Buyers/Sellers Exchange waiting room

[spidershavetoomanyknees]

Currently waiting for exchange, stuck in a never-ending loop of "there's been a couple more enquiries higher up the chain" and "we're nearly there now". Wondering if there's anyone else who would like to join me here in the waiting room of doom to vent into the void.

Next train for Exchange (line terminates at Completion) is currently delayed and they'd like to apologise for the delay.

Indemnities can be useful in some circumstances, but don't cover things like this.

They have become a way for some solicitors to cover their backsides though, without being of any practical benefit to the client.

Yes, definitely noticed they're a bit of an arse covering exercise.

Ah well, it is what it is!

That’s far too radical! Ours is Dickensian in comparison 😬

I'm already going mad trying to organise all the emails. I couldn't handle a paper pile.

Solicitor actually sent a bulk of documents yesterday. I'm quite disappointed with how little guidance they offer with those. There's a huge lengthy charge on the title and I struggle to understand what it means. It seems historic and not relevant anymore but solicitor won't help beyond 'it's all there, just read it'. I've got a doctorate, so I'm not completely illiterate but this is written in legalese English (my second language) from a hundred years ago. They also didn't ask about any of the enquiries I had as a result of the survey, so now those will need to be sent, replied to, and reviewed.

The titles documents are insane @thunderouslug - the one for the house I’m selling is just a microfiche copy of a document on black background with white script in olde english letting and totally illegible and incomprehensible. My solicitor still sent it to me to review and ask if I agreed with the covenants. I couldn’t read a word and ended up having to pay for an indemnity policy. I assume that’s to protect my buyers in case they are sued for keeping one too many pigs or something!

Sending some luck today to everyone else on a weekly "chase everyone on a Thursday" routine. Our EA liaising person is not generally quick off the mark but at least they have the details for higher up the chain than our solicitors do! Gotta hope it's actual news not just "oh I haven't heard anything this week i'll call them".

Ours was the same, couldn't understand a word. Some of the covenants are so bizarre aswell, in the first house were going to buy that fell through, they were that you can't keep pigs, you can't make or sell alcohol and you can't sell SAND!! 🤣 Made me laugh, like damn, well that's my business idea out the window!

We are apparently (again) on point of exchange except now someone's removals firm isn't available on the previously agreed date...Aargh

@PointersPlease eurgh, the never-ending carousel of "nearly there"! How much time do you have between planned exchange and planned completion?

I sympathise to all of you in this insidious and horrendously stressful position and thank @spidershavetoomanyknees for this topic!

I ought to know better after buying and selling houses throughout my grown up years. But this particular transaction seemed so simple. In theory. The saga started in June last year when thinking that selling my over-large money pit of a property might be a tad complicated, I put it on the market before getting too invested in moving on to a specific place. Far from being the expected nightmare, the reality was an easy, chain-free, cash transaction for which I remain astonished but gratified.

But buying has been a different story. There is no chain and I am a cash buyer. My solicitor is excellent and the vendor's solicitors seem efficient too. The EA liaison person is great to deal with. But then, a lengthy way through proceedings the (very elderly) vendor died. Which left a 3-month hiatus while probate was granted. I carried on buying the otherwise perfect property on condition that all possible conveyancing was done ahead of the grant of probate being issued. I suspect it wasn't. But probate was straightforward as were the enquiries and it seemed that exchange was imminent 5 weeks ago. But right now we await one, essential document. And as each week goes by it seems like I'm further away from exchange and completion than ever. How is it that ONE SINGLE DOCUMENT can take an infinite number of weeks to be produced? I'm now into the business of issuing reasonable ultimatums but quite frankly, I suspect I'm just winding myself up here. The management company (for it is they who are the time wasters) don't give a flying fuck and there isn't a vendor left alive who could chase these people up in person. Every day makes me closer to losing all reason.

That sounds excruciating @Vestigia. Full commiserations for that one.

I feel like there should be a bingo card...

1. Another couple of enquiries have been sent out
2. Waiting on one final document before exchange
3. Someone is on inexplicable annual leave midweek and nobody has access to their email
4. Someone has a part-time working week pattern and is the only person with access to their emails
5. Bonus points if that work week pattern is on opposite days to the person they have to communicate with
6. No onward chain suddenly wants to tie in another purchase at the top

what else..? 🤔

I feel like there should be a bingo card...

I'd definitely add...

'I know we said we were cash buyers but we've decided to get a little tiny mortgage to pay for the work we want to do'.

So, have just spoken to our solicitor who said it's unlikely that we will be able to exchange tomorrow. We are waiting for our vendors solicitor to confirm the 10th Feb (our buyers have changed the date from the 9th) and then once they have that, they need to request from the bank that they can definitely get the funds in time for completion, as they won't exchange without confirmation, and that probably won't happen until early next week now. Our buyers can apparently get an indemnity policy to cover the fact that their searches will expire after tomorrow but it's just a case of if their mortgage provider will accept that. Or we have to break the chain and do sale and purchase independently, but not willing to do that since we could end up homeless and with 3 kids, that's not an option. So, there we go. Who knows at this point.

And also, Sellers who say they're 'chain free' but later down the line actually can't move in with family, don't want to find a rental, and haven't found an onward purchase.

@Vestigia ohh how annoying! There was someone else on another threat recently waiting on a singular document that had to be signed by the previous owners who were in no hurry to do so.

