Waiting to Exchange - Part 2, the wait goes on!

[TokyoSushi]

Hello! New thread, I don't think there's another one yet... shall we all give a quick update regarding where we're up to?

We:

• Went on market 12th June
• Sold for full asking 6th July too good to be true
• Had an offer accepted on DH dream home, (I didn't really like it but only suitable thing on the market)
• Our buyer pulled out 6th August
• DH dream home owner wouldn't wait and put straight back on market
• We went back on market on 7th August, reduced by £5K
• 4 viewings and 4 offers in next few days
• Offer accepted on 13th august
• Found both of our actual dream home and had offer accepted on 14th August
• Our buyer seems as firm as they can be
• Mortgage offer approved and searches commissioned on new house
• Our buyers seem very, very keen but I have a slight suspicion about how firm their buyer is
• Everybody hoping to move by half term

And so we wait....

We've exchanged! Finally! Completion date is Friday. It's going to be a busy week! I still can't quite believe it's finally happened; it's been a long, stressful road to get here.

zebra we also exchanged today and move on Friday! It's been so stressful and I've been on the phone a hell of a lot nagging people but we're almost at the finish line. It will be almost 4 months from accepting an offer on our house to moving, the whole system is ridiculous.

Congratulations! Glad to hear it is possible!

Speckledfrogonlog sorry to hear...it is so exasperating when you have no control over the situation! Our solicitor was trying his best to chase and pressure but he said at the end of the day it's out of our hands at the moment...so annoying!

Congrats to those who've exchanged!
Totally fed up with our situation.. Decided not to even chase anything this week as every time I do I just get fed a different story. A watched pot never boils and all that. Into month 5 in this chain now

Congrats @zebra and @triggered!

Currently waiting for my solicitor to pull her finger out. Just want to exchange already. The developers aren't taking me seriously because we haven't exchanged and therefore won't give me any indication of when the house will be ready. Solicitor responds to one text every three days and just doesn't reply to emails. We've both received the mortgage offer contract but I have no idea whether I'm supposed to sign it and send it back or wait for her to tell me what to do...

@inlimboland what's happened?

@Pinkbottletop solicitors are so slow aren't they! Hope you get news soon.
Very little appears to be happening, which is the problem. There are still unresolved enquiries etc further down the chain. We were meant to exchange in Aug and now here we are in October seemingly no further on.

I got a phone call telling me that our first buyer pulled out. Oh well we have someone else coming on Thursday morning to view the apartment. Will keep you updated.

Fingers crossed @april2020mom

@inlimboland is it the solicitors holding you up too? I'm really hoping to be in my new house by Halloween, but that's a random date I've made up. No idea if my house will even be finished by then (Oct/Nov completion date).

All massively annoying here too. I've done absolutely everything with regards to our purchase, we're literally ready to go.

The sale is beyond slow, loads of faffing about with our buyers mortgage etc. It seems that another week rolls around and we're still no further on. God knows when we'll move.

So emailed my solicitor asking for an update and got a bounce back saying she was on annual leave! Thanks for letting me know! I've called the office and massively complained. How is she going to take my money and swan off out of the country without even starting the process of my searches. This solicitor has been absolute crap so far.

Well I'm not moving this week now
The same buyer has delayed it AGAIN!
I'm all packed up mattress on the floor and everything
He says he's waiting for his money from a divorce, why on earth wasn't this checked before I don't know!
Aaaarrrrgh!

@mamas12 - how long is he foreseeing this being a delay for? So have you not exchanged or is this for completion?

To those who completed, how many of you had a further credit check done by your lender?

Pink. We don't know, it could a week or six weeks. Sols are trying to find out

pinkbottletop our solicitor is SHIT. He didn't even remember we own a rental property today as he wants to know the source of our deposit. We moved from the US so he is collecting information in case he get audited - he's more concerned with money laundering compliance instead of completing our sale. It's exhausting - we've given him more paperwork than we had to provide the Nationwide for our mortgage! Still aiming for Oct 29th exchange and completion but I'll be happy to never deal with this guy again!

@tobeclear jesus! What kinds of information have you had to provide?

pinkbottletop

• proof of sale of our house in the US
• proof of wire transfer of funds
• proof of management agreement for our rental property
• proof of income from rental

etc. etc...I might as well give him the password for my banking.

He's so archaic too - I keep emailing documents but he actually asked if we could provide hard copies in person. I asked if he had a printer...smh...

His emails are all legal speak - 4 paragraphs to make a point...ffs

I actually couldn't think of anything worse.

My solicitor has come back to me apologising for not telling me she's going away but that she is still working and has authorised searches today. I said I want to complete by Halloween and she says it's tight as she still needs to authority to exchange from HTB. Reading up on it, that only takes 5 days!

They really do spin their own web of lies...are searches even a legal requirement for a sale? It's mad how long it takes here...I'm sure it's purely to keep solicitors employed...

@Pinkbottletop I managed to get my authority to complete from HTB same day. If you just make sure sol sends by email & copies you in, then ring HTB & say it's urgent they usually quite helpful, sent it for mine within a couple of hours.

I find it sickening how much we pay these solicitors when they don't seem to know their arse from their elbow. After a massive issue last week over a missing certificate the ea just rang me and said vendors solicitor wants to exchange so why aren't we exchanging? I said what are you even on about they know we are missing a certificate from the management company. Anyway a few back and forth and it turns out emails have been sent in error and apparently our solicitor should have received the certificate ages ago! So now our solicitor is going through everything again to see if they've missed it.
Our solicitor has said all along they are stalling the sale, fed up!

Our buyers, who saw our property 4 times before offering, came again a couple of weeks ago. They now say they noticed some cracks in the lounge which weren't picked up on the Homebuyers Report and they want us to pay for a structural survey! They also want us to pay for electrical and gas safety checks. The electrical one will probably fail.
We are paying for an electrical safety check on our new property.
They said if any insurmountable problems arise they will refund the costs.
I am thinking of saying that as a gesture of goodwill we will do the gas and electrics but if they want a structural survey they can pay. What do you think?

Welcome to all of you joining the rollercoaster!

Just off the phone with the EA. Vendors have a particular price in mind, approx. 2.5k lower than what we have offered. We said that we'll meet them halfway, reiterating our position as chain free FTBs with a mortgage AIP. Fingers crossed we can secure it 🤞🏻We have a few other properties to view this week, so have a few options, although none of them tick as many boxes as this particular property. It's the most stressful experience of my life. I haven't even got moving yet, and already I can't see myself ever doing it again!

Sad to see that there isn't much in the way of good news so far this week, but congrats to those of you who have finally exchanged! 🎉

We’ve finally exchanged! Phew! Can’t tell you how relived we are.

Oh so many ups and downs on here recently! Congratulations to everyone who exchanged or completed, and to those with bad news I'm sorry to hear

We apparently have all paperwork signed, mortgages confirmed etc so should be ready to exchange... waiting for my buyer to send his deposit through to his solicitor which should be today, then we start trying to line up the chain to exchange. Really hoping it'll get through this week but trying not to think about it too much. I can't believe we're now in October when offers were accepted in May, it's been so slow!

Fingers crossed for progress for everyone today