The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

annetheman

The good news!
-Mortgage offer in 15th Jan
-Searches returned 22nd Jan
-Solicitor drawing up report TBC
Hoping to exchange 29th Jan, complete 26th Feb - looking good!

The bad news!
-Car failed MOT £300 to fix excluding VAT.........

Dec/Jan is an expensive time... Roll on April 2021 bonus! 

On that note, does anyone know when the solicitor asks for fees and disbursements in full? I'm hoping it's after exchange, before completion, so I can get my car roadworthy again 

Edit to add: https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/estimate-your-overall-buying-and-moving-costs it is! 

badger09

annetheman said:

The good news!
-Mortgage offer in 15th Jan
-Searches returned 22nd Jan
-Solicitor drawing up report TBC
Hoping to exchange 29th Jan, complete 26th Feb - looking good!

The bad news!
-Car failed MOT £300 to fix excluding VAT.........

Dec/Jan is an expensive time... Roll on April 2021 bonus! 

On that note, does anyone know when the solicitor asks for fees and disbursements in full? I'm hoping it's after exchange, before completion, so I can get my car roadworthy again 

Edit to add: https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/estimate-your-overall-buying-and-moving-costs it is! 

Great news re your purchase.
Carp news re your car.
Mine failed its MOT on Tues 5th Jan, 2 days before we needed it (as well as husband's car) to transport all our essential stuff, 90 mins away to temp accommodation .   Had to make extra unplanned trip on 6th after removal men had finished packing, in case it couldn't be fixed in time. On the way I remembered I'd arranged for EA to collect keys for our buyers, & we wouldn't be back in time. Cue mini meltdown, and yet another unplanned trip.
Est cost was over £500 & I'd already decided to get rid after our move, but now had no choice but pay it. Actually was 'only' just over £400. Got it back late afternoon 6th just in time for EA trip, and final journey on 7th.
Blummin stressful  - as if there wasn't already enough in my life. 

badger09

@annetheman missed your final question. You will get 'completion statement' before completion (obviously). I got ours dated 19th Jan, and we were hoping to exchange last week, completion scheduled for 4th Feb.  
It sets out the total due and you have to make sure you get enough money for purchase & solicitor's bill, to your solicitor, from whatever source(s) before completion

annetheman

badger09 said:

@annetheman missed your final question. You will get 'completion statement' before completion (obviously). I got ours dated 19th Jan, and we were hoping to exchange last week, completion scheduled for 4th Feb.  
It sets out the total due and you have to make sure you get enough money for purchase & solicitor's bill, to your solicitor, from whatever source(s) before completion

Nightmare re: your MOT issue, makes mine look like child's play (sort of)!! Glad you managed to sort though!

Thanks, that's very helpful. I was hoping to complete on 26th Feb, payday - I might ask to complete the following Friday 5th Mar in that case... Just in case!

AnnieGunn

Time line has been;
29th August: Offer for my leasehold property accepted from FTBs
1st Sep: Solicitors instructed
18th Sep: My offer accepted on empty freehold purchase property empty and probate all sorted.
Assured my sale is progressing nicely by my solicitors but informed she wouldn't be dealing with it - a fee earning conveyancer would be.
9th Oct: phone to find out why they haven't come to me for money for management pack and it seems my Conveyancer hadn't even opened my file up yet.
12 Oct: buyers mortgage survey takes place.
27th Oct: my survey of the property I am buying completed, copy forwarded to conveyancer
28th Oct: requested my cash for the leasehold management pack
3 Nov: Copies of deeds/covenants etc come in back so I sent a number of questions based on the survey + these.
8th Nov: My conveyancer says she has requested management pack and my water and environmental searches come in - also strange comments such as "waiting for your mortgage offer" so I confirmed as per the initial solicitors paperwork that I am paying in proceeds form sale + cash.
27th Nov: My conveyancer finally sends my questions from 3rd Nov to my sellers solicitor
30th Nov my local searches back
3rd Dec: My buyers local searches back.
18th Dec my buyers initial questions arrive and then I post them back
Black hole until 6th Jan when I start spamming emails for every single question I've ever sent asking for answers and saying I wish to complete on 19th Jan (which obviously didn't happen).

