Less than 2 weeks from mortgage offer expiry and still not exchange. I'm getting nervous!

[Okigen]

Hi all, FTB here so I'm very noob.

My mortgage offer expires in less than two weeks and my solicitor has just told me that they need 5 working days to draw down funds, so that means I must exchange by this Wednesday I think.

I'm waiting for the other side to confirm dates. But having heard many horror stories about this I'm super nervous. What would happen if I don't have enough 5 working days for the gap? Can I draw down funds before exchange, and how do you do that? What else can I do to ensure things will happen? I'm really worried that if fund drawdown is late I will have to breach the contract!

Normally the solicitor is the go-to person for this but mine is a teapot who will not do anything until I call and kick a fuss, so here I am, asking for the collective wisdom of the lovely people on Mumsnet

Contact the mortgage company and ask for an extension

@April88 we can't, they already refused

They can exchange and complete on the same day if they need to but your solicitor will want to be in a good position to request the funds from the bank. How many enquiries are still outstanding? Our offer is only good another week and we managed to agree a completion date of Tuesday but still haven't managed to exchange yet.. our solicitor has already requested the funds to protect our agreed completion date but wasn't able to make contact with the sellers solicitor today to exchange. I'm running out of hair to pull but am still hoping we get this done.

You need to put pressure on everyone to make exchange and completion to go through urgently.

What is the hold up?

You do still have time is what I'm saying but you need your solicitor to get aggressive and set some dates up now!

@glastogal Oh coindentally I have just asked you on our usual thread because I don't know how to do about this!

My solicitor is a teapot, and only said that I "may want to wait until we get the lender's approval". They didn't bother chasing the lender until I ask about it and then it turns out the lender has already replied but so know they haven't received it!! It is the only thing that is holding up the chain I'm pulling my hair out too!

*but no they haven't

It isn't your "teapot" solicitor's fault your mortgage offer is due to expire

You'll just have to hope to exchange Wednesday or hope you can get a new mortgage offer issued.

It's unfortunate, but it's just how it goes.

We had this and ended up exchanging and completing on the same day. It was very very close to the bone and only happened because we had a solicitor who took it as a challenge to get it done, plus a small chain who all really wanted it to happen.

If you want his you will have to read the riot act and get everyone on side.

I understand what you’re going through. Nobody wants to reapply for a mortgage

@Girlwhowearsglasses @glastogal Thanks both, I think l'll request my solicitor to draw down funds on Wednesday regardless of whether we are exchanging or not, so that at least we can secure completion date in time. What is the consequence of doing this? Eg do you start to pay interest from that date? Etc.

I know the other sides are super keen to get this done, so there is hope

Get your solicitor to draw down the funds now so that they are available. Tell the seller that you must exchange and complete before the expiry of your mortgage offer. You'll have until 5pm.om the last day to get it done.

We had this with our buyer. Very stressful as we had to exchange and complete the same day. Sale went through at 16:55 so it went to the wire but we managed it.

@BackBackBack oh my goodness, 4.55pm is horrendous. I'm glad you make it! And now you have a wonderful story to tell at the dinner table

We can't draw down funds yet, because my solicitor said they haven't received lender's approval. Lender told me they replied my solicitor 2 days ago. So now I am waiting for it to be resent. It's the usual story with my be solicitor, everything needs to be "resent" and they don't chase anything until I kick a fuss about it

I won't lie, it was utterly horrendous. We were parked up in the street outside our new house, with a removals lorry full of our stuff, waiting. And waiting, and waiting. The stress was awful and there were a lot of tears.

If you are using a mortgage broker then rope them in. Also use your EA. I rang everyone I could and begged, pleaded and cried and they all pulled together to get things sorted, as our solicitor was worse than useless. Our mortgage broker in particular was excellent and we couldn't have done it without him, as he had the contacts at the lender to get things moving.

Good luck and I hope everything works out for you. What I will say is that you have to be a complete pest. My solicitor knew my phone number so used to avoid my calls - so I would ring from borrowed phones! Ring every day. Follow up everything - if the solicitor says they've sent it to the lender, then ring the lender to check. If the lender hasn't had it then call the solicitor back and be a pain in the arse until it gets sent. It's shit but the only way that things will get done in the timescales you need.

Oh and keep a note of every call, so you can refer back to it. Be specific - e.g. when we spoke yesterday at 4.30pm you said you'd do XYZ before close of business. Be persistent.

@BackBackBack your situation sounds the same as mine. I'm glad you made it! I will be an absolute pest next week