The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

Jami74

Solicitor said last week that we could complete beginning of next week. I haven't heard anything since (not exchanged yet). Starting to get a bit worried, even if we exchange and complete on the same day, I thought I would have been asked for the deposit or to sign some forms or something. Can all that happen on the same day?

annetheman

Jami74 said:

Solicitor said last week that we could complete beginning of next week. I haven't heard anything since (not exchanged yet). Starting to get a bit worried, even if we exchange and complete on the same day, I thought I would have been asked for the deposit or to sign some forms or something. Can all that happen on the same day?

I think it's *possible* it can all happen on the same day, it's looking increasingly unlikely though, given it's Thursday and you haven't signed the TR1, contract, and/or mortgage deed (assuming you are purchasing with a mortgage)?
The solicitor needs to have hard copies, so usually you get those ready and post ahead of exchange and completion, I believe.

I would chase the status of everything - completion dates are generally arbitrary until you have exchange confirmed, and there might be a reason why you haven't exchanged yet. Good luck!

From me:
My application for the new mortgage has been approved - valuation now the gauntlet. I am so sick of this whole thing, I'm not even anxious/nervous anymore. Whatever happens happens. Agree Myci85 - if it's meant to be, it will be! 

Myci85

Jami74 said:

Solicitor said last week that we could complete beginning of next week. I haven't heard anything since (not exchanged yet). Starting to get a bit worried, even if we exchange and complete on the same day, I thought I would have been asked for the deposit or to sign some forms or something. Can all that happen on the same day?

Yep I'd be giving the solicitor a call to clarify what's happening as you'd definitely expect to have more information by now surely if completion early next week may happen. Fingers crossed for you that it's sorted!

lb00

FTB, no chain situation.
Offer accepted May 10th. Flat had a tenant so we agreed to exchange contracts with the tenant in the flat and complete conditional on vacant possession in September.
After the survey and our solicitor providing us with the final report end of June, we asked for a £2000 price reduction based on issues with the windows. The sellers, a property investment company, agreed to a £1500 reduction subject to exchange taking place within 5 working days.
We said we would be prepared to exchange within 5 working days subject to the completion of legal formalities as there were still many additional enquiries outstanding.
We got to end of July and they ask us to agree to an indemnity covenant saying they provided it to the previous seller. We agree even if it is obvious this should have been raised way earlier. We also ask some details on the tenancy (end date of the fixed term etc) which they refuse flat out to provide.
So we say we will proceed on the basis of the deposit being held by our solicitor rather than the sellers solicitor between exchange and completion. The sellers lawyers insist that the deposit instead is to be held to their order. 
In the end the sellers come in and say let's exchange once they have vacant possession in september, we say okay fine.
Now they are saying they will not agree to the price reduction because we did not exchange in the 5 working days from their email in July. However we had always said the 5 working days timeframe was conditional on the completion of all legal formalities. 

It seems to us we are at no fault. Perhaps we were a bit overly cautious as buyers but many problems were caused by their lawyers that, when my solicitor raised an enquiry, would just say 'the seller has no further documents' when such documents could have been easily obtained and were in general quite uncooperative.

For us the price reduction is important. Do you think we should just insist and say we will not exchange unless the price reduction is in place?
We are FTB cash buyers so I think it would be hard to find other buyers in our situation and the conveyancing has been going on for four months already so I think it's unlikely they would want to remarket the flat.
At the same time we don't want to lose the flat as it fits many of our needs.

What would be your advice?
Thanks

BarelySentientAI

lb00 said:

For us the price reduction is important. 

At the same time we don't want to lose the flat as it fits many of our needs.

What would be your advice?

Which is more important and by how much?

annetheman

@lb00 the only way to reconcile whatever you decide yourself is if losing this flat is worth £2,000 (or the £1,500 they countered with). If you feel you could get over that and it is worth it, stick to that condition. If losing it would be more detrimental to you (financially or otherwise, emotionally etc), concede that the £1,500 reduction is off the table.

I have found writing lists of PROS vs CONS so helpful throughout this whole housebuying process - when I was choosing between 2 houses, when I was decided if a mouse infestation was a dealbreaker (!!!), when I was deciding whether to break the chain or not...

