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When do conveyancers and estate agents wind down for XMAS?

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Lysimache
Lysimache Posts: 192 Forumite
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in House buying, renting & selling
Hi all!

When do conveyancers (and estate agents for vendor-chasing) wind down for Christmas/New Year season? And when do they restart?

Just looking with fear at December approaching fast while we wait for vendor to get last few documents in for us to move to exchange of contracts.
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  • CommitedToChange
    CommitedToChange Posts: 1,325 Forumite
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    I've been told that we need to really have everything done by the 15th.

    The week after leads in Christmas and my sol said they don't want to complete that week in case of issues as everyone is winding down.

    I'm hoping to be in by Christmas but time is ticking away.
  • worried_jim
    worried_jim Posts: 11,631 Forumite
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    Solicitors, first Friday in June.
  • JoJo1978
    JoJo1978 Posts: 375 Forumite
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    Our solicitor was prepared to complete up to and including 20th, last ideal exchange date 13th. We were advised though that removals may be v busy and EAs less available because Dec quiet for them anyway
  • G_M
    G_M Posts: 51,977 Forumite
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    Why does the EA matter?

    Check wen both solicitors will be working till - ask them? (or is tthat a bit obvious?)

    But the point about risk if things go wrong is well made.
  • phoebe1989seb
    phoebe1989seb Posts: 4,452 Forumite
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    When we purchased our current house in 2014 we completed on Tuesday 16th December.

    Due to the proximity of Christmas, it was difficult to find a removal co able to do a very large move from Wilts to W Midlands, even though we had exchanged on 5th Dec and although we had already got quotes prior to that our preferred three were booked up.

    We are hopefully going to exchange on our sale (but not purchase as we don't have one yet :o) before Christmas and expect 15th will be the last realistic date for achieving this. Completion will be in the New Year, which better suits both our buyers and ourselves. I'm so pleased we won't be scrabbling round for a removal co that close to Christmas again!
    Mortgage-free for fourteen years!

    Over £40,000 mis-sold PPI reclaimed
  • phillw
    phillw Posts: 5,594 Forumite
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    edited 2 December 2017 at 1:02AM
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    Lysimache wrote: »
    When do conveyancers (and estate agents for vendor-chasing) wind down for Christmas/New Year season?

    It's down to the individual conveyancer, some will work up until xmas eve and then back the day after boxing day. Their job isn't just completing sales.

    However I am sure you can get a conveyancer who will try to complete on christmas eve if you insist but most people don't want the impracticality of completing around christmas, it's a stressful enough time as it is. The more people in the chain, the more likely it that someone will refuse.

    Imagine waking up on christmas morning surrounded by packing boxes, no food, no phone, no broadband, no sky etc
  • daz_79
    daz_79 Posts: 55 Forumite
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    My EA started to wind down 2 weeks after my property went on the market in August lol.
    Darren :beer:
  • davidmcn
    davidmcn Posts: 23,596 Forumite
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    Generally, I would expect solicitors firms to be open until last working day before Xmas (probably shutting early though), and open first working day after New Year, with at least the bigger firms having some sort of skeleton staff on the working days in between. Individual members of staff may of course be on holiday which could disrupt things.

    Most sane people don't want to be moving house 3 days before Christmas though...
  • Pumpkim
    Pumpkim Posts: 214 Forumite
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    Valid point about removal companies. We complete on 8th and are paying a bit more than we would've liked due to other companies being fully booked for our date despite having 3 weeks between exchange and completion. So just be wary of that also if you've only got a small window to confirm someone.
  • Wyndham
    Wyndham Posts: 2,440 Forumite
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    It's historical now, but my dad used to do conveyancing for a house-building company. As their year end was the actual year end, and as they had targets to meet, he was often working not just up to Christmas Eve, but also between Christmas and New Year. Not necessarily the full days, he knew how many completions he was waiting for, and would then leave when they were through, but it was a common thing for us as a family to have to wait for him.

    No idea if this is still true, but many chains have a brand new house at the top, so it may be?
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