The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

ellsbells97

We're FTB. Offer accepted August 2024, our contracts signed in October, then our vendors' onward purchase hit a snag with the Land Registry that we've been really patient with. That got resolved, then it turned out that the title the land registry got sorted had a charge on it so we were patient while they sorted that being removed. That was sorted nice and quick, completion was agreed for 11th March by the whole chain... 

Then we heard Monday that 11th March wasn't possible as the top of the chain's lender is threatening to withdraw due to an issue with the mining searches and they didn't receive supplementary information requested back in October! All solicitors involved have got Coal Authority/house build info over to them really quickly so now sat nervously waiting for the lender to decide if they're happy to proceed and release funds. 

Our mortgage offer expires on 3rd April (no extensions left) and our tenancy ends 31st March (desperately begging our landlord to extend a smidge).

Here's hoping the lender gets back to them quickly and is happy to go ahead so a) we don't face further delays and my partner and I have to move in with my parents and b) we aren't faced with the top two in the chain pulling out and/or everyone having to wait for new mortgage offers...

janoid19

ellsbells97 said:

We're FTB. Offer accepted August 2024, our contracts signed in October, then our vendors' onward purchase hit a snag with the Land Registry that we've been really patient with. That got resolved, then it turned out that the title the land registry got sorted had a charge on it so we were patient while they sorted that being removed. That was sorted nice and quick, completion was agreed for 11th March by the whole chain... 

Then we heard Monday that 11th March wasn't possible as the top of the chain's lender is threatening to withdraw due to an issue with the mining searches and they didn't receive supplementary information requested back in October! All solicitors involved have got Coal Authority/house build info over to them really quickly so now sat nervously waiting for the lender to decide if they're happy to proceed and release funds. 

Our mortgage offer expires on 3rd April (no extensions left) and our tenancy ends 31st March (desperately begging our landlord to extend a smidge).

Here's hoping the lender gets back to them quickly and is happy to go ahead so a) we don't face further delays and my partner and I have to move in with my parents and b) we aren't faced with the top two in the chain pulling out and/or everyone having to wait for new mortgage offers...

How are you getting on? Hope it gets sorted and you can move into your new house!

We eventually have a completion date of 28th March which means we won't have to pay extra stamp duty!! 

Yankee24

We started this process in January.  We are on our 3rd buyer….one chain fell apart, one widow got,cold,feet after a survey.  (No, it wasn’t japanese knotweed, it’s a peony.  ) and now the third one is sticking.  This process kicked off Feb 4 and we are waiting for final enquiries.  Seems fine, but who knows. I trust no one in this process.  It does my head in.  We are downsizing a 4 bed and moving back into London to 2 bed conversion. I have got rid of so much stuff.  Rooms are empty.  I hope I have t gone too soon!

ellsbells97

How are you getting on? Hope it gets sorted and you can move into your new house!

We eventually have a completion date of 28th March which means we won't have to pay extra stamp duty!! 

got the call on Thursday to say the top of the chain have withdrawn after the lender responded to say they didn't want to proceed - decided that if a major lender won't mortgage it then they're going to really struggle to sell. 

Main thing is our sellers still want to move, and we still want to move and are willing to wait for the house we want - so hoping that either their sellers find something with no chain and things proceed smoothly from this point or our sellers decide to break chain and move into a rental to allow us to complete (they have two kids and have really outgrown the house they're in). Fortunate enough to have lovely family we can move in with in the meantime, though it's far from ideal!

janoid19

ellsbells97 said:

got the call on Thursday to say the top of the chain have withdrawn after the lender responded to say they didn't want to proceed - decided that if a major lender won't mortgage it then they're going to really struggle to sell. 

Main thing is our sellers still want to move, and we still want to move and are willing to wait for the house we want - so hoping that either their sellers find something with no chain and things proceed smoothly from this point or our sellers decide to break chain and move into a rental to allow us to complete (they have two kids and have really outgrown the house they're in). Fortunate enough to have lovely family we can move in with in the meantime, though it's far from ideal!

Aww its such a stressful time isn't it. Fingers crossed they find something with no chain and it gets going again!

I'm just waiting for the call to say we are exchanging and until thats done I still won't believe its happening haha.

janoid19

Yankee24 said:

We started this process in January.  We are on our 3rd buyer….one chain fell apart, one widow got,cold,feet after a survey.  (No, it wasn’t japanese knotweed, it’s a peony.  ) and now the third one is sticking.  This process kicked off Feb 4 and we are waiting for final enquiries.  Seems fine, but who knows. I trust no one in this process.  It does my head in.  We are downsizing a 4 bed and moving back into London to 2 bed conversion. I have got rid of so much stuff.  Rooms are empty.  I hope I have t gone too soon!

