The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

TripleH

@metalloz I can sympathise, we had 2 property purchases collapse on us in 8 months last year. 1 had gotten to arguing over the contracts and issues with them, the other we found the seller was lying to us from the start and nor prepared to put in any effort in selling (our queries viewed as an inconvenience).

We reached the point when we were prepared to pack it all in and move to another city / town to live as we felt we had hit rock bottom.

We gave it one last chance as an almost what ticks the most boxes, right go for that. We'll stick it out for 5 years. We got lucky, we have a nice house in a nice enough area near lots of nice open countryside.

No41edwardianhouse

metalloz said:

The estate agent called today to give an update on why we didn't exchange as expected on Friday. Originally we were told it was just some pending documentation for the last person in the chain to organise for probate (chain is me, my vendor and the final person in the chain). Today I've been told the last person in the chain now wants to complete in May even though the property he is selling has tenants who apparently found somewhere else to live - I feel like he is lying about something and don't even understand why it's a chain transaction.

My vendor said they will pull out if we can't complete in April.

Devastated - my mortgage offer will expire soon and I won't have time to find another property. This will be the second property purchase to fall through.

I know I should let it get to me but I couldn't help but cry after the call. I've been searching for a year now and missed out on a lot of bidding wars. I don't think I can go through all this again. So much money has been wasted.

Are you actually our buyers?!? 🤣🤣 been a bit worried to post on the forum as I’ve experienced some unfriendly behaviour.

However, the above scenario is so similar to ours. Our buyer and us are ready to exchange.
our seller isn’t far off albeit after moving goal posts. Our sellers seller apparently started searches nearly two weeks ago and the end property are now saying they’ll break the chain (heard that one before 🥴). So, goodness knows where we are…we said mid April for completion or we’d have to reconsider - we’ve reconsidered and are sticking with it but if it goes beyond May everything will get a bit crunchy. 

MINNIEMOMO

Our buyer has paid deposit and signed the contract for the sale today, our vendor has signed the contract, we are just waiting for the contract to come through today to sign and should be exchanging in the next two days.

I had a full blown panic attack last night because on the form for our purchase I filled in months ago, it asked what deposit we would have on exchange and I accidentally put down our full deposit (which is tied up in equity) but my boyfriend called the solicitor this morning and she figured out that we would be using our buyer’s deposit for the exchange. Phew. I really thought I messed it all up.

MINNIEMOMO

SophMa1 said:

MINNIEMOMO said:

Completion date has been set for next Friday as enquiries are now all finished, so now we are waiting to receive and sign the contract for the purchase which is due today or tomorrow. On our sale, we have signed the contract but waiting for our buyer to sign/pay deposit in the next few days.

I'm just sitting around waiting to get things done and I'm so nervous. The solicitor said it takes about a week to draw down mortgage funds so as long as we exchange by the end of the week I guess completion will happen? We are in a small chain of three.

how long did your enquiries take if you dont mind me asking? 
We are at this stage now, i am itching to get some dates set. 

We have no chain either side so pretty much good to go asap 

Hi! The searches on our purchase took about 2 weeks to come through and the enquiries took about 2 weeks, which seems fairly normal. I know for some people it can take longer, depends on the search results.

Our sale took longer, with searches taking 4-5 weeks as our local authority is very slow, but the enquiries were dealt with in a week and there were no enquiries from our local authority search at all which was lucky. Hope that helps!

harz99

MINNIEMOMO said:

SophMa1 said:

MINNIEMOMO said:

Completion date has been set for next Friday as enquiries are now all finished, so now we are waiting to receive and sign the contract for the purchase which is due today or tomorrow. On our sale, we have signed the contract but waiting for our buyer to sign/pay deposit in the next few days.

I'm just sitting around waiting to get things done and I'm so nervous. The solicitor said it takes about a week to draw down mortgage funds so as long as we exchange by the end of the week I guess completion will happen? We are in a small chain of three.

how long did your enquiries take if you dont mind me asking? 
We are at this stage now, i am itching to get some dates set. 

We have no chain either side so pretty much good to go asap 

Hi! The searches on our purchase took about 2 weeks to come through and the enquiries took about 2 weeks, which seems fairly normal. I know for some people it can take longer, depends on the search results.

Our sale took longer, with searches taking 4-5 weeks as our local authority is very slow, but the enquiries were dealt with in a week and there were no enquiries from our local authority search at all which was lucky. Hope that helps!

Your extremely lucky, should you live in County Durham you would be "blessed" with a County Council that is taking 8-10 weeks minimum to turn around the LA search, simply because the staff involved are still (!) working from home!! 

Snookie12cat

Whole sale literally falling to pieces now because the the sellers solicitor doesn't reply or when she does she talks to mine like she's updated her on what's happening when she hasn't. 

Doesn't answer basic questions and tells my solicitor to order the money even though she won't confirm if she will have all the required docs for Friday...
How can someone be this bad. They are literally messing up completion and exchange by their incompetence.

Twins

Hello all!   Little update from me and just want to get some views on the email I got from the EA and if this timescale was realistic.

So our seller has received the sales memo and EPC from their sellers solicitor.  Within that they are proposing an exchange date of 6th May.   I ideally wanted to push for end of April as our mortgage offer runs out on 12th May so would like an exchange end of April not early May.   

Do you think these timescales are realistic?   I do understand that is all depends on searches and responses to queries....but IF everything went to plan could we achieve an end of April exchange?

Also, how long after exchange does completion happen? I'm such a novice to this so would appreciate any *kind* comments as I have seen some aggressive comments being made to people assuming they should just know these things!!  

Please be kind people, it doesn't take much and if you can't be kind please just butt out!

Anyway, good luck to ALL those in the exchange process 

[Deleted User]

It depends on so many things it would be impossible to gauge.  It's how quickly everyone replies to enquiries & how in depth they are.

Completion can happen on the day of exchange or a few weeks later 

Amongst all this searches need to be applied for and surveys if they are being conducted 

Possible in your time line but probably unlikely 

Slithery

Twins said:

Also, how long after exchange does completion happen?

It happens on the date that everyone has agreed to before exchanging as it's written into the contract.

It could be the same day or it could be months depending on what all the parties decide.

harz99

@Twins, it used to be that legal completion was 28 days after exchange, that has now changed over time and can, If all the ducks are in a row as they say, be achieved on the same day or the next day!

 Personally I am not in favour of doing so, I think a minimum of 7 days between the two events is far more sensible.

In any case though you should be asking your solicitor what they think, as they are best placed to know your circumstances and advise you.