The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

mooma29

s_glover wrote: »

I like your thinking Mooma. Go and enjoy your holiday (where are you going?) and see what the position is when you return.

Easy to say and harder to do but stressing doesn't help anyone at the end of the day.

we are going to Spain, bit late in the season I know but should still be pleasant, I've told our buyer its going back on the market on the 1st November with the hope he will get a move on. on the plus side our onward purchase is willing to hang on a little bit longer, so maybe the moving house fairies will be nice to me while I'm off on my jollies.

bigstevex

The plot thickens... Called the sellers estate agents to see what they knew..

Our sellers solicitor, sellers estate agent, everyone has been waiting for call backs off our solicitor for up to a week now.

[Deleted User]

Abi2018 wrote: »

Completion set for a week today! Yay!

Still been following this to find out if/when you complete! congrats!!

s_glover

Still not exchanged here. Spoke to our solicitor this morning and it appeared everyone had agreed to a completion date of 24th. Was told exchange will hopefully happen today - just need to wait for it to move up the chain. Our solicitors have been waiting all day for a call from our buyers solicitor.
I haven't heard anything yet - called the solicitor to see where we are at but he was on a call. Hoping he'll call me back by 5pm.

ancilla100

s_glover wrote: »

Still not exchanged here. Spoke to our solicitor this morning and it appeared everyone had agreed to a completion date of 24th. Was told exchange will hopefully happen today - just need to wait for it to move up the chain. Our solicitors have been waiting all day for a call from our buyers solicitor.
I haven't heard anything yet - called the solicitor to see where we are at but he was on a call. Hoping he'll call me back by 5pm.

I sympathise with your frustration! Did you hear back in the end?

I'm still waiting. Heard from my solicitor today with the itemised list of about 10 replies to enquiries that they've still not received from either the seller's solicitor or the management company. It's now been about 23 weeks since offer accepted and I'm going crazy!

jennhg88

Still waiting on the developer's solicitor to come back and say they are happy to exchange. Starting to lose my mind a bit.

Finchy2018

We haven't heard anything since before last week, not sure if /when to chase

mai_taylor

Our timeline so far -

23/08/2018 - Sold our property to cash buyers
17/09/2018 – Made offer on new property
20/09/2018? – Offer accepted
24/09/2018 – Solicitors forms filled in and sent
04/10/2018 – Full mortgage application sent in
08/10/2018 - Draft contract from buyers and they’ve applied for searches
10/10/2018 – Our solicitors have applied for searches and part draft contract received.

Now just waiting to hear back about our mortgage as it's been two weeks today and we'd heard nothing from them.

TickTok

And so it ends....finally! 15 weeks to exchange and complete. :j:j:j (Skip to week 14 for the drama)

TickTok wrote: »

My original post is buried somewhere in this thread but I'm a FTB purchasing a leasehold flat in London. Mortgage lender is HSBC. Chain free on both sides (vendor is a BTL investor who has decided to sell on and retire, and the flat is vacant). We both want a quick sale. Should be simples, right?

My amended timeline...

Week 1
Jul 06: Offer accepted
Jul 09: Solicitor instructed. Memorandum of sale received from EA.
Jul 10: Full application submitted to HSBC by L&C
Jul 11: I submit original documents to L&C branch.

Week 2
Jul 16: HSBC's valuation done.
(Waiting for contract pack from seller)

Week 3
Jul 23: L&C confirm valuation is fine....still waiting for contract pack from seller. Slightly worried/annoyed that seller is dragging his feet.

Week 4
Aug 02: Success! Mortgage approval emailed to me today.
....STILL waiting for contract pack from seller. I keep prompting my solicitors to chase because they seem content to wait indefinitely. Also prompting EA to tell seller to get on with it.

Week 5:
Aug 09: Contract pack received, finally!

Week 6:
Aug 16: I review contract pack and send my questions to my solicitors - just 5-6 points of clarification.

Week 7:
w/c Aug 20: No updates from my solicitors. I chase to find out if searches have started and when enquiries will be sent to seller's solicitors. Radio silence.

Week 8:
w/c Aug 27: Continued silence from my solicitors. I escalate to the Managing Partner, who is overseeing the trainee handling my case. I tell them to copy me on any outgoing correspondence since they are so rubbish at providing updates.
Aug 31: Enquiries are sent to seller - relatively straightforward and not asking for anything that should take ages to produce. I also receive confirmation that searches are in progress.

Week 9:
w/c Sept 03: Waiting for seller's response to enquiries

Week 10:
w/c Sept 10: No updates from my solicitor but Estate Agent lets me know that responses to enquiries have been returned to my solicitors.
!

Weeks 11 - 12
The last 2 weeks of September were probably the most infuriating weeks of my life. My solicitors remained unresponsive. I complained again to the Managing Partner to no avail. The lease on my rental ran out so I had to put my things in storage and stay at a friend’s place. I was fed up and telling off anyone involved in this sale.

Week 13
w/c Oct 01: I received the final Report on Title, signed the contract. :T and transferred the deposit and remaining fees to my solicitor. Looks like it’s finally about to happen….

Week 14 – Drama week
w/c Oct 8: My solicitor goes back to request additional documents, which the seller's solicitors say are unnecessary and irrelevant to the sale. Seller is furious and accuses us of delay tactics. I find out only because Estate Agent calls to tell me the seller wants to put the property back on the market if we don’t move to exchange soon.

The trainee on my case then takes off on holiday, which is actually a blessing because my case is then handed to someone more competent.

They ask me for authority to exchange, which I immediately grant and request completion within a week. BUT the seller wants to wait another 2 weeks before completion because his solicitors will charge him £200 if we complete within 2 weeks of exchange. WHAT?!?!?! :mad: I’m virtually homeless, accruing storage fees by the day and after accusing me of delay tactics and threatening to relist the property, he now wants to delay it further?! It’s a hard NO from me. :mad:

EA starts haggling and asks if I’d be willing to chip in on the fees. (He feels bad because he recommended the solicitor to the seller.) This has nothing to do with me so again, it’s a no!

EA gets the seller’s solicitor to take off £100 from the fees but the seller still wants me to chip in for the remainder. I’m paying this man over 300k for this property and he is haggling over £100. Against every petty urge in my being to tell the seller where to go, I agree to chip in £50 to end the madness and get off my friend's sofa bed. :mad:

Week 15
Oct 15: WE FINALLY EXCHANGE!!! :j:j:j It’s been such a roller coaster of fury and frustration that it still hasn't sunk in yet.

Oct 18 Completion is scheduled for today!

I hope I don’t have to do this again for a very long time. And if I do, I know what solicitors I WON’T be using.

Good luck to everyone who’s still waiting.:beer:

s_glover

Still waiting to exchange here and hoping it will be today. I said that for the last 2 days also.
Tuesday everyone was ready and the exchange started however when it got to our buyers, their solicitor realised their contract was missing a signature! Our buyers signed the paperwork and sent it back to them to arrive yesterday. Arrive it did but release of contracts didn't start until late in the afternoon and by the time it got to the top of the chain it there wasn't time for our vendors to exchange on their new build, so it's starting again today!