The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

letitbe90

latte19 wrote: »

Hi guys, joining the queue for completion. I exchange tomorrow and move in on 4th July.

It’s been a rollercoaster ride.

Feb - viewed house
Mar/Apr - offer negotiation / 2 mortgage refusals
May - finally mortgage confirmed after jumping through a few hoops
House survey showed 2 issues needing dealt with which delayed a further 3 weeks.
June - Signing up tomorrow
July - Completion hopefully 4th July

Never moving again.... lol

Just completed last Thursday with a process that began in mid February. I too am relieved it is over and do not plan to move for a very very long time!

chunkytfg

21/10 - AIP
7/11 - Offer accepted on House/ Landlord notified that our plans have changed and asking to be let off the lease(he agreed providing someone can be found)
20/11 - Mortgage application submitted
26/11 - House valuation survey completed
27/11 - Mortgage approved!
28/11 - Solicitor requesting Proof of deposit by way of bank statements.
4/12 - Solicitor sent more info including Fixtures and fittings form and Property info form.
- First round of enquiries letter also sent to sellers solicitor
- Informed searches have been done and awaiting responses plus do we want any of a selection of further searches done.
21/12- more searches back with no response from sellers Sol re equiries
18/01 still no response from sellers Sol regarding searches. EA being asked to chase by our SoL

22/01. Letter from Sol which included copy of title deeds with covenants which were pretty normal except that we have to keep a bush or tree in the front garden at all times!
- Aparently probate is still being applied for and not been granted yet. Once again the EA is proved wrong about the seller! We were told it's all sorted and in place
- Electrical installation survey included in lastest paperwork drop dated 15/01 as original paperwork for work done in 2017 lost. House is 'Unsatisfactory' but list of reasons why is really barely an issue and will take me an afternoon to fix so no problems there.
7/02-Another Email yesterday from our Solicitor stating they are still trying to get a response from the Sellers Solicitor in regards the Enquiries that were sent to them on the 4th December!
19/02- EA for Vendor rings to ask hows it's going. Mention we are getting 'disenchanted' with it and have started looking for alternatives.

EA states that he has spoken to the Vendor to find out whats going on as he couldnt believe probate hadn't been sorted yet. Told me he had originally valued the house 6 months prior to it going up for sale when the guy originally inherited it. Apparently there is also a property in spain he also got and because it's not in the UK he has been arguing over having to pay IHT on the estate hence no probate!

20/02 - Another update from EA. Probate should be dealt with this week and the Vendor want completion by 1st March with exchange by this friday(22nd feb!!!!) as he doesn't want to pay to renew the buildings insurance! Fat Chance of that happening!

His solicitor still hasn't responded to the first round of enquiries from 4th december, we have no contract to sign yet and it'll take a few days to send the money over!

However on the bright side it looks like things are possibly moving in the right direction! albeit slowly! :j:j

Spoke too soon.

27/2 - Solicitor emailed saying finally got a response from sellers Sol but not happy with response especially as not able to provide proof of building reg compliance for windows so wants indemnity policy.

I reckon his could become a sticking point as he 2 weeks ago wanted completion by 1st march so he doesn't have to renew his buildings insurance! :mad:

8/3 - 2 Weeks further along and EA has today got an update that the probate has finally been applied for last week and should be all done next week. No news on the indemnity policy yet.



We are now at just over 18 weeks for a no chain simple easy sale!!!

Now at 21 weeks and 4 weeks since probate was finally applied for only to be told today by our solicitor that there has been complications with the probate application and that they wont even respond to the last enquiries until probate has been granted. EA is about to be told we are happy to carry on with the purchase but until they are actually in a position to sell the house we will go back to looking for alternative houses:mad::mad::mad:

P!ssed off doesn't even begin to describe our feelings at the moment!!:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:


1/05- 25 weeks and still no progress. Now getting warnings from mortgage lender that application expires and after ringing them no chance of extending it so will need Tom do a full application again!

