The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

NotHydra

BountyBlink said:

NotHydra said:

BountyBlink said:

TheTruemans said:

Hey folks,
So a small update from us but I'm super confused about our timeline now as we still have a lot of tentative items still to go;
We spoke to our solicitors for the first time since appointing them back on the 13/5 - They have received our mortgage offer and will be sending out mortgage report shortly, They are just waiting on local searches to come back and for enquiries to be replied to, They have said completion would be about a week after this (no chain)

However we're yet to receive any paperwork from our solicitors, no word about fixtures & fittings, or when we can expect our contracts to be sent. Or any communication about completion date with the EA.
Things seem to be moving fast but a couple of week to complete seems unlikely?
Anyone got any advise on this - or am i just shocked how quickly things are now moving? 

If you like at my timeline, the last part, our vendors vendor only offered on the vacant top property on 27/5 and we are already at exchange. 

I know a lot of people say it takes a few months from offer to completion or more, but if everyone in the chain is motivated, you have a good solicitor, searches are quick (1-2 days in our area) then there is no reason why it has to take months. 

Once your searches are back your solicitor “reports” to you, basically a letter attaching search results, details on enquiries raised, details of your mortgage, and it’s your job to read the pack and if you have any more questions off the back of it to go back and ask your solicitor - then they can pose more enquires etc, but I never bother, unless there was something like a right of way I did need further clarification on 

they normally include contracts, FF/PIF EPC certificate etc and any guarantees planning notices/sign offs. Mortage deed and plan for you to sign. 

Then you send that back, then your solicitor will
ask for deposit and completion date 
then you are ready to exchange 

you can push this along...

look at your local councils website and find the email address for “land charges dept” fire off and email to them asking them when the searches for the property you were buying were done. 

Based on that you can then go back to your solicitor and ask when will they send the contact pack to you and report to you... 

hope that helps 

We got our search results 10 May reported to us Haven't seen any of the contract pack documents you have mentioned. I am starting to get beyond angry with our solicitor and think she has 100% dropped the ball on this. I am worried about completing 

Just send an email saying

dear 

We are not in receipt of PIF/FF, Contract pack for signature. 

Please can you send without delay, so we can move to an imminent exchange. 

Many thanks 

if they are still get to report to you on other items at least the above email will smoke out the reason for any undue delay. 

Copy in your vendors agent so they know you are chasing and can help chase on your behalf. 

She is supposed to be "reviewing" our case this week. How late tomorrow should I be chasing up for an answer.
I know now most completions happen on a Friday. 
So now I'm feeling my chances are slim. If by some miracle we get the contract pack the weekend. Can I still expect a completion of the 25th or am I dreaming? 

BountyBlink

birdmadgirl8 said:

Hello everyone - fantastic to see so many happy stories. Hooray @Caz_Mnaz - so pleased to see that you're in your new home  @BountyBlink - great to see that you're creeping up on that exchange!

So, quick update from me and a sanity check.

In early May we lost home we'd been trying to buy since November 2020 at the point of exchange. Crushed. Got back on the horse from hell. Offered on another house by end of following week (mid May) - they withdrew from market after 2 weeks of messing us about  Found yet another house end of May, offer accepted, refinanced, searches and surveys booked (have to wait until mid July for those to come back). Chain not yet complete as vendors have to find property - they seem determined though, so all good. So much adjusting to do - market has transformed since we started out in October 20. House we're buying is much more expensive & of course we laugh as we prepare to sail past our second SD deadline.

Then, yesterday I check in with agent about our buyer. They've been tricky from start, but we hung in there as they sent nearly 50 Qs in an endless stream up to exchange. I had been nervous they were going to pull out as they wanted us to pay their tax when March SD deadline was missed (not by us). No longer nervous as market has changed and we know our house is worth significantly more than their offer. If they mess us about we will out ours back on market. Here's the thing - agent has several buyers waiting for a house in our area and willing to pay more. Do we want to open up to viewings? I discussed with husband and we agree that ethics are more important than pounds (even though we've had to accept that our savings are gone and we can't do work we'd planned on new house for some time, because of upturn in market). Basically, we don't think it's fair to do that to our buyer.

This is where the sanity check comes in. The right thing is the right thing. Am I right?

Oh bless you! You have had such a rough ride but good to see you found another house. 

So our vendor has held on for us Even though they pulled out of first purchase they were buying, and redound and then their vendor pulled out of their first purchase. We broke our chain to guarantee our sale, went into rented and have been the perfect buyers. Asked 6 enquiries, have arranged our own indemnity for things and have had our ducks in a row. We have expected all this time that we might not get the house because they could definitely get tens of thousands more... but they stuck with us as we are now chain free and ready. 

I would discuss with your agent and then take a good time to think it all through, see what they say... 

NotHydra

NotHydra said:

BountyBlink said:

NotHydra said:

BountyBlink said:

TheTruemans said:

Hey folks,
So a small update from us but I'm super confused about our timeline now as we still have a lot of tentative items still to go;
We spoke to our solicitors for the first time since appointing them back on the 13/5 - They have received our mortgage offer and will be sending out mortgage report shortly, They are just waiting on local searches to come back and for enquiries to be replied to, They have said completion would be about a week after this (no chain)

However we're yet to receive any paperwork from our solicitors, no word about fixtures & fittings, or when we can expect our contracts to be sent. Or any communication about completion date with the EA.
Things seem to be moving fast but a couple of week to complete seems unlikely?
Anyone got any advise on this - or am i just shocked how quickly things are now moving? 

If you like at my timeline, the last part, our vendors vendor only offered on the vacant top property on 27/5 and we are already at exchange. 

