The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

Laurelii

18/01/2022 Still heard nothing about an exchange date or completion. The EA and solicitors say 28/1 for completion which is in 10 days or 8 working days... as the days go by and I don't hear anything the more I feel we wont complete on the 28th.

Zetlandroad

MickeyFTB said:

Looking for some advice. 

Our mortgage is due to expire at the end of January - we may be able to get an extension but only if we have a completion date to extend too.

We’ve been pushing for completion since September with one person holding the chain up - we’ve had an update that they may be willing to set a date but it’s likely to be end of February.

If we exchange, what if the mortgage company doesn’t offer an extension? Will we lose our deposit if we can’t get another mortgage secured in time for the completion date?

Your conveyancer probably won't exchange on your behalf without a valid mortgage offer applicable for completion. Even if they did, it would be an enormous risk. You either need to complete before it expires, agree an extension with the lender to cover the likely completion, or obtain a new offer. It's worth communicating your funding position up the chain via the EA. I would not proceed to exchange under any circumstances without a valid mortgage offer for the contractual completion date. On the point of losses, failing to eventually complete would certainly result in loss of your exchange deposit, and you could get sued for further damages, although it might be limited to just the deposit in practice.

Zetlandroad

CBat said:

I'm a first time buyer waiting to complete on our purchase. We're in the process of agreeing a completion date, but there's been no discussion about exchanging contracts. Our solicitor said they'll send me a pack at the end of this week, but I don't know if this will be the contract (I've asked but they only respond to emails on Thursdays). What are other FTB experiences please? 

Unless the EA pushes, the solicitors probably won't open discussions about dates until the last party has been confirmed as ready to exchange - ie signed and returned their contract and cleared the deposit funds. It's really impossible to know how long it will be as it depends on where everyone else is in the chain, as well the proactivity and responsiveness of all other parties. A good EA is useful in these cases, to find out the status and put pressure on push things along, although even that may not speed things up in practice.

ccbrowning

So the seller’s solicitor is to get back to us today or tomorrow about the boundary issue on the plans. The initial site plan has a path near our house that says ‘Provisional path for accessibility to adjacent site’, but I can’t see it on any other plans and our developer says it’s not a problem. I can’t be alone in thinking that needs to be properly addressed by solicitors, though.

Unfortunately the earlier proposed 11th of Feb for completion is not doable unless we move ourselves. The joy of living in a smaller town with no local removals! Perhaps their is a nationwide chain that isn’t rubbish that is available on shorter notice, but the removal companies seem very busy lately.

Moneybear

Still no further update from me either. I am starting to get quite fed up with it all. We are waiting for further up the chain to be ready to exchange before we can discuss dates. 

sabsob

We are twiddling our thumbs, which is frustrating, because the one remaining query is, theoretically, really easy to resolve........we are at the point where we have insurance quotes for the place, so we are ready to exchange, but our mortgage offer is only good for another three weeks or so....

jst1986

jst1986 said:

Starting to add my dates etc:

End August - DIP, viewings started
20/10/21 - viewing of something I finally liked!
21/10/21 - Offered the asking price, offered accepted same day, house off the market 
22/10/21 - mortgage application made
27/10/21 - mortgage valuation completed, slightly down valued so mortgage had to be amended.
15/11/21 - mortgage offered
19/11/21 - all searches returned
24/11/21 - Homebuyers survey completed, no major issues.

Nothing much has happened since! The sellers were initially looking to complete in March but at the end of November said they'd be able to move end of January. At what point do I start pushing solicitors etc to get a firmer date agreed? I have nothing to sell and my sellers are moving to rented so there is no chain there either. 

Finally had all the queries answered so now time to start signing paperwork and formalising a completion date! Fingers crossed! 

HTB_newbie

Hello 👋 

we are a short chain our buyers - us- our vendor. We got our offer accepted late October and look about set to exchange this week (hopefully today) and complete next Friday.

Thought it would be helpful to share positive news about redemption with Target HCA as this has been the source of my worry in the process and I was expecting this to be arduous from what I had read.

We got a RICS valuation as soon as offer was accepted on our purchase. Valuation report was on 29 October and we submitted by email to Target and transferred our fee. After a few working days I called them to see that they had all they need and they approved and sent the redemption pack to our solicitors whilst on a call.

Our solicitor sent the undertaking to get authority to complete on 28th January to Target on the 12th January and I was asked by our solicitor to contact Target today to chase authority to complete as other parties are keen to exchange. They had already sent it by post on the 14th but sent a password protected email copy of it to our solicitor and us whilst on the phone today so that we did not need to await the postal copy. So each time I’ve contacted them they have processed things immediately where they are able to do so. Our house had gone up in value so this may have helped. Just wanted to reassure others who have help to buy in the chain that this can be straightforward sometimes!

Mahsroh

Hi everyone, just thought I'd pop on here to document our journey and let you all know that there can be light at the end of the tunnel even though it feels like it's never going to happen. I always planned to join this thread as it was happening but things got me down so bad I ended up avoiding this forum entirely for several months. 

We we living in rented and I was selling my old house (which I used to live in and then rented it out after relocating). So we had a "one way" chain at the bottom end (we were relying on our sale to complete the purchase but could sell at any point irrespective of progress on our purchase. Here's the chain of events:

17/03 House goes on the market
26/03 Offer Accepted
27/03 Onwards - commence house viewings
12/04 Buyer pulls out of the purchase (found something else to offer on instead)
13/04 View house we want to put offer on
20/04 House sold before we're proceedable 
23/04 2nd offer accepted, house viewing recommence
28/04 2nd buyer pulls out!! (Cold feet)
01/05 FIND OUR DREAM HOME (Again, not proceedable)
06/05 3rd offer accepted, have offer accepted on dream home
21/05 Mortgage offer received 
28/05 3rd (THIRD) buyer pulls out!!! (Personal reasons, apparently) 
17/06 Vendors find their onward purchase (end of upward chain) and immediately remarket their property after learning our buyer had pulled out. 
08/07 4th offer accepted, dream home taken back off the market and conveyancing process recommences
14/09 Chase buyer for update to be told that a homebuyers survey had been done and has raised issues. Buyer wants to obtain quote for remedial works before agreeing new price and proceeding. 
14/09 onwards. WEEKS of chasing the buyer, trying to get our own quotes for the work, remarketing the house when the buyer went quiet etc. 
07/11 Eventually agree new price with buyer
15/11 Mortgage offer extended
25/11 Exchange
26/11 Completion 

It was probably the most stressful 8-9 months of my life! But for those going through all this now, there is light at the end of the tunnel. On 1st November I was resigned to the fact that it wasn't going to happen and both the sale and purchase would fall through. By the end of that month we were in our new home. 

khtaylor

Hi 👋 

Our timeliness is

23/12 offer accepted
10/1 - full mortgage app submitted
17/1 - mortgage offered

Now my question is how long does it take for solicitor to do their side of the work? 
There is no chain but solicitor hasn't moved anything forward until she receives mortgage offer in the post.