We've been looking for other houses including a completely different area and my GF seems quite happy with the idea of movingly somewhere else. Seems to be a slightly worse commute for her but socially it work seems better. All means unless the current seller pulls his finger out and completes before 26th may then he's going to need to seriously incentivise us to go through it all again!:mad::mad:

21/05- Officially 7 months from Initial AIP to no and I think it is fair to say it isn't going to happen by the end of the week. So as of friday this week our mortgage offer will expire with no extensions possible on it. We have no real idea what to do as we still want the house so will have to reapply however we are not sure there is any point while probate still hasn't been sorted. However with the current market we think it could be a good opportunity to try and get a better price but then risk the seller pulling out(And yes I realise the irony in that considering he isn't actually allowed to sell the house atm anyway!!)

31/05 - Mortgage expired, EA informed we will not be reapplying for a new one until the vendor is actually able to proceed having been granted Probate.

Continuing to view all new houses that appear on the market in the area just incase we find something better but nothing has ticked all the boxes like the original house just yet so we continue to wait

24/06- After 8 months of trying to buy this Probate sale we have finally found a house comparable to itin equally terrible condition with equal potential so today we made an offer on it and we now just wait an see what happens. The other house is still officially off the market with us prepared to buy it if it ever becomes available to actually buy but both myself and my GF think both houses are equally good and in the same area so we will just suck up the extra conveyancing costs, start the ball rolling on the new one(assuming we can agree a price) and then the one who exchanges contracts first is the one we buy.

lumpyspaceprincess

Welcome to the thread to the new posters, I hope things move swiftly and smoothly for you!

Update: We rang sols today, basically everything we'd sent in the last 10 days hadn't got from the first person to the case handler, so we've re-sent it all. There's also a few emails I'd not received from them but I've clarified that

Currently waiting on
* conveyancing bill / transfer deposit info
* vendor indemnity query
* lender query (they've requested a form that's irrelevant as we don't have kids)

Set a provisional completion date of 11th July, which should give the lender their 5 working days to send money over easy enough. I think once we've had the bill and sent the deposit etc we're super close to actually exchanging, it's just those 2 queries (which are being chased today)

correll

@latte19. Are contracts exchanged? Good luck for 4th July. I am never moving again either - it is awful

plantqueen

First-time buyer (and poster!) Here goes...

18/6 - First viewing
19/6 Second viewing
20/6 - Offer made
21/6 - Offer declined. Seller wants to wait until other viewings completed.
22/6 - Other offers made but unfavourable. We renegotiate. Offer accepted!
24/6 - Solicitor instructed. Mortgage application sent.

This thread kinda freaks me out. So many things can go wrong! But I'm just happy to get to this point. 26 viewings and 7 unsuccessful offers later. Now just waiting with bated breath.

nicksfustration

So, been lurking on this feed for longer than i care to admit, to give myself both hope and peace of mind that im not the only one that feels like the process takes FOREVER!
My current timeline is below with a little background.

FTB here
So i found a flat accidentally, after viewing a flat i liked i bumped into someone in the building to get some 'impartial' feedback on the building etc. little did i know his friend was selling hers on a higher floor!
So we looked around (fell in love) and 1 week later and 2 viewings later made an offer! - This was back at the end of March.

To save us all some hefty estate agent fees and so she would accept our lower offer, we had to wait until her contract with the estate agent ran out - was about 6 weeks but felt like forever.
During this time we applied for the full mortgage got approved subject to valuation and had solicitor lined up!

Come the 16th May - offer accepted by seller, solicitors officially instructed
18th May - Bank valuation
20th May - Mortgage offer fully approved
30th May - find out that my lawyers haven't even contacted the seller's solicitors yet, despite telling me they had!! FUMING
4th June - chase solicitors to find out if they have received sellers documents to find out they had days ago, but hadn't noticed!
4th June - order searches to be carried out
10th June - solicitor asks for permission to order searches - to say i was annoyed is a gross understatement! delayed a week for literally no reason!
17th June - solicitors tell me that they wont do any contract checks until they receive all the searches back (seems mad - is this standard?)
21st June - search results received by solicitor (obviously emails be at 5:59 on a Friday LOL)
24th June - call them twice and email them twice to recieve an update as i have just found out my seller is on holiday for the second half of July so need things to wrap up before then or will be waiting a lifetime - they don't respond to me - obviously.

FYI - we are FTB and she is moving into a partners place so no chain at all when appreciating these timelines!

