Sellers/Buyers Roll Call 7

[MrBobLobLaw]

Stressed vendors and buyers alike: assemble here to moan about bloody solicitors!

Feel free to join at any point

We had some progress with our purchase. Now mortgage is approved, building survey done and looks good. Searches are also back.

A few inquiries remain but wonder if we are close to exchange?

@adjeoebfwh sounds like it to me. But im no expert... I thought our house (the one we are selling) would exchange this week but hasn't - no idea why?...

@notheragain4 my buyer already has the mortgage offer in !! Im hoping things will move fast but every rented house i ask aboit has gone already!! Im worried ill end up with nowhere to live lol as my new build is not ready till December!

How r u doing x

Well DP got home from work early so we submitted our mortgage application this evening! It’s all getting very real

(Home from work early today is before 2am!)

Hi,

Can someone please calm me down. I already have a thread running about this, but could really do with some words of wisdom here....

We are finally supposed to be exchanging. This has been going on for months and months, with loads if bumps in the road, but today should be the day, but it seems yet again, it's not going to happen.

We agreed a completion date (again!) yesterday morning and everything was good to go ahead....or so we were told.

Our EA said our buyers (first in the chain)had released the funds this morning, but we had heard absolutely nothing from our solicitor and we should be next! Then DP gets a forwarded email from last night saying that someone in the chain is yet to confirm!!

Whaaaat?! 🤯 How can this be if the funds were supposed to have been released? Surely that can't happen until we're all agreed and all solicitors are good to go?

It's just not going to happen today is it? So here we are again. In good old limbo

And another day passes without exchange! it was supposed to be Monday then Wednesday and then today but it won't happen and now their solicitors says another week util they are ready! Considering they have been harassing us to be ready to complete on the 24th I find this a bit of a piss take! Looks like 2 or more weeks until we complete now! I I JUST WANNA MOVE!

I’d appreciate some advice ... We need to show proof of funds to our estate agent. Can I redact the account number & sort code before sending them? I’m worried about sending someone all our financial information.

Good luck gherkins,

Spritz, how big is the chain, I thought we only need to transfer the deposit on the day OR before the exchange date. We plan to do it couple of days before. But I am still beating myself over the manholes, right of light and air. I couldnt justify the purchase if we couldnt do the side extension(the fact we pay nearly £100k stamp duty only not mentioning other cost including EA selling our house). So I am booking an architecture to come to the house to check on the manholes again and might knock on the neighbor’s door(which the EA advised against).
Dayby: I think its pretty safe with the solicitor, if it was me, I would be ok.

Sorry, reread and its for the EA, I wasnt asked for it so not too sure in this case. But I would be ok with our EA tô.

@GherkinsOnToast, sounds horrible. Good luck.

@Newhome321, our solicitor will only hold the funds in their account until 3pm, so 15 minutes ago We were almost done. 5 in the chain and the first 3 got sorted, but the final 2 requested an extension until 4pm, but I highly doubt it will be granted, as our solicitor leaves at 3 and apparently the solicitor who requested the extension was very rude to ours 🤦‍♀️

So that's it I suppose.

Hang on there Spritz, it might still happen today.

Looks like our current home will exchange next week (did i say that already :/)...

we are clearly out the garage and have a skip - omg we've had so much cr&p in there!!! my husband could fit his car in there now previously we could hardly walk into it :-O

Nope Extension denied and now apparently someone in the chain has lost their removals. Apparently others in the chain are sticking to our agreed completion date, so they will just need to find another available company. It's not a Friday, so it shouldn't be difficult.

Anyway, Monday's the "magic" day now so we'll see. Apparently they're going to do a reverse exchange to speed things up, which I didn't even know was a thing!

Urgh really wanted to be able to chill out this weekend

I dont fully understand, but the bottom 5 of our chain will be exchanging next week, this let's our buyer release a charge on his property, which in turn allows his mortgage offer to buy our house to be issued. Then the top of the chain can exchange and complete. I have no fingernails left, and will just be eating everything available and drinking daily wine until it happens.

Spritztime: fingers crossed to Monday it is!
Karcheer: We are looking into booking with Removals but we dont have any valuable thing(except the piano), just so much junk and whether to get rid and get a revised Removal quote. The fact that we move into the house but soon will move out while the work is carrying on hence no need to unpack most of the stuffs also complicates things further.

But ofcourse I am planning things too far ahead as we havent fixed a date for exchange yet( which is delayed because the manholes issue)

The removal man the other day was referring to loads of our stuff as debris - which pretty much sums it up...

@Daybydayagain - I wouldn't worry about disclosing your bank info. The EA and solicitors will need proof of identity and proof of funds as part of the process. I didn't bother redacting any of our documents.

@GherkinsOnToast - I totally feel your pain. We had a nightmare exchanging on the house we're buying. Thought it has all gone through on the Thursday then got an email the following Tuesday saying it didn't happen. It then took a further 2 weeks.

@Newhome321 - we are also in a piano situation which is going to involve taking windows out! Arrrgghhh!

@Karcheer - my husband has hoarding tendencies and so far we've spent 3 months shifting stuff which WAS SUPPOSED TO COME IN HANDY which is why he kept it for 30 years. Again... Arrrrggghhh!

I might drink heavily this evening and eat all the cakes.

Thank you @Newhome321 and @DeeplyMovingExperience, appreciate your advice.

Hope those waiting to exchange hear good news soon.

@Busybee434 - how long was the period between your acceptance of your buyer's offer and your buyer receiving their mortgage offer? DH and I are waiting (impatiently) for our mortgage offer to come through - it's currently holding up the process.

@TaleOfTheContinents im unsure i think it was fairly quick to be honest. Hopefully yours will be the same x

@Daybydayagain I wouldn’t worry about redacting data, the EA does need to confirm you have the funds to proceed. We sent screenshots of accounts.

@TaleOfTheContinents have you asked your broker/lender for an estimated timescale to mortgage offer? Our broker has said 32 days for our lender but that there is an estimated average of 72 days across the industry at the moment due to the changes because of coronavirus (increase in demand after lockdown/everyone working from home etc). That’s just what one broker said I don’t know how reliable it is but it’s helped me adjust my expectations as I was expecting about a week with an online valuation!

Our mortgage offer took 2 weeks. That includes time to go through underwriters and online valuation. We are in a healthy LTV though where there are plenty of mortgage products with even reduced rate compared to pre covid. We also did not push to the limit of our affordability.

That being said I was surprised by how much proof they asked for and how they checked every little details on our payslip. We went through the same application before lockdown (that purchase was aborted) and I definitely felt the difference in atmosphere.

It made me wonder how many houses “sold” now will actually go through as in buyers can get their mortgages.

Thanks for the information @Busybee434, @Lemonylemony and @Adjeoebfwh.

Based on your experiences, seems like it could be anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months before we get our offer! Our advisor says he can't give a rough timeline because the circumstances (COVID, that is) are so unusual. We have a 30% deposit and aren't asking for the full amount available, so hopefully that will hold us in good stead! I'll just have to be patient.