Buying - how many weeks to exchange contracts?

Little_Girl

I was wondering what the timescale is likely to be, we've had the survey report and a mortgage offer has been sent to our solicitors the searches should be completed tomorrow. The title deeds and any other paperwork from the vendor's solicitor will be sent to our solicitor tomorrow. How long will everything take from this point to exchange of contracts? I don't know if it'll be days or weeks.

firstaspect

It varies really. If all searches come back with no problems and there's no outstanding enquiries between solicitors then your solicitor should invite you to sign the contract within days. You then have to agree between parties on a date for completion before exchange can happen. Again if this is done quickly with no problems/disputes then you might be looking at exchanging within another few days.
I'm currently going through a sale/purchase and had the mortgage offer/searches back last Monday, enquiries finished on Friday. I'm signing the contract on Wednesday and we plan to exchange next Monday. So 2 weeks between offers/searches completed to exchange.
Completion will then happen for us 2 weeks after that.

Little_Girl

So it could happen in the next few days then. Just wanted an idea as I'm finding this house buying lark quite stressful!

G_M

It could be a few days.... or a few months.

What if the people you're buying off have a delay in the property they are buying. Or the people they are buying off have a delay in the property they are buying.

And so on.

Little_Girl

We don't have to worry about a chain thank goodness.

Richard_Webster

The title deeds and any other paperwork from the vendor's solicitor will be sent to our solicitor tomorrow.

Generally until the solicitor gets this information he can't do any searches because most Councils require a plan which a buyer's solicitor won't have until seller's solicitor sends him the copies of the title etc.

So I would check what searches have been done - you are not confusing surveys with searches are you?

Also generally there are things that a buyer's solicitor needs to ask about, because usually some document has not been sent or a permission has not been supplied for an extension.

Typically when people fill in the questionnaires when they are selling they do not read the questions or read what they want to read, so we often have to seek clarification of apparently "wrong" answers to make sure they are "wrong".. E.G. house has whacking great two storey side extension and in answer to question about whether any building work has taken pace at the property since it was originally built sellers answer "No" because they have read the question wrongly to apply only to work that they have carried out. All solicitors know this happens and so having had a quick look at the estate agents' particulars we ask about the extension and for the provision of all necessary permissions.

not_loaded

I wouldn’t want to depress you too much, but my ‘no chain, simple sale’ just took 15 weeks.

I very carefully filled in the questionnaires so as not to cause any delays. (although Richard is of course spot on, commenting on ‘misunderstandings’ on questions)

The buyer’s lender took eight weeks from mortgage approval to getting the authority through to her solicitor. Did that eight weeks get used efficiently? Not likely. At about week seven her solicitor woke up and reeled off a list of 24 questions for me, 18 of which were already answered in the paperwork sent in week one.

Two weeks later, more irrelevant questions and discussions going on, bounced back by my solicitor. As I say, finally, at the 15 week point the job was done.

My solicitor kept to his original quote for his work, but I suspect (from what she said to me) that maybe the buyer paid well over the odds for ‘all the time’ involved in this ‘complex’ sale.

Good luck! I hope it goes well for you!