The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

Adam16

Another update from the estate agents this time...

Our vendors remaining enquiries aren't too lengthy... things like where is the stopcock / electrical meter (surely should be on the property information form?), gas safety cert, electrical safety cert, and some further info on the lease.

Hoping we can bottom it out for end of September still to meet our mortgage offer expiry date.

To be fair, the estate agent has been quite good getting it all chased today. So I'm a little more positive.

AnnaR_2

HWBY said:

Offer expires 7th October and still "waiting for the upward chain to resolve enquiries". I've told our vendor we need to complete by the 7th, her response is "we'll just have to tell our vendor that we'll have to relist". We've spent hundreds of pounds on things our solicitor misled us about, and wouldn't have spent had we known the full situation (they went from "you're ready to go" to "there's an outstanding enquiry that we missed, sorry"). Interest rates have doubled since our initial mortgage offer. We're currently spending £600 a month for my wife to commute an hour and a half each way for her new job near the house.

I've accepted it's not going to happen. But the money and time wasted makes me feel sick. Our solicitor sent a bill for over two grand yesterday, for a transaction that never happened. I just cried on our living room floor.

We're FTBs in a horrible rental, and I'm desperate to get out. We had plans to buy a home, go on a few holidays, then start trying for children. It's all been taken away from us by an incompetent solicitor that doesn't even represent us, so we have no recourse to complain.

It's not even about the house, I always felt that the house was just fine. It's the thousands of pounds gone up in smoke. Over the next five years a mortgage on an equivalent property will cost us £19,000 more. Add to that all the money we've already spent here, my wife's commuting costs, the expense with moving again and finding a new rental, we're down about £25,000. How can this be legal? How is it accepted? It's already so hard for FTBs to get on the ladder, and we're stung with a transaction that takes half a year to fail because a solicitor went AWOL.

I feel your pain, we are in a very similar position. If you haven’t already, I would strongly recommend contacting your mortgage company to request an extension. Ours was due to expire at the end of August (due to buyer’s conveyancer being horrifically slow) but NatWest agreed a month long extension. I was surprised as rates had more than doubled since we applied, but business is business I suppose.  It just involved a quick call and a 3-5 day wait for the response. I had the choice of a week or month extension. I think they said you have to be in the last month of your offer period in order to apply and that ‘It’s usually quite straightforward’.  Not sure how much of this applies to other lenders but I’m guessing they’re fairly similar.  I wish I’d known sooner as it would have avoided some of the massive daily stress through August. Sadly though we are in the same position again this month as the new expiry date looms, though thankfully we’re a bit closer (I hope) to exchanging now.

i hope this helps someone.

Giggidy

AnnaR_2 said:

HWBY said:

Offer expires 7th October and still "waiting for the upward chain to resolve enquiries". I've told our vendor we need to complete by the 7th, her response is "we'll just have to tell our vendor that we'll have to relist". We've spent hundreds of pounds on things our solicitor misled us about, and wouldn't have spent had we known the full situation (they went from "you're ready to go" to "there's an outstanding enquiry that we missed, sorry"). Interest rates have doubled since our initial mortgage offer. We're currently spending £600 a month for my wife to commute an hour and a half each way for her new job near the house.

I've accepted it's not going to happen. But the money and time wasted makes me feel sick. Our solicitor sent a bill for over two grand yesterday, for a transaction that never happened. I just cried on our living room floor.

We're FTBs in a horrible rental, and I'm desperate to get out. We had plans to buy a home, go on a few holidays, then start trying for children. It's all been taken away from us by an incompetent solicitor that doesn't even represent us, so we have no recourse to complain.

It's not even about the house, I always felt that the house was just fine. It's the thousands of pounds gone up in smoke. Over the next five years a mortgage on an equivalent property will cost us £19,000 more. Add to that all the money we've already spent here, my wife's commuting costs, the expense with moving again and finding a new rental, we're down about £25,000. How can this be legal? How is it accepted? It's already so hard for FTBs to get on the ladder, and we're stung with a transaction that takes half a year to fail because a solicitor went AWOL.

I feel your pain, we are in a very similar position. If you haven’t already, I would strongly recommend contacting your mortgage company to request an extension. Ours was due to expire at the end of August (due to buyer’s conveyancer being horrifically slow) but NatWest agreed a month long extension. I was surprised as rates had more than doubled since we applied, but business is business I suppose.  It just involved a quick call and a 3-5 day wait for the response. I had the choice of a week or month extension. I think they said you have to be in the last month of your offer period in order to apply and that ‘It’s usually quite straightforward’.  Not sure how much of this applies to other lenders but I’m guessing they’re fairly similar.  I wish I’d known sooner as it would have avoided some of the massive daily stress through August. Sadly though we are in the same position again this month as the new expiry date looms, though thankfully we’re a bit closer (I hope) to exchanging now.

i hope this helps someone.

