The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

Jadek

Thought I'd join in to keep myself occupied during all the waiting. We are FTB, seller is buying a property and their sellers are moving into a vacant one. Here is our timeline:
12/03 (yep, March) - viewed house
13/03 - offer accepted, instructed solicitor 
then, lockdown...
sometime in May EA told us the market had reopened and the seller would be recommencing their property search
29/07 - seller found a property
31/07 - EA advised that the chain is complete
04/08 - mortgage application submitted
18/08 - mortgage valuation carried out
26/08 - solicitor advised that title papers received, searches submitted
28/08 - homebuyers survey carried out
02/09 - mortgage offer received

I had thought that once we'd got the mortgage offer we were almost there, and was hoping that we might be able to exchange by the end of September so that we could give our notice on our rental place and complete sometime in October. Now after reading about how long searches are taking I've realised that was incredibly optimistic. The solicitor told me yesterday they haven't had the searches back yet, which is unsurprising. The EA has also told me that the sellers only submitted their mortgage application a week or two ago, not sure who with but the average offer time seems to be about a month right now. So who knows, at a pinch exchanging by the end of the month might still be possible but I'm not getting my hopes up.

We are now very used to waiting but it doesn't make it less frustrating. At least it's nice to know there are other people also being driven mad by the wait! 

HomeownerDreamer

Mortgage funds have been requested and we're planning simultaneous exchange and completion next Friday! Nothing left to do now except wait, going to be the longest wait of my life! FTB and feeling a mixture of excitement and total fear of something going wrong at the last hurdle.

Hannah13409

We’re supposed to be completing on the 11th September and we are still waiting on the help to buy isa completion certificate coming through solicitor said we need this at least 3 days prior we phoned yesterday and they said it wasn’t processed yesterday 😭

shaunad93

Hi! FTB here and usual lurker. My offer was accepted 7 weeks ago now and I had hoped that some time in September I’d be a home owner but I learned from the solicitor yesterday that the sellers are still waiting on a mortgage offer for the house their buying (which is empty) so no chain further up than them. 

I know 7 weeks is nothing compared to some post but I’m a little fed up now. Solicitor took 4 weeks from me handing in my paperwork to realise they had photocopied a travel visa in my passport rather than the main page, also took 4 weeks to request searches which luckily are now back and all ok. 

Everything my end is kind of good to go (or so I believe, FTB so putting faith in the solicitor) so it’s frustrating having to wait for other people. I’m also mindful that I have a Lifetime ISA. Does anyone know at what stage the solicitor will request my funds from that account and then how long from request to it being with my solicitor takes? 

hannah2283

shaunad93 said:

Hi! FTB here and usual lurker. My offer was accepted 7 weeks ago now and I had hoped that some time in September I’d be a home owner but I learned from the solicitor yesterday that the sellers are still waiting on a mortgage offer for the house their buying (which is empty) so no chain further up than them. 

I know 7 weeks is nothing compared to some post but I’m a little fed up now. Solicitor took 4 weeks from me handing in my paperwork to realise they had photocopied a travel visa in my passport rather than the main page, also took 4 weeks to request searches which luckily are now back and all ok. 

Everything my end is kind of good to go (or so I believe, FTB so putting faith in the solicitor) so it’s frustrating having to wait for other people. I’m also mindful that I have a Help to Buy ISA. Does anyone know at what stage the solicitor will request my funds from that account and then how long from request to it being with my solicitor takes? 

For the H2B ISA yesterday I closed the account with nationwide, I’ll get sent a closing statement and then send that to my solicitor who will request the funds. 

krowsell

Good morning,
FTB here and today my partner and I are hoping to exchange and complete!!
It has been a long road ( having waited 5 weeks for our mortgage offer) and we never thought we would get to this day as solicitors (especially the sellers) were so slow in getting enquiries answered and so forth. It has been so nice to hear people's stories on here and it uplifted me on days when I thought we'd never get to this stage, now here we are. I can't get fully excited yet until I get those keys so hopefully we aren't left waiting very long today.

I wanted to say thank you to all the posters on here because you have made my journey that bit better as I read your stories to know that I'm not the only one in that position and good luck to everyone still waiting, you will get there!

shaunad93

hannah2283 said:

shaunad93 said:

Hi! FTB here and usual lurker. My offer was accepted 7 weeks ago now and I had hoped that some time in September I’d be a home owner but I learned from the solicitor yesterday that the sellers are still waiting on a mortgage offer for the house their buying (which is empty) so no chain further up than them. 

I know 7 weeks is nothing compared to some post but I’m a little fed up now. Solicitor took 4 weeks from me handing in my paperwork to realise they had photocopied a travel visa in my passport rather than the main page, also took 4 weeks to request searches which luckily are now back and all ok. 

Everything my end is kind of good to go (or so I believe, FTB so putting faith in the solicitor) so it’s frustrating having to wait for other people. I’m also mindful that I have a Help to Buy ISA. Does anyone know at what stage the solicitor will request my funds from that account and then how long from request to it being with my solicitor takes? 

For the H2B ISA yesterday I closed the account with nationwide, I’ll get sent a closing statement and then send that to my solicitor who will request the funds. 

Thanks! Mine is a lifetime ISA (obviously wasn’t paying attention when typing my original post), so wonder if it’s the same process. I wasn’t even aware I had to close the account!

looplass

Well we finally exchanged late yesterday afternoon!!  It was a very fraught tense day and I never want to do it again. Main problem was the difficulty in getting solicitor to contact each other. I am grateful to all who post on here as reading your experiences gave me encouragement when I was at my lowest, and wondering if it would ever happen. Well it did - and good luck and patience to all who are hoping to exchange/ complete today 

FTHophap

My completion date has been confirmed for next Friday but no confirmation I've exchanged, Is this normal?

28tsw

I’m losing it now. Buyer has queries outstanding since July with out solicitor. He goes on leave and I’ve asked 5 times for an update on what is going on with these queries. Nothing back. Why are solicitors so bad at communicating!