The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

crumblylancashire

Becksina said:

More Accord drama holding us up. They want 7 working days to review this ridiculous audit they’ve started and a further 7 working days to be informed of completion. So we are looking at April if they stick to these timescales. We were assured we’d exchange and complete last week so this is beyond frustrating. Half tempted just to unpack everything, and half tempted to just go to a different lender because Accord have been nothing short of terrible this whole process. 

Oh god, this is scary, supposed to be exchanging on Friday - not heard anything about any Accord hold-ups... did they say why they're doing this audit?  Hope they see sense and you get it sorted sooner than that. 

Insomniac101

Jadek said:

I took a hiatus posting here after our previous purchase fell through. We started looking at houses in Jan 2020, found one we liked and had the offer accepted mid March 2020. Then, with Covid and being messed around a lot by the sellers, we were finally meant to complete on 27th November. A week before completion we were meant to exchange (on a Friday), but on the day it didn't happen, I assumed it was just a breakdown of communication and we'd exchange on the Monday instead. Got a phone call from the EA at 9am that Monday morning, I assumed she was calling to rally around to get exchange to happen, but instead she told me the sellers had just pulled out, and hadn't even given a reason!
We found another property that same week but I've been trying very hard not to get excited about it or generally think about it too much, I guess to emotionally protect myself.
But at the end of last week we found out that everyone in our short chain is now ready to exchange and I'm currently obsessively refreshing my emails waiting for the EA to come back to us with a date (as we are FTBs with a planned overlap between the house and our rented flat we have left it to the rest of the chain to dictate when this will be, especially as the top of the chain is moving from Somerset to Scotland). 
Before the sellers found the property they are buying they had offered to break the chain and go into rented if they hadn't found anything by the end of Feb, so I keep trying to tell myself that they are committed to the sale and I shouldn't worry, but after being at this process for 14 months it's really hard to be optimistic! 
Oh, and also, last week I found out that the first house went back on the market less than a month after the sellers pulled out! I have my theories as to the reasoning in this given the little I did know about the seller's circumstances, but still, it's very baffling...

I feel your pain and I think I'm trying not to get excited as I think it will jinx things
We went on the market on the last weekend in January 2020, we got offers straight away, we decided on the ones we thought were financially sound, two teachers.... but come April both had be furloughed and couldn't get their mortgage offer approved. Then June when we came out of the first lockdown, we went back on the market, offer in straight away again, and simultaneously we put an offer down also.  Then.... so close to exchange the buyer pulled out, because they announced the stamp duty holiday and the buyer had more money to spend ... knock on chain fail.
So this time I'm not holding my breathe, and last Friday was the first knock back to this new chain as we agreed to exchange, but the buyers solicitor has come up with another query, that was directed to the freeholder... and we don't know how long that will take.
I do really want this to be over!!   if it falls through one more time we are going to just suck it up and live here... we love our flat and our neighbours, we just needed the space with a growing family

jonners666

We were hoping to exchange this week but our buyers solicitors. Urgh. They keep raising frivolous enquiries and it's driving us mad. 

Insomniac101

jonners666 said:

We were hoping to exchange this week but our buyers solicitors. Urgh. They keep raising frivolous enquiries and it's driving us mad. 

Our buyers solicitor raise so many enquiries, our solicitor has commented "Its the most enquiry's I've ever dealt with on a sale in my entire career as a conveyancing solicitor!"

jonners666

These are just the same ones going round and round. They referred an enquiry to the Land Registry because they thought some shading on our plan looked more blue than green. It's clearly green, and blue is not mentioned at all in the text 

Jadek

Insomniac101 said:

Jadek said:

I took a hiatus posting here after our previous purchase fell through. We started looking at houses in Jan 2020, found one we liked and had the offer accepted mid March 2020. Then, with Covid and being messed around a lot by the sellers, we were finally meant to complete on 27th November. A week before completion we were meant to exchange (on a Friday), but on the day it didn't happen, I assumed it was just a breakdown of communication and we'd exchange on the Monday instead. Got a phone call from the EA at 9am that Monday morning, I assumed she was calling to rally around to get exchange to happen, but instead she told me the sellers had just pulled out, and hadn't even given a reason!
We found another property that same week but I've been trying very hard not to get excited about it or generally think about it too much, I guess to emotionally protect myself.
But at the end of last week we found out that everyone in our short chain is now ready to exchange and I'm currently obsessively refreshing my emails waiting for the EA to come back to us with a date (as we are FTBs with a planned overlap between the house and our rented flat we have left it to the rest of the chain to dictate when this will be, especially as the top of the chain is moving from Somerset to Scotland). 
Before the sellers found the property they are buying they had offered to break the chain and go into rented if they hadn't found anything by the end of Feb, so I keep trying to tell myself that they are committed to the sale and I shouldn't worry, but after being at this process for 14 months it's really hard to be optimistic! 
Oh, and also, last week I found out that the first house went back on the market less than a month after the sellers pulled out! I have my theories as to the reasoning in this given the little I did know about the seller's circumstances, but still, it's very baffling...

