The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

thaddy

Finally jumping in on this thread! We received our mortgage offer on 13 August and started the process of instructing our appointed solicitors on the 12th through their online platform Digital Move but we don't have all the information to hand to complete the process. Hopefully it will all be sorted out on Monday so that we can start on the next stage of purchasing our property. I am hoping everything goes smoothly and all the best to everyone too!

Abbiejo

After our case being marked as “complete” and ready to exchange just waiting on the house our seller is buying which should be ready next week, our lovely solicitor emailed to say that she’s just noticed she’s not received my closing statement from my help to buy ISA which I notified her I was posting over 3 weeks ago.  And that our bank statements which were sent over a month ago don’t show sufficient funds for completion (which they 100% did) and when I pointed this out she said she hadn’t looked at the latest statements I sent over to her 3 weeks ago.  I’ve now put a complaint  into the estate agent who suggested them, she’s been useless and has created problem after problem and doesn’t seem to know what they hell she’s doing.  And now when the EA says we could complete within 2 weeks she comes up with problems after finding things that she’s not told us to rectify! 🤬

FtbDreaming

The monies have been sent!!! Just waiting for confirmation of completion then I am the proud owner of my own home! Now it’s time for me to move on from this forum onto the MFW!!!! 

Good luck to everyone else! Its been a long journey but I got there in the end! X

Jamaicanmelaff

FtbDreaming said:

The monies have been sent!!! Just waiting for confirmation of completion then I am the proud owner of my own home! Now it’s time for me to move on from this forum onto the MFW!!!! 

Good luck to everyone else! Its been a long journey but I got there in the end! X

Congratulations! How exciting for you. You must be so relieved it's finally over!

Jamaicanmelaff

Jamaicanmelaff said:

Gonna join this thread now I'm done stalking the mortgage and endowments page! Sorry, it's gonna be a really long one cos I'm a pre-lockdown case and there've been a few hiccups along the way.

• 7th and 10th March viewed property
• 12th March offer accepted
• 18th March met with first broker to go through application - I was naive and was using an estate agent broker. Lockdown seemed to be looming but he assured me that if it did occur, he would have all my documents etc at home and would continue working on my case. As income has increased over last 3 years, advised me to submit my 2019/20 tax return on 6th April and he would include my income for that year as by the time the application was reviewed I'd have my SA302 and tax year overview to prove it, so to send those through in April.
• 8th April sent broker SA302 and tax year overview for 2019/20. Got a brief thanks, will submit back.
• 15th April chased broker as not heard anything at all. Got an auto reply saying he was furloughed.
• 29th April - after 2 weeks spent chasing the company my broker worked for and being given the run around, finally got hold of someone who confirmed my application was never submitted in the first place. Fired them, obviously, requested back my "payable on application" fee be refunded - received a month later.
• 30th April - had a phone consultation with L&C to go through all my circumstances etc. Advised with the current climate and being self-employed it would help massively to increase my deposit to 20% if possible. It was, but I wouldn't have full amount until the 15th May.
• 1st May - application submitted to HSBC. HSBC said they required the full proof of deposit so to wait to submit all docs until I had my next bank statements.
• 4th June - documents submitted to HSBC.
• 8th June - additional docs requested by HSBC due to self-employment and Covid income checks.
• 6th July - HSBC said the underwriters were assessing and that hopefully by Fri 10th would have either another request for docs/info or instruct valuation.
• 13th July - HSBC advised underwriters were assessing and that hopefully by Fri 17th they'd either request more docs or instruct valuation. L&C queried why the update was identical to a week before and why there had been such long delays. Told it was now with senior underwriters and all previous delays had been due to issues with the HSBC legacy portal (foreign income) and the docs they'd said were in the queue for 4 weeks had actually been on the portal unnoticed and not in any queue (despite L&C also emailing them). L&C escalated case and asked BDM to instruct valuation immediately.
• 13th July - also received results of damp report that had been instructed before lockdown but unable to proceed. No major issues - YAY!
• 16th July - Mortgage offer received.
• 17th July - instructed solicitor to begin searches and booked homebuyer's report for 31st July.

And that's it so far. PHEW. So glad that my seller is unbelievably patient. Everyone who speaks to her tells me how lovely she is. This would've been even more stressful if she'd been putting pressure on too.

Not updated this for a while. Solicitor has approved contract and sent initial enquiries to seller's solicitor but is still waiting for the local searches to come back (my council says 30 working days because my council is !!!!!! lol). Homebuyer's report came back and nothing too major, a couple of things to sort out straightaway but nothing unexpected and plenty of money between offer and valuation to allow for it. Sent my seller a bunch of flowers to thank her for her patience and got a lovely email back so all good on that side and happy to wait. Hopefully neither of us will be waiting too much longer!

kjelyse

Due to exchange and complete today! ... The seller's documents were "lost in the post" and they're having to drive over to their solicitor's to sign them again. Sigh. 

kasqueak

FtbDreaming said:

The monies have been sent!!! Just waiting for confirmation of completion then I am the proud owner of my own home! Now it’s time for me to move on from this forum onto the MFW!!!! 

Good luck to everyone else! Its been a long journey but I got there in the end! X

Great news! Got there in the end!

kasqueak

kjelyse said:

Due to exchange and complete today! ... The seller's documents were "lost in the post" and they're having to drive over to their solicitor's to sign them again. Sigh. 

Congratulations! 

Hope it’s all successful!

anerise

anerise said:

Updated timeline: (FTB, bottom of a 3 party chain)

29/2 Viewed house
4/3 Offer accepted
5/3 Solicitor instructed, ID checks done & searches ordered the following week
18/3 Mortgage application made via broker- 95% LTV (!)
**COVID lockdown...mortgage on ice due to lack of physical valuation. Solicitor furloughed.**
21/5 Mortgage valuation finally takes place. Solicitor back from furlough, sends progress report 
1/6 Mortgage offer issued!!
3/6 Homebuyers survey done, recommends a structural engineer for a specific issue
4/6 Vendors agree to do 10 day radon test as the house is in a radon area and they don’t want to do a bond
15/6 Signed contract, mortgage deed etc returned to solicitor
16/6 Radon detectors returned to lab for analysis 

24/6 Solicitor informs us that all enquires complete

1/7 Radon test comes back clear, no further action necessary

3/7 Structural engineer report comes back- no issues. Now ready for exchange! Or so we thought....
8/7 Found out the vendor’s solicitor neglected to do a mining search for their onward purchase as required by their lender...back to waiting 😩😭

5/8 Vendor’s mining search back and approved by lender finally!
10/8 Exchange/Completion date of 18 August agreed!

God this has been a long process but we are finally getting there. Just waiting for the finalised completion statement from our solicitor so we can make sure they have all their money before next Tuesday. Fingers crossed.

Almost there! Logged into the Natwest mortgage tracker and it says ‘your client’s mortgage account is now live’ which I think must mean they’ve released the funds to the solicitor. We’ve already sent them our deposit and fees so everything should be lined up now....exchange and completion set for tomorrow 🤞🏾 Movers already booked for Thursday!

Hannimal

My survey, I think, went ahead on Friday. This was also the valuation. No idea what happens now, I just wait. The month of absolutely nothing having happened is getting on my nerves.


11/07 viewed property
11/07 offer accepted 
13/07 AIP
13/07 instructed the solicitor 
14/07 mortgage application submitted
24/07 survey instructed
26/07 searches came back
14/08 survey date