The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

Squirrelz92

Just waiting on a final squiggle from the vendors side for the variation deed and then roll on the 3rd August for exhange/completion!!! SO DAMN EXCITED!!!!

Hannimal

heston2014 said:

We did ours in tranches over 4 days as NatWest has a daily limit on online bank transfers.  So we started the process Tuesday, exchanged Friday.  It was easy enough and saved us fee of £23 if did it via CHAPS and a trip to a branch. 
We had to transfer deposit to exchange contracts and have transferred stamp duty and solicitors fees today as we are completing on Friday.  Sounds like you haven't exchanged yet but have signed contracts, if you haven't yet paid deposit?

What was their daily limit?

Chavy89

FtbDreaming said:

Well I signed my stuff today! 140 mile round trip but it was worth it so I wasn’t sat next to the letter box for weeks waiting for the postman. 

I was expecting lots of stuff but it was just a couple of pages and 3 signatures. The solicitors receptionist witnessed it. 

My solicitor is off till Wednesday then I’m hoping we can have a completion date for Monday or the following Monday. I have my deposit funds ready so it’s just a case of requesting the Halifax mortgage funds. 

I really really hope this is it 

ive been tracking your progress for a while as we started around the same time getting a mortgage offer etc.. im glad to see finally your getting somewhere i will keep checking on your progress, all the best 

Jamaicanmelaff

Hannimal said:

heston2014 said:

We did ours in tranches over 4 days as NatWest has a daily limit on online bank transfers.  So we started the process Tuesday, exchanged Friday.  It was easy enough and saved us fee of £23 if did it via CHAPS and a trip to a branch. 
We had to transfer deposit to exchange contracts and have transferred stamp duty and solicitors fees today as we are completing on Friday.  Sounds like you haven't exchanged yet but have signed contracts, if you haven't yet paid deposit?

What was their daily limit?

Was also wondering this. Just Googled Santander's out of curiosity and it says the transfer limit for a faster payment is £250,000 so I'll definitely be OK lol.

ftb95

The end is finally in sight!
FTB, 90% LTV and no chain.
May 21st - Offer accepted, mortgage application submitted and solicitors instructed.
June 1st - Valuation completed and application sent to underwriter.
June 8th - Paid product fee and mortgage offer issued.
June 9th - Searches submitted.
June 29th - Searches completed & LISA declaration sent to provider. Proposed completion date of July 24th.
July 22nd - LISA funds received by my solicitor, new completion date of July 31st set due to additional queries.
July 24th - Contract etc. signed by myself and delivered to solicitors. Paid remainder of deposit and fees.
July 31st - Simultaneous exchange of contracts/completion & keys to my first home!

Almostfree

Hi all! We are currently waiting to excahnge and need a little advice. When we offered on our property (FTB's) our vendor told us that he would be willing to vacate the property by moving into his (deceased) mother's house as he had not found a new property at that time. Since he had somewhere to go and no purchase of his own pending we considered ourselves not to be in a chain.
Our searches have all come back, mortgage offer received and we have been ready to exchange for over a week. The estate agent told us the seller had proposed 31st as completion date which we were thrilled at. However, we have now been told that we can't even exchange because the seller is buying a bungalow and needs the proceeds from the sale of both our purchase and the sale of his mother's house to complete on that.
We have asked that the seller honours the agreement he made with us and move into his mother's house while he waits for that sale to go through (they are nowhere near completion, only started the searches last week). He is refusing as he does not want to be "homeless" should his own purchase fall through.
This raises massive red flags for me. If he is so concerned that his purchase could fall through, and it does, we will be the ones waiting potentially months while he finds another suitable property and buys that. I am really not happy with the delays, especially since there wasn't even a chain when we offered and we are ready to go.
I emailed our solicitor and said we were considering our options, including pulling out of the sale completely if he cannot agree a date soon. The house itself while ideally located was not my favourite property, although my husband really likes it (probably more so the garden). There's a lot of work to be done to modernise it and get it how we want it, and we already had to renogotiate the price to cover costs of repairing the roof (dodgy DIY skylight). At this point I'm perfectly happy to call the sellers bluff and tell him we're pulling out. My husband is less enthusiastic about rocking the boat but as we are renting and with the prospect of living in a building site, all I see is the money and time we are losing while we wait.
I know every house purchase comes with it's problems, but we weren't in a chain when we offered and the delays (currently looking at 4-6 weeks but could turn into 4-6 MONTHS if his purchase falls through) just aren't worth it in my eyes.

fackers_2

fackers_2 said:

Self employed here and applied with Halifax via Broker.

20th June - MIP

22nd June - Income documents submitted along with Mortgage APP

26th June - Underwriters rejected PDF SA302 and requested scanned copies of the printed version (no difference at all).

