Support thread - the countdown to June 30th.... will we /won’t we make it???

[Didicat]

So next week is June and the date is looming large! Wiltshire council are being particularly slow and searches not due back till 14th. Offer accepted early March.

36 days and counting between me moving house and a new kitchen and me moving house and saving hard to buy a kitchen in about 2 years time.

Anyone else being to feel the desperation kicking in just to all it all done and dusted!

There are now not one but two outstanding queries in our chain apparently 🤦‍♀️ almost past caring!

Our solicitor stated 5 working days to draw down our mortgage funds. Pleased to see that they haven't increased to to 10 days due to the amount happening at the moment

DH has hand delivered the documents so it's just a waiting game now to see how quickly the sellers can get their bums in gear.
We updated our EA so he can tell our buyers that our property will be empty soon (we hope!) , so they can start putting pressure on their buyers

I'm so happy for all of you who have made good progress and signing contracts. Its giving me hope!! Sellers have responded to our enquiries (I havent seen them) - I hope its to the standard that is required and we somehow get contract papers in the post over the coming days and we can exchange. Getting nervous now!

We arent going to make it, despite being 1st time buyers and no chain. Just found out the seller's solicitors have lied about sending off an expedited application to HMLR that was due back last week, and only sent the application this Friday. It's now due back with 3 days left before end of stamp duty. Considering how shite the solicitor's are, not holding out any hope 3 days is going to be enough for exchange/complete. Could this make them liable for costs incurred by their negligence?!

And we've been waiting since September and chasing everything up constantly 😭😭😭😭

Oh @JaffacakeJanine that's awful!

I think Conveyancers never guarantee dates because so much can happen and is beyond their control.

But 3 days doesn't sound ideal. What I don't understand is that mortgage companies won't release money until you're exchanged; and for example, mine has said 5 working days to draw down money. But how does that work if you exchange abs complete on the same day? Which was common during the first lockdown.

Are you wanting for anything else, or just this form?

@Cocoaone Thanks for the reply! I think (and hope) it's just this one thing now. I don't really understand exchange and completion timelines at all at the moment :(
We have instructed our solicitor to draw up the report so she can send it to us the minute the application comes back. I'm not sure how much we would be relying on the seller's solicitors at this point..

I have some friends who did exchange and completion on the same day, one said she was going to be homeless if they didn't do so, so I suppose the solicitor pulled a few strings! The other said she scanned her documents and emailed them to the solicitor to speed up things. I might try both ;p

We are getting closer. We are going into rented to help us narrow down villages/area (moving out of London) but we didn’t bank on (a) no availability of rentals and (b) not being allowed to even view until exchange due to the shortage. Our FTB has been fairly good but just lets things drift and drift and so here we are in mid June with no finish dates set.

We haven’t got dates but decided we had to sort out removals today. 15 calls later and we have secured one person who can “probably” fit us in on the 26th. We have booked road parking bay suspension on this basis as otherwise the 10 day window will run out.

Our FTB then sent an email saying she’d prefer if we were out on the 25th - not a chance, unless she fancies helping us move herself.

To add insult to injury I’m starting a round of IVF in a day or two. I’ll be undergoing egg collection a day or two after completion. Fortunately not my first (or second) time at the rodeo but what a bloody irritating set of circumstances - we were expecting to be out by mid June, so thought we were ok to book it in.

I have positive news thank god!
Our vendors have had their mortgage offer through at last after they put in a formal complaint this morning. So fingers crossed we'll be good to go.
No chance of a removal company but after moving ourselves out of a 6 bed Victorian villa to break the chain and nearly killing our selves in the process, we will wait until July if we have to as we're in rented.
We sold ours last September so it's been a ridiculously long stressful process as we lost out on so many houses.
So fingers crossed for all of you, and especially @Porridgeislife Hope all goes well.

We have just exchanged on our purchase to complete tomorrow. Offer accepted 31st March, chain free both sides. Our mortgage took longer than expected to be offered but I don't think that really held things up as we were waiting on just one search for a while. We also had to wait for the seller's solicitors to provide an undertaking on something.

For those querying mortgage draw down, we did manage to exchange today but were looking at doing it all tomorrow too (right up until 30 minutes ago!). So it must still be possible to request draw down in advance of having exchanged.

So been to the bank and sent a scary amount of money to the solicitors, the lady is the bank was really nice and understanding of my nerves. Solicitor bless her sent me an email confirmation about 20 minutes later so I knew it had not gone elsewhere.

