The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

babyblade41

As expected exchange didn't happen yesterday . Powers of attorney for the property I'm buying want to go through the documents over the weekend !!!
We are all livid as we have all now insured prospective properties. This is getting farcical .
My buyers called yesterday and lots of swear words were said thankfully aimed at my sellers not each other.
I've asked them to put pressure on my solicitor to help us putting pressure on vendors solicitor.
The PA's hope to exchange Monday . A very long weekend ahead .

woollisox

I’m very happy to say that we got the keys Friday and are now happily in our new home!
Good luck to all of those still waiting, I hope it happens quickly for you all

Full timeline
Mortgage dates
7/10 saw house online
8/10 called broker to discuss
9/10 documents submitted to broker for aip - sent to underwriters
10/10 - agreement in principle received, viewed the house
11/10 - offer made and accepted
12/10 broker send lists of documents for full application
15/10 full application submitted to broker - awaiting tax credits letter to send to mortgage provider
18/10 - solicitors instructed, awaiting information pack
19/10 - tax credits letter arrives and sent to broker, broker checking application to pre emptively answer questions from the underwriters
19/10 - information pack received from sols
22/10 - full application sent to mortgage provider
24/10 - application comes back with query’s
26/10 queries answered
28/10 solicitors full instruction and payment
01/11 valuation instructed
05/11 valuation booked for 20th Nov
05/11 vendor and vendors solicitors change on memorandum of sale
06/11 contact sols to chase vendor change and find out what’s happening.
08/11 sale going ahead - sols awaiting contract packs
20/11 valuation survey
22/11 email from broker stating lender happy with the valuation and formal mortgage offer on way
26/11 sols email to say they are awaiting “contract papers and searches” from vendors sols
30/11 email confirmation of mortgage offer
06/12 our sols receive contract from vendors sols
08/12 queries raised and contract returned - awaiting our copy of contract
10/12 contract received
12/12 searches completed
15/12 contracts tr1 form signed and sent in
17/12 sols asked for proof of deposit -sent
18/12 sols asked for proof of transfer of deposit from gifters account to my own -sent
20/12 sols are now ready to exchange, requested deposit funds -sent over
21/12 mortgage funds are requested
02/01 EXCHANGE
04/01 we get the keys and completion statement
05/01 we move in

12 weeks and 1 day from offer to completion

ancilla100

harz99 wrote: »

ancilla, I think you need to move on a year...

You're right! Too early yet in 2019 for me to get it right.

ancilla100

Bossypants wrote: »

Congrats on having exchanged Ancilla! When I purchased a leasehold flat where the lease was going to be extended on completion, it was also an absolutely brutal process, topping out at just under ten months in the end. And I ended up hating the flat for totally unrelated reasons, and moved out again a year later!

Welcome to the funhouse Wibblygirly!

As for me, I dropped the Law Soc forms for my sale around to my solicitor earlier, and have had confirmation from my mortgage broker that he has received my file dump. My solicitor has also sent me the Law Soc forms for my purchase, as well as the title plan, all of which look fine to me (no gas or electric certs, but it's a probate property with a lot of work to be done, so I wasn't expecting any). So now, I suppose we play the waiting game. In the meantime I am trying to keep myself busy/distracted by doing small 'preparing to move' chores. I don't want to start actually packing just yet, both because I'm superstitious and don't want to jinx it, and because we're probably looking at a late Feb completion at the earliest (and honestly March would suit me better), but I feel like I can still do small things, like putting the hobby stuff in more easily movable containers, and sorting through things for charity. I'm already so full of nervous energy and we've barely even begun, it's going to be a loooong winter I think!

Thanks. It's been ridiculous! If I'd known at the start I'm not sure I would have made the same decision. Or at least if I'd been advised it would take that long, I could at least have prepared. I specifically asked whether extending the lease during the sale would add on a lot of time and was told that it was absolutely standard and wouldn't add on any time at all. To be honest that element was all resolved after 4 months. The rest was all management company and seller's solicitors.

babyblade41

Finally exchange went ahead at 4.00pm 5 weeks longer than anyone wanted but at last.

