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.

@BungalowBuyer I've sent another (short) email asking for them to update me, explaining why it is important!
Daft isn't it, I am paying for a service, this is a vital stage and it shouldn't be too difficult for a solicitor or their secretary to reply at some point in the week - especially as they've asked me to transfer all the money over to them.

I get a weekly update from the sales progressor, my EA sub contracts to, but I sometimes know more than him, the EAs don't communicate with him, despite having a shared online portal.

I wish mine would update me. I have to drag information out of her

If my solicitor has been in touch asking about completion dates, does that mean we have exchanged and don't know it?
We sent are tr1 in last week.

@thoughtsofmoog3 we eventually complained to the complaints guy at the conveyancers, they moved us to a new more senior conveyancer and now they are updating regularly and answering emails in full. Ridiculous as why weren't they doing that before but hey, complaining worked! And now enquiries are in from seller after about 5 weeks at last!

@hexsnidgett I believe they cant exchange without your permission, and they need to agree a completion date for the exchange process, so I'd say they probably haven't exchanged yet.

The word has been mentioned

Because we are just selling, a lot of the info online goes on about chains and we don't have one! Not complaining.

I phoned. My conveyancing solicitor has left and my case is with another. That would explain why my emails went unanswered.
Not expecting much this side of the weekend. FGS!

No, you need to give permission to exchange. But they need the completion date in advance of exchange, they can't agree it after.

And even if you're just selling, you're still part of a chain :)

When we were ready to exchange I was chasing daily, multiple times a day. Honestly you have to or nothing happens. You want to make yourself a nuisance so they hurry your case along to get rid of you faster.

Does a first time buyer and seller that's already moved out count as a chain? I wouldn't have thought so, anyhow it'll be next week now.

35 pages and counting 😆The activist groups lobbying for change should forward this string to MPs. I am at the beginning and already ill and sleepless with worry. Buyers offer accepted 16 days ago. In rented- seemed motivated - have instructed sols and broker (allegedly) but the agents say they are still doing due diligence /AML checks. 16 days wtf? It is a small sum and 2 wage earners buying. This can’t be normal. I am buying with the same agent and my checks were outsourced to a sales progression firm acting for my buyers buyer ( the developer at the top of the chain) who do everything in a split second - highly motivated to guarantee the sale of a house (to my vendors) which they haven’t built yet. The anxiety creator is that I (somewhat deceitfully) declared myself chain free otherwise the developer would not have accepted my bid on their buyer’s (highly desireable) house. When there is a developer involved they call the shots on who gets their customer’s property- developers avoid getting embroiled in a chain at all costs. So this sales progression person hounding me saying we are going to exchange in 6 weeks ha. And buyers still doing AML after 16 days. What annoys me is how many websites say the process takes 6-8 weeks. That is the biggest piece of complete fiction. I plan to draw up a diary / timetable to make sure sale and purchase progress at same pace.

It's a painful process, there are only two properties in my "chain" my buyer is a FTB (very keen to move asap) and I'm buying a deceased estate that's already been through probate and we're nearly 10 weeks in now stuck waiting for searches.

That's still a chain, it's just a short one.

That’s ridiculous, you should complain

I have posted on another thread but just seen this one is more active... please can I join?

We agreed a sale on ours, and had offer accepted on a lovely house in March, but our buyer pulled out three weeks ago after waiting 6 weeks to book a survey. We accepted another (lower) offer the same week but it's going incredibly slow; he's not even had his mortgage offer through yet (BTL). My estate agents are very bimbly and seem overly worried about chasing the purchaser too often.

Our vendors have been wonderfully patient and understanding and I really don't want to lose the house they're selling - particularly as they are so decent and the survey was almost perfect (unheard of!)

I'm dealing with it pretty much single handed as my DH is being pretty useless. I feel so low, it takes up nearly every minute of my waking thoughts.

Our mortgage offer expires in September which is inching closer and obviously rates have gone up since then

We also, amongst the panic of losing a buyer, got ourselves a let to buy mortgage approved in the background (on our current house) but if we go down that route we have to redo our new residential mortgage through a broker, again subject to new rates, so not a route I want to go down. Plus I'm not sure now is a good time to become an accidental landlord. However if we lose this second buyer I can't put myself into a third chain so I will pursue it if I have to.

