Home Buyers Support Thread Part 3

[juneybean]

Part 2 here -> www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/a1905904-Buyers-support-thread-part-2?msgid=48420379#48420379

Hope it's okay that I made the next thread :)

To all of you on the brink of exchange - Good Luck!

Our searches are back and our survey is booked for next week, but we are still waiting for the property information form and fixtures and fittings form.

Hoping to exchange in about 3 weeks.

Hello, please may I join? Offer accepted a month ago. FTB so it's been a steep leaning curve!

Things seem to be progressing well so far. The searches and survey are all back fine, and we have the mortgage offer. No fixtures and fittings/property info form from solicitor yet, though I know contract has been received from vendor's solicitor. I think this is the next thing on the list.

Can I dare to hope we can be nearing the point of considering exchange/completion dates (although aware that it doesn't happen till it happens)?

What I will say, to all you buyers thinking your going to exchange in three weeks or are putting a date in your mind, this thread should tell you it's rarely that simple... Don't get fixated on a date yet, a lot needs to be done, especially if you don't have your survey back... Not wanting to Pish on your chips, but the less date orientated you are the sooner it will happen - but a watched pot rarely boils

Well said iamusuallybeingunreasonable!

Many people on here seem to suggest that exchange is only days/weeks away or only one thing to come back from the solicitors. The client does not decide exchange and completion dates, so saying you want to be in by Christmas is water off a duck's back - it is impossible to know when the legalities will be completed until the solicitor sees the documentation. If not all documentation is to hand, then you/your solicitor does not know what additional enquiries they may need to make. There is usually a lull following the initial paperwork. This may be when a solicitor is waiting for office copies from Land Registry, searches, mortgage offer, survey, fixtures & fittings, property information form. Leasehold properties have further documentation to provide - the lease, management packs, sellers leasehold information form, leasehold enquiries form to be forwarded to the managing agent/freeholder. Your solicitor may report to you saying that they have received draft contracts and enclosing a plan, fixtures & fittings, service reports/guarantees and they will often say that they are still waiting for some replies to enquiries and further documentation. This does not mean you are nearly ready to exchange. It merely means that there is still stuff outstanding! Bear in mind, that if paperwork is missing, there are errors on the Property Information form/Fixtures & Fittings, or a problem has cropped up on the deeds or in the searches, there will be delays.

Ideally, solicitors like at least 10 days between exchange and completion. This is so they can request the money from lenders in time and prepare documentation for signature and final searches such as bankruptcy are done following exchange. You can exchange and complete on the same day but some solicitors will charge an expedition fee on top of their normal fee. This is because they have to rearrange priorities to accommodate you.

Sorry for waffling on, does it make it a bit clearer?

Grrrr, the letter went again from our lender to solicitor and, surprise surprise, it still doesn't contain the info we need. That is four times we have requested it to be done properly and FIVE letters which are too ambiguous for our solicitor to proceed. We had decided to keep our house and rent it out so as to speed up the process but it would have been quicker to have sold it.
Am gutted. Hope everyone else has better luck.
For those talking about exchange, we offered at end of May and we're told completion on 8th aug was reasonable. Two months later and we are still hanging with no end in sight. I hope it doesn't happen anyone else on here but in theory it could, so I agree with the people saying don't get too focused on a date.

ShefiffCallie - sorry to hear that. Could your solicitor supply them with the wording he would like them to use, or (heaven forbid) speak to them on the phone to resolve. It sounds ridiculous!

I am still hoping for exchange in 3 weeks, surely I'm allowed to hope aren't I? If we don't try to keep to a sensible timescale we run the risk of someone pulling out.

Yep be positive

But that's what happens, people pull out and that's life it happens all the time, and you can't exchange until all solicitors are ready, not when you would like to, enquiries turn into enquiries and three week disks time at all if you work backwards on what needs to be done at completion and before that to exchange

Sorry tone a party pooper but all the nagging in the world can't circumvent legal process and procedure

Thanks Mystic! You must be so excited to be finally moving into your new home - not long now!

Exchange can happen quickly and I have heard of cases where it has been as quick as four weeks. Sadly this isn't the norm :(. The more links in your chain the more time it will take.

We were supposed to exchange in May with a completion date of 1 week later - chain broke day of exchange. Then due to exchange in August - chain broke again in day of exchange - there were 10 in our chain!

So now we have pulled out and are buying another house with a much shorter chain - hoping it goes smoothly this time but being realistic!!!

Conveyancing solicitors really are the most frustrating people. It's too early for and I'm pregnant but they are driving me mad

Yep - solicitors and estate agents -buying a house without them would be much less stressful!!!

Just sent an email to the EA for the house we are buying to let him have an update - told him that we had passed the mortgage affordability checks and all looking good plus survey would be booked in soon. he replied 'oh I thought from our conversation that you were cash buyers'. We never said that! In fact I have earlier emails where I said we would see if we could get our mortgage transferred over to the new house (after pulling out of buying an earlier house). Yes we have if deposit from the sale
Of our house but not lucky enough to be mortgage free just yet! Have no idea why he thought we were cash buyers - probably mixed up with our buyers who are cash buyers .