I know a lot of people say it takes a few months from offer to completion or more, but if everyone in the chain is motivated, you have a good solicitor, searches are quick (1-2 days in our area) then there is no reason why it has to take months. 

Once your searches are back your solicitor “reports” to you, basically a letter attaching search results, details on enquiries raised, details of your mortgage, and it’s your job to read the pack and if you have any more questions off the back of it to go back and ask your solicitor - then they can pose more enquires etc, but I never bother, unless there was something like a right of way I did need further clarification on 

they normally include contracts, FF/PIF EPC certificate etc and any guarantees planning notices/sign offs. Mortage deed and plan for you to sign. 

Then you send that back, then your solicitor will
ask for deposit and completion date 
then you are ready to exchange 

you can push this along...

look at your local councils website and find the email address for “land charges dept” fire off and email to them asking them when the searches for the property you were buying were done. 

Based on that you can then go back to your solicitor and ask when will they send the contact pack to you and report to you... 

hope that helps 

We got our search results 10 May reported to us Haven't seen any of the contract pack documents you have mentioned. I am starting to get beyond angry with our solicitor and think she has 100% dropped the ball on this. I am worried about completing 

Just send an email saying

dear 

We are not in receipt of PIF/FF, Contract pack for signature. 

Please can you send without delay, so we can move to an imminent exchange. 

Many thanks 

if they are still get to report to you on other items at least the above email will smoke out the reason for any undue delay. 

Copy in your vendors agent so they know you are chasing and can help chase on your behalf. 

She is supposed to be "reviewing" our case this week. How late tomorrow should I be chasing up for an answer.
I know now most completions happen on a Friday. 
So now I'm feeling my chances are slim. If by some miracle we get the contract pack the weekend. Can I still expect a completion of the 25th or am I dreaming? 

So I just received the following from head of conveyancing:

Good evening,

 

My apologies for any delay you may have experienced with us getting back to you.

The ability of a lot of solicitors up and down the country to work as quickly as we would normally be able to has been affected by Covid-19, the SDLT Stamp Duty holiday, and the current exceptional market conditions.

Thank you for your understanding and your appreciation that expectations of turnaround times of what may have been possible over 12 months ago are no longer achievable due to factors outside of our control.   

I note from the file that <solicitor> wrote to your yesterday.

I will speak to <solicitor> tomorrow in order to ascertain the current position reached and see what can be done to move it forward for you.  

Kind regards,

My response:

Dear <head of conyeyancing>.

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

Please note we are not yet in receipt of PIF/FF, Contract pack for signature.
Please can you send without delay, so we can move to an imminent exchange.

I look forward to hearing from you and appreciate the ongoing efforts to get my transaction to a satisfactory conclusion.  

Many thanks

NotHydra

@BountyBlink - If I complete on the 25th it will be 100% due to your amazing advice. I will owe you a bottle of gin. Cheers

flyingv

So I finally got a response from my solicitor's assistant today.  I had a call with the EA as the sales progressor is currently off sick wiith Covid, and we decided on a pincer movement.  He called the solicitor and I phoned his assistant who within 10 mins of me leaving her a voicemail had emailed me!  Now why she couldn't have just replied to the email I sent on Monday morning is anyone's guess.  I now know that there is just the one enquiry outstanding that the LA need to answer.  It is such a simple thing to do with the charge on the property being satisfied on completion but they have so far taken about 5 weeks (and counting!) to respond.

At least I know that's it and once they finally do reply we can look at dates to exchange.  Phew!

Glad to see that some of you have inched closer to the finish line, and sorry to hear yet more of you are experiencing frustrations.  Fingers crossed there's more good news for those of you hoping to exchange tomorrow.

jenni_fer

jenni_fer said:

Hopefully we are almost at the end!
Our EA spent a lot of time talking to our buyers and has got them to agree to (I think) 23rd July, so there will hopefully be no more threats of pulling out.
It is a shame we'll miss the stamp duty, but it was only ever a vague hope really here so I'll absolutely get over it as long as we actually complete!
Just waiting for the gas cert from the property we are buying now and then we'll hopefully be able to exchange ASAP, the sooner the better as I'm really anxious about being able to apply for the places at the new school for the kids which I can't do until that magical point in time.

Sounds like there have been a few exchanges and completions this week, congrats all! This thread moves far too fast for me to keep up!

Oh how quickly the world of house buying and selling changes!
2 weeks on and our solicitors are advising us to pull out!
We've still not had the gas cert, and the sellers seem to have gone AWOL!
I've got no idea what we do next other than hope for some good news!

birdmadgirl8

BountyBlink said:

Oh bless you! You have had such a rough ride but good to see you found another house. 

So our vendor has held on for us Even though they pulled out of first purchase they were buying, and redound and then their vendor pulled out of their first purchase. We broke our chain to guarantee our sale, went into rented and have been the perfect buyers. Asked 6 enquiries, have arranged our own indemnity for things and have had our ducks in a row. We have expected all this time that we might not get the house because they could definitely get tens of thousands more... but they stuck with us as we are now chain free and ready. 

I would discuss with your agent and then take a good time to think it all through, see what they say... 

Yes, we'll certainly have a think - thanks for the advice as always. Must admit that I'd rather come through this having done our best by buyers & vendors. I'd like to think that sticking with it will get us where we want to be in the end.
Sorry to hear you've got another painful weekend of waiting, but I hope Monday brings good news!

Rincewindcl

Morning all,

It's crunch time for many of us today.  Wishing you all good luck and happy exchanges and/or completions!

birdmadgirl8

Good luck to you all. The forum's so busy with near-completions! 

Caz_Mnaz

I’m Still rooting for you all!!! I can’t believe it’s been a week since completion, feel like we’ve been here forever.

hang in there folks!