Buyers/Sellers Exchange waiting room new thread

[thoughtsofmoog3]

I noticed the last one was full, so here we go!

Hello to the newcomers and welcome back to those who are still working their way through the joys of house buying/selling.

We had our offer accepted on a house Friday before last at 5pm and had proof of funds/solicitor details ect send in the next morning. A week seems like a long time!

Ditto
EA saw proof of funds before I accepted the offer.

Hello All,

We offered accepted on the house in start of April, we offered asking price due to competition. There is no chain either side in the process. We complete 3 months in start of July. The issue being my sellers are being extremely slow in answering queries. It took close to 4 weeks to send the initial paper work. Around 4 weeks to answer the first set of enquiries. We are again on 4 weeks mark for the second set of enquiries, which are fairly simple to answer. Please advise if this is a standard timelines, my gut feeling says the seller might back out. Please suggest out of experience.

@Asian It may not be your sellers but their solicitor who is the cause of the delay. I would contact the estate agent and see if they can ask them directly. It’s possible that they are unaware that enquiries are not being dealt with or passed on.

I spoke to EA, the first time the delay was because of the documentation, the sellers were unable to fill the documentation, the second time the delay was not sure why and this time since they are travelling out of country :(. The solicitors are extremely prompt but the sellers keep delaying it.

Woohoo!! We just finally exchanged with completion set for the start of July.

After first getting on the market in September 2022 and having the previous sale fall through this is a huge relief.
But I also am feeling really sad because I loved our house, especially after we renovated it and made it perfect for ourselves. And my dad who sadly passed away two years ago helped us with the renovation, so there are emotional ties to that house. It just became too small for our growing family.
Anyone else felt sad after exchange?

We moved to our new house on the weekend. Living amidst lots of boxes currently. Moving is so stressful. Never doing this again hopefully.

@Rapunzel91 When we bought our first and our second house we sent the paperwork the day after our offer was accepted. However I do believe it took the estate agents a while to issue the Memorandum

Bloody solicitors.

There's three in our chain, my buyer/FTB, my house and my onward purchase.

Me and my buyer are keen to exchange this week and complete on 14th July.

My onward purchase is a deceased estate, being sold by a solicitor acting as the client and another solicitor in the same firm acting on their behalf, with an ethical wall in between. They've said they want to complete at the end of June, so a week on Friday which doesn't work for me or my buyer.

The reason apparently is that they don't want to pay any more costs for the property, which they won't get back until completion, but what are they actually going to do if we stand our ground? Pull out and start again with a new buyer and incur even more cost for the sake of two weeks?

The property has been on the market for a long time, but they only accepted my offer on 3rd April, me and my buyer have pushed things along as quickly as possible from our end.

This morning was the first I'd heard that they want to complete next week.

@BungalowBuyer I think you are in a strong position to push back on that. As you say, if they pull out they would have to wait and incur costs for at least another 3 months and that’s assuming they get another buyer quickly and at the price you have offered. I would just say no, they are being unreasonable.

@Karmatime I'm hoping they're just trying their luck.

Everyone involved is surprised they didn't just agree.

They'll get all their costs back once the estate is settled anyway.

is anyone trying to sell in a high rise? Jeez, the laws are a mess, I've just been in tears for an hour, terrified that my money is tied up in a bad investment.

@BungalowBuyer same here! We've had to agree to a closer completion date as seller won't budge after suddenly deciding last week completion had to be this month. But actually thinking we'll need to pull out because financially we are going to struggle and seller will not move the date later. Not sure what the plan is as they will need to re-list. Maybe they're bluffing? But all their tactics are putting us off the house as its not our dream house anyway and we are currently renting so not in a huge rush.

@Wednesdayonline We've just been looking at Rightmove but I'm not keen to pull out and risk losing our buyer.

I'm hoping they're bluffing because it doesn't make sense otherwise.

Still no word on the missing fixture. Buyers finally had their survey- level 3 (but only lasted 1.5 hours). Verbally told that there were no major issues.

Found out sellers want to complete on a very specific day in early August. No chance with the speed they are going at. We need a month to sort out preschool etc, and our buyers need similar for rental (sellers are buying vacant place).

We exchanged yesterday and complete at the end of this month.. I also feel very sad but also very relieved. We are downsizing so that's a worry but I do love the new house. I know I will cry when we leave this one though 😊

Oops @FigandHoney that was meant to be in a quote to you 😊

We were due to exchange today and even gave our verbal authority but then our solicitor called me to say our sellers solicitor was waiting for the return of the contract. Our sellers say they sent it today special delivery and showed me a message from their solicitor saying it would need to be processed and signed off before exchange can take place. Does anyone know how quickly this can happen? They are at the top of the chain, moving into rental. Tomorrow is the last day we can exchange. I'm in pieces.

Once it's arrived at the solicitors they'll only have to check it's been signed properly, countersigned etc.

@BungalowBuyer thank you so much! That sounds promising. They have been slow throughout this process, so I have no faith in them but just praying it gets done tomorrow.Our solicitor has been super quick with everything which just highlights how slow the sellers' one has been. It's painful.

Feeling very stressed today! Seller agreed to pay for a few things in order for us to agree to a June completion, and is now going back on them and is saying they never agreed. And yet they still expect us to complete next week!

The last 24hrs has been very stressful. However, the solicitors acting for the property I'm buying have relented and agreed the completion date I wanted and my buyers wanted, provided we exchange asap, ideally this week.

I'm struggling to feel relieved until contracts are exchanged.

Do you have anything in writing?

@BungalowBuyer I'm glad they agreed!! Hopefully it's all smooth from here out.

We do have it in writing from the estate agent, but as we haven't exchanged yet I suppose they can just change their mind. Just don't understand why they are doing this? They seem to not be willing to compromise on anything at all and just want things to go ahead with just what they want. Very frustrating.

I'm starting to worry Ive made a mistake with my choice of solicitor. Is it normal to not acknowledge receipt of emails, paperwork or payments? I find it very rude to be honest!