The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

sjc93

shinytop said:

Have people who have moved recently or are planning to do so managed to find a removal company?  The guidelines are a bit vague but it seems like moving into an empty property is possible?

I actually checked this and some removal companies (here in the cotswolds) are still going but they're using the social distancing measures of 2m and only two of them at one time being in the property with the stuff that needs to move (meaning you'd need to leave or at least vacate the place so they're able to safely move your things into the van) etc.

Thrugelmir

sjc93 said:

Here's our timeline so far...
06/03/2020 - offer made on our perfect first home
09/03/2020 - full application made with YBS
11/03/2020 - solicitors instructed
17/03/2020 - mortgage offer received (!!!!) 
26/03/2020 - searches & enquiries conducted on the property
10/04/2020 - searches completed on the property, (TR1) contracts have been sent to the vendor to complete & solicitors have requested for us to do the same.

Not too sure whether it's because we managed to pick a completely incompetent solicitor at this time but I'm finding this part a whole more stressful than the mortgage applicaiton & offer itself. Luckily we have an Estate Agent who is frequently in touch with the vendor's solicitor and is keeping us in touch with everything that's happening on their end, but our solicitors have been terrible. No guidence, have had to send them multiple documents at least twice, they don't even confirm if they have received anything and never respond to any of our actual questions and it takes them almost a week now to respond to our emails. We picked a specialist property conveyancer solicitors thinking it would actually help as well!

Just hope we can get some form of timeline as to when we're looking to exchange & complete (property isn't occupied and hasn't been for some time) so if anyone else has any kind clue.... Anything is welcome (as we get literally nothing from our solicitors!) 

Your conveyancers won't have a clue!  Anything at this point in time will be a finger in the air job. Have the vendors responded to the enquiries yet? 

Windofchange

I've kind of just forgotten about it all for the time being. We had our offer accepted January 31st, and everything was proceeding well until the Corona virus trouble. We have completed everything from our end and are in a position to exchange contracts, but our seller or her solicitor just seem to be ignoring correspondence at present. I asked our solicitor to enquire about an exchange date, and that was just under 2 weeks ago. I'm kind of just assuming the worst and that it will all fall through, so given work is so busy at present (we're both frontline NHS) I've just had my head down and sort of forgotten about it all. Whatever will be will be. Estate agent is either just away from work, or in hospital somewhere (hopefully not) as she is not answering phone or e-mails, and of course the main office is shut so nobody answering there. It's just one big stalemate at the moment. I guess once restrictions are lifted then we might get some movement. Our mortgage offer doesn't expire until June 30th, so there is still a good chance it'll all work out for us as long as restrictions go sometime in May, but it is going to drag on far longer than I'd hoped. Our main selling point was we had cleared deposit, AIP and were renting so could move quickly. This I think is what got us the property over others, but doesn't seem much point in it all now as nobody is going anywhere! Frustrating. 

sjc93

Thrugelmir said:

Your conveyancers won't have a clue!  Anything at this point in time will be a finger in the air job. Have the vendors responded to the enquiries yet? 

They have - we were told by the Estate Agents early this week that they had been responded to but they've heard nothing from our solicitors or have been given any kind of progress report.

They're messing up on basic things (getting our current address wrong, saying that we need to fill in a source of funds form when we had already done so, got 6 bank statements certified, sent it off, told them we had a LISA and instead they give us ISA paperwork)... it's all very lazily done, we've had a minimum of three people on our case, (maybe more, due to the fact that they don't even sign their names at the bottom of the signature) and it's getting so frustrating that they won't tell us what's happening or to even update our EA or the vendors solicitor.

bob_the_dinosaur

sjc93 said:

shinytop said:

Have people who have moved recently or are planning to do so managed to find a removal company?  The guidelines are a bit vague but it seems like moving into an empty property is possible?

I actually checked this and some removal companies (here in the cotswolds) are still going but they're using the social distancing measures of 2m and only two of them at one time being in the property with the stuff that needs to move (meaning you'd need to leave or at least vacate the place so they're able to safely move your things into the van) etc.

That is basically what is happening with our firm, some have just closed down 

Dreamingandimpatient

Finally our offer came through.  Solicitors are now doing all the searches, fortunately our council have no delays on searches and these are all done electronically within 5 working days!  
Now, our solicitor has asked if we would like to receive documents electronically.  Does this mean all our contracts will come via email for us to sign and scan and return?  A first batch of documents were sent to us to complete and sign and return which was done via email, printed, signed, scanned and returned.  I wonder if this will be the same for our contracts?  
Thank you!

Tiglet2

Dreamingandimpatient said:

Finally our offer came through.  Solicitors are now doing all the searches, fortunately our council have no delays on searches and these are all done electronically within 5 working days!  
Now, our solicitor has asked if we would like to receive documents electronically.  Does this mean all our contracts will come via email for us to sign and scan and return?  A first batch of documents were sent to us to complete and sign and return which was done via email, printed, signed, scanned and returned.  I wonder if this will be the same for our contracts?  
Thank you!

Yes, receiving documents electronically means they will come via email, but official documents (contract/transfer/mortgage deed) will have to be printed and signed.  Then they will need to be posted back as the solicitor will need your original wet signature on the documents.

sjc93

Dreamingandimpatient said:

Finally our offer came through.  Solicitors are now doing all the searches, fortunately our council have no delays on searches and these are all done electronically within 5 working days!  
Now, our solicitor has asked if we would like to receive documents electronically.  Does this mean all our contracts will come via email for us to sign and scan and return?  A first batch of documents were sent to us to complete and sign and return which was done via email, printed, signed, scanned and returned.  I wonder if this will be the same for our contracts?  
Thank you!

That's amazing, congratulations!!

Our solicitors have now done the same thing and has requested the documents to all be sent via email & the hard copies returned in the post - I think it's standard practice now with all the Furloughing going on.

After a very long complaint email, we're waiting on one more local search to come back and a couple more enquiries then I think it's all systems go.. With all this nice weather, we just want to be in our house already (we're currently renting a flat) and we cannot wait to actually own a garden!

Sncjw

Update on my home. 

Funds from help to buy isa has been transferred to current account. Waiting for the closing statement which can take 7 days but solicitor was hoping to complete everything next week. I will hold my breath for that 

Disney_Pluto

Hi guys, 

Wondering if there is anyone further down the line who may be able to give us an idea of timescale. We have part exchanged our house to a small developer. So no chain and as our house is only 6 years old I’m not sure developer is going to bother getting searches etc done. Obviously as we have a mortgage we have to get certain things done so
this is where we are so far: 

*Developer offered part ex 02/04/20

*Mortgage applied for 02/04/20
*Official mortgage offer through 09/04/20 (with desktop valuation done) paperwork received. 
*Solicitor received all the paperwork for sale and purchase 20/04/20 as says they will now get on with searches etc. 

obviously no chain, moving into new build and no one moving into our house. How long do people think the process will take? We are pretty anxious because we are having our second child in 10 weeks and would love to be moved in by then. Does anyone think it’s totally unrealistic in these unprecedented times to think we could exchange and complete in less than 10 weeks? 

Thanks