Well the letter arrive. Praise The Lord!!!
We've missed the deadline set to complete on mon 6th oct, I know you can exchange and complete close together but none of the solicitors in our chain are keen. So the next date proposed by the vendors is 22nd oct which seems miles away! Oh well, we can't force them out so need to just suck it up and get on with things.
LittleBear, what's been happening?

Congratulations SherifCallie, has exchange actually taken place?

We are inching forward - property information and fixtures and fittings forms arrived today.

We were meant to exchange weeks ago and still haven't. I think the whole thing will fall over tomorrow. Problems elsewhere in the chain. It's so frustrating and there's nothing I can do but wait to find out if we get to move to a house we really like and want to live in or we stay in our current house that doesn't work for us anymore based on what two random strangers decide. It's staggeringly unfair.

Do you know what the problems are, Little bear?
We are due to complete on 22nd October now. Vendors needed a few months to arrange annual leave. So tomorrow we will be moving 'this month'!! It honestly seemed like it would never happen.
What stage is everyone else at?

Hello everyone - I haven't been back on the thread for a while, but am sending happy moving vibes your way . We have finally exchanged contracts after months of mucking about. Moving next Thursday - hurrah! I hope everything works out for all of you.

Sadly not. Communication up the chain is dire. We just were told 'lots of small things'. Joy!

Aarrrgggghhh!

Although, apparently, not a unique experience....

Mortgage brokers (whom I no longer believe are shit-hot) have come back to us TWICE since my last gushy posting about how fast it's all going to be, to ask for stuff they should have known was needed in the first place.

For instance, originals of my payslips and a gift letter (which was bullshit since the money was in our account anyway).

We could have sent these things in THREE WEEKS AGO, but the brokers reckoned scans was OK. At/prior to this time they were even warning me that if you don't do things right first time, the mortgage lender might put one's application at the bottom of the pile. And then they big fat got things wrong! I was so upset on when we spoke to them late last week, I had to leave DP to talk to the guy whilst I left the room.

At one point I said "it this your first application with [lender]?"
Shit hot broker: "No, we..."
Me: "Then why didn't you know where they stand on the original/scan issue? This is my first mortgage application with them, but I'm not the mortgage professional".

And more of that ilk. And the call-centre speak! "Yourselves"... Gaah, hate that at the best of times.

But the lender now has all the stuff. No, really, they do (allegedly). And, no really, they mean it this time, they're going to turn the application around in two days (not the usual four, which is also news to us). They will hopefully instruct the survey on Friday. They say.

We've said throughout to the broker (and picked the lender on the basis) that we want a fast application. This has been anything but.

And it's not like the broker was too busy staring at my tits - this was all by phone, post and email.

Rant over. Thanks for listening.

Frustrating Marina.

Our sale is clinging on by its fingertips. Problems that should have been sorted months ago still causing problems. How the hell we were meant to exchange three weeks ago I don't know. Tis bollocks.

Solicitor reckons 7-10 days to exchange...despite the fact that the vendors don't have their mortgage offer yet?! Want to bet it'll be a fair bit longer than a week?

I'd say so. Here, our solicitors wouldn't even start searches until mortgage offer was in his hands!
Even now I could cry when I think how long ago we offered and how we were told 8wk to complete was a reasonable time

PedantMarina - we had exactly the same problem - mortgage company requesting documents late in the process, which thry could have asked for weeks and weeks before. So frustrating.

We were meant to exchange 3 weeks ago based on pressure from the bottom of the chain. That sale is now basically dead because of ongoing questions (God knows why they therefore suggested the first exchange date in the first place) which means the whole thing is probably dead. And we have to figure out what to do next. I imagine we'll lose our purchase so I think we'll probably stay put for a bit. Having a baby in two months so not keen to be in property selling limbo then.

LittleBearPad sorry to hear this, however, the bottom of the chain (presume FTB) cannot dictate exchange/completion dates. I hope everyone takes note of this.

The FTB is buying only, whereas the others in the chain may be buying and selling. Solicitors will try to organise simultaneous completions to suit the whole chain. If everyone in the chain has all documentation, great surveys, great searches, mortgage offers in place, no problems at Land Registry and everyone is happy to move as soon as possible, then the process can be quick, but so many things can mean delays. The FTB jumping up and down demanding exchange and threatening to pull out, only serves to stress everyone out and is counter-productive to the whole process.

Hope you manage to sort it out, or at least stay put until you feel ready to go through it once more.

They didn't say the completion date. That was agreed based on the top of the chain and everyone agreeing to it. The bottom then proposed an exchange date 10 days before the agreed completion date. At the time it seemed sensible. A month or so later, not so much.

Hi LittleBearPad, what sort of ongoing questions?

Things are progressing here. My surveyor has been in and there are no deal breakers it seems.

I have taken the plunge and arranged for removals firms to come round and quote at the end of next week, in the hope that this will force me to get the house organised.

I've not been very happy with the solicitors this week as the the chap who is dealing with my transactions is on holiday for a week but didn't tell me before he went, why do they do that?! Someone else is dealing with things in his absence but after speaking to her yesterday I wonder if I would have been better waiting until he got back.