The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

Lurkingtoposting17

So after a couple of mis-steps on houses that have fallen through finally found one I love with normal sellers and moving swiftly to exchange and completion. Desperate to be in for Xmas, only because I have two weeks off work as my office closes throughout Christmas and NY and I am travelling for work the whole of January so if I don't exchange and complete this side of Xmas, I will be waiting until Feb. Short chain (I am at bottom, my vendor is buying an empty property). My solicitors are just waiting for the final enquiries to be resolved (5 simple questions) and then last night, my vendors solicitors CAUGHT FIRE! :eek: they are now dealing with the most urgent completions only as they have no computers and office spaces.
I feel like you couldn't make it up!

Timeline below;

Viewing of property: 4th October
Offer Made: 4th October
Offer rejected: 5th October
Offer revised: 5th October
Offer accepted: 5th October
Solicitors instructed: 10th October
Mortgage Application: 10th October
Mortgage Approved: 17th October
Searches Paid for: 26th October (delayed as EA forgot to send memo of sale to solicitors!)
Contracts Received: 27th November
Enquiries Sent to Vendor: 27th November
Enquiries Responded to: 7th December
Final Enquiries sent to Vendor: 7th December (due to incomplete responses)
Vendors Solicitor catches fire: 9th December

Final date for Exchange and Completion before Xmas is 19th December. My solicitor says IF we get everything sorted by Friday morning, we could do same day exchange and completion on 19th. However, its tight and though my sellers have repeatedly told me they are willing to move this side of Xmas, I am not sure how willing they will be if they have to do a same day exchange and completion.

JadeLouise

STILL WAITING!! so we have been waiting to exchange for nearly 7 weeks now. Our mortgage offer expires next Tuesday 18/12. However after me doing a bit of chasing and some strongly worded emails about how worried we were, the vendors have agreed to completion next Monday 17/12. Such a tight situation and 'till we exchange I am holding on with tender hooks, because I know until then, anything can happen really. The vendors purchase still isn't complete but with the building inspectors approval they are going to move in anyway and all they have to do is send the letter of approval to their mortgage company. I seriously hopes this all works out.

bopsybunny

Lurkingtoposting17 wrote: »

Vendors Solicitor catches fire: 9th December

Wow. Just wow.

What a rubbish situation. Hope it works out for you!

happytails

bopsybunny wrote: »

Monday 03/12 Closed my HTB ISA.
Tuesday 04/12 OH closed his HTB ISA.
Wednesday 05/12 HTB ISA closing document received and forwarded to solicitor
Friday 07/12 Paid solicitor bill (fees and deposit)!

How long does it take from closing your HTB ISA to being able to transfer the money to the solicitor? And is the transfer instant?

Asking because our buyers are holding up exchange/completion with this. They said they were closing account Weds and its now tuesday and still no word that the solicitor has their deposit funds

woollisox

So today I received the contracts!
There’s a section where the vendor has stated that they want the sale completed “as soon as possible, I want to complete before the end of the year”. The two queries appear to have been answered (though if I’m honest, the contracts are confusing and I’m not certain of half of what I’m reading) so I assumed (again) that this is nearing the end but they’ve asked for the contracts to be undated. Is that relevant to my question of when is this going to be over? Does undated mean that we could still be in for the long haul?

Another question, if anyone knows, I’m currently away on holiday with my sister - can she be my partners witness and her partner be my witness or will they not allow that as she has the same surname as me? It does say a witness can’t be related but she’s technically not related to my partner so can she be his witness?

Also once I’ve signed this - is this the ‘exchange of contracts’ as titled on here or is that a separate step in the future?

ancilla100

Update from me:

Last week my solicitor was submitting everything to lender/vendor's solicitor etc to confirm a completion date of this Friday (14th) with exchange this week too to make sure everything was done and dusted before Christmas.

