The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

House_owner

Bonniepurple said:

House_owner said:

Hi - Can I join in here - feeling stressed about the whole process, so maybe writing it down here will help me feel calmer!

This is not the first time I have brought and sold and the process is as slow and frustrating as ever - the main hold up this time is how long it took for the buyers surveyor to come - more than a month after accepting the offer!

When we contacted our surveyor his first sentence was “we are taking bookings for the end of July”, which was then a month away!  I could have run round and tried to find one sooner, but I suspect that they are all struggling.

Yes, I guess there are more people wanting surveys than there are surveyors available! - Quite different when I brought my current house 18 years ago, when the survey happened within a week of me having my offer accepted!

stressedout45

Louise.H said:

Well I'd be amazed if we exchanged, let alone completed this week. Sellers solicitors are now being super slow and getting information about what the hold up is from mine is like getting blood out of a stone. 

Hope everyone else has better luck.

It’s painful isn’t it?! Amazing how these solicitors think that there is no rush, considering how much we pay them!! 

Drem1992

We're exchanging today!! Solicitors are ringing sellers solicitors to do it now, everything is go! Completion is tomorrow so cutting it fine 😂

Just want to say that this stressful awful process is worth it in the end, and that the delays feel so painful at the time but I've learn to accept that it's just how buying a house in the UK works, ridiculous though it is! 

We are first time buyers buying a no chain property thought I'd just give everyone an idea of how our timeline went:

18th Feb offer accepted
29th March survey done and reported
20th April searches back (took 14 days) and enquiries raised
18th June draft contracts including fixtures and fittings received and returned, seller confirms they've found a rental property and we agree completion date
15th July exchange today, complete tomorrow!

The other thing I'd say is read your survey very thoroughly, and if something seems wrong query it, our survey made up problems that were entirely not there, we nearly spent a fortune on specialist assessments, and ended up getting a full refund. Surveyors can get things wrong, I'm just glad we realised in time!

And to chip in on the giving notice situation, @kkcoco that situation sounds awful and your landlord is a nightmare! We had completely the opposite experience, we had to give 4 weeks notice and whilst we told the landlord when we first started this process he put no stress into when this was at all, we just kept him vaguely updated out of courtesy, and then gave him notice when we had agreed a completion date, which turned out to be 5 weeks which I know he was appreciative of. 

House_owner

Drem1992 said:

We're exchanging today!! Solicitors are ringing sellers solicitors to do it now, everything is go! Completion is tomorrow so cutting it fine 😂

Just want to say that this stressful awful process is worth it in the end, and that the delays feel so painful at the time but I've learn to accept that it's just how buying a house in the UK works, ridiculous though it is! 

We are first time buyers buying a no chain property thought I'd just give everyone an idea of how our timeline went:

18th Feb offer accepted
29th March survey done and reported
20th April searches back (took 14 days) and enquiries raised
18th June draft contracts including fixtures and fittings received and returned, seller confirms they've found a rental property and we agree completion date
15th July exchange today, complete tomorrow!

The other thing I'd say is read your survey very thoroughly, and if something seems wrong query it, our survey made up problems that were entirely not there, we nearly spent a fortune on specialist assessments, and ended up getting a full refund. Surveyors can get things wrong, I'm just glad we realised in time!

And to chip in on the giving notice situation, @kkcoco that situation sounds awful and your landlord is a nightmare! We had completely the opposite experience, we had to give 4 weeks notice and whilst we told the landlord when we first started this process he put no stress into when this was at all, we just kept him vaguely updated out of courtesy, and then gave him notice when we had agreed a completion date, which turned out to be 5 weeks which I know he was appreciative of. 

Congratuations! - Hope that the move goes well.

kkcoco

Congrats on your exchange @Drem1992 - good luck in your new home.

Thank you for your comments re LL. I expected that sort of situation myself, but I suspect I had him pegged for a nicer person than he is having reflected on the matter. He commented during the call that I hadn't had a rent increase in years, I replied that its irrelevant especially given he hasn't fixed anything in years other than the boiler. He simply said 'We didn't have to skim the ceiling just cause you complained about it (referring to a hole that's been in the ceiling for about 7 years from a no fault bathroom leak) and if you were unhappy with it you should have just left'. All this whilst being true is despite repeatedly apologising for all the things he kept 'forgetting' to fix, seems that was lies all along that he ever had any intention of doing anything.

