The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

Doodlebugs

FTB_Help said:

@Doodlebugs

Stamp duty extention to be debated next monday, so fingers crossed if your tenants have to move leavung date past march, you may still make stamp duty holiday.

I had my offer back at the beginning of Oct and pretty much just waiting for tenants to vacate on time, but with lockdown who knows if they could still leave the country, so hopeful it may allow contingency for those in our situation/ stuck in a slow moving chain

We spookily have very similar situations, we shall have to keep each other positive in the next 6 weeks 😉
I hadn’t realised about the stamp duty being debated. I honestly can’t see the government extending it though, it had the desired effect of boosting the housing market in the interim. Will be keeping an eye on it for sure! 

Sotts

Caz_Mnaz said:

WiseOwl00 said:

Sotts said:

Getting frustrated. We're buying SO. Solicitor is waiting for 2 enquiries from the HA.  One relates to parking.  One of the documents says there's no right to park in the underground car park, the other document says parking is available first come first served (have already had an agreement in writing that i can rent a space under the building) 
The other is the roof terrace.  Conflict in 2 documents. One says we can use, the other says,we can't 
Solicitor keeps asking the same question and HA seem to struggle to answer.
Anyway i started packing on Friday.  Today I've lost enthusiasm.  Such simple queries.
That said, my solicitor is working late nights and weekends to get through her casework.  I just want a date !!!  

I'm feeling very similar! Enquiries have just been going backward and forwards between the two solicitors for over 3 weeks now. They won't even give us an estimated date of completion. I know I could start packing to speed stuff up, but at the same time I just have no enthusiasm for it because who knows how long it will take.  

Packing before exchange is risky, though tempting! I'm glad I only did bits and bobs when it all collapsed out the blue the week of exhange!! 

What happened?
We're chain free, currently renting and moving into a new property.  Please don't let anything go wrong 

Caz_Mnaz

Sotts said:

Caz_Mnaz said:

WiseOwl00 said:

Sotts said:

Getting frustrated. We're buying SO. Solicitor is waiting for 2 enquiries from the HA.  One relates to parking.  One of the documents says there's no right to park in the underground car park, the other document says parking is available first come first served (have already had an agreement in writing that i can rent a space under the building) 
The other is the roof terrace.  Conflict in 2 documents. One says we can use, the other says,we can't 
Solicitor keeps asking the same question and HA seem to struggle to answer.
Anyway i started packing on Friday.  Today I've lost enthusiasm.  Such simple queries.
That said, my solicitor is working late nights and weekends to get through her casework.  I just want a date !!!  

I'm feeling very similar! Enquiries have just been going backward and forwards between the two solicitors for over 3 weeks now. They won't even give us an estimated date of completion. I know I could start packing to speed stuff up, but at the same time I just have no enthusiasm for it because who knows how long it will take.  

Packing before exchange is risky, though tempting! I'm glad I only did bits and bobs when it all collapsed out the blue the week of exhange!! 

What happened?
We're chain free, currently renting and moving into a new property.  Please don't let anything go wrong 

Ahh you're probably a lot 'safer' than we were, our buyers buyer pulled out at the last minute (after they were the one pushing for completion this week) and so she had to pull out of ours, we've had to pull out of our purchase. Horrific but is worst case scenario and does happen! Now it's a race to get new buyers (although our buyer really wants our house so I hope she finds another buyer first so she can have it!!)

Didn't mean to alarm you, you're in a much better position! 

rachlikeswinter

For those of you using a LISA as all or part of your deposit - how long did it take for the solicitor to draw down the money? I paid half my deposit last Friday, the other half is in the LISA. After they acknowledged receipt they’ve given me the formal ‘are you happy to exchange’ email and set a completion date. But the money is currently still in my LISA account... just wondering when it’ll disappear! I signed the withdrawal permission form about 3 months ago. 

Weird feeling actually wanting all of my money to get out of my life ha. 

JessJ23425

rachlikeswinter said:

For those of you using a LISA as all or part of your deposit - how long did it take for the solicitor to draw down the money? I paid half my deposit last Friday, the other half is in the LISA. After they acknowledged receipt they’ve given me the formal ‘are you happy to exchange’ email and set a completion date. But the money is currently still in my LISA account... just wondering when it’ll disappear! I signed the withdrawal permission form about 3 months ago. 

Weird feeling actually wanting all of my money to get out of my life ha. 

We used Skipton and contacted them a day after the declarations were received, they just asked us what day to send the money to the solicitor! We're running a bit late on everything and they sent it the next working day for us no problems.

Lostthegame

rachlikeswinter said:

For those of you using a LISA as all or part of your deposit - how long did it take for the solicitor to draw down the money? I paid half my deposit last Friday, the other half is in the LISA. After they acknowledged receipt they’ve given me the formal ‘are you happy to exchange’ email and set a completion date. But the money is currently still in my LISA account... just wondering when it’ll disappear! I signed the withdrawal permission form about 3 months ago. 

Weird feeling actually wanting all of my money to get out of my life ha. 

