Waiting bank Confirmation for Exchange/Completion

Mani_London

Hi All,
I am a FTB.
We are suppose to exchange today and complete by 12th of March. My solicitor receive the confirmation later Friday afternoon and submitted his report to bank and asked them to confirm it is okay to Exchange on Monday 1st march with completion on 12th of March. 
He just sent me an email saying he have not received a confirmation from bank and is still waiting. Asking me whether I want to proceed without confirmation or not. last week he advised that we should wait for bank to confirm. 
Anyone knows how long it take for bank to confirm ? Is there a way either my solicitor can chase them or i can call bank and chase them ?
Please advise.
Many Thanks

davidmcn

Might help if you told us who the bank is, as obviously their timescales will vary. Is there anything in particular he's asked them to confirm, as it seems unnecessary merely to check that they'll release funds? That's effectively what the mortgage offer says.

Mani_London

Hi davidmcn: My bad, lender is Santander. I am FTB and thats what my solicitor advised to wait for bank to confirm. He said it is good to wait for bank confirmation.

Thrugelmir

Plenty of time if completion is on the 12th. Certainly no need to panic. Bank aren't going to see this as a priority issue. 

davidmcn

It's no wonder completions are taking longer if the banks are having to deal with this sort of unnecessary correspondence.

Mani_London

Hi Thrugelmir and davidmcn: He said to wait for confirmation and then we will do exchange. As its my first time so not sure. I will ask him to call and move on with the exchange today.

Mani_London

Thanks Guys, I requested my solicitor to chase bank and he did. So just received a confirmation email as well that he has exchanged the contracts.

jasonf90

I've never of heard of anyone asking the bank if it's OK to exchange. 

Mani_London

jasonf90 said:

I've never of heard of anyone asking the bank if it's OK to exchange. 

Hi jasonf90: I believe in normal days no one asks. The reason i was told is just to make sure that bank will release money on completion date as sometimes they run extra credit check and specially during this time.

[Deleted User]

Maybe the solicitor has been bitten by this over over the last 12 months and is now being cautious.  I remember April last year when Barclays indian processing centers got raided and told to shut down (Barclays decided to ignore local covid laws I believe). People were marched out the offices and the files they were working in were locked to their user profiles.   So when they english centres picked it up they couldnt access the files.   Release of funds was taking weeks and weeks against the published 5 days.   
Thats an extreme example but I suppose they are doing the better safe than sorry approach

Mani_London

Deleted_User said:

Maybe the solicitor has been bitten by this over over the last 12 months and is now being cautious.  I remember April last year when Barclays indian processing centers got raided and told to shut down (Barclays decided to ignore local covid laws I believe). People were marched out the offices and the files they were working in were locked to their user profiles.   So when they english centres picked it up they couldnt access the files.   Release of funds was taking weeks and weeks against the published 5 days.   
Thats an extreme example but I suppose they are doing the better safe than sorry approach

Hi Deleted_User: Thank you for your reply. That's what i have been told about being cautious because of the pandemic an things get delayed. 
Anyways I have exchanged yesterday and completion in 2 weeks time. I hope that goes smoothly as well. Fingers crossed