Sorry for rant, just have no one else to rant to!

@EggbertHeartsTina I feel you. We accepted an offer from FTBs in April, and had one accepted a week later (end of April). Our sellers are buying a property that is end of chain from someone who moved abroad. Only just got initial enquiries form our buyers- they have only had a valuation survey and no word on whether they will have a proper one- and received nothing from our vendors (not even the property info stuff- they have nickle and dimed us on the price, so expecting a laugh when that comes through).

We're moving an hour ago and need to coordinate preschools for our daughter- which is difficult when you don't have a date. How do people navigate this with kids?!

I am sick with worry about this and other stuff. I managed previous moves in the past but just don't have the capacity. Husband is trying his best, but isn't good at asking details and keeps trying to talk to me about things when I am clearly not in a position to talk.

I never want to move again.

@Flubadubba urgh that sounds so frustrating! I have told DH that I'm approaching the point where I can't do it but he's like yours - doesn't interrogate or ask the right questions. And he's a lot less "pushy" than me. Last time we did this, I ended up in A&e thinking my lung had collapsed but it was a panic attack.

Luckily we are only moving a couple miles away so we are sticking with current primary for now, my youngest starts in sept and his brother is already there. How people do it with school moves is beyond me.

So.. this is a complicated one.

Me and my partner had an offer accepted on a property in October 2022, Mortgage offer issued November, so no hold ups on our end...

We were then advised by our solicitor in February that the seller would need to register the property with the land registry before we could go ahead with the purchase as the deeds were very unclear . The property was a working farm at one point, main house sold off years previous, but the bungalow the sellers father built afterwards retained all the surrounding land ( The bungalow and part of the land is what we are buying).

Anyway this was completed a couple of weeks ago, we received a copy of the title 2 weeks ago and part of the land we had agreed to purchase had not been included in the title.

So obviously I'm on the phone straight away asking our solicitor what is happening, it took her 3 days to work out what I was referring to 🙄I then instructed she send the sellers solicitor an email asking why this has happened.

This was done over a week ago and we have still not received a reply!! I called the estate agents yesterday and more or less demanded they contact the seller to contact her solicitor as a matter of urgency!

Our mortgage offer has already been extended once and will expire on the 1st of August so if its another land registry issue we do not have the time to wait for a resolution!

Anyway I want to threaten to pull out but my partner is disagreeing with me as he doesn't want to upset the seller as she is as frustrated with the whole situation as us and we hope to be able to buy more land that she is retaining in the future... but we are now 8 and a half months in and still no sign of a completion date.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation and threated to pull out? What was the outcome?

I feel for you, we’re only just over 2 months in and I feel like I’m loosing the will to live.

i think you need to put the pressure on because that’s an extremely long time to wait but we are FTB so don’t have any experience.

@EggbertHeartsTina am guessing they suck it up! My in laws live 10 mins from where we are trying to buy, so moving in with the is the only real backup. There is literally nothing else on the market where we are moving to that we would buy atm...

Poor bloke is trying his best, but everyone and everything seems kore awkward this time...

Well we had our buyers surveyor out last week ( very late in the process so not amused ) so we just need to see if that throws up anything bad. If not we are apparently looking at end of June to complete if not earlier. Fingers crossed I'm not back here next week crying and wailing because it's all gone tits up.

@AlwaysGinPlease we're in the exact same position as you. I'm actually terrified of getting the call from the estate agent.
Doing the survey so late shouldn't be allowed, my emotions can't take it 😔

@LindyMoe it's awful isn't it. Our buyers are holding everything up, everyone else in the chain has been ready for ages and they've dragged their heels on everything. I too am dreading the estate agents call. Apparently the surveyors report will take a week 🙄 longer than any we have experienced before. I'll keep everything crossed for you 🤞🏻

I've been dreading getting a surveyor's report on my house for years, I've been here a long time so I'm aware of every problem we've had over the years, every crack and creak, thankfully my buyers only raised a couple of issues and nothing major.