At what stage is the draft contract drawn up?

vet8

Having found a buyer and needing to move a.s.a.p. I insisted that the whole thing happened quickly and did not drag on for months and months. So it was agreed that we would exchange contracts no more than 1 month after the draft contract had been drawn up. We are just moving out and not buying anything yet in order to speed things up.

Well it is now 5 weeks since we accepted the offer, and, guess what? We have not exchanged or look anywhere near it. In my foolishness, I assumed the draft contract would be drawn up almost straight away and that we would have exchanged by now.

When does this happen? Anyone know?

G_M

When you instruct your solicitor to draw it up and send it to the buyer - assuming you are using a solicitor/conveyancer.

If you are doing the conveyancing yourself, then it happens as soon as you do it!

Looks like you should be getting your finger out.

sharon1982

Yes, it is up to seller to sort out draft contract. I'm an FTB and our seller is not in a chain either so we were both hoping to exchange and complete quickly, but it took our seller's solicitors 2 weeks to send draft contract to our solicitor.

Doozergirl

Your solicitor sends draft contract almost immediately.

It is not a straight line from draft contract to exchange. No matter how quickly you would like things to happen, there are too many outside agencies involved to ever guarantee that it will happen in the time frame you would like. Nor can it necessarily be controlled.

What you need to know is that things are progressing, you would expect that the survey had been carried out and that by this point they were well on the way to getting their mortgage offer, with searches applied for,. It's worth asking your estate agent to clarify from your buyer's solicitor what still needs to happen before they are ready to exchange.

For freehold property, 1 month from offer acceptance to exchange, with no chain is good going. You wouldn't normally expect it to happen any quicker than that. The average is three months! A chain will add time to the process as will leasehold property - managing agents are notorious for taking ages to respond to queries.

vet8

Thanks everyone.

I instructed our solicitor immediately and the surveys have been done, well some of them. The buyer wants all these extra tests on drains, wall ties, electrics etc.

I am afraid I cannot see why this should take so long. It has been years since we last bought and sold and then it happened in a fraction of the time it takes now. I feel that everyone just drags their feet and expects it to take 3 months, but I see no reason on earth, why it should. Our buyer has a FTB for their place and we have no onward chain, the mortgage is all arranged for them, the searches should have been done in the HIP, so in theory should not need doing again, although doubtless the buyer's solicitor will do them all again.

I really can see no reason why this should take any time at all.

When we sold our first house our original buyer fell out and we found another buyer who managed to exchange contracts 10 days after viewing the house, so I am sure it can be done, but everyone likes to drag their feet.

GDB2222

Readvertise the house, and keep marketing it until contracts are exchanged. Simples!

sharon1982

There are some searches that need to be done that are not in the HIP - on the house we are buying, the HIP was very recent, but environmental and chancel still need to be done. Depending on the authority it can take 2 weeks to come back, and they cannot be started until draft contract is received. Do you know what date your solicitor sent the draft contract to the buyer's solicitor?

Doozergirl

vet8 wrote: »

Thanks everyone.

I instructed our solicitor immediately and the surveys have been done, well some of them. The buyer wants all these extra tests on drains, wall ties, electrics etc.

I am afraid I cannot see why this should take so long. It has been years since we last bought and sold and then it happened in a fraction of the time it takes now. I feel that everyone just drags their feet and expects it to take 3 months, but I see no reason on earth, why it should. Our buyer has a FTB for their place and we have no onward chain, the mortgage is all arranged for them, the searches should have been done in the HIP, so in theory should not need doing again, although doubtless the buyer's solicitor will do them all again.

I really can see no reason why this should take any time at all.

When we sold our first house our original buyer fell out and we found another buyer who managed to exchange contracts 10 days after viewing the house, so I am sure it can be done, but everyone likes to drag their feet.

People don't really like to drag feet, but the fact that you do have a chain does mean that it will take longer. You don't see why but there are so many things to be done and so many people and agencies involved in even one transaction that I can definitely see why it takes time.

Exchanging contracts in 10 days is incredibly unusual. I don't expect things to take three months, they rarely do for me but with a chain, I certainly wouldn't presume to tell everyone they needed to be ready within a month. I just don't have control over that happening.

The whole process is a little less stressful when you're prepared to follow things up, and have expectations that things should continue moving at some pace but don't set yourself and people that you don't know a tight deadline to move to, especially when your own houses has a few issues that need tending to...

SmlSave

Sounds like you're waiting for search results and perhaps the mortgage offer to be available to your buyers.

The draft contract gets created and sent as soon as your solicitor has the paperwork i.e. Fixtures and Fittings etc completed from yourselves. (also money on account and id)

Years ago it seems you didn't need as many compliance certificates/FENSA/CORGI etc to buy/sell as you do now!

I really can see no reason why this should take any time at all.

I've seen conveyancing matters take from 4 days up to six months - there really is no set time frame for buying/selling no matter how much you [STRIKE]stamp your feet[/STRIKE] insist

G_M

vet8 wrote: »

...it was agreed that we would exchange contracts no more than 1 month after the draft contract had been drawn up. ...... I assumed the draft contract would be drawn up almost straight away and that we would have exchanged by now.
QUOTE]

You have not said whether the draft contract HAS been drawn up (I assume you meant sent to the buyers).

If it has, then your buyers have missed the agreed 1 month window, so start looking for new buyers.
If it hasn't, then send it, or ask your solicitor why it hasn't been sent and instruct him to send it.
If you don't know, ask!

vet8

I would love to start looking for new buyers to maybe scare these ones into getting their finger out, but our EA seems very ethical and he has marked the house as "sold STC" on Rightmove and his site and is not willing to show around anyone else. He is very against gazumping.

I will chase the solicitor tomorrow. It was the EA who said we should include the 1 month deadline and he seemed to think it was applicable.

Doozergirl, we do not have any issues that need tending to in our house. The buyers' surveyor found nothing major, but he has suggested they get all these extra surveys done, (those done so far have shown no problems at all.) It all seems totally time wasting to me, they spent 3 and a half hours yesterday inspecting about 20 feet of drain and found no problems at all, what a waste of time and the buyer's money.

It seems to me that everyone is terrified of committing themselves and wants to cover their back.

As far as CORGI and FENSA compliance certificates go, we have none of those.