Someone just tell me what happened...

[Feelings]

Back story is DH works away, only back for two weeks, first time buyer, we rang solicitor yesterday asked if there's anything that needs signing or doing before leaving, solicitor says yes come sign some bits.

So off we trot, arrive to find she wants DH to sign all exchange papers ready so it doesn't need to be done at a later stage (DH can only get so much time off) he signs them. She then asks for completion date, we say we'd like to exchange end of April complete in May, she says no basically...
She gives some vague reason as to why that's a bad idea and says ideally exchange sooner rather than later. We tell her we haven't got the 10% ready she says no problem exchange on 5% and then pay the remainder on completion.

We had no idea we could even do this. I ask her a few questions about asking sellers solicitors about asbestos (recommended by a Mumsneter) she sarcastically says "well I won't know about that will I" at this point I'm starting to find her very pushy and rude..

Anyway she then says send money over today she will email seller solicitors and tell them the completion date we've given (8th May) and for exchange to basically happen today.

We left feeling sick... She gave us all details to make transfer.. we realised we haven't even received the mortgage valuation survey yet, just chased that up and it appears Barclays don't like to give out copies of the surveys. We've basically just sent the money and said fuck it... let's hope it all works out for the best!

I can't help feeling like we've been pressurised and I don't really understand why we couldn't have exchanged the full 10% end of April and completed in May either.

Does anybody know why the solicitor might be pushing?

Just to add, we do have a mortgage offer so that is all set.

So the 5% is sitting in the solicitor's bank account accruing interest for them in the meantime?

Woah, don't exchange before you've seen the survey: the house might be falling down. Ring her up and stop it now!

Barclays won't give us the survey.

Tattychicken it appears so doesn't it.

Erhmmm have you paid for the survey? Then you should have it!

We have but nope, we don't! Our broker said we're not the first sadly, apparently Barclays likes to do this. It's already been a few weeks since they made their offer too so should of had it by now.

im surprised your offer was accepted if you didn’t have the full deposit. Not fair on the sellers to make them wait until May. I think getting you to exchange now at least avoided the house being put back on the market

Barclays might not give you their valuation survey.

Did you have your own homebuyers survey? You may have decided not to based on age of property, flat/House etc, but you should have considered it?

It’s quite common for mortgage companies not to give you a copy of valuation survey btw

Can't think of any reason that exchange needs to be that soon if everyone has agreed to completion in May.

Signing contracts ahead - normal and sensible.

I've always had to give verbal permission in addition to signed contract for exchange to go ahead. Push back hard on her and get your questions answered.

She is your solicitor, you are paying HER!

Yes we have one being done tomorrow. We had never intended to exchange today, the solicitor really pushed for us to do so, and I'm trying to figure out why.
She even knew we hadn't received the survey!!

Is the survey just a valuation or a homebuyers report? We weren't privy to the details of Barclays' valuation for us but we got our own off our surveyor.

But definitely don't be pressurised into exchanging until you're happy that everything has been checked out that you want to check out and you have finances ready to move because, after exchange, there is no going back without penalty.

You are talking about their valuation survey. But have you paid for Your own survey? If Not, you should. And Yeh, she seems desperate.

Cross posted.

Thanks for clarifying angryosaurus the broker assured us that this is normal for Barclays.

We are in a set of special circumstances at the moment which means we can't just go and find somewhere else if this all falls through anyway. So it's kind of now or never...

Survey had been booked for tomorrow prior to all this... I don't know why she was pushing, wishing we'd picked different solicitors now!

Never exchange before the homebuyer survey. Call your solicitor and tell her to stop.

Right ok, they are closed now so no chance of getting through. But will call first thing tomorrow and ask to halt exchange until survey has been done!

It doesn't seem clear to me what's happening in your circumstance. Have you had all enquiries raised and answered?

Exchanging before this is a terrible idea. Are you part of a chain? has your solicitor reported to you on the result of their searches?

Yes she has shown us all searches nothing untoward has come up.
We've gone through the paperwork today all happy with it.

We signed ready for exchange but not to exchange. She pushed and said today. So we did.

I know we've gone wrong.

Are you sure you haven’t misunderstood her? To exchange she needs all the answers to enquiries back, signed contracts (good idea to have these in place ASAP), your mortgage offer, your deposit, agreed completion date and searches. Without all that you can sue her to buggery. No solicitor would exchange without everything 8n place.

You're not ready to exchange until all of your (the solicitor's) questions are answered. I would say retract your instruction to exchange & list out all o/s points that need to be resolved.

You agree a mutually convenient time to exchange. Have the sellers even agreed to exchange at this short notice?

She has all of that ThroughThickAndThin

No they haven't. She only sent the email today. Nothing officially agreed so far but funds have been sent.