The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

hannah2283

Out of interest at what point have people set exchange and completion dates? I’m not in a chain (I’m a FTB and the seller has already moved out) and the initial paperwork just said ASAP for completion. I had my mortgage offer last Monday and have emailed the solicitor twice since then to nail down dates (am moving 60 miles, need a bit of work done before I move in) but no response (no out of office or anything) and I’m starting to get nervous as I want to get moved before any new lockdown or second wave. A few weeks ago the solicitor said “it shouldn’t take long” between me getting the mortgage offer and completion but I’m a bit in the dark at the moment. 

atrixa

hannah2283 said:

Out of interest at what point have people set exchange and completion dates? I’m not in a chain (I’m a FTB and the seller has already moved out) and the initial paperwork just said ASAP for completion. I had my mortgage offer last Monday and have emailed the solicitor twice since then to nail down dates (am moving 60 miles, need a bit of work done before I move in) but no response (no out of office or anything) and I’m starting to get nervous as I want to get moved before any new lockdown or second wave. A few weeks ago the solicitor said “it shouldn’t take long” between me getting the mortgage offer and completion but I’m a bit in the dark at the moment. 

Have your searches been returned? Mine have a 4 week wait so it'll be late September before I'm expecting any dates to be advised.

hannah2283

atrixa said:

hannah2283 said:

Out of interest at what point have people set exchange and completion dates? I’m not in a chain (I’m a FTB and the seller has already moved out) and the initial paperwork just said ASAP for completion. I had my mortgage offer last Monday and have emailed the solicitor twice since then to nail down dates (am moving 60 miles, need a bit of work done before I move in) but no response (no out of office or anything) and I’m starting to get nervous as I want to get moved before any new lockdown or second wave. A few weeks ago the solicitor said “it shouldn’t take long” between me getting the mortgage offer and completion but I’m a bit in the dark at the moment. 

Have your searches been returned? Mine have a 4 week wait so it'll be late September before I'm expecting any dates to be advised.

At the start of august she said she had sent them off. The local council has a 15 working day turnaround on them. So they should be back by now. 

chillicheesedog

Flugelhorn said:

chillicheesedog said:

Well, very unexpectedly we actually exchanged today!!!
Literally the last minutes of the day.
Turns out the seller had the docs signed weeks ago and their solicitor was just being incredibly slow. After a quick call to seller they chased their solicitor and it all went through!
Hallelujah!
Completion for end of September 🥳

Hooray! It really is a great feeling 

Thank you! Finally can actually breathe out.

Hannah13409

hannah2283 said:

Out of interest at what point have people set exchange and completion dates? I’m not in a chain (I’m a FTB and the seller has already moved out) and the initial paperwork just said ASAP for completion. I had my mortgage offer last Monday and have emailed the solicitor twice since then to nail down dates (am moving 60 miles, need a bit of work done before I move in) but no response (no out of office or anything) and I’m starting to get nervous as I want to get moved before any new lockdown or second wave. A few weeks ago the solicitor said “it shouldn’t take long” between me getting the mortgage offer and completion but I’m a bit in the dark at the moment. 

We had our offer on the Tuesday and when I contacted my solicitor he said I could have the keys 2-3 but still haven’t been given a date. Same situation ftb and the house is empty: i emailed for a date  Friday and he said “I don’t know” he is waiting on the sellers solicitors telling him how quick they can get their end done 

28tsw

Buyer is ready, we’re ready - not sure about seller. Buyer wants to complete in 6-8 weeks because of restrictions on booking leave. I’ve said 6 weeks maximum but it feels like eons away. I’m so nervous HSBC will pull my mortgage for a random reason 

hannah2283

Hannah13409 said:

hannah2283 said:

Out of interest at what point have people set exchange and completion dates? I’m not in a chain (I’m a FTB and the seller has already moved out) and the initial paperwork just said ASAP for completion. I had my mortgage offer last Monday and have emailed the solicitor twice since then to nail down dates (am moving 60 miles, need a bit of work done before I move in) but no response (no out of office or anything) and I’m starting to get nervous as I want to get moved before any new lockdown or second wave. A few weeks ago the solicitor said “it shouldn’t take long” between me getting the mortgage offer and completion but I’m a bit in the dark at the moment. 

We had our offer on the Tuesday and when I contacted my solicitor he said I could have the keys 2-3 but still haven’t been given a date. Same situation ftb and the house is empty: i emailed for a date  Friday and he said “I don’t know” he is waiting on the sellers solicitors telling him how quick they can get their end done 

Good to know. The seller’s solicitor sent over the contract pack back in July, the searches were sent off late July/early August and my solicitor doesn’t reply. Had a hold up with the mortgage which I sorted to make sure we moved as quickly as possible. Just want the keys now. 

lancslass26

Hi - can anyone tell me if it’s possible to exchange and complete the same day when using HTB? Ideally we’d like this as there’s no chain but not sure if possible because of the HTB aspects and forms?

zv13424

Finally received search reports back from solicitor and mortgage deed information ready to discuss exchange finally!

