The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

tigerlily74

Our offer was accepted and chain completed on the 9th October. We appointed our solicitors on the 12th. We got our mortgage offer around the 26th November and searches back on the 16th of December. The house we are buying has a very small section of unregistered land that our seller has occupied for 20+ years but not registered and there is also a boundary dispute, that we would not dispute, based on the info the seller has provided. Once my solicitor has all the details on this (and we have been asking since October, it’s like pulling teeth from the seller’s solicitors) she will report back to the lender. Depending on what they say we will exchange or look for a new house and try to find somewhere to stay for hopefully not too long as we think the rest of the chain is pretty much ready. It’s hard to know when to give up on the seller and their awful solicitor as we really want this house, it’s unique and meets our requirements very well. It’s pretty lame. Any positive stories on similar circumstances would be appreciated.

zodiac55

zodiac55 said:

FTB here, ever since Mortgage offer on 08/09 it has been a painful wait. Searches are back, just waiting for the sellers’ to come back as well before any dates of exchange are mentioned. I really hate being in limbo about this! If my solicitor just mentioned any sort of time frame it would definitely put me at ease for a bit! Was hoping to complete by Xmas...

Still waiting for final search...contract received and signed ready to exchange

Drawingaline

EA chased our buyers solicitors who know we have a hard completion deadline of 27th Jan as our mortgage offer expires. Basically told they will raise enquiries sometime in Jan 🤦 more pushing and apparently they have agreed to raise them by 1st Jan. I am not convinced tbh. Our previous buyer had seven queries all straightforward and have given our solicitor the go ahead to approve as many stupid indemnity policies as our buyers lender may require just to get this done. Probably at least three, one for the conservatory not having permission from housing authority so breaching a covenant. Which apparently didn't matter when we moved in, one for the satellite dish for the same, even though I am pretty convinced it has been there since the 80's and one for lack of regs from when we moved the boiler. Used gas Safe plumber, but while he is a great plumber his admin is not so good! 

We will have to book removals in the new year, I may contact them tomorrow and het them pencilled in. Our buyer is ok with the date and sellers left the country in September. Should have been done and dusted in early November. I have a lot of anger towards the previous buyers mucking us about for five weeks.

badger09

Drawingaline said:

EA chased our buyers solicitors who know we have a hard completion deadline of 27th Jan as our mortgage offer expires. Basically told they will raise enquiries sometime in Jan 🤦 more pushing and apparently they have agreed to raise them by 1st Jan. I am not convinced tbh. Our previous buyer had seven queries all straightforward and have given our solicitor the go ahead to approve as many stupid indemnity policies as our buyers lender may require just to get this done. Probably at least three, one for the conservatory not having permission from housing authority so breaching a covenant. Which apparently didn't matter when we moved in, one for the satellite dish for the same, even though I am pretty convinced it has been there since the 80's and one for lack of regs from when we moved the boiler. Used gas Safe plumber, but while he is a great plumber his admin is not so good! 

We will have to book removals in the new year, I may contact them tomorrow and het them pencilled in. Our buyer is ok with the date and sellers left the country in September. Should have been done and dusted in early November. I have a lot of anger towards the previous buyers mucking us about for five weeks.

I really do feel for you!

Sounds like you're now at the 'just do whatever, at (almost) whatever cost, to get this ******* thing completed'. I've been there very recently.

PLEASE book your removal coy today if possible.
On the day I got the written quote from ours, he emailed to say our then provisional (now final!) completion date 8th Jan was fully booked. We're breaking the chain so able to move out on 7th so they'll pack & load 6th & 7th. We risked losing £250 deposit but what the hell. When I emailed him on 19th to tell him completion date now final, auto response said they're closed until 4th Jan

Tiglet2

Kbenn0 said:

Thought I had best join seeing I’m hanging on to this crazy emotional rollercoaster ride that is “ moving home”. 

We accepted an offer on our house early November (FTB), offer accepted on our new house( chain free) 27th November.  So it’s a short chain ... BUT I’m still waiting on the draft contract and can’t start searches.  We have had mortgage approved, buyers have draft contract and started searches over a week ago. So it’s a little frustrating to be honest. They said completion on average is 8-12 weeks but is that from offer accepted or draft contact ? 

8-12 weeks from receipt of draft contracts

Tiglet2

kenneth77 said:

Final search back for us and looks like it's a case of solicitors going though everything before sorting contracts. Our solicitors are 200 miles away, our buyer in similar situation due to online agents recommendation so does anyone know how to you received and sign all required documents? Last time we used a local solicitor and popped in the office to sort 

Documents can be emailed to you, but you would have to print them out and return the signed documents by post as they will need your original signature.

