Slow progress on house sale

TheDink

We accepted an offer on our house on June 13th and have instructed a solicitor. The estate agent tells us the buyers have done the same. However our solicitor has yet to hear anything from theirs, despite having sent initial papers well over a week ago.

Again according to the estate agent, the buyer's mortgage is agreed in principle, but no valuation survey has yet been arranged.

The buyers do not have a property to sell, and we are moving into rented, so there is no chain. I would have thought that in this case, things should move along quite quickly - 6-8 weeks in total should have been achievable.

I would appreciate your thoughts - am I right to be worried that things are not progressing, or is this normal and Santander are just being slow getting their lender's valuation arranged?

Procrastinator333

Have the buyers completed the full mortgage application? We had an sip. But once offer accepted, it then took an hour on the phone to bank answering more questions and we were also required to send in numerous documents. Only once all reviewed and ok do we get a formal approval for the mortgage. Only after that would the bank do the survey. It does take time to do all of this, collect all those documents, send them off, getting the bank to agree they have all they need.

I would suggest the question to ask your buyers is have they had the formal approval for the mortgage? If yes, when is the survey booked? If no, what is causing a delay.

TheDink

Apparently the money has been paid for the valuation - that's about all we have been able to glean though.

sonastin

Santander have a reputation for poor customer service. My own experience with them is nowhere near as terrible as the horror stories I have heard but I would still class them as inefficient and disorganised. Paperwork seems to disappear into a black hole in their offices and needs sending and resending before it reappears in the right place. If the money has been paid, I'd say your buyer is doing their best.

nomoneytoday

I would ask the EA to find out the SP ASAP

Mexas

Ask if they're getting a mortgage with Santander, with the incentives of a paid Solicitor and Survey. I have just gone through this process and it took ages to get the ball rolling.

Edit: Just seen they have gone with Santander. That's you're answer, they are horribly slow at the start, they kept telling me they had sent the paper work, after 3 weeks it finally arrived, dated the previous week :think:

TheDink

Thanks for the replies - I feel a bit better now! If it's most likely the bank being slow it's not as concerning as the buyers being slow and having second thoughts!

FireWyrm

TheDink wrote: »

Thanks for the replies - I feel a bit better now! If it's most likely the bank being slow it's not as concerning as the buyers being slow and having second thoughts!

Frankly, I'm in the other boat. I've just had a vendor pull out on me and collapse a chain without any explanation at all! We were with 4 days of exchange when that happened. I'm more worried about it all happening again with this new vendor which will cost me another £1500 in lost fees.