The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

amandacat

geoave1 said:

We completed today. Very glad to be in now we’re in lockdown again! Although have heard house moves are not affected. Total timeline from start to finish:
03/10 viewed house and offer accepted 04/10
06/10 instructed solicitor and applied for searches
19/10 mortgage application submitted (direct HSBC)
19/11 mortgage offer received
27/11 searches back - enquiries all resolved by 04/12
11/12 exchanged
04/01 completed!
All in all it’s been 3 months from offer to completion however we were no chain (renting) and our vendors went into rented. What made the difference was definitely having a decent trustworthy vendor (we were in regular contact throughout the sales process), decent on the ball EA & also having an exclusivity agreement in place so we couldn’t be gazzumped. Also having our vendors solicitors push things on was an added bonus. The worst bit was waiting for the mortgage and searches to come back. Good luck to all, I do not think this lockdown is going to affect transactions that are already in situ. 
We had just over 3 wks between exchange and completion, our house was a high flood risk, listed building & near landfill so if we can get through it I think there’s hope for many!

Congratulations! This gives me some hope with my sale. We are just waiting on buyers searches and queries off that, this is the last thing to do before we can exchange. Can’t wait to be able to relax again once exchange has taken place because every day I can’t help but think I’ll get a call that my buyer has pulled out! 

FTB_Help

Doodlebugs said:

FTB_Help said:

In the same boat as you @doodlebugs, offer accepted first week of Oct, tenants to leave end of Feb!!! Arrg, I am also anxious on whether they will leave on time or not (notice takes them up to leave end of March too).
Good luck to you, keep us updated next week, fingers crossed for you

@FTB_Help ! I have no idea how lockdown is going to impact these types of situations. The tenant in the house we’re buying is now apparently leaving the country to return home. Is that even allowed at the moment?

We had a call from the vendors sales progressor unexpectedly today. Wanted an update on our position and said tenants are leaving end of month. Follow up email from them confirmed mid Feb vacant and looking to complete end of Feb. Our solicitor has sent out all docs to us today to review and sign etc so looks like we’re nearly there. Just need an update on our buyers position. 

I am literally in the same situation as you, our tenants are apparently too leaving the country for work (our vendor is paying them to leave in Feb) - are we buying the same house??! 
Still waiting on our searches (expected back this week), chased for answers on enquiries today, was hoping for all legal work to be done by end of this month, so we can have a month of just twiddling our thumbs.
Hope it all goes well on your side

tervozina

geoave1 said:

We completed today. Very glad to be in now we’re in lockdown again! Although have heard house moves are not affected. Total timeline from start to finish:
03/10 viewed house and offer accepted 04/10
06/10 instructed solicitor and applied for searches
19/10 mortgage application submitted (direct HSBC)
19/11 mortgage offer received
27/11 searches back - enquiries all resolved by 04/12
11/12 exchanged
04/01 completed!
All in all it’s been 3 months from offer to completion however we were no chain (renting) and our vendors went into rented. What made the difference was definitely having a decent trustworthy vendor (we were in regular contact throughout the sales process), decent on the ball EA & also having an exclusivity agreement in place so we couldn’t be gazzumped. Also having our vendors solicitors push things on was an added bonus. The worst bit was waiting for the mortgage and searches to come back. Good luck to all, I do not think this lockdown is going to affect transactions that are already in situ. 
We had just over 3 wks between exchange and completion, our house was a high flood risk, listed building & near landfill so if we can get through it I think there’s hope for many!

Congratulations!! 🥳🥳🥳

Doodlebugs

FTB_Help said:

I am literally in the same situation as you, our tenants are apparently too leaving the country for work (our vendor is paying them to leave in Feb) - are we buying the same house??! 
Still waiting on our searches (expected back this week), chased for answers on enquiries today, was hoping for all legal work to be done by end of this month, so we can have a month of just twiddling our thumbs.
Hope it all goes well on your side

God wouldn’t that be interesting! I’m not sure I’d progress with a house if I knew I was competing to complete with others. Estate agents would tell people if that was the case right? 🤪 

I’m also hoping for a month of thumb twiddling  and slowly packing bits we don’t immediately need. Hope you get the responses soon. 

FTB_Help

Drawingaline said:

FTB_Help said:

Hello all,

I think I'm almost at the "waiting to exchange" phase or at least nearing it.

Our searches should have been received on 23rd Dec, but have been told today there've been delayed but expected to be returned very soon.
Enquiries have been raised and sent to the vendors solicitors but no response just yet.
In terms of conveyancing work, how much more should I expect there to be to go? - Q aimed more to the people who are literally waiting to exchange right now - I know this is a bit of a how long is a piece of string question, but all of this is so out of my hands and my control so feel a little lost    so just wanted to know what else I should expect to come next?

Depends on the enquiries. Our buyers solicitors have finally raised them with us, but we have already gone through it in sep with a previous buyer so know there isn't anything that will hold the sale up. Nothing a couple of pointless indemnity policies won't fix.

However if there is an issue on the title, or a leasehold problem these can literally take months to sort. 

Once your vendor answers the queries your solicitor needs to write a report incorporating them, title and mortgage stuff. Which can take a week or however long they decide to take!!! Then you sign your contract, mortgage deed etc return those and wait for your solicitor to say you are all ready to exchange. So anywhere from two weeks to six months!!! 

Thanks, our vendors solicitor is a little slow, whereas my solicitor is brilliant and always get a response from them within the hour along with weekly/ bi weekly emails from them to update us on the status, so I'm hoping anything that needs to be done on my side should hopefully get a quick turn around, it's just all the external stuff (searches/ response from the vendors solicitor) that 'm worried about.
But glad to know we've at least tackled or sent across the things that are external and given them a good chuck of time to respond

tervozina

We suppose to exchange/complete today but I still haven’t heard anything. Tried calling our solicitors but the person handling the case is not answering the phone, dropped down an email to update me if we are completing or not. That’s really stressing me out

kenneth77

tervozina said:

We suppose to exchange/complete today but I still haven’t heard anything. Tried calling our solicitors but the person handling the case is not answering the phone, dropped down an email to update me if we are completing or not. That’s really stressing me out

Sounds very stressful. Hope you manage to sort it
We sent completed contracts off today and don't know if staff in office to receive them. Fingers crossed for you 

breakfast_epiphanies

tervozina said:

We suppose to exchange/complete today but I still haven’t heard anything. Tried calling our solicitors but the person handling the case is not answering the phone, dropped down an email to update me if we are completing or not. That’s really stressing me out

I’ve had to chase too. Sellers redemption certificate hadn’t come through, but that’s now sorted - it was the EA who told me that though. Solicitors have given me no update.....the money should be moving up the chain by now. 

oniongirl

We are in a chain of 5, 3 above us, FTB below, with the top of the chain a divorcing couple. 

There is paperwork being waited for from a management company at the final house is a relatively new build. They have been waiting for it for months. Mortgage offers are starting to expire, our buyers' being the first, expiring on Friday, and an extension only possible if they provide a Completion date within 14 days of the expiry. Ours is next at the end of Feb... we started all this in July!

I'm too scared to ring the agents and find out what's going on.

breakfast_epiphanies

Just exchanged..... waiting for a call to say it’s completed.