Buyers / sellers exchange waiting room continued...

[NoWordForFluffy]

New thread for those of us still waiting the dreadful wait. 😩

I've emailed the in-house solicitors again now, as it's a week since they told me they'd look into it and come back to me. Also incompetent. Surrounded by idiots.

I'm amazed I haven't taken up daytime drinking!

How annoying. I texted our solicitor, and nothing. Not even our agent is responding to my email today. I guess they all realise there is nothing any of us can do until the lender approves things. Sigh. Why does every single day feel like such a drag? I get to 4pm and I realise with a heavy heart that it isn't going to happen. I'm starting to wonder if it ever will!

Please Lord (not that I'm religious) give us a fecking break. It's been a crap year. We are due some happy news.

Does anyone know. Once searches were back, how long did it take for your solicitor to raise enqueries?

@Jayknow our solicitor told us the searches came back Tuesday evening and she has a report with enquiries ready for us to pick up by hand tomorrow to save it going on the post. I think that seems quick? So not sure if there will be further enquiries to come?

If there isn’t anything remarkable from the searches / enquiries, what is the next step? Is that contract signing?

Pretty much, @Ellswells3. Once everyone has sorted the final enquiries, it's time to agree on an exchange date and completion. They'll send you the contracts to sign, too. Which will need witnessing. We've got everything ready to go. We're just waiting on one last thing.

@MillTree thanks! Eek good luck.
I’m hoping for us to move before Xmas to start the new year on a fresh slate so hoping that the searches / enquiries don’t raise any major concerns!

You and me both @Ellswells3. To make matters worse for us, someone in our chain is insisting on keeping a fortnight between exchange and completion; god knows why. So, every day that goes by pushes the move date further into December. Great. Just great.

I'm trying to stay positive. But then someone else on the chain is insisting we don't move a certain week, too. Which means if we move before Christmas, it'll be a miracle.

@MillTree, I just said to my husband that if we get to this time tomorrow without a bloody resolution to this, I'm going to go spare.

The (very helpful) legal counsel for the HA is chasing the sales director to find out what's happening. She's not even involved in this aspect of the HA's work, so she's being lovely in helping me. It's nice to find somebody who wants to help!

@MillTree 2 weeks between seems excessive!
I am hoping the others in our chain will be flexible with dates, my understanding is that everyone wants to move before Xmas but I don’t know if they have any particular requests such as yours!

I hope you're not waiting like us, @Ellswells3. It really has been a wait! We sold in April, too. Lost a buyer and had to sell again. What a roller coaster. We've not had it as bad as my poor MIL. It took her TWO years to sell and move. My goodness. I am not sure how she remained so calm.

Hi everyone … just want to vent my frustration!

I had an offer accepted end may/start June and we are still no where near exchanging !
I am chain free and in rented . The sellers are also chain free but so slow at replying to everything . It took them months to even get a solicitor.
The market here has fallen - would you offer a lower price or stick with to what you agreed back in may ? The house does need work so any thing saved is a bonus for me .

@Ellswells3 its the enquiries that can be the nightmare IME - fingers crossed we all sail through that bit (just sent off for searches here..) 🤪

How frustrating! Why have they taken so long?? No excuse to spend months not having instructed a solicitor. I’d be cautious about trying to lower the price although it could be used as a carrot to encourage them to get a move on “if not exchanged by X date will have to lower offer to reflect dropping market and money spent on months of unexpected rent” or similar.

@ibelieveinmirrorballs I really wanted to be moved before Christmas! Good thinking about maybe using it as an incentive to get them going ! It is all incredibly frustrating and if something else suitable in my budget had come up I would’ve pulled out of this one already !

I will just repeat myself about how frustrating and ridiculous this process is in England. I'll probably say it every day. More than once!

@Fidgety31, how are you still sane?!

I now have a further update from the sales director (who also seems lovely and helpful!) who's going to chase the department which deals with conveyancing tomorrow to find out what's going on with the plan amendment. She at least agreed with me that it was frustrating waiting for something which should be simple.

Hi all

Today has been such a long day so I haven't caught up but I wondered if I could hop on and see if anyone can answer a question

You know those awful online verification things where you have to upload pics of passport etc

Will the system tell if you if it's failed? It's InfoTrack if that helps.

I gather the passport chip is the biggest problem on this type of stuff.

Thank you.

@Fidgety31 it took months for them to get a solicitor?? That’s excessive in the extreme! As a seller only at the moment, it took me 2 days to get a solicitor, the buyer also. You must have so much patience.
@EmmaEmerald I think they pass the outcome straight onto the solicitor, so you will hear straight away if it hasn’t passed I think. With mine it automatically asked for more verification as I didn’t have a chip on my passport, and kept going until I had uploaded what it needed.
@NoWordForFluffy your perseverance seems to have got the sales director and that could hopefully speed up these last bits if they think someone’s got an eye on the process, hopefully!

@EmmaEmerald, it tells you instantly if it hasn't managed to read it. #voiceofexperience

@HopefulSeller, I've basically been VERY bloody irritating! 😬🤣 But it really doesn't take nigh on 4 weeks to look at the very clear document I sent and agree an amended plan. Except apparently it does!

@NoWordForFluffy

Thank you

So when that's done, it shouldn't show errors when a human looks at it - the passport chip not being read will be told to you immediately? I gather the passport chip is the biggest problem with this stuff?

Lord, I hate all this tech

I don't think you sound irritating at all

You've made perfectly reasonable requests

No, it won't go through at all if it can't read it.

My requests are reasonable, but I've hunted down people not actually involved in the process to help me move things along.

I’ve read the entire thread and my sympathies go out to everyone on here. I was a commercial property lawyer years ago but did some resi conveyancing during my training contract and I can say that sales and purchase really do not need to take that long at all. It’s all down to the total incompetence and laziness of certain parties, ie solicitors mainly.

Anyway, hand holding needed today please as I’m hoping to exchange on my old flat (let it out when I relocated several years ago) which has been a horrendous nightmare for the past 16 years - it has felt like a life sentience at times (multiple leaks from the flat above). I had to give my partner power of attorney two years ago as I couldn’t cope anymore and I’ve had to take a hit on the sale price due to the issues. We are now 5 months into the selling process and hoping to exchange today. I think I will fall to the ground and weep if it actually happens as the buyers solicitor is an “absolute c*nt” of the highest order according to the estate agent 🤨

Good luck, @Debsthegardener.

I'm a litigation solicitor and if I was as tardy as the conveyancers / vendor (a business, so professional people dealing with the matter) I would be in trouble! And litigation is much slower than conveyancing (pre-issue; it's more pressing once it's in Court), so in theory I have way more time to get shit done.

I'd never sit on stuff for 4 bloody weeks which really should be turned around more quickly.

My personal opinion is that a week is reasonable for a response time. 10-14 days at a push. Any longer and you're taking the piss.

Today was our original completion day of choice. Missed due to the vendor / their conveyancer. 🤬🙄

@MillTree My solicitor added an additional charge if there was less than 2 weeks between exchange and completion - so that may be why.