The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

Justonemorecupoftea

So we exchanged last week, completing this Friday and I just emailed my solicitor to confirm we've sent across the final balance to pay. And I got his out of office - it had details of his secretary and said other people are handling his cases, but I do feel a minor sense of anxiety...

What do solicitors do between exchange and completion? 

mooncake89

Feeling a bit fed up.

Was really hoping to exchange and possibly complete too this week (empty property and we've been led to believe that everything is ready to go, so should have been possible) but our solicitor has disappeared on annual leave without giving us any notice or information about whether the process can continue in his absence.

I've been trying to contact his secretary to see if it's possible for someone else to request funds from the lender and keep things moving along but haven't been successful so far. Our solicitor asked us on late Friday afternoon what completion date we wanted to set (cue much excitement!), but I received an out of office automated response about him now being away for 10 days when I replied.

Have to sort out continuing our storage unit lease if it's going to take longer than another week to be moving in, which we don't really want to fork out for, but is looking likely 

goodwithsaving

E_D_FTB said:

Fingers crossed this will settle your buyer down and things can actually get moving!

I hope so. Thank you for the virtual support x

Monsternextdoor

goodwithsaving said:

Today is the day where the excessive number of tradesmen all come and give my buyer quotes for the ridiculous list of non-issues. Will my fury reduce after today (I have been on the ceiling all weekend), will my EA be able to rebuff all attempts to negotiate, will I ever move........
............time will tell.

Tea, tea and tea with a dash of whisky.

I am having removal quotes done atm as we are doing a long distance move .... 200 miles  

Answers on a postcard ? 

mat1964

The buyers solicitor totally ignored my GF's deadline of Friday for exchange.  Not even an update- not a word.  

So she's withdrawn acceptance of the offer and will start again with a new EA.  Total waste of 5 months and we should have pulled the plug much earlier.

I am glad I got a mortgage as an insurance policy for this happening, so my sale and our new build purchase will complete as planned next month.  We will have less money to spend until she sells and we will have to pay an early redemption fee and additional stamp duty, but at least we will have the house we wanted.

I think the moral here is that buyers from overseas should use a solicitor and mortgage broker experienced in the UK market.  This was not the case here and its been a nightmare.

E_D_FTB

mat1964 said:

The buyers solicitor totally ignored my GF's deadline of Friday for exchange.  Not even an update- not a word.  

So she's withdrawn acceptance of the offer and will start again with a new EA.  Total waste of 5 months and we should have pulled the plug much earlier.

I am glad I got a mortgage as an insurance policy for this happening, so my sale and our new build purchase will complete as planned next month.  We will have less money to spend until she sells and we will have to pay an early redemption fee and additional stamp duty, but at least we will have the house we wanted.

I think the moral here is that buyers from overseas should use a solicitor and mortgage broker experienced in the UK market.  This was not the case here and its been a nightmare.

Sorry it's fallen through in the end - but fingers crossed the new EA will find a far more sensible buyer with a better solicitor. And like you say, you're still able to go into your new home, which is the most important thing.

HopeAndDriftWood

mat1964 said:

The buyers solicitor totally ignored my GF's deadline of Friday for exchange.  Not even an update- not a word.  

So she's withdrawn acceptance of the offer and will start again with a new EA.  Total waste of 5 months and we should have pulled the plug much earlier.

I am glad I got a mortgage as an insurance policy for this happening, so my sale and our new build purchase will complete as planned next month.  We will have less money to spend until she sells and we will have to pay an early redemption fee and additional stamp duty, but at least we will have the house we wanted.

I think the moral here is that buyers from overseas should use a solicitor and mortgage broker experienced in the UK market.  This was not the case here and its been a nightmare.

Eurgh, I'm sorry it's fallen apart. I hope the new EA can find a much better buyer! 

I'm sitting on my hands not to chase anyone today. I'm so frustrated that our buyer did nothing for 4 weeks... Apparantly it's all happening this week, but they're choosing to do everything one step at a time, so they're getting a house that they're remortgaging valued this week, then putting in a mortgage offer, then instructing their solicitor... and meanwhile, our sale documents sit with the solicitor, who won't look at them until they've been officially paid and instructed. 

Our purchase seems to be moving at a snails pace too, we purchased the searches from a previous buyer last week and the last I heard, our solicitor was taking our pack home to look at this weekend... I hope that's happened 😬

21 weeks pregnant now, and the chain above us is keen to get going this month, as am I. I so want to be in! 

birdmadgirl8

@mat1964 Sorry to hear that, but good that you've taken control of the situation (at least for now). It's easy to say you should have made the decision earlier, but this process is so hard to predict (given that the simplest transactions can take ages to complete). Good luck with the remarketing! 

catclaires

@goodwithsaving, I really feel for you - you've been so patient and accommodating! I really hope this is the end of the ridiculous queries and that you can get the EA to be firm with the buyers now!

We were meant to be completing a week tomorrow - but our sellers have just requested two days later instead - which would be fine, except the removal company we'd pencilled in has no more availability for the rest of August - argh. It's going to be difficult to find another company at this short notice - and we'd also booked them to pack the day before, so we've done zero packing ourselves we've pleaded with the sellers to stick with the original date if they possibly can (they are retired, have already moved out and had removed quite a lot of their furniture when we had a second viewing a few weeks ago, so I'm hoping they can be flexible) - please cross your fingers for me!!

birdmadgirl8

@catclaires 🤞 Really hope they listen to your concerns and can be flexible. I have have similar concerns, as we have a big move in terms of stuff (way too much) and distance. Good luck!