How long should i wait for contract from seller?

KareenaMukherjee

It hasn't been too long, but just curious how long should i wait for my solicitor to get the contract from the seller, before i flare my nostrils, release nasal steam and get angry?

Neil_in_Bristol

Ours took about 6 weeks to arrive. Our solicitor had already got searches etc back by then.

KareenaMukherjee

6 weeks ?!

My solicitor says ... he'll do the searches once he get's the contracts.

EH?!!?!

madmish00

We accepted an offer on our property on 26th March and I got a letter from our solicitor on 8th April to say that draft contracts had been sent to our buyer's solicitor.

BUT

We had our offer accepted on 29th March and there are no signs of a draft contract from our seller's solicitor yet.

I'd be asking your solicitor to chase it though - "I'll do the searches once I get the contracts" doesn't sound too pro-active.

lilab_2

I had offer on my house on 4th March and made offer on the property that I want to buy the same day. We are ready to exchange on my sale, but waiting for final glitches on the property I want to buy to be ironed out.

Neil_in_Bristol

KareenaMukherjee wrote: »

6 weeks ?!

My solicitor says ... he'll do the searches once he get's the contracts.

EH?!!?!

6 weeks was a lot longer than it should have taken, but so many other things took ages to sort out that it was the least of our worries. It's worth asking your solicitor for regular updates and if necessary put pressure on the sellers solicitor via the estate agent. That worked for us.

Jenniefour

It's worth asking your solicitor for regular updates and if necessary put pressure on the sellers solicitor via the estate agent. That worked for us.[/QUOTE]

That's exactly what I'm doing at the moment - both the vendors and their solicitor are not too hot at all. Took six weeks for vendors solicitor to get their act together. So I'm phoning the agents quite often to get things moving. Feel free to pick up that phone!

Richard_Webster

If the seller is not buying anything then it shouldn't take more than 2 weeks for a draft contract to arrive.

If he is buying and hasn't found anything to buy and you know about that he may not have instructed his solicitors yet for the perfectly good reason that the transaction will not proceed any quicker than the time it takes for his purchase to go through.

K_and_N

Ours took 3 weeks. Well...that is if the post turns up at our solicitor office today. The EA guaranteed that it was posted yesterday.

I'd agree with the posts above. Just keep on chasing both your solicitor and EA.

One thing I'm not clear is when solicitors can do searches, after receiving the contract or while awaiting it? Ours told us like yours; they will do the searches only after the contract is received. But I've read here that a few people have done the searches whilst awaiting contract from seller's solicitor. Does anyone know how it works?

shar46y

Ours took less than 2 weeks, but our vendor is not buying anything.

SmlSave

One thing I'm not clear is when solicitors can do searches, after receiving the contract or while awaiting it? Ours told us like yours; they will do the searches only after the contract is received. But I've read here that a few people have done the searches whilst awaiting contract from seller's solicitor. Does anyone know how it works?

Your solicitor can do searches when they have the official plan of the property. This is generally sent as part of the contract pack but you can ask for it earlier. However, make sure that you're happy paying for searches just in case there's something in the property forms (again included in the contract pack) that might make you unsure that the property is a good investment.

The seller's solicitors can't send a Contract pack until they have received the completed forms and Deeds from the sellers so it may not be the solicitor who is holding things up. Also many solicitors won't send the contract pack until they have money on account and evidence of id so that can hold things up if the sellers are slow at sorting things.