ATE [ Authority to Exchange] / How long does this take?

Jazmin28

Hi Everyone,  

One question that i have if anyone knows. 
ATE [ Authority to Exchange] - With regards to help to buy purchases.
Is this quite straight forward, is there going to be more paperwork to sign and wait for etc, some questions below to keep me sane.. 

1. How long does this usually take to be provided? 
2. Does this have to happen before we sign exchange contracts or can it be done in between exchange and completion date?
3. Is there anything else HTB related that our solicitor has to apply for? 

Some input would be great to hear.. and have a great day ! 
Thanks in advance, 

watch3r

Same cart so I can help.
check you HTB agent for time - my one is agent 3 and it’s - form1- 5 days.
you solicitor needs a hard copy of the mortgage offer. I don’t know why but my solicitor didn’t get the hard copy yet where my one arrived yesterday .( required by HTB)
so once you got a confirmation they filled form1 you can start counting .
There was something regarding HTB I’ve signed with the solicitor but don’t know what .
After exchange it’s ATC and that’s 2 days . 

muhammad_minar

As above and;
HtB agent 2 is london - i am in this boat. 
solicitor will need mortgage offer, CML certificate and a completed form 1 and send all 3 docs to HtB. Within 3 working days you will get ATE. Your exchange can happen 5 working days from the date your solicitor sends the above documents. In these 5 working days your solicitor should meet you to discuss all pertinant matters regarding purchase, land searches etc and will ask you for your deposit. The deposit will be paid on day of exchange. 

authority to complete happens during completion - this is when house is ready to move in and you get the keys.

watch3r

@Jazmin28 any progres with ATE ?

Jazmin28

watch3r said:

@Jazmin28 any progres with ATE ?

No not yet, we are still waiting for the final report from our solicitor, they have a few cases on now i want to be pushy but not sure how far one can go.. how about you, what stage are you at? have you received the exchange contract or got a completion date yet? 

watch3r

yeah i wish . 
Spoken with my solicitor yesterday .She got the offer from the bank .  i'll get the contract and deeds to sign this week and she will apply for ATE (or applied ) , i got her report on the mortgage yesterday so now waiting for the post and ATE.
i know that ATE for HTB agent 3 is now 6 days so i'll find out something probably late next week, i got from her that worst case scenario for my completion is 21/08. But "i can do and i've done miracles so we might get you in by 12/08"  i set myself for 21  

watch3r

update - Solicitor called we need a new offer as the one we got is not valid as my developer in not  apart of my lenders scheme . 
i managed to secure one within an hour so that's lucky, but the initial "fu** not that all over again" was nerve wrecking. Its kind of our MA fault so he was on the ball ... 

Jazmin28

@watch3r and anybody else going through this right now,

We just received this email, which we are pretty annoyed about, i think our solicitor is not able to manage the workload, but could be wrong; below is part of an email which our solictor shared to us.

Please let me know what you all think..? 
Is she trying to say that we wont be moved in till around 4-6 weeks time?

"" As this is a help to buy, please note we cannot ascertain exchange and completion dates at the moment, with help to buy we need to obtain authority for exchange first, and this process out of experience that I had on a recent file can take a good 2 weeks sometimes longer, as we have to send them the form 1 document, sometimes it is not accepted and changes are requested, we then have to re-do and re-submit this and it takes them 5 days to reply back to us. So this is the process of exchange. Once authority for exchange is in, we then can proceed with exchange and completion, but please note again we have to submit a form 2 to get authority for completion, which again can be a lengthy process therefore ideally we need to allow time for this to be done, as without the authority to proceed with completion we cannot complete on the matter and if we have a set completion date you will then be defaulting the contract. You will need to allow at least 2-3 weeks minimum in between exchange and completion for this process to be dealt with. "" 

watch3r

Well my solicitor regarding on it I’ll be put back on the end of the line : 
“ No they will just want confirmation, I can then chase them as it’s a tick box exercise for them.” 

I’ve spoken to her on Tuesday regarding this as on 24/08 I’ll be homeless , she was certain we will get the ATE within 24/48 hours and it we don’t get it by Friday she will start throwing “toys at them” .
that wasn’t reassuring and generally I’m convinced It will be another month , I tried calling HTB and it’s a waste of time I’ll try again on Friday but I will throw my toys at them ( I’ll start 9 am ) I do understand COVID and all but It’s just reading 9 pages of the offer of witch most is generic. Takes 5 minutes . 

watch3r

Btw , if I’m not mistaken you have a completion date set on the exchange,
I went through the paperwork and my contract and it states that on exchange we will be given completion date .
and agent 3 current timelines are : 
- Authority to Proceed – 10 working days

- Authority to Exchange – 8 working days
- Confirmation to Developer – 2 working days ( I believe that’s form 2 ) 
. so best case scenario 2 weeks . 

watch3r

i think im gonna scream . 
The post code on my offer is wrong  so back at the end of the line after they review my offer 
so another 3 weeks for ATE so completion next month ... hopefully ...