The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

Cookie211

House_owner said:

Interesting to read about people being able to contact and chase up their solicitor.
Right from the beginning of the process I have been told by my solicitor that I am not to contact them as they are too busy - as anyone else had this from their solicitor?

To be fair my solicitor has been brilliant every time I have emailed her she emails me bk with the hour, at the beginning I was ringing her and I was always able to speak to her. 

E_D_FTB

House_owner said:

Interesting to read about people being able to contact and chase up their solicitor.
Right from the beginning of the process I have been told by my solicitor that I am not to contact them as they are too busy - as anyone else had this from their solicitor?

Honestly, I would be pretty naffed off if my solicitor said this to me! You are paying for a service, you should be able to contact them for updates if you feel like they're not updating you. Fingers crossed they're good at every other part of the job, even if their customer service is shocking.

baileykxo

E_D_FTB said:

House_owner said:

Interesting to read about people being able to contact and chase up their solicitor.
Right from the beginning of the process I have been told by my solicitor that I am not to contact them as they are too busy - as anyone else had this from their solicitor?

Honestly, I would be pretty naffed off if my solicitor said this to me! You are paying for a service, you should be able to contact them for updates if you feel like they're not updating you. Fingers crossed they're good at every other part of the job, even if their customer service is shocking.

I have had very similar to this! And they now don’t answer my calls or my emails and like to make a joke that I call them that much we may as well be dating. Totally unprofessional and i cannot wait to never have to deal with them again!! 

E_D_FTB

baileykxo said:

E_D_FTB said:

House_owner said:

Interesting to read about people being able to contact and chase up their solicitor.
Right from the beginning of the process I have been told by my solicitor that I am not to contact them as they are too busy - as anyone else had this from their solicitor?

Honestly, I would be pretty naffed off if my solicitor said this to me! You are paying for a service, you should be able to contact them for updates if you feel like they're not updating you. Fingers crossed they're good at every other part of the job, even if their customer service is shocking.

I have had very similar to this! And they now don’t answer my calls or my emails and like to make a joke that I call them that much we may as well be dating. Totally unprofessional and i cannot wait to never have to deal with them again!! 

Oh wow, that is so unprofessional! Makes me feel a lot better about our solicitor. His replies aren't the best but at least they're replies! 

baileykxo

E_D_FTB said:

baileykxo said:

E_D_FTB said:

House_owner said:

Interesting to read about people being able to contact and chase up their solicitor.
Right from the beginning of the process I have been told by my solicitor that I am not to contact them as they are too busy - as anyone else had this from their solicitor?

Honestly, I would be pretty naffed off if my solicitor said this to me! You are paying for a service, you should be able to contact them for updates if you feel like they're not updating you. Fingers crossed they're good at every other part of the job, even if their customer service is shocking.

I have had very similar to this! And they now don’t answer my calls or my emails and like to make a joke that I call them that much we may as well be dating. Totally unprofessional and i cannot wait to never have to deal with them again!! 

Oh wow, that is so unprofessional! Makes me feel a lot better about our solicitor. His replies aren't the best but at least they're replies! 

Yeah we only managed to get a reply as my partner got very stern with them! They are so unprofessional and I will not recommend or use them again! We’re due to exchange this week for completion next but we haven’t heard anything from them but they ignore all emails etc asking for updates. 

E_D_FTB

baileykxo said:

E_D_FTB said:

baileykxo said:

E_D_FTB said:

House_owner said:

Interesting to read about people being able to contact and chase up their solicitor.
Right from the beginning of the process I have been told by my solicitor that I am not to contact them as they are too busy - as anyone else had this from their solicitor?

Honestly, I would be pretty naffed off if my solicitor said this to me! You are paying for a service, you should be able to contact them for updates if you feel like they're not updating you. Fingers crossed they're good at every other part of the job, even if their customer service is shocking.

I have had very similar to this! And they now don’t answer my calls or my emails and like to make a joke that I call them that much we may as well be dating. Totally unprofessional and i cannot wait to never have to deal with them again!! 

Oh wow, that is so unprofessional! Makes me feel a lot better about our solicitor. His replies aren't the best but at least they're replies! 

Yeah we only managed to get a reply as my partner got very stern with them! They are so unprofessional and I will not recommend or use them again! We’re due to exchange this week for completion next but we haven’t heard anything from them but they ignore all emails etc asking for updates. 

I just can't imagine what makes them think that's acceptable! You're paying them, they're not doing it for free! Gosh, fingers crossed you'll be on here today or tomorrow saying you've exchanged and you'll be free of them soon.