27th June - Submitted newly requested versions

9th July - Valuation Instructed

16th July - Valuation and survey

16th July - Mortgage approved

20th July - New Conveyancer assigned (same biz, not sure why) 

20th July - Further enquiries made

23rd July - Electrical test carried out as no previous certificates included.

24th July - Deposit sent / received

27th July - Enquires all responded to and satisfied

28th July - Mortgage deed signed and hand delivered

Now patiently awaiting the simultaneous Exchange / Complete date... My solicitor avoids this question when I keep asking haha. Went into the house on Friday and noticed all of the sellers possessions are all boxed up except large furniture... We’ve been told for weeks that this week is it but I’m starting to doubt it now as I’m still awaiting a bloody date, despite being reassured we’re all set. 

fackers_2

Almostfree said:

Hi all! We are currently waiting to excahnge and need a little advice. When we offered on our property (FTB's) our vendor told us that he would be willing to vacate the property by moving into his (deceased) mother's house as he had not found a new property at that time. Since he had somewhere to go and no purchase of his own pending we considered ourselves not to be in a chain.
Our searches have all come back, mortgage offer received and we have been ready to exchange for over a week. The estate agent told us the seller had proposed 31st as completion date which we were thrilled at. However, we have now been told that we can't even exchange because the seller is buying a bungalow and needs the proceeds from the sale of both our purchase and the sale of his mother's house to complete on that.
We have asked that the seller honours the agreement he made with us and move into his mother's house while he waits for that sale to go through (they are nowhere near completion, only started the searches last week). He is refusing as he does not want to be "homeless" should his own purchase fall through.
This raises massive red flags for me. If he is so concerned that his purchase could fall through, and it does, we will be the ones waiting potentially months while he finds another suitable property and buys that. I am really not happy with the delays, especially since there wasn't even a chain when we offered and we are ready to go.
I emailed our solicitor and said we were considering our options, including pulling out of the sale completely if he cannot agree a date soon. The house itself while ideally located was not my favourite property, although my husband really likes it (probably more so the garden). There's a lot of work to be done to modernise it and get it how we want it, and we already had to renogotiate the price to cover costs of repairing the roof (dodgy DIY skylight). At this point I'm perfectly happy to call the sellers bluff and tell him we're pulling out. My husband is less enthusiastic about rocking the boat but as we are renting and with the prospect of living in a building site, all I see is the money and time we are losing while we wait.
I know every house purchase comes with it's problems, but we weren't in a chain when we offered and the delays (currently looking at 4-6 weeks but could turn into 4-6 MONTHS if his purchase falls through) just aren't worth it in my eyes.

Did you put in the conditions of the offer that it’s based on the seller NOT using the house as proceeds for the next house? If so I would absolutely be threatening to pull out especially given how close you are... Then again, you really need to weigh up how much you want this house and if you’re prepared to wait... Personally I’d find another house

HomeownerDreamer

How often are people chasing their solicitor? Mine submitted searches on Thursday and has the draft contract to look over. Should I be chasing weekly or whatever? The LA website said searches take an average of 5 working days or a maximum of 10 working days and the other searches should only take a couple of days maximum so is it reasonable to expect an update this week?

Windofchange

I've been dropping in and out of this thread since the start of the year, and we are finally there on our purchase - well, we've exchanged at least about half an hour ago. From the offer being accepted on January 31st to the present day, it hasn't been smooth sailing with the shut down of the property market due to the pandemic, but we have made it. We're completing in a few weeks time, and now finally all that stress has turned to excitement. It will have been just under 7 months from offer accepted to completion, and trying to do this in the middle of a global pandemic isn't something I would want to do again! Rather than doing a timeline, I thought I'd leave a few things that I would do differently if speaking with myself back at the start of the year.

1) Recognise that this is going to take time. I was in a mad rush to get everything signed and sent back the day it landed in my inbox, when actually I could have just actioned it at my leisure.
2) Don't transfer the deposit to the solicitor until it is needed - they have been getting interest on a near six figure sum in their account for the last 6 months. It won't be a huge amount, but might have brought us a few bottles of Moet!
3) There will be loooooonnnnngggg periods of time where you hear nothing from anybody. We heard nothing from the end of May until early July when exchange dates started to be discussed. Things happen in fits and starts. Our solicitor literally called us out of the blue about a week ago and said right, we're ready to exchange today. Oh, ok, go on then....
4) No amount of ringing and stressing at people is going to speed anything up. I think actually we have been pretty good and just let it tick along, but there are people on here who seem to be on the phone near daily asking what is going on. It won't help. 
5) Use a mortgage broker. Ours identified the exact same deal that I had done with the Halifax, but he was invaluable in terms of answering my questions, calming me down etc etc. That is what I paid the money for - having someone who does this for a living to deal with the admin and my endless questions. 
6) This site has been a fantastic resource too for bouncing things off. Use it.

Good luck all - as long as nothing weird happens between now and completion, in three weeks I will be sat typing things in my new house!