The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

Zerforax

Antics said:

Zerforax said:

Full mortgage application has gone in now. Broker doesn't expect the bank to do a proper valuation so I might have to find someone else to do the home buyers survey.. any thoughts on timing? Our broker said better to do later down the line as the bank basic valuation should pick up any major issues so no point in wasting money?

Are sure your broker doesn't mean a desktop valuation? I.e. they don't actually visit the property, but confirm value from desk. 

If so, you can arrange your survey via a seperate company. 

Yes the bank did a desktop valuation and as I understand it, the mortgage has been underwritten so we should have the written mortgage offer next week.

We told the estate agent that we would do a separate survey. They've sent us details of a valuer but I'm not sure about using them. The estate agent obviously works for the vendor (regardless how nice they are to you as a buyer) and while a surveyor should be independent, they wouldn't want to mess up a relationship with an estate agent if they are getting lots of referrals..? Or am I being too paranoid.

Antics

Zerforax said:

Antics said:

Zerforax said:

Full mortgage application has gone in now. Broker doesn't expect the bank to do a proper valuation so I might have to find someone else to do the home buyers survey.. any thoughts on timing? Our broker said better to do later down the line as the bank basic valuation should pick up any major issues so no point in wasting money?

Are sure your broker doesn't mean a desktop valuation? I.e. they don't actually visit the property, but confirm value from desk. 

If so, you can arrange your survey via a seperate company. 

Yes the bank did a desktop valuation and as I understand it, the mortgage has been underwritten so we should have the written mortgage offer next week.

We told the estate agent that we would do a separate survey. They've sent us details of a valuer but I'm not sure about using them. The estate agent obviously works for the vendor (regardless how nice they are to you as a buyer) and while a surveyor should be independent, they wouldn't want to mess up a relationship with an estate agent if they are getting lots of referrals..? Or am I being too paranoid.

You have no obligation to go with the estate agents recommendation, you could ask for a quote and compare to other companies. (do a search on Google). 

We went with CountryWide Surveyors and they were efficient, good value and the surveyor was helpful. 

Antics

Zerforax said:

Antics said:

Zerforax said:

Full mortgage application has gone in now. Broker doesn't expect the bank to do a proper valuation so I might have to find someone else to do the home buyers survey.. any thoughts on timing? Our broker said better to do later down the line as the bank basic valuation should pick up any major issues so no point in wasting money?

Are sure your broker doesn't mean a desktop valuation? I.e. they don't actually visit the property, but confirm value from desk. 

If so, you can arrange your survey via a seperate company. 

Yes the bank did a desktop valuation and as I understand it, the mortgage has been underwritten so we should have the written mortgage offer next week.

We told the estate agent that we would do a separate survey. They've sent us details of a valuer but I'm not sure about using them. The estate agent obviously works for the vendor (regardless how nice they are to you as a buyer) and while a surveyor should be independent, they wouldn't want to mess up a relationship with an estate agent if they are getting lots of referrals..? Or am I being too paranoid.

I doubt the company/surveyor the estate agent recommends would put their reputation at risk. You're probably overthinking IMO. 

Zerforax

Antics said:

You have no obligation to go with the estate agents recommendation, you could ask for a quote and compare to other companies. (do a search on Google). 

We went with CountryWide Surveyors and they were efficient, good value and the surveyor was helpful. 

Antics said:

I doubt the company/surveyor the estate agent recommends would put their reputation at risk. You're probably overthinking IMO. 

Yes the plan was to speak to them and at least get a quote so have a comparable.

Turns out we did use CountryWide Surveyors on our last property purchase so I will probably ask them for a quote too! Although I do see they have loads of bad reviews..

Haha I think you're right about overthinking it.

dancingqueenielink

doingitanyway said:

dancingqueenielink said:

doingitanyway said:

Sorry @t1redmonkey Your situation of an uncommitted vendor pulling out is my biggest fear! Hoping you find something better soon.

So I had an offer accepted 3 weeks ago but my vendor has yet to and a home for herself. I already feel impatient. However it is the house I  want so I  must be patient. I want to protect myself by looking at other properties too.  My goods have been in storage for over a year and I  am fed up after being both gazumped and then I have been outbid on 3 houses.

I will be posting here to keep my sanity.

Anyone else with an offer accepted but with a vendor who is yet to find a home?