I never thought it would happen but kept plodding on ... keep going everyone waiting to be in the same position.

I should be elated but the stress has been so bad as we had to go through adverse possession on our purchase and thanks to excellent solicitors on all sides it progressed quickly through each stage

ancilla100

Finally completed on Tuesday! Slight updates to the end of my timeline.

I am a FTB with no chain. My seller is not living in the property and also has no chain. The only complication with the sale is the fact that we're extending the lease as part of the sale - my seller is paying for it out of the proceeds of the sale and I'm getting the benefit of the 90 extra years to the lease.

09/05/2018 Viewing
10/05/2018 Offer made
11/05/2018 Offer accepted
21/05/2018 Mortgage submitted
08/06/2018 Mortgage valuation and homebuyers report survey
11/06/2018 Mortgage approved
14/06/2018 Survey report received
25/06/2018 Paid solicitor for searches
16/07/2018 Draft contract, fixtures and fittings etc received
28/07/2018 Second viewing and measurements taken
01/08/2018 Amended mortgage offer letter sent (with updated solicitor as solicitor had merged with another)
05/08/2018 Moved out of rented accommodation and into friend's spare room.
11/08/2018 Seller paid for management pack
20/08/2018 Lease extension documentation received
12/09/2018 Management Leasehold pack received
18/09/2018 My solicitor requested the missing information from the management leasehold pack.
21/09/2018 LISA applied for with 14 day completion date
02/10/2018 I approved Deed of Variation for lease extension and my solicitor sent it on to the seller's solicitor to be finalised.
03/10/2018 LISA money paid to solicitor
12/10/2018 All lease extension documentation finalised
02/11/2018 Information on upcoming major works received
20/11/2018 Final queries answered. Report on Title submitted to lender for approval.
06/12/2018 Answer from lender on major works (after lots and lots of chasing and people being away and not answering the answer was that they're ok with everything if I am). Suggested completion date for lender and seller of 14 December.
11/12/2018 Seller's solicitor are still waiting on a redemption statement from seller's lender (they're in arrears on their mortgage) so can't do anything until they've received that. Also freeholder's solicitor (who's managing the lease extension part) is on holiday after 14th Dec so if exchange and completion can't be done by 14th then it can't be done in 2018.
14/12/2018 Seller's solicitor still hasn't received redemption statement so no completion in 2018. New completion date of 7th Jan agreed.
14/12/2018 I apply for an extension to my mortgage offer which expires 31 December.
18/12/2018 New mortgage offer received
20/12/2018 Try to exchange but seller only confirms at 5pm so can't be done. Rescheduled for 21st.
21/12/2018 Try to exchange but seller not picking up phone and not answering messages. I call the EA. They manage to get hold of her on her lunch break and tell her to call her solicitor to approve, which I believe she does. After another hour or so, I call my solicitor for an update to find that the seller's solicitor has discovered he's missing a final piece of information on service charge and ground rent apportionment so we can't exchange now in 2018.
02/01/2019 EXCHANGE!!! Clearly first day back after Christmas, everyone gets things in order.
04/01/2019 Completion statement received. Apportionment from seller's solicitor (at approx 4pm) includes approx £2k extra to reimburse her for the credit she has in her service charge account. I say to my solicitor that I think she should get that money back from the management company if she can, without me.
07/01/2019 My solicitors say that the management company need 3 days to reimburse the credit on the account and they can only reimburse to the owner (which will be me by then). I suggest we write something to say we'll immediately request the refund and send it to the seller when we receive it. Seller says no, they will not complete without this £2k. I start to panic to work out if I have an extra £2k anywhere that I can send over immediately.
New completion statement sent over - amount a lot less than expected (much less than originally thought, even considering the £2k extra). I verify with solicitor and she says that's right but needs to acknowledge some of the other money I've sent already.
New new completion statement sent over. This is for the amount I originally thought (still without the extra £2k) and my solicitor apologises for the wrong one and says this one is definitely right. I send over the money.
3:30ish, solicitor tells me that that one was also wrong as it had the £2k going in and then going out again but she's sorted out with the seller's solicitor that they can underwrite it, then I request the refund immediately and they send it on (which was my idea before but had been vetoed). I'm reassured that it's all sorted out and we will complete today.
5:10pm Email from agent to say that money arrived just after 5pm and lease extension solicitor leaves at 5pm promptly so no completion today.

