Seller holding up Exchange today

akorn77

I'm in the middle of a short (3 property chain). My Buyer yesterday paid his 10% deposit, and we were due to Exchange today. Then I got told that the Sellers havent yet signed the contract papers! I signed mine some 6 weeks ago. Apparently my solicitor only authorised the contract on Monday (dont know why he's authorised it so late?), and the Sellers solicitor sent it to the Sellers on Tuesday for signing. The Sellers live locally, I wouldnt think it would take very long to sign two sets of papers and return it to the solicitors office which is within walking distance of their home! The Sellers is selling me a probate property after mum died, and I know they've been super keen and prompt thus far to complete and take their fortune..

My solicitor and the Estate Agents aren't being very helpful. Once the Sellers sign and return papers can an Exchange occur? Does the Buyer need to do anything else? 

Losing my mind from the stress and lack of information. 

lisyloo

There could be umpteen reasons why they haven't done it.
They might be working late, they might be ill, they might have covid and be isolating so unable to get to the office.

If your solicitor is 6 weeks late and they are 2 days late, then I think your solicitor is the main hold up, don't you?

akorn77

lisyloo said:

There could be umpteen reasons why they haven't done it.
They might be working late, they might be ill, they might have covid and be isolating so unable to get to the office.

If your solicitor is 6 weeks late and they are 2 days late, then I think your solicitor is the main hold up, don't you?

Could my solicitor have "authorised" those papers sooner? I'm not familiar with this, dont know how it works 

lisyloo

Do you know how it was send on Tuesday?
Do you know if they have received it?

If they have paid a large deposit I would have thought that indicates their commitment.

If it went by Royal Mail Tuesday evening (for example) after last post, they might not have received it yet.

akorn77

lisyloo said:

Do you know how it was send on Tuesday?
Do you know if they have received it?

If they have paid a large deposit I would have thought that indicates their commitment.

If it went by Royal Mail Tuesday evening (for example) after last post, they might not have received it yet.

Unfortunately I'm not sure if they have obtained the papers. You may be right regarding royal mail, that's a good point. 

The Sellers are not buying or paying any form of deposit. 

lisyloo

sorry I'm mixing up the buyers and sellers.

canaldumidi

akorn77 said:

I'm in the middle of a short (3 property chain). My Buyer yesterday paid his 10% deposit, and we were due to Exchange today. Then I got told that the Sellers havent yet signed the contract papers! I signed mine some 6 weeks ago. Apparently my solicitor only authorised the contract on Monday (dont know why he's authorised it so late?), and the Sellers solicitor sent it to the Sellers on Tuesday for signing. The Sellers live locally, I wouldnt think it would take very long to sign two sets of papers and return it to the solicitors office which is within walking distance of their home! The Sellers is selling me a probate property after mum died, and I know they've been super keen and prompt thus far to complete and take their fortune..

My solicitor and the Estate Agents aren't being very helpful. Once the Sellers sign and return papers can an Exchange occur? Does the Buyer need to do anything else? 

Do you mean your seller?

But whichever, how can we possibly know if everything else is in place!? The signing of the contract might be the only outstanding matter, or any one of 93 other steps might also still be outstanding.

Apparently my solicitor only authorised the contract on Monday

So can we expect a thread here started by your seller headed:

Buyer holding up Exchange today

akorn77

canaldumidi said:

akorn77 said:

I'm in the middle of a short (3 property chain). My Buyer yesterday paid his 10% deposit, and we were due to Exchange today. Then I got told that the Sellers havent yet signed the contract papers! I signed mine some 6 weeks ago. Apparently my solicitor only authorised the contract on Monday (dont know why he's authorised it so late?), and the Sellers solicitor sent it to the Sellers on Tuesday for signing. The Sellers live locally, I wouldnt think it would take very long to sign two sets of papers and return it to the solicitors office which is within walking distance of their home! The Sellers is selling me a probate property after mum died, and I know they've been super keen and prompt thus far to complete and take their fortune..

My solicitor and the Estate Agents aren't being very helpful. Once the Sellers sign and return papers can an Exchange occur? Does the Buyer need to do anything else? 

Do you mean your seller?

But whichever, how can we possibly know if everything else is in place!? The signing of the contract might be the only outstanding matter, or any one of 93 other steps might also still be outstanding.

Apparently my solicitor only authorised the contract on Monday

So can we expect a thread here started by your seller headed:

Buyer holding up Exchange today

My solicitor just emailed me, and said on the Buyer side the solicitor is doing final internal sign-off/approval, whatever that means. And for the Seller side, they havent signed the contracts yet. My hope of exchanging this week isnt looking too promising. 

lisyloo

I think you need to chill out a bit and stop trying to micro manage a process that cannot be micro managed otherwise it will be incredibly stressful for you.

nothing you’ve said indicates a major issue, just people doing their due diligence on a complicated process where the solicitors have pipelined work I.e. they aren’t sat twiddling their thumbs waiting for your contact to come in.

TBG01

lisyloo said:

 I.e. they aren’t sat twiddling their thumbs waiting for your contact to come in.

Impossible.

Everyone knows Solicitors only have one client at a time. 

Tiglet2

akorn77 said:

I'm in the middle of a short (3 property chain). My Buyer yesterday paid his 10% deposit, and we were due to Exchange today. Then I got told that the Sellers havent yet signed the contract papers! I signed mine some 6 weeks ago. Apparently my solicitor only authorised the contract on Monday (dont know why he's authorised it so late?), and the Sellers solicitor sent it to the Sellers on Tuesday for signing. The Sellers live locally, I wouldnt think it would take very long to sign two sets of papers and return it to the solicitors office which is within walking distance of their home! The Sellers is selling me a probate property after mum died, and I know they've been super keen and prompt thus far to complete and take their fortune..

My solicitor and the Estate Agents aren't being very helpful. Once the Sellers sign and return papers can an Exchange occur? Does the Buyer need to do anything else? 

Losing my mind from the stress and lack of information. 

Signing contract papers at different times is perfectly usual.  The solicitors will each follow a process of getting each piece of the puzzle in place.  What order they do it in is not always in alignment with the other solicitors but in the end, before exchange takes place, all the pieces of the puzzle need to be in place.

Once everyone has signed up and solicitors have all the pieces neatly in place, they are ready to set the completion date and exchange.