Anyone waiting on completion?

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Hi All, I put an offer towards a house back in February, it was a brand new start for myself and my young son after splitting with my husband l, but because of covid 19 everything was delayed and im still waiting on a completion date, despite chasing solicitors every day. I’ve made them aware I need to move in ASAP and am in touch with the sellers who are equally as keen to move. I’m getting very stressed about it all, anyone in the same boat ?

Have you exchanged or not? We're currently stuck between exchange and completion!

No, not even exchanged yet. It’s so frustrating, both the sellers and my solicitors are blaming each other for the delay and we are stuck!

This is where decent EAs come into their own - get them to chase and put pressure on chain

We are about to exchange but apparently completion won’t be until June 24th - I am desperate for all this to be sorted!
@Dinosauraddict how come you’re stuck?

Same here OP. Everyone in our short chain wants to move asap. We were due to exchange on our sale last week but the person at the bottom of the chain pulled the "we need a(huge) reduction" trick at the last minute. We've had to swallow some of that cost to try to keep things together. Our purchase has also slowed down, the sellers say they want to move in last week of June but their solicitors haven't even sent us the info packs yet.

I agree EA's are the ones that really hold things together and will fnd out what is going on and crucially report back when emails to solicitors go into a void or replies don't address the questions asked.

I want to start packing and boxing up but I'm worried the chain will fall apart. My life feels like it's in limbo. I'm seriously downsizing due to helath, fina

We had offer accepted on the 1st march, mortgage agreed in principle the day before lockdown but no way they could get a valuation as it's a private sale of a house that has never been sold before. Valuation finally happened yesterday and exchange next week. I totally get he reluctance to pack until you have an exchange date. Ours originally wanted a exchange/complete on the same day but thankfully our sellers aren't keen as they want to move on a specific date. And I need to pack!

Ring your agent and kick them to be them to be proactive - they should be working on chasing your solicitors and nagging your purchasers to chase theirs! They earn no money until you complete!

@ellie2201 - 24th is the completion date we have been given too with exchange late this week early next week!

@GherkinsOnToast good luck! Our exchange didn’t happen today as the deposit from someone further down the chain didn’t clear in time. Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Thanks all, I’ll speak to the estate agent and see if that helps move things along. It should have been a very straightforward easy process but to not even have a rough idea of when is starting to get to me now. I don’t know whether I should pack completely or not?

Good luck Gherkins and Ellie fingers crossed both of yours happen soon.

Can I ask, when you complete is it likely that everyone in the chain can move on the day? I have one above me and 2 below me in the chain. I've always been the chain breaker as we had to move for work several times and rented at first in new location and our sold flat/house in old location with no onward chain and then bought with no chain.

Will someone need to break the chain and put stuff in storage and stay somewhere for a day or so? (sounds a nightmare) and so pay out more for removals etc.

Completion should theoretically be on the same say so that everyone can move out/in on the same day. This is because 9/10 times you need the money from the sale to finance the purchase.

day not say!

Thanks.

Still haven’t exchanged... grrrr. Someone on the buyer’s chain didn’t deposit money on time and it will take 5 days to clear!

Ellie - Oh no! why 5 days to clear, was it paid by cheque? Can they do exchange complete on one day? Our solicitor is keen for completion asap after exchange, we are being kind and going with the dates our seller wants.

Joining in... we agreed our sale in December last year.
Only us (not buying anything at the moment) and chain free buyers. We are moving abroad for a few years, already rented a flat in new location.
Came back to UK pre Easter expecting to exchange/complete just after Easter, then got stuck in Covid lockdown land.
We’ve been stuck here since, luckily DH can WFH, but we are paying for mortgage and an empty flat in new location.
Things are now finally moving but only happened because we put the house back on the market (we got 3 new offers) which shocked our buyers into action.
Just been signing the contracts, hoping to exchange early next week. We’ve agreed completion end of July, just hoping it all happens now, I’ve got a lot of furniture to get rid of!

@ellie2201 sorry it wouldn't let me reply yesterday. We're buying a conversion and covid caused a delay with supplies etc (although it was already 6 months behind schedule so now closer to 9...) Am desperately hoping for keys by end of August.

Hope you all get a completion date soon. I’m still waiting and waiting and waiting... patience is wearing very thin!

We’ve exchanged!! Due to complete on 24th.

Yay! @ellie2201 we didn't exchange today as their solicitor hasn't sent over a copy of planning permission for the garage that was requested a month ago. The seller sent it to their solicitor a month ago so they have it just being bloody lazy! Our deposit is sitting with the solicitor and hopefully exchange early next week!

Gherkins how frustrating! We had an issue with a garage too which I didn’t think would ever be resolved. Fingers crossed for next week.

Any more news anyone? I’ve still not heard
:-(

I’m hoping to exchange this week, we signed the contacts last week so 🤞🏻
Not due to complete till end of July at buyers request, I don’t mind as it gives us time to sort out more, I’m trying to sell/get rid of stuff as we are moving abroad.

We completed 5/6. Simultaneous exchange and completion and our house had been empty 6 weeks (in rental in new location, buyers coming out of rental)

Stuff is happening but slowly.

We got the valuation survey done 2 days before lockdown!!