08/01/2019 At 8:30am I park myself at the estate agents offices from when they open "It'll be a few hours yet til we get the call!" "That's ok I have nowhere else to be!". I spend the morning making calls to rearrange various deliveries that had been scheduled.
At 12:30 I get a message from my solicitor to say we've COMPLETED, the estate agents confirm and ring the seller to tell her and get her to hand over the keys. She refuses because she says she doesn't know what's happened with that £2k and because she's not yet cleared all the rubbish from the property. Following a flurry of calls to all parties, agents tell her that she's in breach of contract if she doesn't and say they're coming over to get the keys.
I say I'm going to get some lunch and I'll come back in an hour to get keys. Which I do then finally get in!

Total time: 7 months 28 days

Lots to sort still but feel like a massive tension has been released!:j:j:j:j:j:j:j

mick1111

Wahey! Well done!

mick1111

I may as well post here... we're FTB, buying a vacant property.

10/12/18 Viewing
10/12/18 Make first offer
11/12/18 Offer rejected
12/12/18 Second viewing
12/12/18 Make second offer
13/12/18 Offer accepted
13/12/18 Hastily arrange AIP
14/12/18 Apply for mortgage via broker
15/12/18 Answer queries from lender
19/12/18 Lender valuation
19/12/18 Instruct solicitor
20/12/18 Get phone call from lender telling me that they had wrong solicitor details on formal mortgage offer and were sending a new one. First time we knew mortgage was approved!
03/01/19 Building survey carried out

And now we're waiting... we dumped a bunch of money into our LISAs at the end of December (it was earning more interest elsewhere), so it'll be a few more weeks before the government bonus is applied, so unlikely to exchange until mid-Feb at the earliest. We were upfront with vendors about this going to cause a delay, so no surprises for anyone so far.

Chimpy9

Our journey so far:

01/10/18 put our house on the market
04/10/18 full asking price offer accepted
05/10/18 offer withdrawn house back on market
21/10/18 offer again accepted on our house
26/10/18 found a dream house but lots of interest, made offer
29/10/18 offer rejected dream house now Sold STC to another party
10/11/18 view four houses all not right. One comes on market we are first to see it
12/11/18 make offer, offer accepted
15/11/18 valuation done on our house
20/11/18 mortgage application accepted survey booked 29/11/18
29/11/18 survey didn't go ahead due to no one in (confusion over dates) rescheduled for a week later
30/11/18 dream house that we saw on 26/10/18 now back on market, we make original offer, offer accepted
03/12/18 redo mortgage application, withdraw offer on second house survey now booked for 17/12/18
17/12/18 survey done, a few issues found so round with a contractor to have a look, all ok
03/01/19 our searches are back, mine entry discovered within 20m of boundary now need mining interpretative report for lender (panicking we won't now get mortgage) Also our buyers solicitor has gone quiet.
07/01/19 our agent finally gets hold of our buyer to make sure theyre still proceeding, they are (phew!)

This is where we are..... It is the most stressful thing we've ever done and I know it's not over yet

Bossypants

Congrats ancilla and babyblade, and welcome mick and Chimpy! Pull up a chair and make yourselves at home. :beer:

I've been frustrated with my buyers' seeming inability to get their solicitor fully instructed this week, but the agent is assuring me that they are solid buyers. We'll see, I suppose. I think this thread has made me paranoid, but they honestly seem a little bit too good to be true on paper to me, so the solicitor thing is making me more antsy than it probably should at this stage. On the plus side, their mortgage broker has been in touch to confirm that valuation will be booked within 48 hours, so at least there's that. One more thing to worry about I suppose!

No real news on purchase this week, but I didn't expect any. We're in that quiet phase of solicitors (hopefully!) beavering away behind the scenes while the rest of us wait. Trying not to let the anxiety take hold too hard for the moment, there's still a long way to go!