The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

WorriedKirkels

@Justonemorecupoftea - I feel your pain as our vendors are using a similar type of solicitors - so frustrating! I really don’t understand why anyone would opt to use one of these conveyancers as their reputations are never positive 😔 x

greensalad

birdmadgirl8 said:

@greensalad @jjxzhang Basically, you want the draft contract pack asap, because solicitors can't really act until they have it. We've been pushing for ours since we made our offer in early June and only got hold of it last week. Sure enough there's an issue arising that we could have been dealing with earlier. Anyway, some solicitors do wait for searches and surveys to deal with/send out contract packs, so that might be your sellers' solicitor's approach. Anyway, I would be chasing that missing contract pack if I were you. NB the draft contract pack (first pack you get from sellers' Sol with fixtures/fittings, property info, etc.) is not the same as the contract you'll be signing in preparation for exchange (though contract will include elements from that first contract pack). Hope that makes sense!

Is this something we need to ask for from the EA or our solicitors? We do also have a sales progressor at our EA. This is the thing I've honestly found the most confusing about buying a house... everyone says "you need to get X" or "you should get Y" but no one tells you where from or who's responsible! (Not attacking you personally haha, just had this already with the Memorandum of Sale where I was told it was needed but I didn't know who I was supposed to be chasing. A lot of the guides, even here on MSE, fail to explain who is the person in charge of each thing).

richardwilson1984

@greensalad the draft contract comes from your buyer/sellers solicitor, so your best course of action is to contact the estate agent and say your solicitor hasn’t had the draft through yet, why not and what is going on? They can then chase it up.

I had the exact same issue. When I chased it up, it turned out the opposing solicitor had just not sent it (presumably by accident through forgetting), as the documents had been completed two weeks prior. Nonetheless, within 24 hours of chasing the draft was over to my solicitor.

birdmadgirl8

@greensalad The great thing about this thread is that people share the process, whereas I found EAs and Solicitors just expect you to know what will happen. Technically, the seller's solicitor (along with seller) should start preparing a draft contract pack as soon as they have the memorandum of sale from the EA you're buying from. The speed of this really varies, depending on how quickly sellers complete the paperwork & how quickly solicitors process it. The seller's solicitor will then send the contract pack to the buyer's solicitor (your Sol), where there can be another wait while your Sol sends it to you and starts to review it. This is the point at which several enquiries might be raised by your solicitor to send back to seller (and you might have some Qs too). I've found that solicitors often sit on things and need prodding to send stuff, or to check for paperwork they've been sent. This is why it's worth an email to your Sol to ask them whether they have received the draft contract pack. If not, you can go to seller's EA and ask them to chase it with seller's solicitor.

Cookie211

birdmadgirl8 said:

@greensalad The great thing about this thread is that people share the process, whereas I found EAs and Solicitors just expect you to know what will happen. Technically, the seller's solicitor (along with seller) should start preparing a draft contract pack as soon as they have the memorandum of sale from the EA you're buying from. The speed of this really varies, depending on how quickly sellers complete the paperwork & how quickly solicitors process it. The seller's solicitor will then send the contract pack to the buyer's solicitor (your Sol), where there can be another wait while your Sol sends it to you and starts to review it. This is the point at which several enquiries might be raised by your solicitor to send back to seller (and you might have some Qs too). I've found that solicitors often sit on things and need prodding to send stuff, or to check for paperwork they've been sent. This is why it's worth an email to your Sol to ask them whether they have received the draft contract pack. If not, you can go to seller's EA and ask them to chase it with seller's solicitor.

Hi, sorry can I jump on this question aswell please, we FTB my solicitor have received the contract pack, our searches have been done,my sol have sent them to us and all enquiries have been answered but we haven’t signed anything, do we wait for probate to be granted before we sign anything? Thanks 

wishinghome

Cookie211 said:

Hi, sorry can I jump on this question aswell please, we FTB my solicitor have received the contract pack, our searches have been done,my sol have sent them to us and all enquiries have been answered but we haven’t signed anything, do we wait for probate to be granted before we sign anything? Thanks 

Your situation sounds similar to ours. We offered on a probate house mid April and were told probate was in hand. By mid June all searches and enquiries were complete and our solicitor said we were just waiting on the grant of probate to exchange. We contacted the estate agent for an update and found out that the probate application hadn't been submitted yet because the probate solicitor was still waiting on info from a couple of financial institutions. So we've just been in limbo waiting since then. 

We finally got confirmation around the 6th July that the probate application had been submitted and then last week we were told that probate had been granted. We received the contract and transfer deed in the post to sign on Friday and are hopefully exchanging today and completing Monday. 🤞 So we signed contract after probate had been granted, but as everything else was done beforehand it's moved very quickly once that had been received!

I know the waiting is painful! Hopefully you won't be waiting too much longer for probate. 

Cookie211

wishinghome said:

Cookie211 said:

Hi, sorry can I jump on this question aswell please, we FTB my solicitor have received the contract pack, our searches have been done,my sol have sent them to us and all enquiries have been answered but we haven’t signed anything, do we wait for probate to be granted before we sign anything? Thanks 

Your situation sounds similar to ours. We offered on a probate house mid April and were told probate was in hand. By mid June all searches and enquiries were complete and our solicitor said we were just waiting on the grant of probate to exchange. We contacted the estate agent for an update and found out that the probate application hadn't been submitted yet because the probate solicitor was still waiting on info from a couple of financial institutions. So we've just been in limbo waiting since then. 

We finally got confirmation around the 6th July that the probate application had been submitted and then last week we were told that probate had been granted. We received the contract and transfer deed in the post to sign on Friday and are hopefully exchanging today and completing Monday. 🤞 So we signed contract after probate had been granted, but as everything else was done beforehand it's moved very quickly once that had been received!

I know the waiting is painful! Hopefully you won't be waiting too much longer for probate. 

Fingers crossed it all goes well today for u, can’t believe how fast your probate grant came through, ours was submitted 7 weeks ago but had confirmation they received it 5 weeks ago,so we now know it’s in the system just waiting 🤯 really hope it won’t be long as our mortgage offer runs out next month 

tanpopo

We have progressed on our purcase (vacant possession) this week and have signed, had witnessed and returned both the TR1 form (for Land Registry) and Mortgage Deed.

Still no communication from anyone though on our buyer (an investor, so no chain below). They have had the draft contract pack through, but I don't know if that is different from the actual contract? EA chased the buyer's solicitor last week but apparently got really shirty/angry with them on the phone for chasing, and said 'we have our own process to follow'. So, we are reluctant to chase any more as we don't want to make them more angry! I am assuming from this that no news is good news... (right?!)

goodwithsaving

Another day of panic and worry. Awaiting queries round 2. I'm not sure how much more of it I can handle (it hasn't been a straightforward time). Weight dropping from the stress of it all...

wishinghome

Cookie211 said:

Fingers crossed it all goes well today for u, can’t believe how fast your probate grant came through, ours was submitted 7 weeks ago but had confirmation they received it 5 weeks ago,so we now know it’s in the system just waiting 🤯 really hope it won’t be long as our mortgage offer runs out next month 

Thank you! I know we were shocked how quickly probate was granted. We were told to expect it to take 10 weeks so had resigned ourselves to it being end of September before we completed but in the end it was less than 3 weeks from probate being submitted to granted. So relieved as we really wanted to be in by September as the children are having to move schools. 

Good luck, I really hope probate comes through quickly for you before your mortgage offer expires!