Getting it on paper helps

lb00

@BarelySentientAI @annetheman
Thank you both for your replies. 
The reason the price reduction is important for us is we agreed to a purchase price of £625k + chattels valuation to stay below the Stamp Duty FTB relief threshold. 
We have been given the list of chattels and £3,500 would be appropriate for its valuation but we believe £5,000 would be too much. The sellers obviously don't care as they just want the higher price whereas if we were to pay £5,000 we fear HMRC might investigate our transaction and ask us to prove the chattels' valuation is indeed 5k.
And if we fail to do so, we end up paying even more stamp duty and penalties down the line.

I'll call the estate agents now and see what they say.

Myci85

Still waiting for exchange/completion date. Hoping this next week we might hear more. 
Following my last update, the vendor's solicitor did not get the response to enquiries back by the Friday as requested, they finally came in the following Tuesday, a grand total of 13 weeks after being first requested! On Weds my solicitor said she'd received them but hadn't been able to review them so was passing to her colleague to review in her absence and they will revert back to me 'when able'. No idea if my solicitor is taking AL or means she is just snowed under with other work. 
We're now under 2 weeks away from the hoped for completion date, so I don't even know if it will be possible now in that timescale? Keeping everything crossed as if we don't exchange soon, we'll have missed the date to give notice to our landlord, and will have to see if they are happy to negotiate a less than 1 month's notice, or notice after the rent due date. 

annetheman

All the best this week @Myci85 - hopefully progress towards halfway mark of the week, that's when things ramp up a bit for me, usually!

So... I'm going to pull out.

29 weeks since MoS, though I haven't officially don it yet (scared to with no other options)... Today, I've told the EA that regrettably, I will begin to look elsewhere by the end of the month - I am actually looking now, I will offer by EOM.

As a recent seller, I know this is really hard, but the seller has submitted 2 failed LR Title registration applications and my mortgage offer has lapsed (the one that was REALLY hard to get because this house kept failing valuations due to non-compliant extension)... It's a losing battle.

I really do love this house. I pictured my whole future in it.

So what caused this today is an update from the Land Registry. I called to find out if the seller's solicitors had submitted their response and LR confirmed that on 11 September, they cancelled the application because they had given the seller's solicitors 10 working days to respond (on 23 August) or at least ask for more time to respond, and they did not.

There is no 'resurrecting' it. They need to start from scratch and submit an entire new application with the original documents again and send by post, requesting it to be expedited, then 2 weeks of LR expedited initial review, then about 2-4 weeks of back-and-forth requisitions and responses by post, then a new site visit survey needs to be arranged which might take another 2 weeks if lucky, then report from the surveyor which might take 1 week, then final queries on the report for 2 weeks [this is as far as we got], then 3 week notice period for nearby landowners, then 10 days to respond per query, then if no more, finally, approval.

We would be looking at LEAST another 2 months, if lucky, and if they submit tomorrow. Which they won't - they just seem to have stopped responding, stopped trying, stopped caring - they even asked EA to ask me to ask my solicitor if it's really necessary or if indemnity insurance wouldn't be enough.

Funnily enough the valuation for my mortgage application number 2 happened today. Should not have bothered - I wouldn't if I knew the seller/solicitor had given up.

Unfortunately there is nothing at this price at all (I wonder why it was so cheap...). So I'm going to have to look higher and pray for the best ASAP; I cannot languish at my dad's for months on end, I am mentally deteriorating. 

Trying to look on the bright side, saving loads living with dad etc.

I wish you all much better fortunes than I've had. 

Myci85

Thanks @annetheman, sadly I've had no further communication from my solicitor or their colleague, and when I emailed Monday afternoon I got an auto reply that they're on AL until Monday. Have emailed their secretary but no reply. So am trying to manage my expectations that we won't be completing on 27th as hoped and it will likely be a week or so later. 

Sorry to hear you've had further complications, I think you're probably making the right call to start looking again. I hope you find something suitable soon, and can look back and think thank goodness I didn't buy that one after all!