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Timescales to completion for cash buyer

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pooks
pooks Posts: 20 Forumite
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in House buying, renting & selling
I instructed my solicitor on 9th October for my house purchase. We are cash buyers with the money now currently sat in our bank. I’ve been going back and forth with my solicitor and she’s still refusing to give an estimated date for completion.

She emailed me this last night...

“Please note that the average timescales for completion is 6-10 weeks upon receipt of contract paperwork and whilst the chain may have an ideal date they wish to move I can not agree to a completion date until the points above have been finalised.”

I’m starting to get very frustrated! We haven’t exchanged contracts yet and she is stating that local searches can ‘take week’ our local authority states on their website they process requests within 3-5 working days.

Would you say she is palming is off? I don’t understand what the problem is and she is refusing to elaborate on estimated completion times.

Comments

  • 3mph
    3mph Posts: 247 Forumite
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    If your solicitor is like mine:
    https://fasab.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/desk-full-of-files.jpg
    good luck
  • Flutterbat17
    Flutterbat17 Posts: 71 Forumite
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    Depends on the house you are purchasing? Is it chain free? Or are you at the bottom of a chain of properties buying/selling?

    Our buyer is a cash buyer, offered on our house in Sept, we offered on a house early October, our seller offered end of October and yet we haven’t exchanged.

    There are many things that can happen, searches taking ages, other people in the chain wanting more detailed surveys, mortgage offers taking ages. Issues with search results that need more investigation. Depends on the local authority how quickly searches can be done.

    Whilst for a cash buyer it might seem simple there is still a lot of things that can effect timescales.

    Generally it can be anywhere from 4 weeks to 6months to exchange and complete.
  • antilles
    antilles Posts: 363 Forumite
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    Solicitors don't like to commit to timescales from experience (I've used 3 different ones and they were all slow and wouldn't give exact timecales).

    Searches should all be back with 2-3 weeks, most of them are available straight away or very quickly, the local authority one takes the longest and takes a couple of weeks usually (although I've known them to take longer, up to a month).

    Also, most solicitors still use snail mail (my last one posted everything second class!) which adds a lot of time onto transactions. The other main problem is that you have no control over the vendor's solicitor, if they're slow at sending paperwork and responding to enquiries then that will slow you down as well.

    You might be better searching for a solicitor that specialises in dealing with say auction properties, as they might be able to complete faster (but they might charge more). But again, it depends very much on the other side.

    Welcome to the slow process of house buying! :)
  • PasturesNew
    PasturesNew Posts: 70,698 Forumite
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    You can't tell. I was in rented and bought my house from somebody who was moving into rented. It still took 3 months 1 week between having the offer accepted and getting the keys.
  • eddddy
    eddddy Posts: 16,440 Forumite
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    edited 22 November 2017 at 11:50AM
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    pooks wrote: »
    She emailed me this last night...

    “... whilst the chain may have an ideal date they wish to move I can not agree to a completion date until the points above have been finalised.”

    If there is a chain, everyone in the chain will have to exchange and complete at the same time.

    So you (and everyone else in the chain) will have to wait for the slowest person in chain to be ready.

    That slowest person may need a mortgage, surveys, indemnity insurance, re-negotiation on price, etc etc

    Having said that, do you know if the chain is even "fully formed" yet? i.e. Is somebody higher up the chain still looking for a place to buy?



    Edit to add...

    A good EA should be keeping up to date with the status/progress of a chain. So ask the EA how long the chain is, whether it is "fully formed", and what they know about progress at each level.
  • JoJo1978
    JoJo1978 Posts: 375 Forumite
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    Cash not necessarily quicker. Our chain only has one mortgaged transaction but we’re still approaching 3 months and we’ve not exchanged. Try to find out how long the chain, whether it is fully assembled and what stage other links are at. Also try to find out if others in the chain are working towards a date. That helps everyone to focus (a bit, don’t get too excited about a target date!)
  • kingstreet
    kingstreet Posts: 38,764 Forumite
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    You can't exchange contracts until a completion date has been agreed between all the parties in the chain.

    You can't agree an accurate completion date until all the paperwork in the chain is done and checked.

    If you want your solicitor to do something, like apply for searches, instruct them to do so...

    It doesn't matter if you are a cash buyer or whatever, a chain will move at the pace of the slowest link in it, unfortunately.
    I am a mortgage broker. You should note that this site doesn't check my status as a Mortgage Adviser, so you need to take my word for it. This signature is here as I follow MSE's Mortgage Adviser Code of Conduct. Any posts on here are for information and discussion purposes only and shouldn't be seen as financial advice. Please do not send PMs asking for one-to-one-advice, or representation.
  • pooks
    pooks Posts: 20 Forumite
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    Thanks for your responses. There’s no chain at all, it’s an ex rental property which is currently empty. The seller wants the sale done quickly
  • Surrey_EA
    Surrey_EA Posts: 2,042 Forumite
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    Has your solicitor received the draft contract, and supporting documentation, from the sellers solicitor?

    Have the searches been applied for?

    I find most solicitors are reluctant to give any indication of expected completion date until the process is extremely well advanced, as there are great number of variables involved, even when there is no chain, and any one of those variables can have an affect on the exchange/completion timing.
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