Delay exchange until mortgage funds received?

Mizydoscape

Hello, our chain of 3 houses has agreed completion on 29th September and our buyer has transferred the remainder of their deposit to their solicitor today. We are now all waiting to exchange.

Our solicitor has requested release of our mortgage funds today to hit their account on 28th to make sure they are there in time. However, she says she will not get confirmation from our lender (Halifax) that they will release the funds and will only know it's all OK when they get them on 28th and therefore we should hold off on exchange until 28th, the day before completion, in case there is a problem. She says because of the stamp duty deadline Halifax are extremely busy so while it should be fine there is a risk it won't happen in time and we would be in breach of contract.

My mortgage broker says he's never heard a solicitor say this before and that he had an email saying the funds had been requested but he was going to call Halifax and see what they say but his advice is usually to go with what the solicitor says.

Our chain want to exchange today/tomorrow and this is what we were expecting as well. Any advice?

MaryNB

I applied with Halifax last year and my solicitor said she had received confirmation maybe a day or two after the request went in (exchange was a few days after that with the funds being released on exchange for completion the next day).

Maybe your solicitor is being risk averse because Halifax requires a notice of 5 working days as standard (can often be done in less than this) and you are giving 3 working days right before the SDLT deadline. Although I would expect to be able to exchange once Halifax has responded positively to the request, not wait until funds were received. 

Mizydoscape

MaryNB said:

I applied with Halifax last year and my solicitor said she had received confirmation maybe a day or two after the request went in (exchange was a few days after that with the funds being released on exchange for completion the next day).

Maybe your solicitor is being risk averse because Halifax requires a notice of 5 working days as standard (can often be done in less than this) and you are giving 3 working days right before the SDLT deadline. Although I would expect to be able to exchange once Halifax has responded positively to the request, not wait until funds were received. 

Yes she is being risk averse and says this is because of the unusually high number of transactions going through at the moment. She said halifax require 3 working days but our mortgage broker says 2. 

MaryNB

I had another look and can't see where it gives a time frame on Halifax's website. Can't remember where I read 5 working days (might have been said to me during my purchase last year). There are a few other websites that say Halifax takes up to 7 days. Obviously it can be done sooner and the solicitor can press for a quicker release of funds if needs be.

Whatever the case, definitely do not exchange until there is at least confirmation of funds. Just because you've had an offer, it isn't a guarantee that you will get the funds. The risk of not getting them is very low but the consequences if it does go wrong will be pretty dire.