Anyone else waiting to exchange?

[DotTheCaddy]

We've been waiting what seems like ages for one document to be returned at the bottom of the chain.

Wanting to exchange last friday but didn't, and didn't today either. Completion date is set for next Friday so we really really need to get it done this week.

Its just so frustrating having to just wait without anything to do!!

@Simonsaysitschristmas thank you, I’m elated it’s over and done with though!
Hope everyone else has quick smooth exchanges and completions very soon

We finally exchanged today and are apparently on target to complete middle of next week. @Simonsaysitschristmas I totally understand what you mean. We have been waiting for this house for such a long time, but I have lost the love for it due to the utter nonsense we’ve lived through these past 8 months. I am hoping once we’re in that love will come back.

Sorry - I meant that comment to @NotTodayMaybeTomorrow

@XFPW hooray! So happy to hear that! I agree, hopefully once we are in and settled the love will come back

I've also been waiting to exchange for nearly a fortnight and now I'm concerned that there will be no moving during lockdown. We're so close to our dream house and ..... need I go on :(

Sooooooo fed up of this. It's getting redic. The one thing i said was i didn't want to complete in December as when you get near christmas if anything needs fixing it's a nightmare.

And yet given our sellers sellers STILL haven't made a decision on dates and our sellers movers only have dates from November 25th free i don't think we'll have much choice.

WHY DOES IT TAKE OVER A WEEK TO PICK A COMPLETION DATE??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????/

Everything else is done. it's just a date. Pick an F* date.

Sorry just needed to vent

Agree @Bells3032 it's sooooo frustrating.
I've had no comms now from the EA for well over a week snd the solicitor is now a week down the line with no progress on our purchase. How can it take so bloody long for responses to queries and contracts to be returned?! Gah!

We are now having issues. our sellers seller is being so difficult. it was meant to be chain free and she was moving into rented. Yesterday evening she admits she's adding a house to the top of the chain. She's agreed to exchange this week but won't complete until January 6th. This causes us many problems:

• my husband can't roll over leave and he's kept leave back for this move, it will end up being taken out of his next years leave the first week of the leave year.
• We had pushed back starting IVF til January for the move as didn't want to do it whilst moving - another reason my husband wants as much leave as possible for next year.
• We are stuck in a tiny flat - both working from home with no access to a garden.

She really is an unbelievably selfish cow.

We are in a similar issue with our seller not being willing to move into rented despite indicating back in the summer that she would if necessary. Feel for you @Bells3032. We thought we were in a chain of 4, turns out there's bloody 6 of us and memorandum of sale has only just been issued for the top link in the chain. Arrggghh!!!!

Congratulations to all those who have managed it - we moved on Friday finally so very happy.

@Bells3032 that is infuriating, you poor things. Would you be confident enough threatening to pull out unless completion happens this year?! You have every right to be furious!!

Saying 'chain free' is such bullshit from 90% of vendors.

I think unless the house is already empty I always assume there might be issues; people just say 'oh I'll move into rented/stay in a caravan...' but when the reality hits they get spooked and then cause chains to collapse, I wish there was protection against it.

@Bells3032 I would be fuming in your shoes, that is so annoying, feel so much anger on your behalf right now.

Hope everyone else is doing ok, and things are moving along.

Well, we’re in. Or at least - we have the keys and we’re doing stuff in the house - we’re due to move in 3 weeks today.

We were meant to get the keys at 12noon yesterday, but our solicitor had warned us there could be a delay as often people aren’t out quite on time and it could be closer to 1pm or even 2pm. They finally left at 4pm. So frustrating. They seemed completely unbothered and seemed to think that because their vendors were also slow to move out so their new house wasn’t ready, it really wasn’t a problem, even though our money was in their account and therefore it was technically our house by 10am.

It worries us slightly because their packers seemed very slow and we’ve booked the same people. I was already worried because we have booked a full packing service and they reckon they can pack in one day and then move the following day. Going by previous experience, we’ve always been allocated 2 days to pack and then 1 day to move it all. I think this might turn into a total disaster. Part of the packing service is that they also dismantle all your furniture and rebuild it at the other end (beds etc) but if they are that slow I think they’ll be likely to be there late into the night to get all that done.

Thankfully we’re in a rental just now and still have it for another 4 days post moving date, so if need be I can at least have the DC there at the rental on air beds!

