The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

sjeap

JessJ23425 said:

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!

Thank you Jess - that’s really helpful to know. 

mlb95

Hey guys, 
We've been contacted by our solicitor today suggesting the 29th for simultaneous exchange and completion, unfortunately the vendors solicitor have stated they want a gap between exchange and completion so have suggested exchange on the Friday 22nd and complete on the 29th.

We are FTB s so I need to get my deposit sent from the bank to the solicitors, how long would this usually take ? I've tried looking online but I get differing answers. Our solicitor sent out a draft completion statement a few weeks ago so if nothing has changed since then we'd be transfering about £45,000, and we're with Barclays if that makes a difference. I just want to make sure before I agree to the 22nd that bank transfers don't take more than 2 days , solicitor says they would need the money by end of the day 21st , is this doable? 

Thanks 😊 

Navigaor31

Update... liaising with seller tonight. 
The owners of the property they are purchasing are essentially just delaying for no good reason. When they were asked about the delay they said they were still awaiting searches. We know this too be false, as their solicitor is ready too exchange. 

When called out on this they just said "oh ok 8th Feb then".  Out of the blue. Ourselves and the people we are buying from are going to push for sooner. As they have done nothing but mess everyone else round.

Our sellers have kids and have had everything packed since 31st December.  The most frustrating thing is..a date has been agreed numerous times. 

If there was good reason for the delay, then that would make sense, but they are delaying for no good reason. We have been at this stage for over a month now...they should be ready. 

brownbagsFTB

Hi, just wondering if anyone who’s exchanging can explain the process to me please? I’m a first time buyer and my solicitor contacted me to say she hasn’t received a “contract pack” from the vendors, so I chased the EA and they said they wouldn’t send it out until the vendors have found a property, I did say I wouldn’t rush them. Can someone please explain to me what a contract pack is? 😂 And when it’s sent through, is that when we’ll agree on an exchange date? I’d hoped to get an idea of moving date sooner but I guess that’s not how it’s done, thanks 

mlb95

brownbagsFTB said:

Hi, just wondering if anyone who’s exchanging can explain the process to me please? I’m a first time buyer and my solicitor contacted me to say she hasn’t received a “contract pack” from the vendors, so I chased the EA and they said they wouldn’t send it out until the vendors have found a property, I did say I wouldn’t rush them. Can someone please explain to me what a contract pack is? 😂 And when it’s sent through, is that when we’ll agree on an exchange date? I’d hoped to get an idea of moving date sooner but I guess that’s not how it’s done, thanks 

Hey we received the contract pack a few weeks after we placed our offer. It contained lots of questions the vendor had answered about the property and a fixtures and fittings form. Our solicitor wanted to receive that before starting on the searches and enquires. Have you had all your searches and enquires back ? 

Caz_Mnaz

fleur8 said:

Are there any pitfalls of a same day exchange and completion?

I think if its a long chain it can be risky because all parties need to exchange, then when that's completed down the line completion can START which as we all know can take some time to work through a chain depending on how on the ball solicitors are. And I think some lenders aren't a fan.

My sol point-blank won't do it, even if it is happening more as it reduces the risk of parties needing to self isolate at completion (meaning they will be in breach of contracts and its gets messy!) 

stuartwatford

A quick update from me, offer accepted in August, chain went from 7 to 5 over the Christmas period. We exchanged last Friday and completing this week. A quick break from the enormous amount of packing still to do! 

brownbagsFTB

mlb95 said:

brownbagsFTB said:

Hi, just wondering if anyone who’s exchanging can explain the process to me please? I’m a first time buyer and my solicitor contacted me to say she hasn’t received a “contract pack” from the vendors, so I chased the EA and they said they wouldn’t send it out until the vendors have found a property, I did say I wouldn’t rush them. Can someone please explain to me what a contract pack is? 😂 And when it’s sent through, is that when we’ll agree on an exchange date? I’d hoped to get an idea of moving date sooner but I guess that’s not how it’s done, thanks 

Hey we received the contract pack a few weeks after we placed our offer. It contained lots of questions the vendor had answered about the property and a fixtures and fittings form. Our solicitor wanted to receive that before starting on the searches and enquires. Have you had all your searches and enquires back ? 

Yes I think so, my solicitor said the searches were due back on the 7th Jan. what are the enquiries? Are they questions I’m supposed to have asked about the house? I haven’t sent any, other than to ask for an up to date gas and electric certificate. I’m so clueless about all this. Interesting you’ve had your contract pack back early on in the process. Perhaps my vendors are stalling as they’re worried they’ll be rushed into completing the sale 

Moonrat

brownbagsFTB said:

mlb95 said:

brownbagsFTB said:

Hi, just wondering if anyone who’s exchanging can explain the process to me please? I’m a first time buyer and my solicitor contacted me to say she hasn’t received a “contract pack” from the vendors, so I chased the EA and they said they wouldn’t send it out until the vendors have found a property, I did say I wouldn’t rush them. Can someone please explain to me what a contract pack is? 😂 And when it’s sent through, is that when we’ll agree on an exchange date? I’d hoped to get an idea of moving date sooner but I guess that’s not how it’s done, thanks 

Hey we received the contract pack a few weeks after we placed our offer. It contained lots of questions the vendor had answered about the property and a fixtures and fittings form. Our solicitor wanted to receive that before starting on the searches and enquires. Have you had all your searches and enquires back ? 

Yes I think so, my solicitor said the searches were due back on the 7th Jan. what are the enquiries? Are they questions I’m supposed to have asked about the house? I haven’t sent any, other than to ask for an up to date gas and electric certificate. I’m so clueless about all this. Interesting you’ve had your contract pack back early on in the process. Perhaps my vendors are stalling as they’re worried they’ll be rushed into completing the sale 

Enquires are things like 'confirm the Seller hasn't done anything to contaminate the property' etc. The solicitor will generally cover all of the things they think might be an issue, such as shared areas of land. We didn't specifically ask anything but our sol sent them a list of 12 or so questions she considered relevant to the purchase. 

This is the second house we've put an offer on, other fell through in September, and we had the contract pack through for that within a few weeks. We haven't had the one for this house yet and it's been 16 weeks. We believe this is because the first vendor had tried to sell previously, so he had this to hand. I believe its normal for you to not get anything like that until nearing exchange  

Mineral1

mlb95 said:

Hey guys, 
We've been contacted by our solicitor today suggesting the 29th for simultaneous exchange and completion, unfortunately the vendors solicitor have stated they want a gap between exchange and completion so have suggested exchange on the Friday 22nd and complete on the 29th.

We are FTB s so I need to get my deposit sent from the bank to the solicitors, how long would this usually take ? I've tried looking online but I get differing answers. Our solicitor sent out a draft completion statement a few weeks ago so if nothing has changed since then we'd be transfering about £45,000, and we're with Barclays if that makes a difference. I just want to make sure before I agree to the 22nd that bank transfers don't take more than 2 days , solicitor says they would need the money by end of the day 21st , is this doable? 

Thanks 😊 

Hi, we are with Barclays too and I asked them this on Monday via live chat. You can transfer up to 50k in a single day using faster payments which arrives in the other account within 2hrs. You can do it via your online banking the same as making any other payment. They said I would get a text off them when we transfer it asking if it was really us and we would have to reply yes.