Jd843

Was hoping to exchange this week, but hopes are fading as there’s been absolutely no progress today. The top of the chain aren’t responding about agreeing a completion date. The chain is only us, our vendors and their vendors so it seems like it shouldn’t be this hard! So frustrating!

DairyQueen

Drawingaline said:

DairyQueen said:

At last! Exchanged today.

Buyer offered third week of July. We are a chain of two as he has nowhere to sell and we have a second property in which we can live until we complete on our new home.

Huge problem manifested third week of September. We were due to exchange on the sale and had offered on a property the same week. Buyer's mortgage offer collapsed. Our EA's MB stepped-in and finally, FINALLY 3 months later we have pulled it off. It has taken us the best part of this year to prepare the property for sale (ready in March - just as lockdown hit), market it (under offer 3 weeks after listing in late June) and transact the sale. In 40 years of property ownership this has been the longest drag from offer to exchange. Incredible given such a small chain but our solicitor advises that this is not unusual this year.

Now hoping to exchange on our new home in January and complete sometime in early Feb.

The process has never been easy but it seems to be more stressful now than in prior decades. One thing we have noticed is that buyers are far more fickle and pull-out of deals even up to the day of exchange.

We also had a complete chain end of July. All ready to go for beginning of Nov when our buyer pulled out. New buyer found in 48hrs, they have a mortgage offer all but one sear h is back and they still haven't raised enquiries! Our mortgage offer expires at the end of Jan with no hope of extending it, and all removal companies needing three weeks advance notice. Honestly can't see it happening now. So fed up of it all. 

I know how you feel. We also had an issue with the removal company. They were originally booked to do the packing but there were so few slots by the time we exchanged that we could only book them to do the move into storage. We now have to pack over Christmas and New Year and travel to/from the property in order to do so. It's right on the boundary of a 'Tier 4' so we are holding our breath as we anticipate it will fall into the dreaded max lockdown area any day.

About 3 months into the process I reached the point where I either succumbed to the stress or accepted that fate would dictate the outcome as I had zero control over any step in the process. Detaching emotionally helped my stress levels but at the cost of the happiness and excitement I usually feel at the prospect of a new home. 

I will be relieved when we finally complete on the sale but am now relaxed about the purchase. If it falls-through then so be it.

Hang-on in there. Fate may be with you. It's really random whether the sale will go through this time but you obviously have a very saleable property. Could you make a provisional booking with the removal company? We were able to do this but couldn't meet the first date. No problem in changing the booking as the removals company had a waiting list as long as your arm ready to snap-up our slot. Or,  perhaps, rope-in friends/family to do a DIY-job as a Plan B?

DairyQueen

Slithery said:

Drawingaline said:
they have a mortgage offer all but one sear h is back and they still haven't raised enquiries!

Why would you raise enquiries before all of the searches were back?

A good solicitor will undertake conveyancing tasks concurrently. It would drag things out by a serious factor if they waited weeks for searches, or a mortgage offer, before beginning enquiries. Some enquiries require a vendor to produce guarantees/planning permission docs/building reg docs. These may not be to-hand. Vendor may need to take-on indemnity for risks which cannot be resolved in any other way. 

For example, our new property has a sewage treatment plant and vendor needed to check with the Environment Agency that it conformed with new regulations preventing discharge into water courses. That took some time.

DairyQueen

mm1985 said:

DairyQueen said:

At last! Exchanged today.

Buyer offered third week of July. We are a chain of two as he has nowhere to sell and we have a second property in which we can live until we complete on our new home.

Huge problem manifested third week of September. We were due to exchange on the sale and had offered on a property the same week. Buyer's mortgage offer collapsed. Our EA's MB stepped-in and finally, FINALLY 3 months later we have pulled it off. It has taken us the best part of this year to prepare the property for sale (ready in March - just as lockdown hit), market it (under offer 3 weeks after listing in late June) and transact the sale. In 40 years of property ownership this has been the longest drag from offer to exchange. Incredible given such a small chain but our solicitor advises that this is not unusual this year.

Now hoping to exchange on our new home in January and complete sometime in early Feb.

The process has never been easy but it seems to be more stressful now than in prior decades. One thing we have noticed is that buyers are far more fickle and pull-out of deals even up to the day of exchange.

Can’t wait to get to the point of exchange. Should have happened before Christmas but our buyers one search outstanding (was returned today) and now our solicitor is not doing any exchanges until the new year due to the number of completions they have to do before Christmas.

we had our house on the market at the beginning of the year too, took it off the market due to lockdown in uncertainty...went back on in august, sold in sept and really hoping to exchange and complete in January now that paperwork is all complete. Fingers crossed we don’t enter another lockdown 

That's also our biggest concern at the moment. What a nightmare that would be.