Working towards completion date but no exchange date

[Anaphylaxis]

Currently we are selling house and agreed with buyer completion date. No more enquires are raised and our solicitor is waiting for buyer solicitor to exchange contract. But I find this very weird and I am aware exchange can happen on the same day as completion day.

What could be holding up the exchange, did the buyer realise they suddently can’t afford the deposit or have some doubts or solicitors being incompetent? Do we need to keep chasing for exchange or let it happen to the completion day? Thanks in advance!

They may be waiting for mortgage company or the release of funds for deposit. Surely your solicitor can ask.

Our solicitor is chasing but no words from buyer’s solicitors. Buyer’s lawyer firm is known for being not very responsive apparently (I would like to avoid naming the firm).

I would set an exchange date, same as you would a completion date. Don’t just let it rumble on. Solicitors need to discuss and all parties need to determine that everything has been finalised and you both need to see the contracts in draft form before they are finalised.

Then you decide a day and hopefully stick to it. We had an exchange date, set by our vendors, and then both the vendor’s solicitor and the estate agent buggered off on holiday and no one exchanged. 🤷🏻‍♀️ It took another week to finally make it happen. My guess is someone has been on AL over Easter holidays and that explains a good bit of the delay.

What is the completion date?

We are literally within 3 days of supposedly completion day

Nightmare if you have removers to organise …

I am a buyer and I have completion date set but no exchange date. The reasons are:
I am waiting for my solicitors to send me paperwork for signing
Seller is currently on holiday
A week before his solicitor was on holiday and didn't hand over the case to anyone.
Iam going on holiday in two weeks which is why we agreed completion date before I go. Unfortunately, we can't set the exchange date until I get the final report from my solicitor and they are.. you guessed it...on holiday.

You should always have at least 2 weeks between exchange and completion in order to have everything arranged (ie removal dates) and have the ability to make alterations if the exchange fails to materialise - as it often can.

You should also always pay the insurance with the solicitors to cover your fees if it falls through.

You absolutely must chase every day! Start putting the pressure on.

Our exchange was delayed by 5 days because one of the solicitors in the chain had gone on annual leave and not passed the workload on properly....(Yes really) Luckily it was planned a week before agreed completion so didn't hold us up but it was stressful at the time.

@Anaphylaxis so how did things pan out?

Exchange happened on Wed afternoon after chasing both solicitors and EA. Apparently buyers solicitors were waiting for fund. All completed today by noon. Guess I didn’t need to be so stressed but at the same time, wished EA did some work without being prompted, in the end they get chunk of it too!!

Thank you everyone for responses.

Happy new house @Anaphylaxis