We are onto buyer 4 now so I understand your frustration. I still don't believe its going ahead until we exchange which hopefully is going to be Friday or Monday.

I don;t fancy moving ever again haha.

ccctttty

We are waiting to exchange and nearly at our breaking point! I just need to vent to people who will understand how absolutely nightmarish this process is...

Viewed property - 2/11/2024
Made offer - 3/11/2024
Offer accepted - 4/11/2024
Solicitors instructed - 5/11/2024
Memorandum of sale - 7/11/2024
Survey - 4/12/2024

So everything was moving quickly and we thought we'd beat the April stamp duty deadline no problem. But... we're in a chain. December/January we were waiting for our sellers' sellers to find an onward purchase. They were very picky and slow which was extremely frustrating and our sellers nearly pulled out of their sale to find something else chain-free. However, the sellers' sellers eventually had an offer accepted in February on a chain-free property - yay! 

we had some issues around a defective lease etc that I posted about previously (turns out they found the lease). Thought once that was resolved it would be smooth sailing. Our enquiries were complete in early February and we were told everyone else in the chain was ready and waiting on us... then it turns out our sellers' sellers' property was NOT in fact chain free and their seller would have to find an onward purchase. Finally they did in late February - a property that is actually chain-free - and get started on their process. 

Finally we are told last week that everything is finished except the top of the chain is waiting for a revised mortgage offer, fine. We sign our documents and drop them off at our solicitors office on 13/3/2025.

Then we are told early this week that there are enquiries outstanding on the top of chain's purchase which would make completing by end of March impossible. However, that buyer has kindly agreed to break the chain so everyone else can still complete on time. We're assured exchange will be on Thurs this week. 

Yesterday it comes to light that the buyer at the top of the chain has to sign some special letter allowing his solicitor to break the chain. Annoying for him as he's currently on holiday in a different time zone (who goes on holiday in the middle of selling/buying a house?!) but he is able to do it at his hotel and fax it to his solicitor. We are assured we'll be able to exchange today. This morning we are told his signature needs to be witnessed by a solicitor so the letter he sent is void and obviously he can't do that whilst abroad. So our entire timeline is now dead in the water. 

I cannot BELIEVE my purchase, all of mine and my partner's savings, is dependent on this man a few properties up a chain who chose to FALSELY list his property as chain-free and then PLAN A HOLIDAY TO SOUTH AFRICA in the middle of the entire process JUST before the stamp duty deadline and completely !!!!!! everything up. And now because of this jackass we are looking at paying an additional £6k+ in stamp duty, as FTBs, when we're also planning a wedding and will need to furnish the entire flat from scratch. We can afford this - just about - but it's certainly not how we wanted and planned to spend this money. 

I'm literally about to pull out of the entire purchase and rent for another year because this is absurd and has completely decimated mine and my partner's mental health during a time that is supposed to be happy and celebratory (engaged and buying our first property). Just absolutely devastated by this broken system.

CherryK87

ccctttty said:

We are waiting to exchange and nearly at our breaking point! I just need to vent to people who will understand how absolutely nightmarish this process is...

Viewed property - 2/11/2024
Made offer - 3/11/2024
Offer accepted - 4/11/2024
Solicitors instructed - 5/11/2024
Memorandum of sale - 7/11/2024
Survey - 4/12/2024

So everything was moving quickly and we thought we'd beat the April stamp duty deadline no problem. But... we're in a chain. December/January we were waiting for our sellers' sellers to find an onward purchase. They were very picky and slow which was extremely frustrating and our sellers nearly pulled out of their sale to find something else chain-free. However, the sellers' sellers eventually had an offer accepted in February on a chain-free property - yay! 

we had some issues around a defective lease etc that I posted about previously (turns out they found the lease). Thought once that was resolved it would be smooth sailing. Our enquiries were complete in early February and we were told everyone else in the chain was ready and waiting on us... then it turns out our sellers' sellers' property was NOT in fact chain free and their seller would have to find an onward purchase. Finally they did in late February - a property that is actually chain-free - and get started on their process. 

Finally we are told last week that everything is finished except the top of the chain is waiting for a revised mortgage offer, fine. We sign our documents and drop them off at our solicitors office on 13/3/2025.

Then we are told early this week that there are enquiries outstanding on the top of chain's purchase which would make completing by end of March impossible. However, that buyer has kindly agreed to break the chain so everyone else can still complete on time. We're assured exchange will be on Thurs this week. 

Yesterday it comes to light that the buyer at the top of the chain has to sign some special letter allowing his solicitor to break the chain. Annoying for him as he's currently on holiday in a different time zone (who goes on holiday in the middle of selling/buying a house?!) but he is able to do it at his hotel and fax it to his solicitor. We are assured we'll be able to exchange today. This morning we are told his signature needs to be witnessed by a solicitor so the letter he sent is void and obviously he can't do that whilst abroad. So our entire timeline is now dead in the water. 