We've exchanged on our purchase. Hurrah!!!! we don't have completion til January but on the upside being able to order stuff in the Christmas sales. Yay.

Still waiting on the searches for my sale but hopefully we can get that done and complete before completing on the purchase (otherwise my in laws were gonna lend us the money to tie us over and we are living in another property at the moment)

But hurrah! done insurance. not sure what else to do now!

We completed and exchanged today. Yippee. It’s a probate sale with just us selling and first time buyers. Should have been straight forward and all sorted within 12 weeks, but everything has taken longer. It’s taken 18 weeks.

Same... we finally got the missing document we needed from our seller last week after weeks of chasing. It was the last thing needed in our short chain. Our buyer, and their buyer (who’s a first time buyer and bottom of the chain) have supposedly been ready for exchange for weeks / chomping at the bit etc to get an exchange date, and it went quiet this week. Finally got a call last
minute today from our agent, and we find out the first time buyer had a relative who was ‘gifting’ them their deposit, and said relative has now admitted they’ve spent it! What even is a ‘gifted deposit’, and how can things progress to this point (3 months down the line, surveys have been done and paid for, money spent on conveyancing by all parties etc) with no proof of funds from the first time
buyer?! I thought that was part of the conveyancing? Shouldn’t the funds have been in place before our buyer could accept the offer on their house from
FTB? Don’t know what to do... I hate the house buying process in England.

@DarlingMarianne omg thats awful. Feel so bad your buyers too they must be devestated. We have a gifted deposit as well from my in laws, we had to provide proof of funds when we applied for the mortgage and to the lawyer but I guess there is nothing to prevent them from using that money after them. Sounds like this relative is a bit mad. How can you spend the equivilant of a house deposit and not even realise

@XFPW it’s good you’ll have the rented accommodation if the movers are slow, but hopefully they’ll get things done in good time.

@Bells3032 hooray! So good to hear that!

@Mindymomo yippee! So good to hear people exchanging!

@DarlingMarianne that’s interesting to hear. I didn’t think things to move along that much without proof of funds. Maybe they were already give the ‘gifted deposit’ and have spent it themselves but now don’t know what to do? Regardless, it is very frustrating for all those involved.

OMG @DarlingMarianne that is so bad!

Moved in yesterday!

Putthe house on the market in Feb, waited through lockdown and finally sold/found somewhere in July. Then waited 8 weeks for mortgage offer, went backwards and forwards with queries, indemnity policies, searches etc for weeks and weeks. It's been horrible.

The move day itself went amazingly well. House was immaculate, movers were brilliant and we were in by 1:30.

Now for the unpacking :)

@Belles3032 - I’m interested to learn more about gifted deposits. Did yours have to be available, i,e, in your own bank account for your mortgage to go through and for your solicitors checks? Or was it sufficient for your ‘gifter’ to prove they had the funds? Didn’t the gifter have to sign something? It all sounds a bit suspect to me and beginning to suspect the first time buyers solicitor missed something.

We gifted a deposit to our daughter. We had to go into her solicitors who were doing the conveyancing giving our passport id and statements showing the source of the money. We also had to sign a letter guaranteeing that the money for the deposit was definitely a gift and not a loan. Hope that info helps you - a rubbish scenario for you - I'm so sorry.

@DaphneduM- thank you. It's rubbish. We've spent around 4K so far.

So I assume that once a 'gifter' has proven they have the funds (and have signed stating that the money is a gift) that they are not actually legally bound to hand over the money once push comes to shove? It seems precarious as the buyer is then dependent on the gifter not changing their mind (or spending it!) ...as are the rest of the chain.

I had never heard of a gifted deposit before yesterday. The FTB claims to have an alternative route to to funds for their deposit, but that they cannot access them until November 19th?! It all sounds a little dodgy to me, and a little desperate, and we're wondering if at this point we are better off
putting the house back on the market and allowing other viewings. I don't feel at all confident that chain isn't about to break?

What do others think?

He had to provide proof of funds to the lawyer an mortgage broker. We have never had the funds in our account. He had to. Sign a letter stating it was a gift and he had no rights over the property.

No letter to guarentee hed give it

@Bells3032 - thank you for that. Congratulations on your exchange btw!