I am so stressed by these multiple lines of communication going on. Both agents and the solicitor confirming different possible exchange/completion dates with me today. Individually. The inefficiency is driving me nuts. I wish we could just form one big chat group to sort this out. Make a poll, everyone votes on a date, done.

We're still at the very early stages. We found a surveyor yesterday and after contacting the agents, he came back to say the survey would be happening tomorrow. I'm very impressed by our sellers. Still nervous that they're "chain free" and might change their mind later. They have a puppy and 3 children.. finding a rental won't be easy.

DH called me yesterday to say our solicitor asked if we wanted to wait for our mortgage offer before starting searches. We know searches take weeks around here (a month is optimistic, I expect it to be closer to 2 months) and our broker said mortgage offers have been horrendously slow, she's expecting it to take a month. The solicitor didn't mention how long either process could be when asking the question. I wonder if people have been blindly instructing him to wait until one is done before starting the other without knowing how much it delays the process. We're not stretching the budget as much as we could so it's an easy "risk".

Well after a stressful afternoon of new dates flying about, people in offices saying they'd check and get back to me and then taking the afternoon off without doing so, and the usually communicative solicitors not answering the phone for hours, WE HAVE EXCHANGED!!!
The completion date is now nowhere near the leave i booked and the work schedule i was got ready, and will be a pain to rejig, but at least we know where we are now.
I feel completely wrung out.

@PointersPlease take an evening to bask in the glow of some certainty and worry about all the rejigging tomorrow!

Congratulations @PointersPlease - I think I could cope with any amount of re-jigging just for the relief of exchange. No real updates for me today just the usual no we haven’t heard anything we will keep chasing. No point chasing again until next week, I try but rarely succeed to put it out of my mind over the weekends when nothing can happen.

Congrats @PointersPlease !

I'm in that boat with you @Karmatime - no real update except "I'll check in next week". Ho hum.

@thunderouslug I love the poll idea! The dream!

Bingo!
All ready to exchange tomorrow and have had the 'we were just looking through the file and there are one or two outstanding searches' so everything is delayed, despite everyone agreeing a completion date yesterday

Such a disconnect between the buyers/sellers and all their important deadlines that keep passing with all the hassle that entails - and the unhurried and impervious to deadlines legal side.

I'm still here. In hell. Clinging on. Lengthy messages and voice notes from my vendor. I am a little more confident in that the solicitor for their probate property is actually engaging. But my vendor is saying she wants all these various things doing and she doesn't think it will get done.
So, she wants some sort of security that they will get this property. The solicitor has apparently agreed to exchange. The estate agents have drawn up a rental contract but she isn't happy about the cost of it all, or the fact they could be living like that for a while. The solicitor wants them to pay £800 to rent what is basically a dooer upper. Also wants them to pay for gas and electric certs. Wants them to pay land lord insurance. And the cost of the rental agreement. So about 1k up front, then £800 and odd a month ongoing. I can see why she isn't happy. However this is what she asked them to do and they are agreeing.
Then today there was a new "they haven't even applied for probate". Through questioning and my Google searches i have been able to establish what exactly the stage they are at is. So she was told they can only apply for probate on 12th Feb and it was something to do with inheritance tax. So I managed to find out that they have actually got to thr stage that on 12th Feb they can actually apply for probate. Which means that once all this was found out on 11th jan that they did actually sort the IHT forms out as it is 20 working days after that to apply for probate.
So I'm not sure what my vendor is still flapping about the probate for. She knew it wouldn't be back in time. She has known this since she said she would break the chain.
She needs to decide what to do. 12th Feb still gives us 9 days to meet my buyers mortgage deadline. So as long as she knows probate is applied for (which is what she is saying) then she can exchange.
She just isn't happy about the costs or the length of time. I offered to pay half the up front costs but she has declined.
I offered her my boyfriends flat as storage for her stuff for as long as she needs which would be a significant cost if they stay with family or rent a flat until the probate comes through and they can complete.
I don't know what else I can do. They desperately want this particular house. I desperately want their house. Why the fuck is this just so hard? My mortgage offer runs out 22nd March, but my buyer is 23rd Feb. I don't think he will agree to a new product. It also took 11 days to get a sodding answer for what turned out to be a 17 day extension.
I look like shit. The house looks like shit. It is all shit. Shit shit shit.
I'm glad some of you have reached exchange in this crazy bastard circus!!!!

I'm waiting. I'm on the top of a three group train as the seller (or maybe I'm the bottom?)

The other transaction appears ready. The middle of the chain is using a non-communicative solicitor that 'lost' her enquiries for the month of January. Our solicitor got them a week ago and responded in 24 hrs. Thats been the only communication received thus far. Good news was they said the contract was fine and both parties can sign. We've signed and sent and I believe so has the buyer. Now waiting for a response on if they are satisfied and ready to exchange. I tried to sort of force a completion date for end of Feb, but that went into a black hole.

We have had deathly silence.
At the start of this week, our solicitor ‘discovered’ that the previous owners of our house stole a bit of garden. It’s within our fenceline.

We now need a deed of trust or something or another to say no one has cared about us using the 3 x 3m patch at the back of the garden. The ironic thing is my solicitor clearly didn’t notice this when we bought the house in the first place.

Since then, nada. I’ve given up and handed (provisional) notice at work as then at least we don’t need as long between exchange and completing. It’s not official notice as I have a month of leave to take after but I said I would give them at least 4 weeks notice of me actually being in the office.

Wondering if I should be starting to phone removals for quotes but then I can’t give them a specific date? We moved ourselves last time so I’m not sure how it all works?