I would like to be able to exchange next week - and complete the week after - is this at all likely (if i had half decent lawyers)

Are others lawyers this slow/incompetent? they were recommended by the lender and have all the right trusted awards and great reviews online, so how was i supposed to tell they would drag their feet so much!!

Sorry for the rant, been lurking for a while and just wanted some reassurance that this wont be going on and on and on forever!

correll

@nicksfrustration. Sounds like your solicitors are a nightmare!
April - Our solicitor sent a draft contract to our buyers solicitor the day after we accepted his offer.
Some enquiries were raised and answered. Searches back - no further enquiries.
May - his mortgage applied for. Survey done

June - Mortgage accepted. Further enquiry raised and answered. Should complete Friday 28th
If you solicitors are going to take a week with everything they do - then it could get into August before you complete I hope it doesn't, just keep pushing them

michaelsft

nicksfustration wrote: »

Are others lawyers this slow/incompetent? they were recommended by the lender and have all the right trusted awards and great reviews online, so how was i supposed to tell they would drag their feet so much!!

I'm going through something similar (you may have read above!) but something I've come to realise it that if a sale doesn't complete quickly then the automatic response is that it's the solicitor that are rubbish when the truth is probably not that clear cut. They have a lot of clients, all hoping to be dealt with first so they are under pressure a lot of the time. Some deal with it better than others.

My advice is to call your solicitor each day to check in and see if there's anything you can do to help (there probably won't be but it's a good excuse to find out if they've made any progress). I've had a couple of minor run ins with mine who are very pleasant to speak to on the phone so I often feel bad but I continue to email each day and talk probably every two days and our conversations now are much more business like. She advises what still needs to be done and then I go off to shout at other people for things or investigate myself.

Be patient and polite but forceful and clear in your intentions. Your solicitor is only 5 weeks into a purchase and while they seem to be making a fudge so far based on your timeline, from what I can tell there are always periods of inactivity before things eventually ramp up. Everyone in my chain would have completed within six weeks of offers being accepted but here we are thirteen weeks laters and still at least two weeks away. Our expectations have been dashed several times over but the reality is (having researched it) that you should give at least three to four months to complete. If it comes sooner great, if it gets to three months without significant movement then start shouting.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but completing in the next two or three weeks from your current position seems unlikely. If this takes until the start of August then it's still only ten weeks which isn't unusual at all. I only say this because I have been so stressed recently and I'd do anything to not feel this way. Had I gone into it with more realistic expectations than I would have saved myself weeks of anxiety (which I'm taking medication for now sadly). Don't make plans to move, make plans to live your life which this is all going on. Prepare to have not moved by August and focus on the long game. It all seems so straight forward but that's just not the case with sales. I feel for you, I really do but for your health, treat it more like a business deal than a personal one. I wish I had done that.

michaelsft

Update: to achieve our revised completion date of 10th-12th July we all realise we must exchange on both my sale and purchase by early to mid next week. Any deadline that appears that close is a big no no but it really has come down to the wire now. Completing after the 12th would be detrimental to my buyer and going on today's communications, I believe it would be rather unnecessary as well.

My sale: the buyers solicitors has this evening sent three outstanding enquiries to my solicitor. I'll be checking in with her briefly tomorrow to see if they are straightforward or complicated. Suddenly my sale is the one causing the problems which I guess is a nice change of pace...

My purchase: my solicitor went above and beyond today to respond to new documents but we still have three outstanding enquiries to finalise. The good news is that they appear really rather straightforward. Given the vendor of that flat is busting balls as much as I am, I'm feeling more confident on this side of things today. Tomorrow should provide more answers.

4-7 working days to go to achieve exchange - everything seems to be in place bar these three enquiries on both sides. Fingers crossed they can all be resolved this week. if they are and we complete the week we are all now so desperate for, it'll be close to 16 weeks since offers were accepted on both flats. It's been a real struggle to say the least.

correll

@michaelsft. Well said, it is a nightmare and I wish I wasn't so emotionally invested. I also think it would help if a date for exchange could be set once the chain is complete (say for 12 weeks later) so that you could get on with life and not be in a seesaw of 'will it happen this week' / 'maybe next week'. Then you'd be pleasantly surprised if someone rang you at 8 weeks and says 'we're all ready to exchange'