UPDATE: Your Timescales from Instruction to Completion (If you've been lucky enough)?

mchu6am4

Hi,

I would be interested in your experiences of the timescales involved in making a purchase from Instruction to Completion, especially with no chains either way.

I know someone who managed to complete in two weeks (so he says?)

Your experiences shared here are most appreciated.

Ash

cwcw

FTBs with no chain either end.

Instruction: 15th September 2006

Completion: Not even exchanged yet

Mortgage offer - expires in 2.5 weeks. :eek:

mchu6am4

cwcw wrote: »

FTBs with no chain either end.

Instruction: 15th September 2006

Completion: Not even exchanged yet

Mortgage offer - expires in 2.5 weeks. :eek:

That's scary - have told your solicitors about this - who's holding it up?

I would be fuming!

Tiger_greeneyes

My first purchase was two months - but it was a leasehold property, they take longer, generally, as do transactions in a chain.

My shortest purchase was a house I bought in Scotland - six weeks - the Scottish system is much faster.

Generally speaking, my purchases/sales have all taken between two and three months to complete. I think I've been very lucky!

Doozergirl

All of my sales with no chain have normally been the right side of two months. One took four weeks.

You need cash for two weeks, really, as mortgage companies don't get their act together that quickly and you'd have to get your searches in on day one.

cwcw

mchu6am4 wrote: »

That's scary - have told your solicitors about this - who's holding it up?

I would be fuming!

The vendor. It is a leasehold flat. It took nearly 3 months to get searches and documentation through (including over 5 weeks for local authority searches), only to find that the seller had no building regulations or freeholder permission for all of the alterations they'd made as part of the refurb job. As this included removing an internal structural wall, we weren't happy with an indemnity policy. The seller tried to wriggle out of things for a couple of months over Xmas until we threatened to pull out. They then managed to get retrospective building regs but still no freeholder permission.

Moral of the story - avoid leasehold flats, particularly when refurbished by a developer after a quick buck (which has backfired on him BIG time).

seven-day-weekend

We sold a ground floor, two-bedroom leasehold flat on popular development. No chain at either end, but we live in Spain and all correspondence had to be done by phone/post/email (which broke down halfway through):

Total time from first marketing to completion - eight weeks.

helping_hubby

We have 3 in the chain...made the offer 11 weeks ago and we're still waiting to exchange. The person holding it up is the people at the top of the chain.

crabbman2004_2

FTB Timebuyer 2 people above us in the chain, instructed 20th December still not completed.....argh!!!!!

Kylie

helping_hubby wrote: »

We have 3 in the chain...made the offer 11 weeks ago and we're still waiting to exchange. The person holding it up is the people at the top of the chain.

I think we are the same - (same time frame) except we dont know how many are in the chain above (we are FTB). The estate agent is being shifty and this is making me :mad:

rhona30gilmour

My previous sale took four months to eventually collapse. I was amazed at how little information is available on the various stages of the buying/selling process.

I started a blog to chart how long it takes for this sale (which should go quickly cos we have all the paperwork set up already - bet it won't though). Speaking to friends everyone seems to be told that the process will go much quicker than it ever actually does and this seems to cause even more stress.

If anyone wants to add details of how long each bit took in their sale let me know:
http://housenightmares.blogspot.com/

Cheers,
Rhona