The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

donutandbeer

mrsmagpie80 said:

donutandbeer said:

Exchange might happen this week. Vendor has finally confirmed a completion date (in December) and both our solicitors are fine with the completion date. We have been pushing for a completion date since mid September, and the only thing stopping us to exchange was the lack of a completion date. I’m so tired of this whole thing, certainly I feel like this purchase (chain-free, cash purchase) is less stressful but more frustrating than our sale (4 in a chain) a few months ago.
 
Now I just don’t feel any excitement about the house, which is quite sad but I guess also normal, especially when it’s not a forever home and there’s work that we don’t yet have the money to do. I wish I could be more happy about it..

I think that’s how it gets you when it’s drawn out. I’m selling only and when it first sold stc I was so excited as it meant clearing my debts and stabilising my finances but because it’s dragged on I’m now just not excited by it at all ☹️

Certainly. Hopefully your sale will go through soon so you may finally feel the excitement for the change when it comes! 

Sesmo_k

This thread has been both fascinating and depressing. I "think" we are nearing exchange, but who knows. It's been a bit of a mess. Timeline:

June: go to view a house as OH's flat looks like it's going to sell quickly. View it, can't make an offer there and then. When we can make an offer (mid June), the house has been pulled from sale. 
End July: Meet the person who showed us the house at viewing for a different property. He says the vendor pulled it from the market as she was fed up of the sales process and wanted some time off. The house had been left to her by her deceased ex-husband, probate had already gone through.
31st July: Put a letter in the letterbox asking if it was still for sale as we were definitely interested and gave contact numbers and mail addresses
2nd Aug: Vendor contacts us and we view the house again the following weekend. They agree to our offer!
8th Aug: agent gets in contact, we instruct solicitors
23rd Aug: agree mortgage product, get offer a few days later. Desktop survey and valuation done. (Had a proper survey done for our own peace of mind which was fine).


In between then and mid September, everything seemed to be going great with searches and enquiries for both the sale and purchase until:

Mid Sept: buyer's conveyancer for OH's flat decides the leasehold and freehold arrangement on his flat are incorrect. Tyneside flats are fickle things so had to get the solicitors who he instructed when he bought it involved. After 3 weeks of backwards and forwards, it all gets sorted out. Was due to the inexperience of the buyers conveyancer when it comes to leasehold property. Our agent for the purchase is asking when we'll be ready to complete, we think we'll be fine as soon as the buyers solicitors are happy.

This takes us to last week.

18th Oct: buyer for OH's flat wants to exchange on the 21st and compete on 28th Oct. Everything is set in motion. His conveyancer is now happy with everything. 
19th Oct: our conveyancer for our purchase contacts us urgently. Our mortgage offer has been pulled! Try to get some clarity on why as nothing about our position/purchase has changed. Still in the same jobs, doing the same things, same money, house hasn't exploded/fallen down. We have been honest about outgoings etc.
20th Oct: Lender has decided that due to the EPC rating on the house, they won't lend on it. They had all the info from when we had the meeting to agree the product in August 8 weeks previous.
21st Oct: Make arrangements to get OH's stuff put into storage so he can move into my house. Find somewhere local, but only from 4th Nov. Tell the buyer of OH's property that we will need to push back the completion to 4th Nov. Feel sorry for him as he's an FTB and is massively excited about being able to buy his first property. Deflated about it all.
21st Oct at 4:55pm: lender contacts us, there's been a mistake. They were looking at the current EPC rating as if it was the potential EPC rating and their underwriter declined it. Admin mistake apparently, could happen to anyone. Says they'll contact our conveyancer straight away.

Contacted our conveyancer this afternoon and she's received nothing and has chased again. We contacted the lender and they say it'll def be with us/conveyancer tomorrow. So completion looks like it's still on for the 4th for both the sale and purchase.

I would say I'm never doing this again, but I still have my own house to sell. Needs some work doing first that will mean I'll have to move out, so buying one before selling mine seemed like the obvious solution. How has this process become so convoluted? 

Well done if you got to the bottom of that wall of text, I'm not holding my breath it will all go through but have my fingers crossed that it will.

RM_2013

@Sesmo_k
that sounds very stressful but glad to hear you got everything sorted with the lenders.  When are you hoping to exchange contracts? Let’s hope everything runs smoothly for you 

SprostonGreenHead

Our purchase was becoming a worry, but we've started to get some movement finally. There's a strip of land end of the garden the vendor has used and fenced off for 25yrs that she doesn't own so isn't on her deeds. It belongs to the initial developer who has no use for it (too small for any houses or roads and somewhat cut off). Other neighbours have done the same and some have gained the land via adverse possession via LR. We stipulated we wanted vendor to do the same as part of our offer. >2months were wasted because the seller, without solicitor, submitted the wrong form and the application was cancelled. Draft contracts couldn't be served up until this happened (initially). We've later via our solicitor said to serve up the contracts without the extra land so we can progress everything else. Our mortgage offer stands until 8th Feb and I don't wanna bank on it being extended. On today's rates, we'd be looking at an extra £600 a month / 35% extra (erm, no thanks!). Who knows what by start of Feb!? We might need to buy it without the 3m strip of land being sorted at this rate. No chain either side. We are FTB 75% LTV mortgage.

