how long between mortgage offer and exchange ?

skierskier12

hello,

Complete newbie posting here and thank you in advance for answering my queries. My buyer has finally received his mortgage offer ( it took approximately 8 weeks due to his broker sending the addtional documents to the wrong department !!! ) and according to his and my conveyancer this was all that was missing. However, now the offer has arrived, there seems to be more conveyancing work to be done and we are told that there is still ' stuff ' to be prepared. Stuff is the word used by my buyer's solicitor and I think we were both expecting to hear more professional terms than stuff and we were also asking about timelines.
So can someone answer this : what is the mystery ' stuff' and how long does it take between the conveyancer receiving the formal offer and exchange of contracts ? I have bought a new property myself, I received my offer about a month ago and would not want the stuff to delay procedures... whatever that ' stuff' is
Many thanks :T

G_M

can someone answer this : what is the mystery ' stuff'

Yes. Your conveyancer. As I am not your conveyancer, I do not know what the 'stuff' is, and nor will anyone else here - suggest you ask him/her....

how long does it take between the conveyancer receiving the formal offer and exchange of contracts ?

A week is about the minimum. 6 months is probobly the max (after that I'd guess it's not going to happen)

skierskier12

Hi,

Thanks for this .
1 week to 6 months...mmmm
My buyer already asked to have clarifications and it sounds like his conveyancer did not want to answer. I did ask mine, and he said he was not allowed to tell me as it is confidential information.
I was told there were final searches , bankruptcy checks etc... but an idea of a specific timescale is what we are after.
I saw on a Guardian thread up to 4 weeks, but also was told it could be sooner , earlier on in the process, by my own conveyancer.

MAFERGAL

Have you signed anything yet? We got our formal offer on Thursday and we sign the contract on Tuesday. We have no dates yet but will be asking our conveyancer when we sign... we're hoping to be completed in 2 weeks time.

I know there are a few things that our conveyancer is trying to tie up, I can only speak for my situation but these mainly consist of awaiting responses from the sellers solicitor on queries that have been raised about things such as building regs for the conservatory, indemnity insurance (property has two land titles of which the smallest holds a possessory title only), certificates for windows/other works done etc.

There was also a small retention advised in the valuation report pending specialist reports, which have been concluded now. All the searches are completed and the contract was drawn up. Even though we have had the formal offer, our lender still requires some documents, one is a coal mining report that was conducted as part of the searches weeks ago but they want to see it. The mortgage offer to your buyer may be conditional on other factors like this that their solicitor needs to prepare?

Our solicitor seems to be really on top of things and gives us regular updates about where we are in the process. Unfortunately the sellers solicitor seems to take longer with correspondence/responding to enquiries. It took 6 weeks from our offer being accepted for them to make any contact with my solicitor and 8 weeks for them to get the fixtures and fittings list to us.

I'm sure if you press your solicitor they will get the answers for you about the 'stuff' that is pending and should be able to give you the time frame you want.

Good luck!

MAFERGAL

skierskier12 wrote: »

Hi,

Thanks for this .
1 week to 6 months...mmmm
My buyer already asked to have clarifications and it sounds like his conveyancer did not want to answer. I did ask mine, and he said he was not allowed to tell me as it is confidential information.
I was told there were final searches , bankruptcy checks etc... but an idea of a specific timescale is what we are after.
I saw on a Guardian thread up to 4 weeks, but also was told it could be sooner , earlier on in the process, by my own conveyancer.

Just saw this response (after I posted) so my post probably doesn't help at all as I don't think that type of information would be confidential. Also I know what the things are... just seems strange to me that your buyers own solicitor doesn't want to tell them what is left to do.

VALM

Sometimes when a Mortgage Offer is received it has Special Conditions attached to it so maybe this is the case and your Buyer's Lawyer needs to work towards satisfying these first. Are you sure that all the preliminary searches have been done? It is not so unusual for instructions to be given that searches only be made once an Offer has been received so that the Buyer is protecting themselves against the cost of having searches done before they had the security of a Mortgage Offer.

skierskier12

Morning MAFERGAL,

Firstly, many thanks for your detailed answers. I am indeed aware of the special conditions on the mortgage offer, but they do not seem to be anything to worry about, even though they may give my buyer's conveyancer more work to do. I am sure the special conditions can be fulfilled and answered at the exchange of contracts point
. It could be that due to these special conditions the conveyancer has had to amend the initial contract and also it could be that I am very very impatient !

skierskier12

VALM wrote: »

Sometimes when a Mortgage Offer is received it has Special Conditions attached to it so maybe this is the case and your Buyer's Lawyer needs to work towards satisfying these first. Are you sure that all the preliminary searches have been done? It is not so unusual for instructions to be given that searches only be made once an Offer has been received so that the Buyer is protecting themselves against the cost of having searches done before they had the security of a Mortgage Offer.

