Diary of 5.5 week conveyancing

Lister_2

Apologies for the epic post, but I wondered whether first time buyers / sellers might like to see exactly what goes on with conveyancing and the kind of problems that crop up, so I've posted the detailed diary I kept of our recent move.

It's pretty dry reading, but hopefully might prove useful / illuminating to someone. Who knows.

Our house sold in one day, so we hadn't done much prep at this point. We both work full time. We were in constant phone and email contact with our solicitors. Any paperwork was put through solicitor's door at night rather than posted to save time. We were also lucky enough to have highly motivated buyers who we were in contact with by text. This helped a lot to smooth things along.

Day 1:

• Instruct solicitors for sale of our property
• Arrange meeting with mortgage advisor in two days.
• Start packing!

Day 3:

• Both take morning off work to start mortgage application at Brittania (existing mortgage customer - taking new product to cover difference). All Id and payslips etc. Get agreement in principle. Instruct mortgage advisor to progress application as far as possible until we get our offer accepted on our new house. (Probate sale so offer taking ages to turn around).
• Give agreement in principle & Id to vendor's EA
• Seller's pack received from our solicitor.

Day 8: (1 week)

• Offer accepted. Inform solicitors.
• Attempt to phone mortgage advisor to resume mortgage application. Not in today!
• Seller's pack completed
• Seller's pack returned along with certificates & £250 cheque at 11pm

Day 9:

• Phone mortgage advisor. Mortgage application resumed.
• Provide client's address and solicitor details via email to our solicitor so they can send contract package to start ball rolling.
• Buyers pack received.
• Buyers pack completed
• Buyer's pack returned.
• Surveyors ring for payment for survey on new property. Pay.

Day 11:

• Mortgage application pack received
• Vendor's address and solicitor address received from Vendor's EA
• Offer acceptance letter received from Vendor's EA.
• Mortgage application signed and posted back.

Day 15: (2 weeks)

• Britannia ring to confirm mortgage approved.

Day 16:

• Our solicitors receive mortgage offer.
• Our solicitors receive further questions from buyers. Sending out to us tonight
• Our solicitors have received drainage searches back
• Buyer texts to see if their survey has been done yet. No. Buyer to chase.
• Buyers have received our fixtures and fittings list

Day 17:

• Received deeds copies from solicitors

Day 18:

• Receive mortgage offer
• Receive environmental search
• Receive drainage search
• Receive survey results (pretty much what we expected).
• Receive buyer solicitor queries (alarm code, double glazing warranty not full copy)
• Unable to locate double glazing warranty. Will ring double glazing firm tomorrow.
• Book viewing at house in 9 days (soonest EA could do!) to measure up for cooker & fridge freezer, and get electrician in

Day 19:

• Ring double glazing firm. They can provide copies but warranty not transferable to new owners!
• Receive call from buyers' surveyors to arrange survey for Weds morning

Day 20:

• Visit double glazing firm. Can't help due to Sat. Salesman leaves note to be sorted Monday

Day 22: (3 weeks)

• Visit double glazing firm. Obtain copies of guarantee. Correct, it is not transferable.
• Return copies of guarantee to solicitor along with answers to buyers solicitor queries 10 pm
• Inform buyers about window guarantee problem via text. They will contact their solicitor saying not a problem

Day 24:

• Buyer's surveyor surveys our property. Inform buyer by text.

Day 25:

• Receive local searches from solicitor. No building regs on loft conversion as we suspected. Solicitor says they will write to relative of deceased to see if they know any details of conversion.
• Email solicitor with details of loft planning application on local authority website and asking if indemnity policy will accelerate matters.
• Buyer informs us by text that lender needs window guarantee, but they are paying for it themselves. Advise that lender might mean FENSA cert which is fine.

Day 26:

• Receive email reply from solicitor. They to contact seller re paying for indemnity policy on loft. I agree to paying if necessary (£50).

Day 29: (4 weeks)

• Solicitor states exchange in a couple of days. Arrange to sign contracts Day 31 @ 2.00pm
• Ring removal firms to try and get earlier quotes than Fri. One coming Weds instead.

Day 30:

• Ring insurers about insuring after exchange. They need details of locks etc. Speak to EA tomorrow about access.

Day 31:

• Go through insurers online quoting system and realise know most stuff. Will ring on exchange.
• Off work PM to sign contracts at solicitors. They need proof of insurance before exchange now and waiting on redemption figure from Brittania. Seller will pay for loft indemnity insurance.
• Ring insurers and get cover. Ask them to fax covernote to solicitor at 5:30pm
• First removal firm comes to quote for removals (quote pending)

Day 32:

• Chase solicitors. Confirm covernote received. Still no redemption figure. They to chase this afternoon
• Removals quote comes in £360! (+£70 waiting waiver). Book them quick and cancel second quote.
• Buyers want to come Sat evening to go through how stuff works.

