The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

birdmadgirl8

MrsBrush said:

Does anyone else feel totally frazzled, stressed out and exhausted from this process?

Yes! We also failed to exchange on second attempt today. Missing paperwork and awol solicitor on buyers' end. Really hope it's third time lucky for both of us! 

birdmadgirl8

Welcome @Pineapple2 - it's an endlessly frustrating process, but at least you can share on here.

Good luck with the chasing @esubbs

TheScone

birdmadgirl8 said:

TheScone said:

Got our searches report today so that’s all bottomed off - also got responses for our enquiries, but I’m not sure if our sol has gone back with a further request for an indemnity policy from one of their replies. It’s because there is an alleyway that allows access the back of the house but it isn’t part of the land, I’m really not fussed about getting a policy for it because it only leads alongside the house and behind next door on the other side, so it doesn’t get used by the public as there is nothing back there - yes it leads to a side gate to the back garden but if for some random reason this got blocked off it wouldn’t really matter - I’m not sure how much we’ll be using it anyway, we can just access the garden through the house. Not sure how they can get an indemnity policy for it, but I’m just going along with it. 

We look to be ready to exchange in the next week or so if that enquiry gets sorted, but if we want to put in our notice at our rental it needs to be this Friday… I know it’s a big no-no on here but I’m seriously considering just putting the notice in anyway. We have no chain either side, we are FTB buying a vacant house as the seller has moved in with a partner. They’ve also had all new carpets, internal doors, painted and got new tiling and an oven in the kitchen so I can’t see a situation where they will pull out - they have obviously put some money into a bit of renovation to sell and the house is empty of furniture etc. 

If the worst did happen, we could move in with family and put our furniture in storage, lick our wounds, save some more money and start again. There isn’t a situation where we would become homeless so I suppose it’s just weighing the risk of having to move in with family to start again against the likelihood of that happening… 

Sounds like it's worth the risk, as you've got a back up plan. As for the indemnity. If it's not an issue for reselling in future, or with lenders, could you say you're not bothered and ask sol to leave it? That might speed things up a bit.

That’s what I’m thinking - it would of course be annoying to move in with family in the worse case scenario and have to start again, but losing a whole months rent by a couple of days when the risks seem reasonably low would be quite the blow! We could afford to pay it but I’d much rather be putting that money towards decorating haha!

I think I will do that if we can, I emailed the solicitor this evening asking if they had already raised the new enquiry or not so I’m going to call tomorrow and see if we can skip it and consider them satisfied. Wish me luck!

Referring to your previous reply to me too - we’ve signed everything else ready to go, we’re just waiting on this final enquiry and then request funds etc. to exchange. It is the requesting the funds that the sol said will make exchange not possible this week. I’m thinking if they do get requested this week we should pretty confidently be exchanging next week… hence me wanting to risk putting in our notice! 

Moneybear

birdmadgirl8 said:

Moneybear

And secondly
"Please note that the Flood Search reveals that a moderate to high risk of surface water (pluvial) flooding has

been identified in the area where the property is located."  I have no idea what this means in reality. I assume they will have to tell the lender so they might not want to lend. The vendor has said they aren't aware of any flooding. Home insurance seems to be a reasonable cost for B+C so I feel dumb not understanding the impact. 

@Moneybear I think you've had advice on rail issues, so I'll tackle standing water. We had this raised and SW often comes up in searches. We checked it out and there's no issue in the area, so told our solicitor it's not a concern. That was the end of it. As I understand it, it's rare for lenders to be concerned about standing water, so I wouldn't worry ( not that I'm an expert).

Thank you. I really appreciate your response. I tried googling "floods" in my new area and can't see anything alarming. 

MrsBrush

@birdmadgirl8 thank you for your support, its awful isn't it. Our solicitors are brilliant, but our buyers and our seller's conveyancers are both shockingly bad.

Apparently on Friday (attempt 1) the FTBs at the bottom of the chain hadn't got cleared funds to their solicitor in time, yesterday (2nd attempt) our buyer's solicitor had lost some paperwork in the morning, found it again and then it turns out that our seller's conveyancer hadn't agreed to complete on the 12th (even though the vendor had given them what for again last week for not acting on instructions!). So day is the third and final attempt to complete next Tuesday.

My solicitor has advised that if we don't exchange today, which is now looking increasingly unlikely, then back to the drawing board for dates because there needs to be 5 days between exchange and completion for the lenders to release the mortgage funds for us and the buyers at the bottom of the chain. So yesterday's panic to get removals rearranged may have all been in vein, and it now looks as though we are still no further forward. 

