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.

Update on mine - hopefully things are moving again bottom of chain decided to be unethical and gazundered our buyer. They couldn't square away a deal, so we are covering the difference to keep the chain alive. We are requiring everyone to exchange this month in return. Will see if the middle conveyancer can actually do that as she is very poor at timely communication. She has over two weeks while the brokers work out the revised mortgage offers.

That’s terrible @Sousuke people just seem to be so badly behaved.

Today has been completely awful our vendor has been hassling us and asking why our solicitor wants so much information and our buyers have been doing a good line in emotional blackmail and saying they had expected to exchange today and it’s our fault it hasn’t happened. I phoned our estate agent to ask for help dealing with everyone and ended up bursting into tears. It looks like we’ll be ready to exchange on Monday but am just wrung out by it all.

We had an offer accepted and had our AIP only to get declined a mortgage based on OH credit history (but we passed the AIP?!) going through the process again with a broker now and passed another AIP and stumped up a huge deposit but so worried it’ll be the same situation again. Anybody had similar?

@bubble55 what is the huge deposit for? Our mortgage broker didn't charge us a fee. She will get commission from our lender after our mortgage starts.

@starlingdarling sorry I mean LTV, we’ve put a bigger house deposit down!

Morning everyone.
It’s a fresh week and ready to hit refresh on my emails every 30 minutes!

My sale and purchase are the only ones in my chain not ready now. So it’s all down to my solicitor and I am hassling every every other day as are the estate agents. I’ve been telling her for weeks I want to exchange by 15th February but she’s not as much as acknowledged this let alone given any suggestion this may happen.

If we weren’t so far down the process I would be looking for a different solicitor! But fear that would take more time now.

Morning @Inapicklee! Another week indeed. Here's hoping!

Morning all. We're 3 weeks in on our purchase and just over 4 weeks on our sale. Searches, mortgage offer and survey are done on our purchase. We spent the weekend trying to wade through the survey and although there are some issues, there's nothing unexpected for an old house. We haven't heard anything about our sale yet so we're hoping that's progressing ok.

@Inapicklee keeping my fingers crossed for you. How long has everyone else been ready? It could be worth going nuclear and either contacting the head of conveyancing or contacting the client care partner.

@bubble55 sorry to hear about your mortgage offer. I'm glad you are using a broker. They will know which lenders are more likely to approve after the initial rejection and when to send the application.

I exchanged on Friday, a week later than planned. and completing tomorrow. Spent weekend packing and removals booked for later this week. There's only 2 in the chain and it's been a long slog.

Morning, congrats to those who have exchanged 🎉 we still have not exchanged and no idea on when we might, although the plan is still to complete on Thursday 😬

So we're still waiting to exchange. Finally got our mortgage offer and now on the exchange wait of doom.

Apparently we're waiting for title deeds to be updated, but there is no end in sight with no frame given...

Pops kettle on and gets comfortable in chair...

Still waiting here. The big issue with the lease on my buyer’s sale is now sorted but there are still outstanding enquiries with the management company. We were supposed to complete 27th Jan which obviously didn’t happen and there has been no talk of new dates yet.

I sent a strongly worded email to my solicitor at 8am. No response yet.

I will be escalating it tomorrow if I don’t hear anything by the end of today.

@Inapicklee Do we have the same solicitor? I am starting to get seriously annoyed. No replies to my emails, not even to acknowledge them. We are supposed to complete in less than two weeks but haven't even signed a contract yet, let alone exchanged. And nobody answering the phone either. I said it before on this thread but I get that people constantly calling/chasing is annoying. You know what else is annoying? Not knowing if your whole life is going to change in two weeks. Not knowing when to say goodbye to friends. I am so sick of this limbo and even more so of just being ignored.

Hahaha @thunderouslug that really made me laugh.
In my mind, everyone has time to send an e-mail. I’m in the police so I FULLY appreciate what it’s like to have an enormous workload and not enough hours in the day to do it but that’s not an excuse for not even firing off a quick email with estimated timelines and expectation management.

Still nothing. Worked out earlier we are 14 weeks on from instruction and as far as I am aware (being the optimum word) there have been no complexities. Her email signature states 10-12 weeks but we are on 14 and not exchanged yet.

