The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

shakAFC

Frustrated isn’t the word! Solicitors just drag their feet for no apparent reason! Searches and enquiries are back but the solicitors take a week to reply!

Tiglet2

shakAFC said:

Frustrated isn’t the word! Solicitors just drag their feet for no apparent reason! Searches and enquiries are back but the solicitors take a week to reply!

They are not dragging their feet - you are not their only client and they are prioritising their work load as appropriate, like I am sure you have to do in your own work. 

Arghbloodyhouse

My solicitor called me this morning to say they were going to exchange today in time for completion tomorrow. I had a lot on at work so I didn't notice I still hadn't heard from them by 4.30 so I rang at that point and it just rang out.

They'd tell me if they exchanged right? Do they normally tell you? I literally have no idea if I own a house right now... 

mlb95

Hey,
I've really enjoyed reading some of these as we are FTB with no onward chain either.  Our purchase is still in the really early stages but I'm finding it helpful to read yours to get an idea on realistic timings. 

05/10 DIP received
10/10 Viewed property and made offer
13/10 Instructed solitors
14/10 Initial paperwork from solicitors filled out including bank statements and returned
16/10 DIP approved and mortgage application sent
16/10 survey and valuation booked
18/11 Homebuyers survey and valuation set to be completed

We are still waiting for the vendors solicitor to send out the contract pack so our solicitor can begin the searches which I appreciate may take the most time. The solicitors apparently posted the pack out a week ago but still has not been received. Both us, the EA and our solicitor have chased it.

Has anyone recently brought in the Plymouth area and know how long searches are taking at the moment? 

Thanks 😊

Swash

uralmaid said:

We are currently in the throes of a sale and purchase.  We accepted an offer from cash buyers on the 25th August.  As I used to work in Estate Agency for 20 years I thought this would be a straight forward transaction.  Not so. We are 9 weeks in and it is driving me mad that our solicitor doesn't seem to feel the need to give me any updates. (when I worked in the industry I was used to dealing with solicitors up and down the chain weekly) so it drives me nuts.  If I email her she does reply but with scant information.  Also the person in the property we are buying stated right at the outset that he was going into rented but as yet has not been searching for anything even though his estate agent is stressing the need for him  to find somewhere  Every day which goes by without anything in the mail, or a phonecall or email is making my anxiety worse. Added to the fact that Christmas is creeping up quickly I am getting more and more anxious and stressed that something will go wrong. I am not sleeping and lie awake going over and over things. My hubby just says "don't worry" "everything will be fine"  I think the current pandemic has made it worse and I appreciate that things are taking longer but I think the fact that I haven't got much control of things is making it worse.

I'm in the exact same position! It's so frustrating and relying on other people to be efficient at their part of the process is the hardest part. Our vendor said the same thing but don't seem to be in any rush to even post the paperwork. Hope it goes ok for you.

uralmaid

Thanks Swash.  I am now even more frustrated. For the last couple of weeks we have been urging the vendor of our new property to find a rental as he said he was doing. This finally looks as if it has been sorted. Great we thought, now we can crack on.  Wrong! Now our buyer, after 2 months has decided that his solicitor is too slow and is looking to change solicitors.  I have, and my estate agent too has tried to explain that this will push everything back to square one but the are just fed up and say they think it will speed up the transaction. Tearing my hair out here with all of them. Doing my anxiety no good at all. I feel like abandoning the whole thing and staying put.

Drawingaline

Still no news on my buyers mortgage. So probably another weekend with it hanging over us. Am beyond annoyed now. I have this awful feeling it's all going to fall through. Since we sold the market has been flooded with our type of houses, but all the ones coming on for us to buy are not quite right. I can't see our vendors holding on much longer tbh, they are fuming about the timescale, first waiting seven weeks for our mortgage offer and a delay of three weeks with our solicitor and their contract pack, now a months delay because our buyer changed lenders. Xmas getting closer, we have stuff in box's as a month ago it looked like exchange was imminent, now I feel we are just back to the beginning. 

uralmaid

Drawingaline that is exactly how we feel. Living surrounded by boxes and can't even look forward to our new home as I feel it is all going pearshaped.  I know this horrible covid situation is making everything take longer but when you add into the mix people swapping and changing stuff like lenders or solicitors a way into the process it is just soul destroying.

croag

zodiac55 said:

croag said:

I have exchanged today!!! 

Completion is the 26th November so I have almost a month to wait!

Awesome! Now you have a month to wait and buy new things!
Our sellers EA finally mentioned ‘completion’ today after weeks of ‘it’s still early’. How long after getting your searches back were you notified of exchange?

Searches came back 19th August, the enquiries took quite a while and there didn't seem to be much rush to progress anything. Due to my survey I ended up getting a bit of money off the purchase and that took a bit of time too. I was really pushing to exchange this month so I could give notice, but sellers wants a few more weeks to move out as they have bought an auction house to completely renovate, so that's why we have a month in between. 

Jadek

I'm sharing in all of the frustrations of everyone here at the moment, waiting for other people in the chain is beyond frustrating!
After a LOT of chasing I finally got to have a conversation with the estate agent where the hold up for us was properly explained to me! It turns out that where our seller is buying a property with her partner, he is getting a buy to let mortgage for his property, and the lender won't issue the mortgage offer for the place they are buying together until the mortgage offer for the buy to let has been issued. Apparently this has now been issued, so I'm told that they are expecting to get the mortgage offer for their house next week, and then we can start discussing dates. I'm slightly apprehensive of getting my hopes up too much, but I feel much better for having a proper explanation of what is going on. Starting to hope for completion sometime in November, we shall see...