We were gazumped and then outbid on two houses ourselves. When we finally had an offer accepted on the one we're going through with now we spoke directly to the vendors as they were doing their own viewings. They hadn't found anywhere to move to yet. They took less than two weeks to find something though so that was fortunate for us as we didn't want to lose our buyers further down the chain. Good luck I hope they find something soon!

Thanks @dancingqueenielink. Someone with the same back story of being outbid and gazumped! It is like the Wild West out there! Fingers crossed my vendor finds somewhere soon. What is your position now?

We are waiting on a date for exchange now.
I think all enquiries are back and answered sufficiently and one search from the bottom of the chain is still being waited on we've been told it should be back by Monday. 
So literally just waiting around I think for that and then we can set a date.

It really is like the wild west out there houses here are going on and being sold within 48 hours. And the area we wanted originally...well prices shot up way out of our budget. Gutted to say the least so we searched outside of that area for something more affordable.

h2g2

A little bit of an update from my post earlier this month.

The sparknotes version is that after accepting an offer in November 2021 and having one accepted a few days later, my first solicitors were awful and were actually closed by the SRA, ceasing trading at the end of January 2022. At that point I got new solicitors, but it wasn't until May 20th that I actually completed my sale. By this point the chain had collapsed, but I went through with the sale anyway due to other reasons (mainly so I could get on with moving to be near my parents).

You can read the full version here, if you want:  https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79243283/#Comment_79243283

I've been trying to work out how much I screwed out of things.

Firstly, we had applied a few weeks before that post for an extension to the mortgage, and I also started the ball rolling on getting a new mortgage offer in case that one expired. That way I would have two possible offers to compare, one with a short-ish time limit (45 days) but I would know exactly the difference in cost. If the new offer would cost me £20k more over the next five years (which was the fixed interest rate on the old offer) I would an absolute fool not to offer to play £5k or even £10k worth of costs to be sellers to complete in time to use the old offer.

Unfortunately the old offer was not extended, so it has expired. I do have a new one which is more expensive than the old one to the tune of around £100 per month, which is a pain but not as bad as I feared it could be.

I also tried to find out when the original chain actually collapsed. I know it was still in place at the end of February, and even sometime into March. Unfortunately the estate agent say they lost that information when they updated it with new chain information. I've asked if my solicitors know when that happened, but I asked them late on Friday so I don't expect them to have responded yet.

One thing I've found really surprising was just how long we were waiting for my buyer's solicitor to do anything - even though he must have known that we were really late and that the chain was in jeopardy.

A brief timeline:

February 14th: We ask if there are any outstanding inquiries.
February 25th: After being chased a few times he asks for the LPE1.
March 3rd: He asks for the EWS1 (despite having the information saying an EWS1 was not required, and the information saying the building didn't have one and wasn't going to apply for one) and a the share certificate in the management company.
March 11th: He asks for the Certificate of Compliance from the freeholders and also advises the buyer (who is a first-time buyer with no chain) to withdraw the deposit money from his ISA.

We provided the last item on March 28th (it took ages for the freeholder to sort it out, apparently). We then didn't hear anything until April 22nd when we heard he'd been on holiday. Then finally on May 6th he asks to discuss dates.

It feels like an awful waste of time. I find it hard to believe that, having been on the case since November 2021, it took him two weeks to work out what outstanding inquiries there were. And then he spent two weeks parcelling out more of them, saving the one that took longest to resolve until last. And then six weeks between receiving the final document he needs and being ready to discuss dates is just ludicrous.

Given that this has definitely cost me money (and would have definitely cost his client money too, had I decided to make them wait until my seller was ready) I want to see if I have any way to complain about the buyer's solicitor taking such an unreasonably long time. But given that I wasn't the client I doubt that I do, sadly. If anyone has any advice on that regard, I'd be most interested. (That should maybe be its own thread.)

AJ1666

Hopefully I can complete the exchange in a month or two.