My LISA was with Moneybox, it took about a week from me contacting them to withdraw the LISA to them sending the money to my solicitor.

rachlikeswinter

JessJ23425 said:

rachlikeswinter said:

For those of you using a LISA as all or part of your deposit - how long did it take for the solicitor to draw down the money? I paid half my deposit last Friday, the other half is in the LISA. After they acknowledged receipt they’ve given me the formal ‘are you happy to exchange’ email and set a completion date. But the money is currently still in my LISA account... just wondering when it’ll disappear! I signed the withdrawal permission form about 3 months ago. 

Weird feeling actually wanting all of my money to get out of my life ha. 

We used Skipton and contacted them a day after the declarations were received, they just asked us what day to send the money to the solicitor! We're running a bit late on everything and they sent it the next working day for us no problems.

Lostthegame said:

rachlikeswinter said:

For those of you using a LISA as all or part of your deposit - how long did it take for the solicitor to draw down the money? I paid half my deposit last Friday, the other half is in the LISA. After they acknowledged receipt they’ve given me the formal ‘are you happy to exchange’ email and set a completion date. But the money is currently still in my LISA account... just wondering when it’ll disappear! I signed the withdrawal permission form about 3 months ago. 

Weird feeling actually wanting all of my money to get out of my life ha. 

My LISA was with Moneybox, it took about a week from me contacting them to withdraw the LISA to them sending the money to my solicitor.

Thanks both - I'm with Skipton so I'll drop them a line today to see if they need me to authorise or something.

badger09

badger09 said:

oniongirl said:

badger09 said:

oniongirl said:

Things people said to me on Friday that did not make me feel great, 22nd January edition:
My estate agent: "If we don't have a date by then, then something is REALLY wrong", when I mentioned our broker says we need to apply for an extension on the 1st Feb at the latest because this has been going on since July.
My conveyancer: "I'm surprised you're still carrying on", when asked if there was an end in sight.

Oh no, I'm not surprised you're feeling down again. I haven't checked on your posts, but are your buyers ok with the continuing delay? IIRC, you don't have to move and are happy where you are. I guess at this stage, that is something to keep focussed on. 

Yes, I guess so - they just reapplied for a new mortgage as theirs expired before ours! They are FTBs and our property is (now) priced very competitively; we accepted their offer shortly before the stamp duty announcement and since then prices have gone up ~£20k. They've also spent a LOT of money on various reports and inspections. 

You're right. We can stay put. But we torture ourselves every weekend when we go on our walks as we walk by the house (it's "on the way" to the countryside) and fall more in love with the area! Oh well. It'll be fine, whatever happens.

Walking past every weekend sounds a bit masochistic .
I'm taking the opposite approach and not even looking at the photos and floorplan online. Not wise to go and look for real, as we're in Wales & house is in Shropshire. Just can't get enthusiastic about this purchase. However, my son in HK is making up for it, by constantly looking at the photos & noticing different things. He's also already bagged 'his' bedroom, in the unlikely event he'll be allowed in the country any time soon.

Solicitor phoned this morning to say earliest those higher up the chain will exchange is Mon 1st with completion Thurs 4th, and a COVID rider. I'd hoped to exchange by this Friday at the latest, but I've lost the will to argue. 

Another phone call this morning from our solicitor. Developer (barn conversion) at top of short chain (us as cash buyers, our vendors, their vendors buying barn) refusing a COVID rider. I think its our vendor's solicitor insisting on it. Feel like banging their heads together.
My problem is, that with each setback/delay, I'm questioning the whole purchase .

retepetsir

So, time for an update...

Finally received all the paperwork last week for searches, conveyencer report, mortgage deed, transfer form and contract to review and sign. The seller's solicitor had got two names wrong on the contract so that wasn't a good start! Our solcitior used tip-ex to correct it, haha.

We'd provisionally booked in 16th February due to removals availability, which everyone seemed happy with, and hoped to Exchange this week.

Fast forward to this week - received an email from our solicitor yesterday to say that the lady we are buying from, who's in a care home, has tested positive for Covid-19 . Due to her already ill health they are not sure if she will recover. Her family were selling on her behalf as they have Power of Attorney, but this would disappear if the worst were to happen and they'd then need to apply for probate!!!

They still want to get it all through and hopefully she will recover, but in doing so they've asked to Complete asap. I've rung around and gone with our fourth choice of removal company who were also twice as expensive, but they have a cancellation for Thursday 4th. It's going to cost over £1,000 more but in the grand scheme of things, isn't much to pay if it means we get the house we want?

So it looks like we could be moving a week today and probably Exchanging on the same day. Panic! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh 

It also means I don't have the 2+ weeks usually needed to do things like move broadband, so that could cause some issues with my work and the kids home schooling - I may need to work out a tethering solution. 

oniongirl

Got an email from our sellers' agents last night at 7pm, to inform us that their mortgage offer expires in 2 weeks, everyone is ready and can we all please agree for completion on the 5th, less than two weeks away. We would have to exchange this Friday to give our Lender enough time to release our mortgage funds.

Still not sure whether our buyer has their new mortgage offer back yet (the valuation was on Wednesday last week). There are NO removals available at this short notice, although our agent recommended a "budget" firm who are coming over today for a quote who do have some space. Turns out our solicitors know them too, and think they're top blokes, so fingers crossed their quote really is budget!

Trying to stay calm, but failing miserably!