Absolute Charmer. Never mind, lesson learnt and I will leave this shabby house without even a glance backwards!

climbthatwallseegar

Rejoining this thread after a brief hiatus. I was last on a month ago as I finally completed on the sale of my flat. It only took 12 weeks but quite stressful towards the end when my FTB suddenly made a number of random demands and wanted £££ taken off the sale price.

Anyway, now onto our purchase. Had an offer accepted on a house last week and 7 days on I'm already getting bad vibes about the EA. They have an extremely good reputation locally but I'm currently being 'looked after' by a trainee and it is very frustrating. She 'lost' my solicitors details so I've had to resend.  Requested proof of ID which I sent immediately. A few days later I received an e-mail from another member of staff saying trainee made an error and I have to submit ID via an online platform. Fine. Completed that and requested confirmation all was okay. Today, 5 days later, trainee has responded stating my name is a match for someone who lives in Dehli and is the daughter of a member of the Indian parliament so she can't proceed until I confirmed I was not that person?! For the record my name is not dissimilar to 'Jane Smith' , ID clearly shows my place of birth as London, UK and my proof of address as a property in London.

Have now found out that 1 week on the Memo of Sale still hasn't been sent to my solicitor. Trainee states this is because the Proof of Funds I issued (statement which was accepted last week when my offer was accepted) is now not sufficient.

@kkcoco thanks for your post, very helpful. We just moved into our rental and also have a seemingly pleasant LLady. It's a 12 month tenancy with a 6 month break clause. She  knows we are looking to buy as we were upfront about this at the start and said we'd likely want to invoke the clause. She has already casually asked how we are doing in our house hunt which I previously took as her being nice and showing interest but your situation has given me food for thought and I now will not mention that we've had an offer accepted.

neydejean

Conveyancer replied back to me today within 5 minutes of my initial email. I feel like I should buy a lottery ticket

rakoczigabi

Another day of failed exchange … 
I’m  not sure how much longer I can handle this stress. 

Monday - agreed on completion date ( 21st ) , all 3 of us via solicitors.  Ready to exchange on Wednesday. 

Tuesday - my lender came back and said they can release the funds for the 21st. 

Wednesday - Me and my buyer gave authority to exchange. No one was able to get hold of my seller’s solicitor, all day. 

Today - Me and my buyer gave authority to exchange again. 

My seller’s solicitor didn’t answer her phone all day. At 4pm sent an email to my seller that they are “ having a final sign off of the documents and will be in contact when they ready to exchange “. 

Spoke with my solicitor and he signed off all my paperwork weeks ago. So had no clue why this solicitor only doing it this late , specially that on Monday they said we can exchange on Wednesday. 

I spoke with my seller directly and her and her dad is stressed out as well. And she keeps apologising about the hold up  

C_N_

We reached breaking point with the solicitors today. After being told last week enquiries would be sent by today at the latest, we called and were told they would now not be sent till Monday. Whether we'd actually have ever been told this if we hadn't called is a mystery. 

Anyway long story short, after an email to the directors we now have a new case handler, enquiries have been sent and a completion date pencilled in for the 30th. Sometimes you've got to Karen yourself out these messes. 

birdmadgirl8

Cookie211 said: do u know when they sent there application for probate 

Thanks so much for the detailed reply - very helpful. It sounds just as painful as I feared though 😭This is the first question I asked, but our sellers don't know how far along the probate is. Problem is it's at a double remove from us, (sellers' onward purchase) so we really need agents to talk to agents. I'm going to be digging up info on the situation as fast at I can. We have a month to wait for searches to come back, but at this rate that wait will seem like nothing. Fingers crossed yours comes through quickly. Pretty sure others on this thread have said that probate is being held up in the same way as searches are in some areas. Let's just hope it's easing up a bit. Good luck!