Today heard back from the seller's solicitor that they're still waiting on redemption figures from the seller's lender (apparently she's in arrears so it's a bit complicated) and also the freeholder's lawyers for the lease extension (for which everything is already done, just requiring signatures etc as it's due to happen on completion) are on holiday for Christmas from this week til the end of the year so they can't do their bit (of receiving the money for the extension).

I'm waiting to find out now if there's any way if a pre-Christmas completion date is possible. I've been squatting at my friend's house for 4 months now. I wanted to be in my own place for Christmas. If I'm not, I've no idea what I'm doing.

ancilla100

jp066 wrote: »

26/11 - Halifax reply saying themselves and their valuers are not qualified to comment and basically not sure why the solicitor brought it to their attention as it is not an issue as revealed in the EA search

This is something I had last week. We checked with Halifax to check they were ok with the major works and they replies saying they were not qualified to make a decision and referred back to me.

My initial reaction was panic (because if they're not qualified, then I'm certainly not!) but then I reassured myself that if they don't seem too concerned about their (pretty big) investment, then I probably odn't need to worry too much about my (relatively small) one.

Lurkingtoposting17

Lurkingtoposting17 wrote: »

Timeline below;

Viewing of property: 4th October
Offer Made: 4th October
Offer rejected: 5th October
Offer revised: 5th October
Offer accepted: 5th October
Solicitors instructed: 10th October
Mortgage Application: 10th October
Mortgage Approved: 17th October
Searches Paid for: 26th October (delayed as EA forgot to send memo of sale to solicitors!)
Contracts Received: 27th November
Enquiries Sent to Vendor: 27th November
Enquiries Responded to: 7th December
Final Enquiries sent to Vendor: 7th December (due to incomplete responses)
Vendors Solicitor catches fire: 9th December

Having spoken to my EA today, none of the vendors solicitors files were in fire proof cabinets, and they worked from paper files. They have said, realistically we may need to go back to the beginning on some of these documents and they anticipate this could add up to six weeks to the process apparently. My solicitors have called to ask what they can do to help, but they won't answer the phones in their emergency office space.
So, yeah. Absolute nightmare. I have had a good old sob today (I hasten to add at this point, that no one was hurt in the fire)

ancilla100

woollisox wrote: »

So today I received the contracts!
There’s a section where the vendor has stated that they want the sale completed “as soon as possible, I want to complete before the end of the year”. The two queries appear to have been answered (though if I’m honest, the contracts are confusing and I’m not certain of half of what I’m reading) so I assumed (again) that this is nearing the end but they’ve asked for the contracts to be undated. Is that relevant to my question of when is this going to be over? Does undated mean that we could still be in for the long haul?

Another question, if anyone knows, I’m currently away on holiday with my sister - can she be my partners witness and her partner be my witness or will they not allow that as she has the same surname as me? It does say a witness can’t be related but she’s technically not related to my partner so can she be his witness?

Also once I’ve signed this - is this the ‘exchange of contracts’ as titled on here or is that a separate step in the future?

Re: undated contacts - I signed and returned contracts etc ages ago but left them undated so that my solicitor can add it in on the day that we actually exchange. I gather this is pretty standard.

Signing the contract and returning it doesn't mean that you've exchanged, but it means that the contract is all ready to exchange. Actual exchange is when both solicitors check with one another that the two sets of signed contracts they have (from both buyer and seller) both match and it's then that they're dated and made official.

Re: the witnesses, I think this would be ok, but you might want to check it.

ancilla100

Lurkingtoposting17 wrote: »

Having spoken to my EA today, none of the vendors solicitors files were in fire proof cabinets, and they worked from paper files. They have said, realistically we may need to go back to the beginning on some of these documents and they anticipate this could add up to six weeks to the process apparently. My solicitors have called to ask what they can do to help, but they won't answer the phones in their emergency office space.
So, yeah. Absolute nightmare. I have had a good old sob today (I hasten to add at this point, that no one was hurt in the fire)

Oh my god! When I read your post above I'd assumed it was a metaphorical fire, not an actual one! That's so frustrating!