I feel your pain and I think I'm trying not to get excited as I think it will jinx things
We went on the market on the last weekend in January 2020, we got offers straight away, we decided on the ones we thought were financially sound, two teachers.... but come April both had be furloughed and couldn't get their mortgage offer approved. Then June when we came out of the first lockdown, we went back on the market, offer in straight away again, and simultaneously we put an offer down also.  Then.... so close to exchange the buyer pulled out, because they announced the stamp duty holiday and the buyer had more money to spend ... knock on chain fail.
So this time I'm not holding my breathe, and last Friday was the first knock back to this new chain as we agreed to exchange, but the buyers solicitor has come up with another query, that was directed to the freeholder... and we don't know how long that will take.
I do really want this to be over!!   if it falls through one more time we are going to just suck it up and live here... we love our flat and our neighbours, we just needed the space with a growing family

Oh man that sounds painful, it's nice to know we're not the only ones who have had this dragging on for so long but I hope you are able to complete soon! I also feel that the most exciting prospect of exchanging / completing now is for this whole process to finally be over. It's so hard when it feels like your entire life is on hold and you're holding your breath just praying for nothing else to go wrong! 

Insomniac101

@jonners666 - similar to our buyers solicitor, we, our maintenance company and our freeholder replied enquires, then they send back clarification of the same enquiries! They even sent one more on Wednesday last week to our freeholders, knowing we all agreed exchange on Friday and that our freeholders would take another week or so to reply! So now we are all stuck waiting!

NikkiW872

Hi everyone, I’m new to the forum but I’m keen to hear your views on my predicament, mainly because I’m annoying the hell out of everyone talking to them about it alongside driving myself mad. We are currently living with parents and are awaiting completion on a new build on a small development (5 plots) being built by a local builder. He told us he would try and complete by the end of March given the stamp duty cut off but has never promised us this. Obviously now this has been extended which appears to have made his urgency in completing the property relax. Outside is finished, CCTV needs to be installed, there’s a day’s work for an electrician inside, gates need to go on and the property needs to be cleaned. Then the pressure test needs to take place and the council and building inspector needs to sign the property off. However, he’s told us there’s no chance of completing by the end of the month. I’m really struggling to see why. I’m thinking he may be waiting for the new tax year before he completes. He has also refused to send the contract pack before completion as he “doesn’t want to be tied into a completion date he can’t meet”. I would understand this if the house didn’t have a roof, but it’s nearly there and we appear to be so close. His incessant dragging of feet is causing me massive stress, which he doesn’t seem affected by. COVID keeps coming up as an excuse but my dad’s a builder and has told me it doesn’t take long to arrange inspections for completion. I’m beyond frustrated 😓 Head down and plough on or start causing a nuisance? TIA

dungabeagle

So after lurking this thread for weeks I decided it’s time to join in! 

We are two first time buyers in the North East, late 20s/early 30s (& a 19 month old beagle!)

The process so far; 
01/02/21- see a house on right move about 30 minutes after it was listed, call right away to arrange a viewing. Arrange AIP.
04/02/21- view the property, love it! Perfect size, perfect area, lovely garden & right bang in the middle of our budget. Sellers aren’t part of a chain as they’re selling to move in with parents. 
05/02/21- offer asking price & it is accepted! House is changed to “sold STC” right away! 

09/02/21- instruct our solicitors & apply for our mortgage with an advisor. 

10/02/21- mortgage offer comes through within 20 hours! 

17/02/21- paperwork from solicitors arrives.
22/02/21- pay for our searches.
01/03/21- drop off remaining required documents at the solicitors.

We have now had confirmation that 1 out of 3 searches are back, our solicitors have raised 14 (?!) queries with the vendors on the 9th but they all seem to be relatively simple. 

We have floated the idea of completing week commencing 19/04/21- our solicitors have said this “appears realistic” but of course this depends on queries/searches. 

I understand things have been moving along fairly quickly, and I understand that the queries/searches are important but... I want to move now! I want to buy furniture! And paint! 

Caz_Mnaz

Awwwww I'm so excited for you! I'm moving back to the North East with my purchase and love how much more I can get for my money already 😁(selling my tiny 2bed terrace for 150...buying 4bed semi with huge kitchen diner for 190!)