Hi, sorry I have only just seen your post once I had sent my previous answer.
Thank you for that. Yes, there are special conditions and they mention the solicitor having to confirm a few points regarding the deposit and the purchase price. ( we did not use an agent as it is a transfer of property from one of us to another ).
As far as I am aware, the searches have been completed, but I may be wrong, and that is a question that my buyer has to ask his solicitor, and perhaps I should ring my own conveyancer in order to find out as hopefully, there is communication ongoing between the two solicitors !

G_M

All this speculation is pointless. Only the two conveyancers can know what they still have to do.

Your conveyancer may not be able to tell you confidential matters relating the buyer, but his conveyancer can tell him.

Similarly his conveyancer may not be able to tell him confidential matters relating you, but your conveyancer can tell you.

And if your conveyancer is waiting for something from the buyer/buyer's conveyancer, he can tell you what it is.

So if both you and the buyer are insistant, between you you should get the answer out of one or other or both conveyancers.

You pay them, they work for you. Make clear who is boss!

fimonkey

skierskier12 wrote: »

Morning MAFERGAL,

. I am indeed aware of the special conditions on the mortgage offer, but they do not seem to be anything to worry about, even though they may give my buyer's conveyancer more work to do. I am sure the special conditions can be fulfilled and answered at the exchange of contracts point

If it is giving the ceinveyencer more work to do then it will take longer from offer to completion (via exchange). Also depending on what teh special conditions are they may need sorting BEFORE the exchange of contracts.

In my experience, FTB buying a long leasehold flat with vacant possession there were 6 weekes betweeen mortgage offer and completion and that was with me getting onto the solicitors daily! - Things that cropped up AFTER the mortgage offer was that the mortgage company wanted a cavity wall ties and drains report, then the mortgage company wanted one of their own conveyencers to check my sols work (because he wasn't on their panel) and the mortgage company's conveyencer then raised 8 more questions about the lease, this was a week before exchange, so I really had to get on their case to hurry them along.

So depends on your circumstances as to how long it'll take. It'll be quicker if you make a pest of yourself with all the companies concerned.

skierskier12

fimonkey wrote: »

If it is giving the ceinveyencer more work to do then it will take longer from offer to completion (via exchange). Also depending on what teh special conditions are they may need sorting BEFORE the exchange of contracts.

In my experience, FTB buying a long leasehold flat with vacant possession there were 6 weekes betweeen mortgage offer and completion and that was with me getting onto the solicitors daily! - Things that cropped up AFTER the mortgage offer was that the mortgage company wanted a cavity wall ties and drains report, then the mortgage company wanted one of their own conveyencers to check my sols work (because he wasn't on their panel) and the mortgage company's conveyencer then raised 8 more questions about the lease, this was a week before exchange, so I really had to get on their case to hurry them along.

So depends on your circumstances as to how long it'll take. It'll be quicker if you make a pest of yourself with all the companies concerned.

Thank you for all this.
I found out today what was slowing the process down, and basically it is my buyer's offer which seems worded in a very starnge way. My buyer is my ex and I have accepted an offer from him. He based his offer on a figure of 300 K ( we bought it as a new built last year for 320 K ) and his purchase price is now 200 K, as he put down 60 K deposit and made a 40 K overpayment. So in a way, I discounted for him and the draft contract says 200 K. However, the offer says that the purchase price is 300 K, and that the solicitor has to confirm the tru purchase price. It also says that the deposit is gifted, which I never agreed to, I simply accpeted a lower offer, which we both agreed on and he supposedly declared all of these details to his broker.
I am really more and more confused as to why things have been done that way and why the purchase price on the offer is not stated as being 200 K and as to where the gifted deposit thing comes from.
Can someone help ? I have also opened another thread called mortgage offer issues , I am so fed up, it has been going on for months as there was a mess up with the offer taking ages in the first place and I have myself bought a house and ready to exchange !!!