Conveyancing timescales

kloana

Hi,

In the process of buying a place, and have so far got through all the initial hurdles, mortgage offer, survey, etc.

Since survey (12th October), we have paid only for our local area search (24th October). However, we've heard nothing since, and don't know what to expect. I did email solicitor a couple of days ago to ask him to please keep us updated, as we're inexperienced, and he emailed back only to say 'OK'.

I'm sure this question has been asked a good few times on here, but I'm wondering what timescale, from the point of Local Area search, is normal for conveyancing? Or is it 'piece of string' stuff? At this point, we're only 4 weeks and 4 days removed from having our offer accepted, back at the end of Sept.

We're in England, FTBs buying with a mortgage (lender is HSBC, but our solicitor is on their panel).

Should things progress slowly, who do I need to contact - lender, solicitor, or both?

Thanks.

G_M

Search times depend on the local authority. Some respond in a few days, some take weeks. It can also depend how many search requests they happen to have received that week.

Nip down to your library and borrow a book (eg this) on house purchasing so you can understand what is going on, what delays might occur and why, what the next steps are.

Fire_Fox

IMO contact the estate agent and your solicitor once per week each throughout. Chase your lender only if you feel the mortgage offer is slow to come through.

kloana

Thanks G_M. I'm buying in the local authority that pretty much everybody I know has also bought in - I don't think they're considered to be slow, but God knows how many other cases they have on right now.

Just getting a bit twitchy, but need to remind myself that everything has (so far) actually gone quite quick. I have a fear of gazumping (in the interests of speed, not necessarily price), but I'm guessing it's not so much of an issue at this stage, given that an evil cash buyer would also have to go through the conveyancing palava

kloana

Fire_Fox wrote: »

IMO contact the estate agent and your solicitor once per week each throughout. Chase your lender only if you feel the mortgage offer is slow to come through.

Thanks Firefox - I also emailed EA to let them know where we were up to (no reply, which is out of character).

Mortgage offer is already signed, sealed, delivered. So lender not the ones to prod at this stage, then??