This is good to know thanks! Our mortgage and our buyer's mortgage is with Natwest too, so its reassuring that a month extension, if needed,is possible. Our estate agent told me Natwest are not doing any extensions at the moment, not sure where they got that from.

AnnaR_2

HWBY said:

AnnaR_2 said:

HWBY said:

Offer expires 7th October and still "waiting for the upward chain to resolve enquiries". I've told our vendor we need to complete by the 7th, her response is "we'll just have to tell our vendor that we'll have to relist". We've spent hundreds of pounds on things our solicitor misled us about, and wouldn't have spent had we known the full situation (they went from "you're ready to go" to "there's an outstanding enquiry that we missed, sorry"). Interest rates have doubled since our initial mortgage offer. We're currently spending £600 a month for my wife to commute an hour and a half each way for her new job near the house.

I've accepted it's not going to happen. But the money and time wasted makes me feel sick. Our solicitor sent a bill for over two grand yesterday, for a transaction that never happened. I just cried on our living room floor.

We're FTBs in a horrible rental, and I'm desperate to get out. We had plans to buy a home, go on a few holidays, then start trying for children. It's all been taken away from us by an incompetent solicitor that doesn't even represent us, so we have no recourse to complain.

It's not even about the house, I always felt that the house was just fine. It's the thousands of pounds gone up in smoke. Over the next five years a mortgage on an equivalent property will cost us £19,000 more. Add to that all the money we've already spent here, my wife's commuting costs, the expense with moving again and finding a new rental, we're down about £25,000. How can this be legal? How is it accepted? It's already so hard for FTBs to get on the ladder, and we're stung with a transaction that takes half a year to fail because a solicitor went AWOL.

I feel your pain, we are in a very similar position. If you haven’t already, I would strongly recommend contacting your mortgage company to request an extension. Ours was due to expire at the end of August (due to buyer’s conveyancer being horrifically slow) but NatWest agreed a month long extension. I was surprised as rates had more than doubled since we applied, but business is business I suppose.  It just involved a quick call and a 3-5 day wait for the response. I had the choice of a week or month extension. I think they said you have to be in the last month of your offer period in order to apply and that ‘It’s usually quite straightforward’.  Not sure how much of this applies to other lenders but I’m guessing they’re fairly similar.  I wish I’d known sooner as it would have avoided some of the massive daily stress through August. Sadly though we are in the same position again this month as the new expiry date looms, though thankfully we’re a bit closer (I hope) to exchanging now.

i hope this helps someone.

We're with NatWest too - did they want anything from you? We're in a bit of a pickle in that my wife started a new job with a slightly lower salary, so if they asked for any evidence that circumstances haven't changed we'd be stuck.

They did ask if any circumstances had changed (they hadn’t in our case) so that could be an issue for you unfortunately. Worth giving them a call though if it comes down to the wire.

AnnaR_2

Giggidy said:

AnnaR_2 said:

HWBY said:

Offer expires 7th October and still "waiting for the upward chain to resolve enquiries". I've told our vendor we need to complete by the 7th, her response is "we'll just have to tell our vendor that we'll have to relist". We've spent hundreds of pounds on things our solicitor misled us about, and wouldn't have spent had we known the full situation (they went from "you're ready to go" to "there's an outstanding enquiry that we missed, sorry"). Interest rates have doubled since our initial mortgage offer. We're currently spending £600 a month for my wife to commute an hour and a half each way for her new job near the house.

I've accepted it's not going to happen. But the money and time wasted makes me feel sick. Our solicitor sent a bill for over two grand yesterday, for a transaction that never happened. I just cried on our living room floor.

We're FTBs in a horrible rental, and I'm desperate to get out. We had plans to buy a home, go on a few holidays, then start trying for children. It's all been taken away from us by an incompetent solicitor that doesn't even represent us, so we have no recourse to complain.

It's not even about the house, I always felt that the house was just fine. It's the thousands of pounds gone up in smoke. Over the next five years a mortgage on an equivalent property will cost us £19,000 more. Add to that all the money we've already spent here, my wife's commuting costs, the expense with moving again and finding a new rental, we're down about £25,000. How can this be legal? How is it accepted? It's already so hard for FTBs to get on the ladder, and we're stung with a transaction that takes half a year to fail because a solicitor went AWOL.