I cannot BELIEVE my purchase, all of mine and my partner's savings, is dependent on this man a few properties up a chain who chose to FALSELY list his property as chain-free and then PLAN A HOLIDAY TO SOUTH AFRICA in the middle of the entire process JUST before the stamp duty deadline and completely !!!!!! everything up. And now because of this jackass we are looking at paying an additional £6k+ in stamp duty, as FTBs, when we're also planning a wedding and will need to furnish the entire flat from scratch. We can afford this - just about - but it's certainly not how we wanted and planned to spend this money. 

I'm literally about to pull out of the entire purchase and rent for another year because this is absurd and has completely decimated mine and my partner's mental health during a time that is supposed to be happy and celebratory (engaged and buying our first property). Just absolutely devastated by this broken system.

I'm so sorry to read what you're going through. I completely feel your pain. I don't understand how people can mess others around so much. 

We put an offer in on a property back in August last year. We were advised that the seller was buying a new build, so if we were to sell, which would most likely be to FTB as we live in a flat, then it would be a relatively short chain. It took two weeks for our seller to agree our offer as we offered slightly under asking due to the condition of the property. In this time, our flat went on the market and went under offer very quickly by FTB. Then we are advised our seller is no longer buying a new build, but is buying a no chain property. So nice short chain still. 

Everything gets under way and all searches, queries etc are sorted quite quickly. But then a month a half later, our seller decides to pull out of their purchase as "they decided they actually didn't like the area!"

We then lose our buyers as they needed to be in by a certain date to secure school places for their children, and as we could no longer meet this deadline (which they hadn't ever previously mentioned) they decided to drop out and rent in the area for a year. 

Back to square one. We need to find a buyer and our seller needs to find a place. Our flat goes back on the market and is sold in 6 days. Eventually our seller finds something and the chain is closed again in November, albeit with an extra property in the chain.

Again everything gets underway, although Christmas delays things and with an extra property in the chain, inevitably things go slower. 
But months go by and we are so close to arranging an exchange date, when our seller tried to negotiate an extra 20k off his onward purchase. This is refused by his seller, but negotiations are still ongoing. Then completely out of the blue, our second set of buyers drop out due to "personal reasons."

We inform the chain and the very top of the chain decides they will not wait, so they remarket. We get ours straight back on the market, and although it takes a little bit longer, we secure our third set of buyers. In that time, the property our seller was wanting to buy, also remarket as I think they got sick of our seller playing games and trying to get so much money off when he had already had a significant under asking offer accepted in the first place. 

So when our seller is told we have re-sold, he then says he isn't sure whether he wants to try to renegotiate with the purchase he was trying for before or if he now wants to buy a new build. 2 weeks go by, this is now up to the current date, and we are told that the property our seller was trying to buy will definitely not accept the negotiation and that he also can't find a new build that he wants, so if by next Wednesday he hasn't found anything, he is likely to pull out of selling to us. It has been 8 months of absolute hell. We feel utterly deflated. We accepted that we would have to pay an extra 2.5k in stamp duty and that our mortgage offer would expire and we couldn't get a deal as good so that would be more expensive, but we loved the house and we're prepared to deal with the extra expense. Now to be told it's likely to be taken away from us, is pretty much soul destroying. 

We have been looking at so many properties but none have even come close and with us spending the best part of 200k more than the value of our flat we live in now, we want to make sure we get something that's absolutely right for us. 

Completely with you on the mental health aspect of the situation and how this system can allow people to screw others over so easily. I'm almost at breaking point. Just hoping for a miracle that either our seller finds something or we do, otherwise we will have to stay put and just accept the fact that we will have lost thousands on search fees, solicitors fees, estate agent fees and surveys. 

I hope that you get through your situation and congrats on the engagement! Hopefully you are able to find some joyful moments together in amongst the difficult property buying times. 

janoid19

We have exchanged!!! 

4th time the charm with buyers but nearly there!

Complete tomorrow so avoid the stamp duty increase....just haha!

weezie7

Posted at end of Feb, as really awful buyer did not meet the deadline given, after EIGHT MONTHS of drawing it all out, no chain! She has now gone AWOL apparently, not contacting solicitor, EA or anyone, so we have lost our onward purchase, and are back on the market......anyone looking for a lovely ground floor flat......? Really disillusioned with the whole situation, why are people so awful and not honest! It is slightly reassuring to know we are not the only ones going through this.......good luck to everyone going through it. Happy to hear that some have made the stamp duty deadline too.