even the seller herself. About 2 weeks ago I told my solicitor to suggest exchange and completion dates, as the final enquiries had finally been satisfied. I suggested 2nd of June as exchange and 9th June as completion. My solicitor sent an email to the seller's solicitor to propose the dates, this was on the Thursday before the bank holiday. I then agreed with my solicitor to send my deposit in readiness for exchange, which I did last Wednesday (2nd June). And that's pretty much it. Since the Thursday 2 weeks ago, when my solicitor proposed dates, we haven't heard back from the seller's solicitor. Last Thursday, since a week had passed and my solicitor said they were chasing but they were receiving no reply, I started calling the EA. They called me back Thursday afternoon saying they had spoken with the seller solicitor who said their IT systems had been down for 3 days and they were catching up, and they wouldn't be able to answer my solicitor's enquiry until early this week. On Tuesday, after my solicitor confirmed she had chased again and had received no response, I called the EA again, and they again called me back repeating what the solicitor had said the week before, but admitting they hadn't been able to speak with the solicitor. They said they called the seller to ask if she had any pending enquires to answer, and she said no, but she also hadn't heard from her solicitor in a while. I told the EA that there are no enquiries, and what the seller's solicitor is calling an "enquiry" is actually our request to exchange and complete. Yesterday, same thing, I called and this time the agent didn't even call me back. I called just now, and they didn't even answer this time, I got redirected to another branch! They said they will let me be called back, but I'll call them if within 2 hours they don't call me back! My solicitor confirmed yesterday evening she chased again in the morning but got no reply.
So It's ridiculous that after 2 weeks we still have received no reply about dates, and, according to the EA, the vendor doesn't know anything! I'm even starting to think that someone is lying here, and maybe the vendor changed her mind and is trying to secure a higher offer? That would be incredibly stupid, considering my offer was accepted on 22nd January, so it's been almost 6 months, why running away literally days before proposed completion?

Also, it is worth double checking if they are using a right email address, maybe ask your EA to provide another contact of the firm. From April to May, the seller's solicitor has completely ignored our enquires and it turned out the seller's solicitor quit the job and did not hand it over. Even after they put another case handler, my solicitor didn't get notice and kept sending email to the previous email address which wasted 6 weeks in total. If you didn't, ask your solicitor to call the seller's solicitor's firm and check if the contact is still valid.

justwanttomove

I can't believe how much this process sucks! Our sellers put an offer on a onward purchase on the 27th March. They only let their solicitor know they were purchasing 2 weeks ago - and that's only because my solicitor asked how the onward purchase was going to their solicitor and they knew nothing about it as we are ready to exchange! We have been asking for a timeline or an update for 3 weeks now, getting a no response from the sellers solicitor at all and finally they have come back with a very vague answer!

My solicitor has gone back with a lot of sass saying she wants to know exactly where they are with contracts, searches, mortgage offers, surveys, enquiries etc and wants an update on each one and the date they are working towards for exchange. She said this is a matter of urgency and she needs an answer today. I feel like standing up and giving her a round of applause. Our sellers would benefit from stamp duty too and I have no idea why they aren't pushing their solicitor to get it done. I'm so thankful for our solicitor - I think we lucked out with her.

cherrypancakes

Completion date agreed for 28th June, my solicitor has just asked for authority to exchange - finally getting there !!

I've been trying to buy a flat since December 2019, I can not wait to see the back of this all!!!!

AnnexeRegular

This week has been a calamity of false truths, mostly from the vendors solicitor, who seem to be spinning a web of lies.

The estate agent chased my vendors solicitor who said they sent over replies to the final 6 enquiries to my solicitor on Tuesday, and again yesterday. My solicitor is still saying they haven't received them, and the vendors solicitor has now contacted my solicitor to say they are waiting on replies from the management company. I wish people would just tell the bloody truth in all of this! At least i'm getting copied into emails now.

I've been ready to go for weeks now.

Wes121708

@sw7 and @CLJ2986 we have two kids, a cat and a three bed house to store so I think we'll definitely wait for exchange. Our agents don't have a clue we're buying yet and dreading when we hand our notice in as our house will probably be full of moving boxes which they'll probably make us move for pictures! We've been really good tenants for 4 years and they've not increased the rent so they might be thankful as they could probably up the rent by a couple of hundred quid a month!
I did say to oh that it seems to be going smoothly but anything could happen before exchange!

hippocrates1

Quick question.

I’m buying a vacant property without a chain and I’m in rented. Is there any problem with exchange and completion date day in this circumstance as the day of completion isn’t the end of the world? If it’s on different days how soon after exchange can you complete? My mortgage is through Santander and I’m using a HTB ISA if that changes anything.