Off to do a pre exchange visit in 2 hours and then then all being well exchange tomorrow and complete on the 28th!

Can’t believe we are really nearly there

Like @HumourReplacementTherapy we will be moving ourselves from rented so plan to relax and do the actual move in July

@JaffacakeJanine you must have the patience of a saint to still be in the process since September! Hope they pull out the stops and completes soon for you.

Hope it all goes well for you @Didicat! Looking very positive. I'll be shitting myself by the time it comes to money transfer too ;p

Congratulations all those who have had good progress so far! I’m not sleeping again from the nerves of it all.

Some good news stories on here today! Hope I’m one of them soon! X

Could anyone shed any light on what actually happens on exchange day?

Me and the DH are hoping to exchange on Friday after being dragged along for a few weeks.
There is a request to transfer the relevant money during the week to ensure it's in the solicitors account by Friday. Then what?!

Thanks!

Congrats on exchange @furstivetreats!

You're so close now @Didicat - how exciting!

@Emmajane88 when I've exchanged before, it's literally just been a phone call to confirm that you're happy to exchange. Then the solicitors confirm to each other. Nothing exciting actually happens as far as I'm aware.

Then they will be prepping the money side of things to ensure it's all in place for the completion date. On the day, they transfer the money, wait til it's cleared in the respective bank, then phone you/agents etc to say it's done/release the keys.

We got some where today, at least I think we have..chain of 6 basically ready to go, completion date set for 28th and exchange ASAP - HOWEVER our buyers solicitor has just issued 4 additional enquiries (we've already answered first set, plus 1 additional set), so does anyone know what these final enquiries could be like??
All secretary could tell us at 4:30 was solicitor has gone home and she couldn't see what the enquiries actually are but assured me they've only just come in... why leave it so late? Unless it's just final pieces of the puzzle legal to legal stuff!?!?

Ps sending good luck vibes to you all X

We took a step back. For some reason our mover just gave us a quote, not a quote and a date. Can’t actually fit us in before end of June, just thought we might like to know how much they charge

Back on the phone tomorrow morning to try again. If you haven’t secured movers, get going ASAP is my advice…

Good luck getting removals. I’ve been on the phone all day and everyone is booked for June. It’s mad, found one they can do our date and we aren’t exchanged yet.

@Ccoffee217 no idea, fingers crossed they are easily answered x

@Ccoffee217

We got some where today, at least I think we have..chain of 6 basically ready to go, completion date set for 28th and exchange ASAP - HOWEVER our buyers solicitor has just issued 4 additional enquiries (we've already answered first set, plus 1 additional set), so does anyone know what these final enquiries could be like?? All secretary could tell us at 4:30 was solicitor has gone home and she couldn't see what the enquiries actually are but assured me they've only just come in... why leave it so late? Unless it's just final pieces of the puzzle legal to legal stuff!?!?

Ps sending good luck vibes to you all X

We had this today. The final enquiries were three questions that had already been answered… It is almost feeling like those psychometric tests where they ask you the same question in different ways to see if your answer changes! One was in relation to the Party Wall Act and another asking us to confirm that all doors and windows work

Seems like a lot of forward momentum occurring today!

Get removal companies is going to be tricksy, I wish all who need them luck in securing them.

Our pre exchange inspection went well, although now the house is nearly empty of stuff it looks a bit more tatty. Been in discussions on what painting to do before we move in. Hoping to do the kids bedrooms first, and then off white everywhere with satin on the woodwork to just freshen it all up. Beginning to feel the frisson of excitement.

We're buying a new build (that was already built and vacant before we tried to buy it) and yesterday had our home demo. I've never bought a new build before (current one is Edwardian) so it was lovely that not only did they show us things like how to work appliances, but we could point out little things we wanted them to sort before we moved in. It was amazing. I'm so used to buying houses and just expecting nasty surprises!

Thought I’d weigh myself after another sleepless night and I am 4kg down. Stress or moving labour, who knows but it’s 4kgs of lockdown weight that I need to go so I’m taking the silver lining

@coffeequeenindevon I stress eat, so this is not good for my lockdown weight gain!

@Ccoffee217 when I last exchanged, the last minutes queries were

1. 'do you have the certificate from the cavity wall insulation?' - No, house was built in the 30s and I was never given anything when I bought it. Fair enough question

2. 'has the house been extended?' it was literally a 2 up 2 down semi. Exactly the same as every other house in the road and the buyers had viewed it twice. Clearly it had never been extended. So bizarre.