@thunderouslug in my experience the favourite clients are the quiet ones but the ones who get the fast results are the ones who chase. If you cause a fuss they'll want to get your file closed ASAP

@Inapicklee Exactly. Our solicitor also has three assistants, so I assumed in the beginning at least one of them would be able to reply.

@PleaseJustText Yeah, unfortunately I feel like I need to become that annoying person now. I really don't want to, it's not me. But it's clear it's our solicitor holding it up for everyone. For example, solicitor is out of the office again for half of the week, same as last week.

Exchange looking impossible for this week apparently. I am fuming because I said from the very beginning we can only do the completion date if we have at the very minimum one week between exchange and completion but would like two. Now it's looking like we'll be lucky if we get more than a day, which is not happening, no way. We are relocating 5 hours away. Keeping our jobs but still, our employers want a little bit of notice as to when IT is happening. And our sellers are taking all the white goods, curtains, the lights. I want a little bit of time to order those things (all bookmarked already, phew) so they arrive when we arrive, but I obviously can't/won't do that until I have the certainty of exchange. Definitely having a strong G&T tonight.

I’ve spent the day chasing people to find out if the document to lift the charge on our vendors property has been signed as this was the only thing left to do before exchange. I’ve been assured everything is done and have now found out that our solicitor is away for the week. I’ve sent an email to her assistant to say we cannot wait till our solicitor gets back to exchange as the chain behind us just want us to move out as they don’t have to wait anymore. It’s all got very unpleasant and I’ve had no response. I’m at a loss to know what to do. I’m trying to work between all the chasing.

I sympathise with the job uncertainty @thunderouslug my manager is sympathetic but I have a caseload to manage and disappearing at short notice is difficult.

Can I come in? We're hoping to have exchanged by the 20th (or we risk losing our onward purchase) but our buyers are overseas (so time difference) and culturally numpties as to the (fucked up) English way of doing things... their solicitor won't even discuss schedules for exchange/completion until they transfer the deposit money to him - and they've asked for a final pre-exchange look around on Wednesday which I'm obviously now bricking it about.

The stress is fucking killing me at the moment.

@thunderouslug how are you managing this with removals?

I’ve never used one before but as my gap between exchange and my hoped completion day is narrowing, I feel I need to start getting quotes. But how can I do that when I don’t know the date?

@CoffeeWithCheese Welcome! Hope that viewing goes well. I've heard this being done more and more often these days.

@Inapicklee I got some quotes from local movers. One said I could book a date with a deposit, which is obviously not ideal. The second said I could book a date but would need to pay a fee if the date had to be moved. Also not ideal. Third one let me reserve a date and I'd only have to pay a deposit if someone else also wants that date. He said that's unlikely as it's super quiet at the moment, so finger's crossed. But if you don't have a date at all yet, then you can still get quotes at least and ask them how they handle it once you've got a rough date in mind.

@thunderouslug I'm not the type to kick up a fuss and be difficult but you've done your quiet waiting. Now you're at the final hurdle, it's time to kick up a fuss. If your solicitor isn't there and hasn't bothered handing the file over, send an email to the client care partner and head of conveyancing. Ask for a call or email tomorrow to confirm what is being done to progress your purchase and who will be handling it whenever your solicitor is out of the office because the current level of service is falling well below what you'd expect of a solicitor.

Same to you @StillNiceCardigan

I worked at a law firm and the clients who contacted the client care partner got the fastest results. He was also our managing partner so more senior than any other which helped, a lot. An email from him would stop everyone in their tracks.

@Inapicklee we had a quote for removals in December and we’ve paid a deposit. The process appears to be that I phone them up and ask is a date available and then the date slips and I phone about another one. They seem unfazed by it all and can do short notice if they have availability.

Thanks for that @pleasejusttext I’ll be escalating things in the morning.

I think the biggest issue with this stuff is the lack of contact. People just don't update clients with what's happening or even just reply to emails to acknowledge.

I don't mind waiting, but not knowing is the worst feeling - especially when it's such a big deal.

Every extra month this has gone on for has cost more money in the long term, as my mortgage offer has now changed. And it's hundreds of pounds a month difference. It's so frustrating.