It is no wonder things go pear-shaped right at the end, just before exchange. I am desperate to get moved, and even I was wondering last night if the stress is worth it! I know though that if I voiced this, my husband would happily stay here and I would be stuck in this vortex forever.

I know there isn't any comeback on any of these bloody cheap as chips conveyancing companies, but there really should be, to stop this type of inconsiderate and unnecessary stress and delay.

Second rant of the week over!

TheScone

MrsBrush said:

@birdmadgirl8 thank you for your support, its awful isn't it. Our solicitors are brilliant, but our buyers and our seller's conveyancers are both shockingly bad.

Apparently on Friday (attempt 1) the FTBs at the bottom of the chain hadn't got cleared funds to their solicitor in time, yesterday (2nd attempt) our buyer's solicitor had lost some paperwork in the morning, found it again and then it turns out that our seller's conveyancer hadn't agreed to complete on the 12th (even though the vendor had given them what for again last week for not acting on instructions!). So day is the third and final attempt to complete next Tuesday.

My solicitor has advised that if we don't exchange today, which is now looking increasingly unlikely, then back to the drawing board for dates because there needs to be 5 days between exchange and completion for the lenders to release the mortgage funds for us and the buyers at the bottom of the chain. So yesterday's panic to get removals rearranged may have all been in vein, and it now looks as though we are still no further forward. 

It is no wonder things go pear-shaped right at the end, just before exchange. I am desperate to get moved, and even I was wondering last night if the stress is worth it! I know though that if I voiced this, my husband would happily stay here and I would be stuck in this vortex forever.

I know there isn't any comeback on any of these bloody cheap as chips conveyancing companies, but there really should be, to stop this type of inconsiderate and unnecessary stress and delay.

Second rant of the week over!

This sounds so stressful! How frustrating that you're up to attempt number three. Crossing my fingers for you today that it all happens in time. The thing I keep reminding myself at this point is even if I miss the date I want by a couple of days, this time next month it should all be over and I'll be kicking back in my new house.

birdmadgirl8

Moneybear said:

Thank you. I really appreciate your response. I tried googling "floods" in my new area and can't see anything alarming. 

Good news! In that case, I would just advise your solicitor that you don't need them to take it any further. 

birdmadgirl8

@MrsBrush Our situation continues to be very similar as far as exchange goes. We're on day 3 and also waiting (again) for buyers  to get their act together. It seems that their solicitor finally has paperwork they need from lender...but it needs to be signed 🤯 Did they tell buyers this? No! Can anyone contact buyer so far today? No! So, another day slips away, while the rest the chain looks on anxiously.

The advantage we have is a bigger gap between exchange (if it ever happens) and completion, so we don't have the same problem as you with drawing down funds. 

Really hope you get there today. Don't know about you, but I jump every time the phone rings, or am email drops in! 

birdmadgirl8

TheScone said:I think I will do that if we can, I emailed the solicitor this evening asking if they had already raised the new enquiry or not so I’m going to call tomorrow and see if we can skip it and consider them satisfied. Wish me luck!

Referring to your previous reply to me too - we’ve signed everything else ready to go, we’re just waiting on this final enquiry and then request funds etc. to exchange. It is the requesting the funds that the sol said will make exchange not possible this week. I’m thinking if they do get requested this week we should pretty confidently be exchanging next week… hence me wanting to risk putting in our notice! 

🍀Wishing you luck! I hope you get through exchange more efficiently than us. Sounds like everything is well prepared. 

nrowlands95

Hey everyone, 

We had an offer accepted on a house 10 weeks ago now, we've received our mortgage offer and had both our searches and building survey returned but we're still waiting for the full contract pack from the vendors solicitor (it was requested 9 weeks ago) before our solicitor can raise any queries. The house has been empty for nearly a month now and as it has a bit of work to be done, we're really keen to exchange and complete asap before everyone down tools for Christmas. 

The EA advised us two weeks ago that the solicitor has been busy with end of stamp duty holiday but we've not heard anything since and beginning to get frustrated with how slow they are being. I don't want to bombard them with chasers as I do genuinely understand it's been extremely busy but are we being unreasonable expecting to have the contracts by now? I don't want to make a fuss over it with the EA if everyone else is in a similar boat.

Any advice welcome, FTB!