Bfa10

Bfa10 said:

What a day! After waiting 11 working days, HTB Agent notifies us through developer that the ATE application was rejected on Saturday because some information relating to incentives did not match (developer previously was paying for our stamp duty which has now been removed). Bear in mind the solicitor was informed of the change by us and the developer's solicitor. We got the call this evening from the developers and not even heard from our solicitor at all! We'll be ringing her first thing in the morning. We already missed the exchange deadline set for 21st August due to ATE processing timescales and we have a deadline to complete on Friday the 28th. The solicitor has now been advised (by HTB and developer's solicitors) to fill the Form 1 again and submit the Form 2 alongside this. HTB  agent has reassured developer they will process both forms as a matter of urgency by Thursday so we exchange and complete this Friday. Cannot believe this is happening right now!!! The waiting continues...

Bit of a lengthy update as we had the most stressful week ever!!!!

24/08 – We found out via the Sales Advisor that HTB had rejected the Form 1 over the weekend and had not issued the ATE. There was an error on the form where the incentive figure should had been 0 however the solicitor forgot to change this. Our developer was previously going to pay our stamp duty prior to the exemption announcement, and they had removed this after the announcement. We had already pointed out the same error to our solicitor as it had appeared on the Report on Title she had prepared which had to be amended before we signed it. The developer advised they had informed our solicitor that HTB agreed that we could submit the request for ATE as well as CTD to trigger the urgency to issue both, as we had a completion deadline for the 28th of August. This was late in the day so we had to wait till the next day to call the solicitor to find out what exactly was going on.

25/08 – Contacted solicitor first thing in the morning to find out what the issue was and if she had submitted both forms as advised the previous day by the developer. She was yet to submit the ATE request and Form 2 for CTD to HTB because she wanted a verbal confirmation from them (bear in mind the developers thought she had done this the previous day so they were counting on both ATE and CTD being issued on Thursday 27th). When she got it, she sent the updated Form 1 for ATE and Form 2 via email to the HTB agent. She then requested funds to be released from the lender given that we were going to exchange and complete by Friday the 28th.

26/08 – Solicitor called HTB to follow up on the requests and to confirm that these will be issued in time for a simultaneous exchange and completion on the 28th. She was on hold for 2 hours and then got cut off after someone answered and only managed to give our details. She then asked us to call. We called HTB just a little after 4pm and hoped they would pick up before they closed at 6pm, we were still on hold till after 6pm and they did pick up, so we were grateful for that. We confirmed that the ATE and CTD would be issued by Friday in line with current SLA time of 3 working days for CTD. At this point, solicitor was going on annual leave from the next day and had passed our case to another solicitor within the firm.

27/08 - Solicitor who took over found out that the lender had not received the request for funds to be released today in preparation for completion the following day. So she spent the afternoon speaking to several people at the bank and she was advised to send the request again via email to be marked as urgent.

28/08 - We received a text from the lender at 10am telling us funds would be released today. We called HTB first thing in the morning at 9am, after holding for about 1hr 15 mins we were told the Form 2 had been rejected so the CTD had not been issued but ATE had been issued. On further questioning, the agent said it had the same error with the incentive figure as the first Form1 that was submitted. They could not guarantee that they would be able to issue the CTD the same day even if resubmitted. We were livid at this point. We contacted the solicitor who was also on the phone with them and advised of the issue. She managed to speak to someone who advised to resubmit the Form 2 and mark as urgent, we also had the developer chasing the HTB agents. Solicitor had also contacted the lender to know when to expect funds and was advised at noon. The funds came in just a little after 1pm. Finally at around 4pm, the CTD was issued and solicitor was all set to have contracts exchanged and purchase finalised. There was about half an hour before the developer's solicitor was reached (he was not answering his phone!) and then they began the process. Funds was sent early during the discussion to meet up with the bank cut off deadline and all was completed at about 6pm. We got the call shortly after 6pm to pick up the keys and we drove 45 minutes in the pouring rain to pick the keys at about 7pm!!!! The sales team were happy to wait for us even though they closed at 5pm, I think they were probably more excited than us to be honest.

We’ve finally managed to grab a good night rest after several stressful weeks!!! Now on to packing and ordering furniture etc. We have about 3 weeks overlap with our rental so plenty of time to get things in before we finally move in about 2 weeks. Goodluck to everyone still waiting to exchange and complete.