The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

foreverhome_89

We are exchanging tomorrow and completing Friday. I didn’t think this day would come still won’t believe it till I have the keys 🔑 

Karism

So I thought I'd share my suffering here since I seem to be in similar company.

What must be several month ago now, my landlord (House Share) expressed he was looking to sell the property I am currently living in. I was supposed to leave at the end of August but asked if I could stay on a rolling weekly payment until he sells, since the property I am moving into is all but 15 meters away.

So I started looking for places around and the timeline goes about as follows:

• Around 30th of June to the 3rd of July 2020 - Found a flat that ticks all the boxes, booked a viewing for Saturday the 4th of July.
• 4th of July - View the place with my Dad, very nice compared to a lot of the other properties in the area. Used to be a two bedroom but converted into a one bedroom so a decent amount of room for one person.
• I start looking at Mortgage illustrations and talking with the liaison at my bank/lender.
  
• Put an offer in of £112.5k (Asking price £120k)
• Offer rejected, I up it to £115k (I think)
• Offer rejected again I give a bit of time then offer £116.5k
• Rejected again, I leave even more time and then offer £118.5k (Still within budget I just wanted so save some money.)
• Rejected, and estate agent tells me that someone else has put in a more attractive offer. (Despair)
• 15th of July - I think it's over this point, but I receive a phone call. The other person who made the offer can't get the proof of deposit together quickly, so I still have a chance if I can.
  
• There is some back and forth between my liaison and the estate agent until they came to an agreement on what constituted proof. (I had a mortgage in principle, but this apparently wasn't enough).
• Estate agent accepts showing them my bank balance and credit score as proof enough.
• 16th of July - Bring in proof of deposit to estate agent.
• 20th of July - I think this was when I got the call that my offer had been accepted.
• Booked over the phone appointment with Mortgage advisor.
• 22nd of July - Instruct Local Solicitor
• 29th of July - Meeting with Mortgage advisor, we agree on a 20% deposit, 35 Year Mortgage with 1.41% Interest fixed for 2 years with the mortgage fee included, works out to around £290 a month, but I will probably overpay to at least £400 unless I fall on hard times. Also got the Survey and Valuation payed for through the lender.
• 5th of August - Surveyor does their thing, calls me before to ask if there way anything to focus on, and that the report should be with me soon.
• 6th of August - Receive report, a few little things but nothing that was going to dissuade me from proceeding.
• Sometime around here but I can't remember when, I received forms from my Solicitor, then filled and returned them.
  
• 12th of August  - Solicitor chases me up because I didn't give enough proof of deposit, I send them bank statements of where my deposit funds are.
• I think sometime around here I learn the chain is complete, 3 parties, with my as a first time buyer.
  
• 2nd of September - Searches complete, enquiries raised. (I'd been chasing them for these since they apparently were not started until around the 20th of August, when they received the Sellers Solicitor details on the 10th).
• 30th of September - After waiting for the enquiries to be dealt with, Solicitor tells me that there are still several unsatisfactory ones.
• 26th of October - 2 outstanding enquiries, related to nearby former industrial land use. Also the seller was waiting on a mortgage offer since this lenders were being slow. I collect the report from my solicitor containing search results and other documentation.
• 27th of October - Sign Mortgage deed and contract, return to Solicitor.
• There is some back and forth, seller is slowing this because of a mistake on their mortgage deed.
• 3rd of November - Sellers sign corrected mortgage deed.
  
• 5th of November - After panicking amount the contaminated land issue, finally get a pass mark for the search, apparently there is still a low risk that the council could pursue the owners if the soil is found to be contaminated.
  
• 9th of November - Since we are getting close to exchange (Finally), the solicitor said it was OK to close my ISA, so we had enough time to get the bonus sorted for completion. After an hour on the phone I manage to get a "Fast track" option of picking the completion statement up in branch the day after the money gets transferred to the other account. (Still waiting on this).
• 10th of November - Seller is pushing for exchange today, completion next Wednesday (18th), my solicitor seems to think 20th would be better considering my ISA.
• Estate agent calls me with an update, the guy at the top(?) of the chain has been in close contact with  a group of people who tested positive for coronavirus, so he needs to get a test. (He has ordered a home test kit). Hopefully he will get results by Friday, hopefully negative otherwise there is a 14 day delay at least. F-me.
  

