The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

Jennifer_Davey

Finally exchanged Friday!! Felt like we'd never get there but we have!

Completion set for next Thursday :T

Liz3

Thank you Alacia, - I am sure that at the end of the day all will be well!!!

Alacia1988

Well done Jennifer! Hope your move goes smoothly.

ainebmq

Hi all! I've been a lurker on this board for a rather long time now - and am only just now feeling like I'm in a position to post with a timeline- I'm extraordinarily unlucky, I think! I've been viewing and trying to buy a property for over a year now, so the dates of things that happened last year are approximate. This is ludicrously long, sorry...

Flat 1
-July 2018 - Offer accepted, solicitor instructed, mortgage application in.
-Aug-September 2018 - Mortgage approved, survey done, searches ongoing, completion date of before Halloween discussed...
-October 2018 - Turns out the sellers have been going through a nasty divorce - wife wants to sell the flat, husband wants to keep it. It ends up going to court, judge rules in husband's favour. I get a phone call completely out of the blue one day from the estate agent telling me it's not going to happen. I cry a lot and stress book a holiday.

Flat 2
-October 2018 - The flat next door to the previous one goes back on sale after having sale agreed. I immediately put in an offer of asking price (as I had viewed and liked it before, but had been outbid.) It's accepted. Mortgage application #2 submitted.
-November 2018 - Mortgage application approved. Searches done, etc etc...
- December 2018 - H2B ISA closed and funds transferred to solicitor. Then some legal issues arise - the freeholders of the building (a converted convent) had gone into liquidation without transferring the title to the management company. At the last minute, the administrators wanted more money and refused to transfer the title. My mortgage company (Nationwide) wouldn't lend until this was done, and the management company's solicitors advised mine that they did not expect this issue to be resolved any time soon, so I was unable to buy it.

Flat 3
- December 2018 - First viewing (when I first suspected the previous flat was not going to work out).
- 4/1/19 - Second viewing and offer made.
- 9/1/19 - Offer Accepted
- 10/1 - Mortgage application in.
- 18/1 - Survey (mortgage and homebuyers) done
- 21/1 - Mortgage offer issued
- 4/2 - Meeting with solicitor. He is still waiting for various documents and searches back, and there are a few things that concern him.
- Turns out these flats have exactly the same issue as the previous one! The developer went into administration while still owning the freehold, but we've been informed the management company are appointing a solicitor and expect this issue to be resolved soon. I (correctly!) do not believe this, and find another mortgage broker to see if any mortgage company will lend while this is ongoing. I stress book another holiday...
12/4 - The broker has no luck, and I let the estate agent know that the property isn't mortgageable and I can't buy it. Back to the drawing board...

Property 4!
- 8/5 - Viewed a house (as I've been burned too many times by flats - and besides, have run out of ones I like in the area I want!). I like it a lot, but there is a lot of interest and the vendor has already rejected an offer of asking price as they wanted her to take it off the market immediately and they thought they could get more.
- 10/5 - Estate agent rings and says the seller has received a higher offer and will accept it unless I want to make one. So I do.
-13/5 - Offer accepted.
-16/5 - Mortgage application in, valuation survey carried out.
-23/5 - Mortgage offer issued.
-4/6 - Homebuyer's survey carried out.
-5/6 - Survey results received - nothing unexpected.
- 13/6 - Meeting with solicitor. Still waiting on some documents and answers to enquiries, but he's happy. We set a tentative completion date for the 27th June, as he goes on holiday for three weeks on the 28th...
- 18/6 - Estate agent says my vendors won't be able to do the 27th as there's been a paperwork delay up the chain. Date then set for the 22nd July...
- 8/7 - Estate agent rings and asks if we can change the date to the 23rd, as it would suit my vendor better. I agree and try not to sound like I was terrified he was calling me to tell me it was all off... again.

So I'm now sitting biting my nails and staring at the phone, half expecting someone to call me and tell me that there's something wrong with this one too :eek:.

