The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

johnny182

At what point do we, as a chain, start talking about exchange and completion dates? The whole chain have had their contracts back, searches, surveys, mortgage deeds etc. As far as I know, we are only waiting for further enquiries to be replied. I asked my solicitors and they said we need to wait until our buyers are ready but they haven't provided with an indication of the date yet. Would it be a matter of asking our EAs to get some info from they buyer/their solicitors?

I spoke with our buyers and vendors (that's the whole chain) and everyone seems to want the completions to happen in January but it obviously depends on the solicitors.

badger09

johnny182 said:

At what point do we, as a chain, start talking about exchange and completion dates? The whole chain have had their contracts back, searches, surveys, mortgage deeds etc. As far as I know, we are only waiting for further enquiries to be replied. I asked my solicitors and they said we need to wait until our buyers are ready but they haven't provided with an indication of the date yet. Would it be a matter of asking our EAs to get some info from they buyer/their solicitors?

I spoke with our buyers and vendors (that's the whole chain) and everyone seems to want the completions to happen in January but it obviously depends on the solicitors.

Somebody in the chain has to kick start these discussions, so it might as well be you.

If you're in direct contact with all in your chain, I would pick a date, or couple of dates, which suit you and put those to them. Do you need a gap between exchange & completion? How long a gap? Does anyone else need one? Once you have an idea of dates convenient to all, you each tell your solicitors to work towards those dates.

Another way is to suggest your preferred dates to your EA and ask them to get agreement from all in the chain. 

T4taylor

@johnny182 I kept asking for a date also and my solicitor refused to commit to anything while enquiries were outstanding. I just kept pushing because of mortgage expiration date and came up with Thursday Friday of 1 week or Thursday Friday of the following and basically got the estate agents to pass that down the chain. Then one person couldn’t do Fridays and another person couldn’t do the first week so the date kind of set it’s self!

However my solicitor couldn’t get confirmation from the top of the chain regarding the date so we can’t exchange. The date set is now in 3 days time and it looks like a simultaneous exchange and completion maybe on the cards, despite me nagging everyday for a fortnight. 

Ah the joys of a 5 house chain!

Weirdly we received a text from our mortgage provider 8am this Sunday morning saying the funds are being transferred on Tuesday so fingers crossed all the solicitors communicate and we can actually move on the date set!

rose_T

8 days until we complete. This will be the second time round am so scared of something else going wrong! 

Any one else due to complete around the 13th? 

I am assuming the solicitors will need to request the funds from Halifax tomorrow as it takes 3-5 days to transfer to have the funds before weekend? 

As I said in previous posts we have been waiting since July 2020 for this house and where due to complete end of July this year but it came to light there was a mortgage registered against the title. No money was due it was never discharged. But the bank agreed to discharge it. 

I think with all the ups and downs and it’s been so long it’s taken the excitement out of it now. The house still feels right so I know its still the right property but if we do complete Monday it will be like, oh well that’s over! 

esubbs

An update from me, we finally exchanged on Friday with completion set as 21st. The buyer's solicitor contacted mine at 9:15 with a simple "we want to exchange now" after months and months of radio silence.
So our selling timeline is something like this:

March 19th on the market

June 11th accepted offer from a FTB

July 20th FTB pulls out on exchange day

July 26th get four offers out of five viewings

July 27th accept offer from a chain that is "all ready to exchange"
July 28th update fixtures and fitting forms to reflect new agreed offer

July 29th contract pack sent to new buyer's solicitor

August 4th two enquiries answered

August 18th another enquiry answered

September 2nd survey conducted

Then constant chasing for exchange with no or contradictory responses until

October 21st our buyer drops their buyer for constant lies and messing us all about and finds a new FTB within 24hrs
November 8th EA tells us mortgage is agreed on buyer's sale

November 15th EA tells us searches etc sorted and they're signing contracts etc with a view to exchange soon, I relay this to my solicitor who hasn't heard anything from the buyer's solicitor since September 
November 26th my solicitor still hasn't heard from anyone, I chase EA

December 2nd my solicitor still hasn't heard from anyone, chase the EA to remind that if the buyer wants to complete before Christmas, 3rd is the deadline for exchange. EA says everyone else thinks exchange is happening today and everyone else has given their solicitor consent. My solicitor says we can't ask you for consent as we've still had no contact and no dates agreed for you to consent to.
December 3rd my solicitor rings and says she's finally heard from the buyer's solicitor and they want to exchange with completion on 21st. So I frantically call removals before giving consent. Also ask about the fixtures and fittings out buyer's have agreed to which their solicitor claims to know nothing about 🤦 Get called an hour later to confirm we've exchanged! Still can't really believe it!
December 21st completion set

So now we've just got to find a property to buy and start all this again from the other side 😁

charlotteo1988

Here we go for another week of stress 😂

so my buyers mortgage offer runs out on 16th jan so we realistically need to move by 14th jan. 

Any ideas on how we can get the top of the chain to move quicker? 

Thanks 

T4taylor

Ugh. I’ve just emailed everyone again and both my solicitor and Estate Agent of my vendor are on out of office today. Completion date is Wednesday! Mortgage offer expires Friday. 

@charlotteo1988 be prepared to make a nuisance of yourself is all I can suggest! 

charlotteo1988

T4taylor said:

Ugh. I’ve just emailed everyone again and both my solicitor and Estate Agent of my vendor are on out of office today. Completion date is Wednesday! Mortgage offer expires Friday. 

@charlotteo1988 be prepared to make a nuisance of yourself is all I can suggest! 

I feel like I already am 🙈 

I emailed my solicitor about 5 times last week to be told she was on annual leave all week when I then called the office. 

I also leave today as open day for someone to contact me then tomorrow I bombard everyone but as there isn’t many working weeks left until we really need to complete I will probably start the bombardment on Mondays. 

Good luck with your move I hope you complete in time. 

Otb21

Morning everyone! 

We're due to complete the end of this week on our purchase. Just as I was typing out that we have yet to receive anything to be signed, we've just been told the documents are on the way (for the third time...). Assuming next they will ask us to send money to them, it makes me really nervous how lastminute everything seems to be when we've had all of this time waiting. 

Keeping busy this week! 

justcat01

Good luck for this week everyone!

We have another week of hoping that our seller gets the answers to their enquiries. It's realistically the last week we can exchange before it will have to be next year due to our solicitors last completion being the 21st (technically we have until next week Tuesday to give enough time for us to drawn down the mortgage)

Fingers crossed for everyone!