Meanwhile, my landlord is slowly progressing with his sale, and since he is selling it to cash-only, first time buyers, I am worried he will tell me I need to leave soon. (I know I have some legal right to more notice, but I don't want to sour the relationship if I don't have to.)

Slithery

Karism said:

Meanwhile, my landlord is slowly progressing with his sale, and since he is selling it to cash-only, first time buyers, I am worried he will tell me I need to leave soon. (I know I have some legal right to more notice, but I don't want to sour the relationship if I don't have to.)

If you haven't been given notice yet then it will be 2022 before your landlord can legally evict you.

Karism

Slithery said:

Karism said:

Meanwhile, my landlord is slowly progressing with his sale, and since he is selling it to cash-only, first time buyers, I am worried he will tell me I need to leave soon. (I know I have some legal right to more notice, but I don't want to sour the relationship if I don't have to.)

If you haven't been given notice yet then it will be 2022 before your landlord can legally evict you.

Do you mean 2021? Otherwise that is a long time.

He sent a text at the end of July, although I'm not sure how binding that is. I did ask for it in writing/letter but I was never sent it.

Slithery

Nope, 2022.

Your LL will need to give you 6 months notice and after that apply to the courts. Seeing as how courts have been closed during lockdown there is now at least a 6 month backlog, and then if successful they will need to apply to bailiffs which will take another couple of months.

The text that your LL sent you means diddly-squat, it isn't an official S21 so carries no legal weight.

Karism

Slithery said:

Nope, 2022.

Your LL will need to give you 6 months notice and after that take you to court. Seeing as how courts have been closed during lockdown there is now at least a 6 month backlog, and then if successful they will need to apply to bailiffs which will take another couple of months.

The text that your LL sent you means diddly-squat, it isn't an official S21 so carries no legal weight.

Huh, fair enough.
I'm still hoping to resolve things peacefully if possible, assuming nothing else comes up, I should be able to complete on the 20th or 27th.

sarcal3813

FinallyStoppedLurking said:

sarcal3813 said:

Contracts received today to sign and send back awaiting exchange. How long does that take? 

Is everyone in the chain ready to exchange? Have you agreed completion dates? Have the others parties signed? Have you given permission to exchange? If yes to all 4 then I'd expect them to exchange ASAP.

We signed on Friday and exchanged yesterday. We were in a position to sign 4 weeks ago but decided to wait as there was no benefit to signing that early. 

Surveys done, queries all dealt with. Sellers just clearing out the house. Mortgage deed also sent out for us to sign with the contracts. Keeping everything crossed 🤞 for a quick completion! 

KE48

I contacted my solicitor today to ask for an update on my sale only to notice a signature in her reply that stated she was leaving the firm...tomorrow! No one had informed me. 
This was the icing on the cake for me to go a bit nuclear on the poor new conveyancer thats taken on my case. I have been assured that they are on it and will do all they can to get us across the line before our mortgage offer expires in 3 weeks. How anyone gets through this process with their sanity intact is beyond me.

Fionaanne141

I agreed sale and purchase on 18th October and submitted mortgage application next day. It’s a small chain of three and we’ve continued with our searches / surveys despite not having a full mortgage offer. As has everyone else in the chain. Because mortgage offers are taking so long I’d assumed we had no chance of being in by Xmas and was planning for late Jan but my solicitor and buyers solicitor seem super on the ball so far.

Suddenly panicking that this might happen before Xmas and I’m not prepared at all! Has anyone else got right to the wire and actually only been waiting on their mortgage offer? It’s Santander btw. It’ll be devastating if we get that far to be declined (had AIP first) 

sarahjanelodge

We are in a similar situation. Was sopose to get the contracts to sign Monday..  its now Wednesday and nothing. First time buyers moving into an empty property. Offer was put in on 19 August but solicitors are dragging their heels. Both us and the seller wanting to exchange this week to complete 20th. Lease on this property now we are renting is due to run out 27th Nov so pushing for time now. I rang and emailed solicitor yesterday for an update and to say its getting urgent we do this and the response was.. we are looking into it and I will report to you when ready and not before. (Think they was getting annoyed with the pushing but needed to be done) ...