12/03/2022 - Viewing
12/03/2022 - Offer made
17/03/2022 - Everyone who made an offer asked to give their best/final offer
17/03/2022 - Offer raised
19/03/2022 - Offer accepted
20/03/2022 - Solicitor instructed
20/03/2022 - Mortgage application started
08/04/2022 - Valuation in, everything looks good
14/04/2022 - Mortgage offer received
14/04/2022 - Told the property is leasehold not freehold (apparently no one not even the seller knew until then)
19/04/2022 - Told we will have to wait while seller buys freehold
27/04/2022 - searches received
08/06/2022 - Seller has cleared the freehold (did not expect it to be this quick)

Honestly when I was told they would have to buy the freehold I thought it would take 6 months+.
That I would have to reapply for a mortgage (offer expires in October) and suffer the increased interest rates.
Sadly I know I can't sleep easy until I have the keys in my hand.

AJ1666

h2g2 said:

A little bit of an update from my post earlier this month.

The sparknotes version is that after accepting an offer in November 2021 and having one accepted a few days later, my first solicitors were awful and were actually closed by the SRA, ceasing trading at the end of January 2022. At that point I got new solicitors, but it wasn't until May 20th that I actually completed my sale. By this point the chain had collapsed, but I went through with the sale anyway due to other reasons (mainly so I could get on with moving to be near my parents).

You can read the full version here, if you want:  https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79243283/#Comment_79243283

I've been trying to work out how much I screwed out of things.

Firstly, we had applied a few weeks before that post for an extension to the mortgage, and I also started the ball rolling on getting a new mortgage offer in case that one expired. That way I would have two possible offers to compare, one with a short-ish time limit (45 days) but I would know exactly the difference in cost. If the new offer would cost me £20k more over the next five years (which was the fixed interest rate on the old offer) I would an absolute fool not to offer to play £5k or even £10k worth of costs to be sellers to complete in time to use the old offer.

Unfortunately the old offer was not extended, so it has expired. I do have a new one which is more expensive than the old one to the tune of around £100 per month, which is a pain but not as bad as I feared it could be.

I also tried to find out when the original chain actually collapsed. I know it was still in place at the end of February, and even sometime into March. Unfortunately the estate agent say they lost that information when they updated it with new chain information. I've asked if my solicitors know when that happened, but I asked them late on Friday so I don't expect them to have responded yet.

One thing I've found really surprising was just how long we were waiting for my buyer's solicitor to do anything - even though he must have known that we were really late and that the chain was in jeopardy.

A brief timeline:

February 14th: We ask if there are any outstanding inquiries.
February 25th: After being chased a few times he asks for the LPE1.
March 3rd: He asks for the EWS1 (despite having the information saying an EWS1 was not required, and the information saying the building didn't have one and wasn't going to apply for one) and a the share certificate in the management company.
March 11th: He asks for the Certificate of Compliance from the freeholders and also advises the buyer (who is a first-time buyer with no chain) to withdraw the deposit money from his ISA.

We provided the last item on March 28th (it took ages for the freeholder to sort it out, apparently). We then didn't hear anything until April 22nd when we heard he'd been on holiday. Then finally on May 6th he asks to discuss dates.

It feels like an awful waste of time. I find it hard to believe that, having been on the case since November 2021, it took him two weeks to work out what outstanding inquiries there were. And then he spent two weeks parcelling out more of them, saving the one that took longest to resolve until last. And then six weeks between receiving the final document he needs and being ready to discuss dates is just ludicrous.

Given that this has definitely cost me money (and would have definitely cost his client money too, had I decided to make them wait until my seller was ready) I want to see if I have any way to complain about the buyer's solicitor taking such an unreasonably long time. But given that I wasn't the client I doubt that I do, sadly. If anyone has any advice on that regard, I'd be most interested. (That should maybe be its own thread.)

I'm in a different position, my solicitor is slow and incompetent. I'm not sure what can be done but leave a bad review after its all finished.

My sister bought a house recently and the difference between our solicitors is like night and day.

NotWhereIWantToBe

I  am anxiously waiting to exchange on a flat I had an offer accepted on on the 27th January this year.
There a few outstanding enquiries on it but the management company take their own sweet time to reply to anything (6 weeks for the management pack).
Being organised I am hoping to complete on 8th July so that I only have one month overlap on my rental property.
The wait is torturous ! 
I am always pleased to read someone has exchanged- that must be such a good feeling !

pipscat

I'm hoping we're close to exchange and completion now. The searches have just come back for our buyers and we've signed everything and all our searches were completed for the house we're buying.

Our buyer raised one query from the searches about the alleyway behind our house (access and who maintains etc), which we hope has now been answered. Fingers crossed we can agree a date in the next couple of weeks!