The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

gingerlex

I am getting annoyed and frustrated now. Looks like we are not exchanging today due to our vendors side slowing things down again. Our vendor suggested a completion date of 26th to us on 8th Jan, whole chain quickly agrees. Everything is signed and sorted at our end and we were told we would likely be exchanging the beginning of this week. I've asked my solicitor what's going on, and her solicitors have said that they need to "prepare statements for my client to approve before exchange". Why hasn't this been done earlier?
*Insert expletives here* so the wait continues. 

Calandja

Just got the call to say we exchange and complete in a week.
Felt like giving up last week, a lot of stress, but it's done.  Good luck to everyone else.

MandM90

@amandacat any luck finding a rental?!
Apparently valuation report due to be looked at tomorrow, also probate in court tomorrow, talking about exchange in feb. We shall see!

WiseOwl00

Absolutely at my wits' end!
I got a call from the vendor's estate agents today, the only call we've had since the offer was accepted in October 2020, asking for an update. The chain is just ourselves, the vendor, and then the vendor is buying an empty property. Their onward purchase has been ready to go since before Christmas, and I think they're starting to get really frustrated with how long this is taking (as are we!). We've been in the enquiry stage for 2 weeks now. I know two sets of enquiries have already been answered in this time, but looks like a third set was sent by our solicitor. I don't even know what the enquiries are which is the frustrating thing! I asked for a rough estimate of when we will be ready to exchange/complete and the solicitor said they didn't know. This is very difficult as we both work full-time, and I can't request leave at short notice.

I just find it a ridiculous as our solicitor has had a list of enquiries from the start, but didn't send them until we'd received our searches. The searches took 6 weeks to come back - surely some of this could have been sorted whilst we waited?! At the moment, we're waiting on more enquiries to be answered and a reply from our lender regarding something that was brought up via the enquiries. Feel completely in the dark, and just fed up. Can't even bring myself to pack because my mind keeps telling me it's pointless. 

WoozieSioux_tse

badger09: According to the EA, funds have all been approved,the money is ready to be moved for exchange.Full amount suggested has been offered by the mortgage company. We were all getting fed up with the lack of communication from the solicitors, so we asked the EA to start dialogue with buyer re exchange and completion dates. EA came back from buyer, saying our dates (late February, early March) might be further away than what could now be achieved. Next day they called to ask if a survey could be arranged. Apparently, buyer figures this "will not hold up the house sale, they just want the information for peace of mind".
So, on what planet does a survey not hold up a house sale? One where it was carried out months ago whilst you were still waiting on searches and enquiries perhaps? It normally takes a few days to get out after it's been produced and then the endless enquiries start again! I'm not against a survey being done, I think all people should get them before making such a big purchase. I just question the timing. And it means we'll probably be in competition with all the people rushing for the stamp duty deadline, fighting over removal vans as we'll be moving over 200 miles away!
WiseOwl00: Commiserations re your uncommunicative solicitor. I think they are all incapable of turning down work and just keep on taking on more. Some are working from home (without their assistants!) and probably don't even know how many cases they are supposed to be working on. Does anyone know if there is a cap?

Kelb93

Drawingaline said:

Kelb93 said:

Heard from the solicitors this morning that we are working towards 29/01. 2 days before my mortgage offer will expire  ahh! Keeping everything crossed everyone will agree and stick to this one. 

This is us. My solicitor was all over it the past two weeks, now the buyers solicitor is waiting on the last document she has gone AWOL! Buyers solicitors being a pain and won't request deposit from buyer until have every single piece of paper, but we need to draw down mortgage funds tomorrow in order to complete on the 27th. Have paid removals today as had no choice, still don't know if it will actually happen 😡 

We have to complete on the 27th, offer expires on 29th. This has been going on since July. We just want to bloody move!!!

Ah that’s frustrating! Hope it works out for you. You’ve been going a little long than me - mine started in August - and feeling really fed up with the whole process. 

I should know by the end of the week if mine will be going ahead so I’m probably going to be on edge for the next couple of days. 

sjeap

I know this is a how long is a piece of string question, but we heard today that our searches are all back and our mortgage offer has been received by the solicitor so should just be enquiries now. Just wondering how long enquiries generally take for most sales. I’m hoping it should be straight forward - the house is fairly new, no extensions/changes since new, no septic tanks. Feeling a bit excited tonight that we stand a good chance of beating the stamp duty deadline but don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves!

amandacat

So after lots of chasing I finally exchanged late this afternoon. Complete on Fri 29 January. 

Nowhere to move to after rental let me down and no luck getting anything else secured so stuff will be going into storage and we are having to move in with family until we secure a rental.
Going to be a squeeze with our cats, dog, along with family members cats and dogs but nothing we can do. 

I’m sure in a few weeks we will have a rental and we can put all this behind us. 

pinkundine

It seems like my solicitor being off sick has been more helpful than not - the trainee who is now looking after my case (with supervision, apparently) has managed to get the indemnity policy from the seller's solicitor - which my guy should have done back in October, and has sent answers to a couple more enquiries the lender had. I'm guessing all the times my original solicitor said he'd chased the lender were fabrications, because this new one seems to have got more done in 2 days than he did in 3 months. 

JessJ23425

sjeap said:

I know this is a how long is a piece of string question, but we heard today that our searches are all back and our mortgage offer has been received by the solicitor so should just be enquiries now. Just wondering how long enquiries generally take for most sales. I’m hoping it should be straight forward - the house is fairly new, no extensions/changes since new, no septic tanks. Feeling a bit excited tonight that we stand a good chance of beating the stamp duty deadline but don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves!

Just some info about ours... we're buying a no chain relatively new house (2000), no changes infact everything is original so dated but just needs updating.

Thought the same about queries, reality was they need lots of documents and some of these had to be manually found at council offices from before e-copies were a thing. Adding in the time it takes solicitors to talk to each other (which was often days and days in between) enquires are now the last thing we're waiting for, we even have our mortgage funds prepared and LISA/Deposit with solicitor but awaiting the last query which is an agreement from when the house was built that they're having to find at the council.

So yeah you're a good way in it sounds, don't want to give you too much negativity but as with a lot of things in this process, "enquiries" makes it sound far simpler than it is!