Since then it feels like pulling teeth for sure.  I have only managed to have 3 phone calls with my conveyancer since 1 Sep.  I had asked for before Christmas back in September which I knew was pushing it for 3 months until completion but at least it would keep me higher up the queue I figured.   I was told in December we were all good to go aside from 1 document in the post from the management company so I then asked for 19th Jan so it would give them a week to sort things in the first week back at work in Jan and then we could have exchanged 12 Jan.   It now seems like my buyers solicitors decided they wanted a new copy of the buildings insurance from the management company as the old one ran out 2 weeks ago, they also want an asbestos report form and a new copy of accounts as the service charges went out to be paid 4th Jan from the management company and a license to alter so I've had to pay out another £102 on top of the £463.50 they wanted for the Leasehold Management pack.  The latest hold up is my buyers have now decided the Deed of Covenant which is on the buyer to pay for is too expensive at £190 so they need time to draft up their own. When pushed for the 19th Jan my sellers solicitor then found out they didn't even have a signed copy of the actual contract and my seller had moved away from the area over Christmas, and also didn't have a signed copy of the Fixtures and Fittings.

Even now with my purchase allegedly ready to go my conveyancer won't even give me an estimated date so since I am shielded and it's a complete ball ache having to plan around a week wait on supermarket delivery slots and a week turnaround on meds (since I need NHS volunteer responders to help with collecting my immunosuppressants).  I don't want to order food or arrange meds just for my conveyancer to say "we're ready to exchange now and complete in 5 days" as I wouldn't here for the deliveries at that rate.

The only advice I can give is try to give a clear date to work towards and not just "ASAP" otherwise you get stuck in the bottom of the queue and your file will only be picked up after you phone or email.

badger09

fleur8 said:

We haven’t been given a bill for the legal fees or stamp duty and we haven’t transferred our entire deposit and the co-freeholder’s solicitor still hasn’t sent the final document (requested and agreed in principle 2 weeks ago) yet we have an exchange and completion date on Wednesday. It isn’t going to happen is it?

How long before completion date did you all transfer your full deposit and pay stamp duty etc?

We're perhaps a bit unusual in that we completed on our sale 18th December & I asked solicitor to retain enough for deposit on our purchase so it would be there whenever exchange agreed.
As per my post above, we've already received Completion Statement showing amount needed to complete the purchase and cover solicitors fees. Once we have exchange and completion dates I will make sure money is with solicitor at least 1, but most likely 2 days before (as I'm cautious & its earning nothing in our current account anyway!).  

ashleighduguid

Hi all, 

I have been lurking on this thread for a while and thought I’d provide our timeline:

1st Sept - Viewed House

7th Sept - Offer accepted.

7th Sept - Full mortgage application started and sent.

8th Sept - Instructed Solicitors 

9th Sept - Searches started

12th September - Valuation for Mortgage

17th September - Mortgage Offer

19th October - homebuyers surveys carried out

7th November - Received draft contracts 

17th November - Received mortgage deed and searches. Returned signed mortgage deed.

6th Jan - vendor returns signed contract 

11th Jan - enquiries returned

12th Jan - dispute over title deed plan

21st Jan - dispute resolved (title plan was sent in black and white rather than colour which caused a discrepancy) 

23rd Jan - completion statement received 

Fingers crossed for exchange on Monday and completion on the 2nd Feb! 🤞🏻

Caz_Mnaz

Just heard from a friend (I live in a small town so get news before agents lol) that my buyer's house has resold. Fingers crossed its chain free..... Cash buyer in rental would be lovely 😂

Jasjeet54

After having an offer accepted on my flat on 11/8/20, I am now finally due to do a simultaneous exchange and complete on 28th Jan...feeling quite nervous about it all...hopefully the gods are on my side next week. Will definitely support any efforts being made in the future to improve the buying/selling process in England/Wales, waaay too stressful! 

annetheman

@ashleighduguid can I ask about your completion statement - do they warn you they are sending it to you or just send it to you randomly?

My conveyancer's terms say it needs to be settled 7 days after date of invoice. My car's just failed MOT and need to dip into "solicitor money" to fix as it's mega ££££££, not a few little issues.

Which is fine if I they date completion statement invoice at most 6 days before my next pay day, potentially not fine if it's >7 days before(!!)