Timeline:

10/7/22 - 1st Viewing
17/7/22 - 2nd Viewing
20/7/22 - Offer made
21/7/22 - Offer increased and accepted
22/7/22 - Mortgage applied for via broker

8/8/22 - Mortgage valuation complete (2k over purchase price)
9/8/22 - 1st Solicitor instructed (they turn out to be useless)
22/8/22 - 2nd Solicitor instructed
22/8/22 - Mortgage approved

14/9/22 - Level 2 homebuyer survey with val ordered

1/10/22 - Find out adverse possession claim seller made was invalid (wrong form)
4/10/22 - Survey report received (nothing major, just lacking electrical and boiler certs/inspections)
4/10/22 - We and our solicitor kick off and demand a speedy 2nd claim is submitted (deadline or we consider walking)
8/10/22 - New claim for adverse possession submitted via seller's solicitor
20/10/22 - We kick off again at lack of movement on draft contracts
21/10/22 - Draft contracts served
21/10/22 - Solicitor enquires made and searches ordered
22/10/22 - EA confirms sellers can work to our timescale to complete before 8th Feb
22/10/22 - Vendor solicitor confirms LR have ordered a survey re: adverse possession claim

The paper title owner normally gets 65 working days to object to the AP claim. Even if that statutory notice has been served already, it doesn't expire until 26th Jan, so it's all going to be tight and I suspect we will complete while the AP claim is still in flight. Rates hadn't starting climbing when we initially went into this with a demand to have the land adversely possessed otherwise we may not have stipulated it.

Sesmo_k

RM_2013 said:

@Sesmo_k
that sounds very stressful but glad to hear you got everything sorted with the lenders.  When are you hoping to exchange contracts? Let’s hope everything runs smoothly for you 

Thanks, hopefully exchanging either tomorrow or Thursday. Should have been last week but ho hum. I know we are in a privileged position and it's not like we've been waiting for months like some people have to but every time it seems like we're getting close something throws a massive spanner in the works. 

Panda126

Hi all,

Can someone tell me how long it should take for the buyer’s solicitor to send enquiries to our solicitors?

The searches came back over two weeks ago, the buyer’s mortgage offer is ready and we’ve been waiting almost two weeks now for their solicitor to send the enquiries and they keep saying that either they’re ready to send or they are under review. Our solicitor is waiting for the searches and now I feel like they just delaying the whole process and our developer is waiting for us to exchange the contracts – but to do it we have to exchange with the buyers first. We are afraid that the developer will lose their patience and they pull out. Is there anything we can do?

mrsmagpie80

Panda126 said:

Hi all,

Can someone tell me how long it should take for the buyer’s solicitor to send enquiries to our solicitors?

The searches came back over two weeks ago, the buyer’s mortgage offer is ready and we’ve been waiting almost two weeks now for their solicitor to send the enquiries and they keep saying that either they’re ready to send or they are under review. Our solicitor is waiting for the searches and now I feel like they just delaying the whole process and our developer is waiting for us to exchange the contracts – but to do it we have to exchange with the buyers first. We are afraid that the developer will lose their patience and they pull out. Is there anything we can do?

Really depends on the pace of the solicitor. Some like to wait until they have all the info before sending enquiries. Some send a couple at a time. Some like my buyers solicitor are just slooooowwwwwwww. I pestered my estate agent constantly to chase them. 

mrsmagpie80

Well day 2 of the week is over and still not exchanged. Completion is supposed to be Monday 🤦‍♀️

RM_2013

Panda126 said:

Hi all,

Can someone tell me how long it should take for the buyer’s solicitor to send enquiries to our solicitors?

The searches came back over two weeks ago, the buyer’s mortgage offer is ready and we’ve been waiting almost two weeks now for their solicitor to send the enquiries and they keep saying that either they’re ready to send or they are under review. Our solicitor is waiting for the searches and now I feel like they just delaying the whole process and our developer is waiting for us to exchange the contracts – but to do it we have to exchange with the buyers first. We are afraid that the developer will lose their patience and they pull out. Is there anything we can do?

We are at enquiries stage with our sale and purchase.  I think all have been answered on the sale and they are just raising the enquiries on the purchase.  Everything seems so slow.  Last week they said they would be “raised this week” and this week they are apparently being “raised this week” 

RM_2013

Had a call from EA acting on behalf of our vendor chasing things up and apparently they have spoken to our solicitor who has told them they haven’t received our mortgage offer?!?! This was sent to us by the lender 9/9 and in that letter they said they had already sent instructions directly to our solicitor.  

Incidentally our solicitor hasn’t ever advised that this was outstanding - as far as we were aware we were told last week that searches  were complete and they would be raising enquiries last week and in the meantime they would report to us on our mortgage offer and send mortgage deed paperwork out for us to sign.  

Not sure who is telling fibs????

I’ve emailed all concerned to try and sort.  Frustrating through