Day 33: (Friday - potential exchange day)

• Chase solicitors. The chased 5.00pm yesterday but still no figure. They suggest I chase.
• Chase Brittania. Figure was requested 11th and sent 13th, then requested again 5.00pm last night. Promise to fax within 2 hours. Inform solicitors of this and ask them to let me know when it arrives.
• 10:50: Figure through but includes early repayment charge. Solicitor to ring Britannia
• 11:34: Britannia have confirmed ERC not payable. Receive completion statement (figures) from solicitor via email. They are now just waiting for query on fixtures & fittings.
• 11:35: Text buyers re F&F so they can nudge their solicitor
• 11:40: Reply to our solicitor confirming figures correct.
• 12:20: Buyers text back saying F&F sorted, just waiting for their money to hit solicitor's account.
• 12:23: Solicitor emails confirming above situation.
• Pay removals
• 17:30 Buyer's money fails to hit their solicitor's account in time. No exchange today.

Day 35:

• Inform Water about move.
• Inform Gas & Electric about move
• Inform BT about move
• Inform Broadband about move
• Tax summer car so can drive it to new address.

Day 36: (5 weeks)

• 10:00: EXCHANGE!

Day 37:

• Father in law tries to check oil level at new property - locked. Ring EA for keys. Meeting tomorrow 1:15pm
• Pack up computer and dismantle desk

Day 38:

• Time off work to meet EA and check oil level. OK.
• Arrange boiler service for completion +1

At this point I'm afraid I got so busy that I failed to keep up the diary. Suffice to say it included a lot of phone calls and last minute packing.

Day 40:

• COMPLETE!

Kayles86

Thanks Lister! As a FTB in the process this is very interesting to read!

hazyjo

Well done - that's a quick one! Mine would list daily emails to at least one of solicitor, mortgage provider or my EA or the one I'm buying through - and it still took 14 weeks to exchange on the sale, with completion set for 2.5 weeks after that (on 22 April). Our buyer was away for one week, her solicitor for another, plus we had the Christmas/New Year break and Easter losing us all a few days...

Has suited me as I'm playing catch-up with my purchase. If I tie completion in for 22nd, it will have taken 11 weeks, start to finish.

Jx

Lister_2

hazyjo wrote: »

Well done - that's a quick one! Mine would list daily emails to at least one of solicitor, mortgage provider or my EA or the one I'm buying through - and it still took 14 weeks to exchange on the sale, with completion set for 2.5 weeks after that (on 22 April). Our buyer was away for one week, her solicitor for another, plus we had the Christmas/New Year break and Easter losing us all a few days...

Has suited me as I'm playing catch-up with my purchase. If I tie completion in for 22nd, it will have taken 11 weeks, start to finish.

Jx

16 weeks, Yikes!

We were in pretty much the ideal position for a quick turnaround. No chain above or below (buying probate, our buyers had sold and were living with relatives), yet it still seemed like 6 weeks of not pausing for breath. I keep thinking of stuff I had to do that never got into the diary. I cannot imagine the stress of a long chain! :eek:

hazyjo

We only had a short chain - one buyer, and her ex's company buying the house as part of some relocation deal for him.

My ex is going into rented, and I'm buying, but it didn't have to tie in. Hoping it might, but not holding my breath!

I must have sent HUNDREDS of emails over the last four months.

Took us 5 MONTHS when we bought it because of some Deed of Variation/Rectification which needed sorting.

Jx

phoebe1989seb

That's very interesting and useful, thank you Lister

Our last sale & purchase in 2011 took 9 weeks for the sale and we were very surprised that we also managed to tie in our purchase - we struggled to find anywhere suitable for a number of reasons, including distance away from current location (200 miles) which made viewing difficult & looking for a real project with period charm - in only 5 weeks from start to finish!

I remember that there were a lot of emails/calls to our solicitor to keep on top of the situation and I have to say they (a small local office) were extremely on the ball and dealt with everything efficiently and promptly.

This was with a chain of five - our vendor (who had already bought somewhere and moved out), us, our buyer and two other parties including a FTB at the bottom. It would have been quicker had there not been a fire that destroyed one of the solicitor's offices with one of the chain's paperwork including their mortgage offer etc

The fact that we weren't getting a mortgage obviously speeded the whole process up a bit......