I feel your pain, we are in a very similar position. If you haven’t already, I would strongly recommend contacting your mortgage company to request an extension. Ours was due to expire at the end of August (due to buyer’s conveyancer being horrifically slow) but NatWest agreed a month long extension. I was surprised as rates had more than doubled since we applied, but business is business I suppose.  It just involved a quick call and a 3-5 day wait for the response. I had the choice of a week or month extension. I think they said you have to be in the last month of your offer period in order to apply and that ‘It’s usually quite straightforward’.  Not sure how much of this applies to other lenders but I’m guessing they’re fairly similar.  I wish I’d known sooner as it would have avoided some of the massive daily stress through August. Sadly though we are in the same position again this month as the new expiry date looms, though thankfully we’re a bit closer (I hope) to exchanging now.

i hope this helps someone.

This is good to know thanks! Our mortgage and our buyer's mortgage is with Natwest too, so its reassuring that a month extension, if needed,is possible. Our estate agent told me Natwest are not doing any extensions at the moment, not sure where they got that from.

NatWest were giving automatic 3 month extensions during Covid but this ended a while ago, maybe that’s what has  confused them. You now have to apply but it was a simple process, as long as your circumstances are still the same.

hpsauce86

Offer accepted: 5/2/2022
Exchanged: 13/9/2022
Completed: 13/9/2022

LESSON: Do not buy from anyone saying they want a quick sale whilst also saying they are buying a new build. It is always LONG. 

Going to sleep tonight for the first time in 3 months and I’m so happy!! 🥳

Giggidy

hpsauce86 said:

Offer accepted: 5/2/2022
Exchanged: 13/9/2022
Completed: 13/9/2022

LESSON: Do not buy from anyone saying they want a quick sale whilst also saying they are buying a new build. It is always LONG. 

Going to sleep tonight for the first time in 3 months and I’m so happy!! 🥳

Congrats! Enjoy your new home :-)

Chemistry777

Selling my house and moving in with my partner, so no upward chain for me.   Offer accepted on 4th July. from FTB who wanted to move fast.   Two and a half months later still waiting for exchange dates.  Latest update from my solicitor is that buyer are still waiting for searches that would then potentially raise enquiries,  Surely we are further along than that ?

I have never know an industry like this, I think it suits solicitors to keep conveyancing as a "dark art".  As a systems designer, surely, you could have a online portal showing the steps involved and the current status and who the next action is on?

At the very least there should be a weekly email to all parties to confirm current status.... Rant over

julicorn

julicorn said:

julicorn said:

julicorn said:

Chain made up of 6 properties, and both our vendor and we have our mortgage offers running out end of this month. 
One big stumbling block was that probate at the top of the chain hadn't been granted yet, but I just found out today that it has been granted finally!
So we have 3 weeks left to complete. Allegedly everyone is almost at exchange state, but I'll believe it when I see it. Feels like our estate agent has been saying the same thing for the last 2 months, so all I can do is keep my fingers crossed and chase. 

Our solicitor sent us the finalised contract for our sale to sign yesterday, buyer has already signed and returned it. 1 transaction ready, potentially 5 more to go. Gonna try to do some detective work tomorrow to find out exactly where everyone is at, but it's definitely easier said than done.

Check-in today with both sets of estate agents. The estate agent we're selling through said she checked in with the rest of the chain end of last week, they're all 'on the last of the enquiries', which I suppose could mean absolutely anything. 

The estate agent we're buying through started discussing dates. He suggested the 28th for completion, exchange a week before. That would work well for us, but we were the first party he spoke to - no idea what the rest of the chain had to say. 

I'm just sat here constantly waiting for some sort of update, when I know perfectly well that there won't be anything more to say for now. I just can't really concentrate on anything else, just constantly thinking about the move / sale / purchase. 

Where we got to yesterday: The one outstanding document we needed for our purchase has been dealt with now, so we're good to sign the finalised contract for that as well. So I suppose it's 2 transactions ready, potentially 4 more to go. 

I've not heard back on whether anyone else is even aiming for the 28th at this point, and feel a bit ignored by the people who can help move this along (estate agents, etc). I know I'm probably annoying them by chasing too much, but we've only got 2 more weeks and the uncertainty is just stressing me out to no end. 

trakky14

Chemistry777 said:

Selling my house and moving in with my partner, so no upward chain for me.   Offer accepted on 4th July. from FTB who wanted to move fast.   Two and a half months later still waiting for exchange dates.  Latest update from my solicitor is that buyer are still waiting for searches that would then potentially raise enquiries,  Surely we are further along than that ?

I have never know an industry like this, I think it suits solicitors to keep conveyancing as a "dark art".  As a systems designer, surely, you could have a online portal showing the steps involved and the current status and who the next action is on?

At the very least there should be a weekly email to all parties to confirm current status.... Rant over

Its shocking its it?! I can't believe they haven't done the searches yet though! That's bonkers!