The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

Boredfatman

Its been a stressful anxious week. 

Our small chain has always had the understanding that the lady at the top would move out to allow the rest of us to move whilst she waits for her new build to be ready.
We were all encouraged to exchange early this week, but yes, you guessed it, she has now said that she cannot exchange until around the 14th of August.
All of us in the chain are furious that she appears to have gone back on her word, and we are so anxious because at the bottom of the chain we cannot do anything about it, and we have to be out of our current rental by September. 
Does anyone have any advice?
We have had constant communication with the people selling to us and they are just as frustrated. 
Why cant people honour their word?!

LovelyLeeds

Boredfatman said:

Its been a stressful anxious week. 


Why cant people honour their word?!

Sign of the times.  It could be worse  - hang on in there - sounds like it will happen.

My house selling/apartment buying saga has been going on since March.  Awaiting searches, then hopefully the draft contracts will be issued.  Only 3 of us in the chain, it must be a complete nightmare for long chains.  I am never moving again after this.

cheeky-peach

Hi all,

Does anyone know if I can raise a complaint re: searches? The LA web-site says 3 weeks and 7 weeks later we are still waiting... Our solicitor has chased it up with the search provider who is 'chasing' the LA. Our sol has said it is only the LA searches outstanding, everything else is in hand. 

To make matters more 'sigh', our buyers search results came back today when they had an estimated date of 12th Aug. 

climbthatwallseegar

Well it’s been a month since my offer on a house was accepted and the vendor still hasn’t found an onward purchase, won’t consider renting and has instructed his solicitor not to issue the contract pack yet so we’ve made zero progress. I don’t think this sale is going to happen so it’s back to the drawing board. Sigh. 

My EA is useless. I’ve been dealing with a trainee who seems a bit clueless and is only in the office 1 day a week. So disheartening as I made my offer on the understanding that the vendor had found a house but it apparently ‘fell through’. 

We are now stuck in a rental that I naively thought we’d only be in for a few months. 

Boredfatman

LovelyLeeds said:  I am never moving again after this.

Ditto!!!!!

richardwilson1984

cheeky-peach said:

Hi all,

Does anyone know if I can raise a complaint re: searches? The LA web-site says 3 weeks and 7 weeks later we are still waiting... Our solicitor has chased it up with the search provider who is 'chasing' the LA. Our sol has said it is only the LA searches outstanding, everything else is in hand. 

To make matters more 'sigh', our buyers search results came back today when they had an estimated date of 12th Aug. 

Have you tried contacting the LA directly and asking where they are at? I contacted South Cambs and they gave me a date of when my solicitor could expect them by etc.

do a Google search on the local council and their searches, and hopefully they have a page on their website with contact details for you.

Tiddleshalifax

I agree with contacting the LA. When I spoke to them, they’d not had the request so it was enough for our EA to kick off - soon got the request sorted and turned around in 1 day!

birdmadgirl8

@cheeky-peach Yes, as others say it can be a good idea to check with LA. Hold up might not be their fault. Some solicitors use a third party to collect searches, which can slow down the process. It can mean searches weren't requested when you thought & that there's another layer of processing when they do come in. Other thing to remember is that the due date given is only an estimate, so LA can't really be held to it. Ours did come back on time (first purchase that fell  through), but I had to prod Sol to check. Sure enough they were there when she looked. Good luck!

birdmadgirl8

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 

Depends how organised your Sol is. Last time round we had our contract signed and ready in advance of last couple of enquiries being resolved. Given that we'll have a probate wait too, I'll be requesting all the contract paperwork to sign (once we've dealt with searches, etc) in advance so that we can jump as soon as probate's approved. Our buyers have already signed contract as we were ready to exchange when last chain collapsed (our first purchase fell through).

birdmadgirl8

Cookie211 said:

wishinghome said:

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 

@wishinghome @Cookie211Really interesting to read about your probate experiences. Wish we had more info about state of ours (at top of our chain). Fingers crossed our brilliant agent can find out more when he's back from leave next week (the onward agents are a bit useless and seem unable to find out anything). All we know is that probate's on a private sale, so will depend on efficiency of executer and their solicitor.