Dave_606

Well, the results from the enquiries were received by the solicitors last Friday and they said they had prepared the reply and was sending it out. Yet 5 days later I've still not received this reply with enquiry results. OK, I'm not expecting these things next day as such, but like the initial enquiries stage things seem to be slowing a lot now for no reason, more so when they have said they hold the information yet I'm having to wait for it. They could at least give the initial information via email (with the rent charge issue they did) first and then follow up with all the written info for our records.

Yalpsmol

Ainebmq that does sound quite unlucky. Glad things seem to be moving on now. Have you exchanged/when are you expecting to exchange?

Visited solicitors for first time Monday. In and out in about 90 seconds. Everything signed, fees transferred and tentative completion date suggested for early August. Just have to sort indemnity insurance for mortgage which vendor unhappy to pay for unfortunately. Have read it should be quite cheap though. No chain and property vacant for 6 months so just have to see if timing suits the vendor. Solicitor on holiday end of this month for a few weeks so hopefully exchange in next 2 weeks and then complete under the locum.

Alacia1988

still waiting....... 4 of us in our chain and all 3 are waiting on my buyers solicitor. "HOPEFULLY" exchanging this week....hate that word "hopefully"

nicksfustration

nicksfustration wrote: »

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!

STILL WAITING...

We are now at the stage where we have received most of the replies to our solicitors enquiries and just waiting on a few little things.

The one thing that I am most concerned is taking time is our Seller has a car parking space that she is selling separately as we didn't want and couldn't afford, but is therefore having to separate the lease as it currently includes the car parking space. We are still awaiting formal permission from the freeholder to be able to do this.
Has anyone been through something like this before?
All this waiting is truly making me go absolutely crazy! it feels like i have been waiting for this house forever!!
I am at the point where i am no longer excited, but will just be relieved once we have it sorted!

drgg

14/05 - First viewing
16/05 - Second viewing, offer accepted, contact & confirm our solicitor
17/05 - Mortgage application in, survey arranged
20/05 - Mortgage company does their valuation, surveyor attends property for Homebuyers Report
21/05 - Receive homebuyers report, receive initial documents to sign from solicitors & sent back
23/05 - Mortgage approved!! Specialist survey arranged to look at some areas of wood rot in the hallway

18/06 - Find out house is leasehold...!
25/06 - Get confirmation of lease length, ground rent and update the mortgage application
15/07 - Valuation redone, mortgage offer confirmed and in the post

I didn't realise how much time we'd spent faffing around about the leasehold. Hopefully now we can start discussing dates for exchange, ideally in July. Getting impatient now!

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)

SNIP


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.

27/06- after trying for 7 months to buy the last house our offer has been accepted on the other house yesterday and Mortgage application is already submitted along with solicitor informed that we are starting the process of buying this house also and to not do any more chargeable work on the other house purchase until we have decided what to do

And so it begins again!:rotfl::eek::beer::j

28/06 - Got my Mortgage applied for yesterday and 10 mins later confirmation that a valuation survey has been booked for today. No hanging like last time. This time i'll be pushing all the way. the Vendor has just had the sale fallen through at the last hour so shouldn't be any reason why we can't get to exchange stage asap.

2/07 - Mortgage valuation done last week and today Mortgage company confirmed all paperwork received and Valuation report acceptable for the house price.

Also phonemail from first house EA saying probate still not granted but now they are just waiting for Oaths to be signed from all the beneficiaries some of whom live in spain and then probate should be granted! Not quite sure whats going on as i'd been told the only person involved in the sale was the brother of the guy who died and now we find out there is multiple people! Thinking the new house is the better choice now though regardless.

8/07 - Confirmation email from Mortgage lender received on friday(5/7) offering us the mortgage we applied for so thats the money sorted just got to sort out the rest of the stuff now.
-Starting our 'being annoying' approach to buying this one today by sending my first email to Solicitor asking if the searches have been applied for and if not why not as they were paid for them a week ago.

17/07- Sellers solicitor finally pulled there finger out and sent over draft contract pack. So after an email thins morning confirmation that searches being applied for today received by my Sol's Assistant.

-Side note- i've discovered if I CC in the Assistant to my emails I generally get a reply within an hour or two but if I only email the Sol herself it takes at least a week!! Useful tip for you all:beer::beer: