Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Original poster

Waiting to exchange.Anyone with me?

999 replies

DumbledoresArmy · 21/03/2018 06:30

So FTB,
Latest update last week was solicitor waiting for an enquiry raised with sellers solicitor & 1 search to come back.
Almost there!!

Anyone else with me?

OP posts:
Tohaveandtohold · 20/06/2018 22:51

We finally exchanged today. We are so happy.
We agreed a completion date of the 10th of July (the seller wanted us to complete in June but our current rent is till the 18th of July). Lots of things to book now, this is going to be a new start for us. Good luck to everyone still waiting.

6DinnerSid · 21/06/2018 07:28

How long have people typically had to wait for response to enquiries?
We're FTB with sellers who are moving into a family home so should be quick and easy.
Enquiries have been out 10 days now and not sure at what point I'm allowed to become impatient...?

PleaseSell2018 · 21/06/2018 09:04

I would say now 6. We got enquiries and generally took about 3 or so days to sit down together without dc around to distract and answer them. 10 days is a long time.

mangocoveredlamb · 21/06/2018 11:34

I think our enquiries came through on a Friday and I responded on the Tuesday. Spoke to DH on the Sunday evening and managed to sit down and type answers when DD was finally napping!

We’ve had relatively good news re our onward purchase that the roof/chimneys may not be as expensive as we feared. Waiting for the formal quotes!

Tohaveandtohold · 21/06/2018 12:09

Please ignore my last post, we have not exchanged. What a ballache.
Yesterday we got an email from our solicitor saying out file is now ready for exchange and he needs permission from us to exchange and agree a completion date. We both called to give our permission to exchange and we agreed a completion date of the 10th of July. I thought that means we have exchanged but how wrong was I.
We got an email from our solicitor this morning to say that they’re not ready to exchange till the 3rd of July but we would still complete on the 10th.
Who does that. DH and I think they are trying to drag things out but we don’t know why as they seemed so interested in completing ASAP before. Should we start giving ultimatums because we only have till the 18th of July in our rented flat. I just can’t think straight now. Could they be trying to gazump us after all these hassle or is it possible that they have a property they are trying to complete on as well (they told us they are moving into rented accommodation) ftb here please help

mangocoveredlamb · 21/06/2018 12:29

Weird.
Can you ask your solicitor to ask their solicitor what the delay is?

Dickybow321 · 21/06/2018 13:24

Hi guys,
I can finally join you now! We received our mortgage offer today, 4 weeks after submitting the application! Maybe I can finally get some sleep!

We're in a longish chain though, 5 properties...what is everybody's chain position? How long has it taken you all from offer accepted on the house you want to buy to completion and how many are in your chains? I'm hoping we'll be in by August, but is this too optimistic? The vendor of the house we're buying is buying a house from a vendor who is buying a house but that is the end of the chain. I have a FTB with mortgage offer in place buying mine.

UnimaginativeUsername · 21/06/2018 15:30

My mortgage offer took about 4 weeks too. I have no idea why it took so long.

I’m hoping to be moving this summer. I’m still waiting for the searches to come back but other than that I can’t see what’s taking so long.

There are only 3 sets of people (2 properties) in my chain - apparently. My buyer is renting at the moment, and my vendor is also going to rent. At least that’s what I’m told. So it should be straightforward. But that doesn’t mean it will be.

Atthebottomofthesea · 21/06/2018 15:41

Dicky Great news.

You don't want to hear my story. Chain 3 long. FTB, Us, Sellers buying a new build. Our buyers 6 mth mortgage offer expires on the 30th June after they offered in December. It is the new build that has held it all up. Moving Wednesday.

Notmorewashing · 21/06/2018 21:53

I am in chain of 3. I am 2 of 3. Also held up by new build. Offer accepted in March still waiting to exchange .....

Notmorewashing · 21/06/2018 21:56

All searches and paperwork came in quickly between number 1 and 2 in chain. 3 still outstanding with newbuild

Sorry 4 in chain not 3 - new build probably not build yet though so technically 3!!! Bloody nightmare. Will pull out if not exchanged 31.08

PookyHook · 21/06/2018 22:05

Hi everyone. We're waiting to exchange. Our solicitor has contracts ready but our vendors solicitor is taking ages. He promised he'd have them ready two weeks ago and we've still heard nothing.

We're in a chain of three houses. We have a cash buyer for our house, we're buying house number 2, and the vendors of the house we're buying are buying a house that has no ongoing chain.

Dickybow321 · 21/06/2018 22:13

@UnimaginitiveUsername it really doesn't make sense what takes so long. I gave them every bit of information they needed at the application meeting. My mortgage advisor said 'I can't believe how organised this lady is'. I was thinking 'no, I've just brought everything you told me to bring! '. I thought it's just a simple case of proving I earn what I said I earn and my outgoings are what I said they are as per the AIP (ie the documents I brought to the meeting) . Apparently not Hmm.

@Atthebottomofthesea the person going into the new build should just rent or something for the sake of the chain. Its not fair that they're holding things up and your buyer's mortgage offer expires soon. My offer has five months left on it because its taken them a month to issue it.

@Notmorewashing has your solicitor given you any indication of how much longer it will be? Do you know exactly how far from being built the new build is? It would be good if there was communication between everyone in the chain but your solicitor can only deal with your vendor's solicitor and not the newbuild's one. The threat of pulling out would be a good weapon and should focus their minds!

UnimaginativeUsername · 21/06/2018 22:37

The worst thing about the delay was that the mortgage is with the bank I have all my accounts with anyway. So it’s not like they don’t know what I spend and what I can afford anyway. I suspect the just take ages to make it seem more labour-intensive than it is.

Dickybow321 · 21/06/2018 22:40

Similarly the mortgage is with the company I currently have a mortgage with! ConfusedGrin

UnimaginativeUsername · 21/06/2018 22:43

Me too. Literally all my banking. It’s unfathomable.

Atthebottomofthesea · 21/06/2018 23:24

My mortgage took a while, we have borrowed exactly the same amount from the same bank, they started getting uppity about seeing evidence for paying for the balance, and despite showing them an account that had more than enough in they wanted to see evidence of all the savings I had claimed - in the end I just claimed things like children's accounts and ds's DLA account and that they weren't seeing them.

I have just read a letter from March about drawing up contracts. I had got to the point where I had suggested that they would have to move out and get their house at a later date. The builders had said the 29th for signing off the property but I did not want to move that day (2 x dc off school) or the 28th (2 x dc event at school) so we said the 27th.

I phoned solicitors today and apparently all is progressing as it should, though we tried to pay the monies owed but it was somewhat thwarted by the fact that we needed to pay more than our daily transfer allowance.

Luckily I had said to dh earlier in the week that we couldn't leave it until the last minute (want balance Monday) incase we had to sort out any issues, so we do at least have time to stagger the payments.

Never, ever, ever doing this again.

egdehsdrawkcab · 22/06/2018 06:32

We too had to jump through loads of mortgage hoops, same amount, same lender, took 3 weeks!

Our buyers mortgage took 6 weeks!

Notmorewashing · 22/06/2018 06:41

Solicitor has just said that the sellers solicitor is gathering paperwork and “not ready for exchange yet” kind of annoying they won’t say the real reason. I’m wondering if they are having issues with negotiating exchange with the new build due to all the T&Cs building companies put on. My buyers mortgage offer will run out in August.

PookyHook · 22/06/2018 13:36

We've had bad news today. Our solicitor found out that the reason the vendors solicitor is taking so long to issue contracts is that they are divorcing and cannot agree to a settlement.

She says it could be October before we get contracts, and that our buyer won't wait that long.

She's advised us to give them an ultimatum, and to start looking at other houses.

I'm gutted and fed up. I've booked two house viewings for the weekend. If we see something we like we're just going to go for it, I don't even want to wait for their response to the ultimatum.

UnimaginativeUsername · 22/06/2018 16:59

That’s really annoying @PookyHook. How frustrating.

Dickybow321 · 22/06/2018 22:33

That is so annoying Pooky! Angry
I almost want you to walk away to teach them a lesson but I guess there's no point in cutting your nose off to spite your face and it all depends on how far this house is your dream house Sad

PleaseSell2018 · 22/06/2018 23:46

If your buyers won't wait Pooky then you have to either look elsewhere or go into rental.

The system in the UK sucks.

PookyHook · 23/06/2018 19:37

Dickybow it wasn't really my dream house. I wanted a huge garden but compromised because it had 4 bedrooms and an extra reception room.

PleaseSell we're actually in Ireland, but the system here is just as bad, if not worse! Rental market is mental in Dublin at the moment, we'd never find a place.

We viewed a place today that we really loved. 4 bedrooms and a big garden. I'm just not 100% sure about the road it's on.
We're going to view another house on Monday with a massive garden on a lovely road. It's only 3 bedrooms but has an attic conversion.
We're also meeting with the solicitor on Monday.

I don't know if we'll even bother with the ultimatum now. I think we'll probably just pull out and make an offer on another house.

Dickybow321 · 23/06/2018 20:30

Yay, Pooky, good for you!