The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

brownbagsFTB

Moonrat said:

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  

Oh thanks! This is really helpful and explains a lot. I feel stupid not knowing how it all works 😂

mlb95

Mineral1 said:

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.

Thank you, that makes me feel more relieved. I'll get hold of Barclays tomorrow . 

badger09

WoozieSioux_tse said:

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?

To be honest, this now sounds like FTB nerves. Yes, it would have been sensible  to arrange the survey earlier in the process, but it’s additional cost & until mortgage offer& searches back, maybe they didn’t want to risk any more expenditure. 

We’re in house purchase number 2 after 1st vendors changed their mind. No mortgage needed so we’ve arranged our own surveys both times. Almost £1k so far, & we arranged them very early in the process, before searches back. BUT
1) we’re not FTBs
2) we can afford to, potentially, waste £1k

Neither survey threw up anything unexpected or of any major concern & no further enquiries were raised. But then again.... we’re not FTBs, nor do we expect perfection. 

Re your final question, I doubt there is a ‘cap’ but I know ours is working her socks off under very difficult circumstances at the moment. I got an email from her after 19.00 tonight which is way past normal working hours. I don’t expect anyone to work that late as I know the impact it can have. 

MandM90

Call from our solicitor yesterday re: boundaries. Our boundary runs parallel to, but not exactly on top of, ordnance survey lines, so she wants us to go and check it out. There's a stream within our boundary on the north side and outside it on the west side, so I suspect the line is a stream but will go and check. We're not worried, it's 4.5 acres so a metre either way isn't really a big deal but nice excuse to go and wander in the garden!!
Nationwide reviewing valuation today, also probate in court today, then hopefully we can start to motor!!

Navigaor31

Another day guys. Here is hoping for some news of the good variety! 

Mineral1

We're supposed to be completing in eight days time and havent received a completion statement yet or been asked to send the solicitor any money is that normal.

Cuddlybearman

Cuddlybearman said:

So update from me...........still uneasy!!
Had a call from my EA saying that my buyers bank had undervalued my house by £25K less than he offered. I really pushed back and asked for proof to make sure i wasn't being scammed and in reality it was actually the BTL mortgage didn't think the rental income on the house warranted more than that amount. After a bit of back and forth and explaining that anything more than an 8K difference would mean i couldn't buy my new house the buyer kindly agreed to stump up the other £17K in addition to his deposit. I'm still uneasy about this as although his MB says the offer will be with him in 10 days i still haven't seen anything in writing to proof that except for a DIP which we all know means nothing. However, they did ask him to prove his deposit yesterday which is supposed to be something they ask for as a last thing before offering so maybe its ok. His solicitor also has one more local search to come back but they applied weeks ago so any day i think.

I finally got a response from my solicitor who sent me over all the documents, contracts etc - so as of today the paperwork between me and my seller is good to go. Just waiting for my buyer to confirm this last search and get his mortgage offer. Hopefully i'm not being led along the garden path some more!!

Further drama............
So still no mortgage offer from my buyer yet. Its only been half the time they advised but the MB says he just gets told to wait and it will be there when its there (which seems strange - I though MBs at least got unofficial confirmation when their clients got an offer) however, my buyer went to see his solicitor on Monday and because he is still waiting for one search and he didn't come back to work until this week - my buyer had enough and has now got another solicitor instead!!!

I mean the new solicitor seems to be on it has already chased and spoken to everyone involved - but come out how much more ridiculous can this get.

This house buying process is a joke. The banks need to come up with ways to have people pre-approved before they even go looking at houses. This DIP process means absolutely nothing!!!

See what drama the next few days bring - sure its not over yet

londonlydia

After deciding to sell and move on New Years, we’re really going for it! We started looking and got the house up for sale at the same time, with it going on the market/ rightmove on the 11th Jan. We priced fairly low so has 16 viewings and a couple of offers by monday (18th). However, the vendors of the house we liked and offered on (accepted)  have decided to buy our house as an investment for their daughters, so it’s now classed as a part exchange. Because we actually viewed the property and had this as an option from the start were pre declared the name and so avoid estate agent selling fees.
 So yesterday submitted the mortgage application form with Natwest, hoping with a good LTV (<60%) it will be a little quicker but let’s see. Sent off and got our local solicitors underway too. 

tombolonova1

Well we're supposed to be completing tomorrow, but still no news on exchange. Starting to panic. Solicitors don't seem bothered and the seller's are confident it's going through tomorrow. Am I worrying for no reason? 

Mineral1

tombolonova1 said:

Well we're supposed to be completing tomorrow, but still no news on exchange. Starting to panic. Solicitors don't seem bothered and the seller's are confident it's going through tomorrow. Am I worrying for no reason? 

Quite possibly worrying for no reason however some communication would be nice from the solicitors! I'm sure you'll get a call soon enough, if you are exchanging today i suppose it depends where in the chain you are as they need to work through the chain one by one in series.