[Deleted User]

I contact my solicitor via email on a Wednesday and Friday generally to keep the file current

Rach273

Rach273 said:

Rach273 said:

Tentatively joining this thread, feels like progress is slowly being made. A little more complicated as we are selling two houses to buy one, and one of those was shared ownership, but here's the timeline so far;

• Property A (my house, 75% shared ownership) listed for sale with great timing on 09/03/2020.
• Straight into COVID-19 lockdown on 16th March, viewings suspended.
• 01/06/2020 viewings are allowed to recommence.
• 15/06/2020 accept offer for £1.5k under asking price, chain free buyer in rented.
• Get to September and still don't have draft queries from buyers solicitors, progression is very slow, and after lots of backwards and forwards with the agent, I go direct to the housing association. They have to be careful with what they tell me due to GDPR, but reading between the lines the buyer is in the process of divorce and still owns a share in another property. The housing association are unable to approve the application until this second property is sold. I pull out and sack the agent for not doing their due diligence.
• 15/09/2020 property is relisted with agent number two.
• 22/09/2020 COVID restrictions begin again, but this time we are still allowed to do viewings.
• 02/10/2020 I break my leg badly and have to move into Property B so my partner can care for me, this also means that we do not put his house on the market that week as planned. 
• 14/10/2020 offer accepted £2.5k under asking price.
• 06/01/2021 third national COVID lockdown
• 08/02/2021 exchanged contracts
• 12/02/2021 finally complete on Property A, enlist a lot of help from friends with moving as I'm still on crutches at this point. Put most of my furniture into storage. Decide we need a breather from the stress of property sales, but of course property prices then seem to sky rocket and all the houses we were interested in that have sat on the market for the last 6 months are snapped up.

• Property B (partners house, freehold) listed for sale on 22/03/2021.
• 15/04/2021 Two offers on the table, we went with investment buyers at £2.5k below asking as they were more flexible on timeframes, and not in a rush to be completed before the extended stamp duty deadline. The husband is a gas engineer by trade, and actually serviced our boiler last year so we let them have access for a morning with a builder and electrician to give the property a thorough once over in lieu of a survey.
• 22/04/21 Draft contracts sent.

• 05/05/2021 our offer is accepted for property C, with vendors moving to rented before emigrating later in the year. 
• 12/05/2021 Agreement in principle secured and full mortgage application submitted.
• 14/05/2021 Mortgage broker in contact to say Halifax have been unable to contact our vendor to arrange a valuation - first sign of trouble...
• 17/05/2021 Vendors pull out, as unable to find a rental. Estate agent keen to 'talk them round' so we leave offer on the table, explaining that we weren't expecting to meet the stamp duty deadline anyway, vendors agree to proceed the same day.
• 19/05/2021 Mortgage valuation
• 20/05/2021 Full Mortgage offer
• 28/05/2021 Vendors pull out of sale again. Back to square one, fortunately just the valuation fee down.

• 04/06/2021 after some negotiation on price, offer accepted on our second choice property, property D. Vendor has lived there 20 years, but now needs to care for her elderly father so is intending to move into his home, so a chain of two houses as before, but a bit more money on the mortgage than we would have liked.
• 06/06/2021 amended mortgage application submitted.
• 09/06/2021 Searched submitted - Local Authority advise 70 working day timeframe due to the increased demand in our area. Not sure if Halifax will accept an indemnity.
• 11/06/2021 mortgage offer issued with desktop valuation.
• 17/06/2021 Draft contracts received.
• 18/06/2021 Some to and fro as vendor trying to charge £1,000 for a bog standard garden shed in the fixtures and fittings forms. Politely told that we were not paying any extra, will wait and see if the shed is still there when we complete - I have a feeling it might disintegrate if she tries to move it!
• 29/06/2021 Had Level 2 survey done, as some concerns about the roof, but actually property is in pretty good nick, just some modernisation required as expected.
• Today 02/07/2021 received report on the property from our solicitors, only real area of concern is an old deed of 1937 granted before the house build was completed, giving mutual rights over part of the end garden which would allow both us and the neighbour to build a garage in our garden with a drive through the neighbours garden to a side street. The neighbours have since built a garage off their front drive, so our solicitor has requested the vendor formally ends this right and updates the land registry before we exchange.

Well done for making it this far, it's been quite the saga, I'm just hoping that we can complete before our buyers lose the will to live. We are also getting married in early September, so I can see us moving house in the same week at this rate.

Congratulations to everyone who has exchanged/completed over the past month. It feels like slow progress here, but progress none the less;

• 23/07/2021 Report on title received along with draft contracts to sign.
• 26/07/2021 signed draft contracts and forms returned to solicitors office, the local authority searches not due back until 21st September so solicitor approaching lender to see if they will accept an indemnity.
• 06/08/2021 Chased solicitors for an update - they sent letter to the lender on 4th August and were waiting for an update themselves
• 11/08/21 Solicitor emails to say lender has not received letter so they have emailed and we should have a decision tomorrow.

So fingers crossed our lender will accept the local searches indemnity and we can stat discussing dates. I'd love to complete before our wedding mid September.

Set back today, mortgage company is sending a valuer out next week - earliest date we could get was Friday. They only did a desktop valuation for the mortgage offer and have decided that they need to see the property before deciding if they will accept the indemnity against the old easement

[Deleted User]

Sorry to sound daft but what’s indemnity insurance 

clare19811

Cap066 said:

 The seller at the end of our small chain is buying a new build which is almost ready so they are giving a completion date of "to be confirmed" on the contract 
Some results of a Google search say a date must be on the contracts before exchanging.. How common is it to exchange without a completion date? 

Our sellers are also moving to a new build and we were asked to do exactly the same thing. We've refused. Their new build was due to complete in September but now we're aware of a two week delay. They've now agreed a set completion date in October so we don't end up in limbo if their house isn't ready when they expect it to be. Hoping to exchange in the next couple of weeks. I wouldn't do it if I was you, there's enough uncertainty as it is with this house buying lark without you being tied into completing at some random point in the future.