Why will nobody give us a time scale??

DLTAG89

Me and DH are first time buyers and have put an offer in on a house. When we put the offer in we made it very clear we wanted it to be as quick as possible.

We are expecting a baby on the 22nd of sept but she could come sooner or later.

We have sorted out our solicitors and mortgage and when we spoke to both the solicitors and estate agents the first time we asked how long it would take and we would like to be out (of our rented house) and in our new home by the 9th of sept to which they both said it was possible. We have asked again today and they are now saying 6-8 weeks we could possibly take us to oct.

The solicitors have said we can pay a "fast track" fee of £195 :eek: which will prioritize our case but we asked for a time scale if we payed this fee and they wouldn't give us as answer. As you can imagine I'm VERY stressed over this as really do not want to move when I'm due to give birth any day or a couple of days after giving birth.

Why did they tell us it was possible and now its not and also should we pay this "fee" to get everything done quicker??

moneyistooshorttomention

Guess its a conveyancing firm you are using then, rather than a solicitor?

I know my own estate agent thoroughly dislikes conveyancing firms and has commented before now that they've sometimes been told about conveyancing firms having dual-track pricing. That is, they quote one price to customers and then turn round later and say "Of course...we can fast-track you if you pay us £x extra". Sorta defeats the object of choosing a conveyancer rather than a solicitor then...:cool:

Which is it that you have? Is it a solicitor or is it a conveyancer?

lincroft1710

8 weeks will be middle of Sept, 6 weeks early Sept.

A lot can depend on the speed of vendor and their solicitor. Any additional questions that your solicitor needs them to answer will cause delay.

G_M

1) cheap conveyancer. Online? Watch for for hidden extras on your final bill too!

2) No one can guarantee dates anyway. Who knows what complications may be found during the conveyancing? Or the survey? Who knows what changeof plans the sellers may have (sudden holiday),or delay in their purchase? Or the purchseof the people they are buying from.

All you can do is suggest dates, and try to achieve, but it always takes longer than people expect, or want.

Your baby has no impact on the above. To be honest, combining two of the most stressful things in life (pregancy and house purchase) is asking for trouble.

moneyistooshorttomention

Of course another reason that you might have been told its "possible" would be down to a best case analysis and then your vendor has gone on holiday for a week or two and isn't available to answer queries.

EDIT: Just see I've crossposted with GM and he also thinks it might be down to a holiday.

Must admit I wouldn't plan to have both a baby and a house purchase at the same sort of time myself and would have postponed one of those things in the event. Its done now though and both are going to happen at the same sort of time...Your vendor would have had no way of knowing you were planning to do two major stressful things at once and would have assumed you wouldn't be...

googler

One of the reasons you don't have a firm timescale is due to the buying and selling system, wherein the acceptance of an offer is made without any commitment to completion of the sale on a specific date.

In Scotland, a formal offer is made with a purchase price, any conditions applicable to the offer, and an Entry Date. The seller accepts the offer, as written, inclusive of the entry date, and in 99 of 100 cases, that's the date on which the buyer moves in.

Want to change this so that applies in E&W too? Start lobbying your MP.

grifferz

Since there is no way to guarantee, before exchange, that a particular deadline can be met you may instead prefer to specify a date after which you would be prepared to complete.

Though it may harm your chances of your offer being accepted if you aren't prepared to complete before October or whatever..

DLTAG89

Your baby has no impact on the above. To be honest, combining two of the most stressful things in life (pregancy and house purchase) is asking for trouble

Don't we know it, my oldest son is also starting school on the 3rd of sept but sadly its not like i can change any of these dates. If i could hold off on having the baby few an extra month i would.

They say they are a solicitor and also they are not an online firm. The offer was excepted nearly 2 weeks ago now. The vendor didnt mention any hols but we have a viewing this sunday so could ask then. She was also after a quick sale so i cant understand why the dates have changed when no of the circumstances have changed.

I just hope its more towards the 6 week mark rather than the 8.

Oh on another note the estate agents told us to hand our tenancy in on this place on the 9th of aug, to move out on the 9th of sept (obv we have not done this yet) so now we don't know when to hand the tenancy in.

Bella73

DLTAG89 wrote: »

Your baby has no impact on the above. To be honest, combining two of the most stressful things in life (pregancy and house purchase) is asking for trouble

Don't we know it, my oldest son is also starting school on the 3rd of sept but sadly its not like i can change any of these dates. If i could hold off on having the baby few an extra month i would.

They say they are a solicitor and also they are not an online firm. The offer was excepted nearly 2 weeks ago now. The vendor didnt mention any hols but we have a viewing this sunday so could ask then. She was also after a quick sale so i cant understand why the dates have changed when no of the circumstances have changed.

I just hope its more towards the 6 week mark rather than the 8.

Oh on another note the estate agents told us to hand our tenancy in on this place on the 9th of aug, to move out on the 9th of sept (obv we have not done this yet) so now we don't know when to hand the tenancy in.

I wish you luck to be honest as our sale took 12 weeks and that was FTB with no chain.

Plus do not give notice on your rental until completion which is what we did as you don't want to be homeless with a toddler and a newborn.

grifferz

DLTAG89 wrote: »

Oh on another note the estate agents told us to hand our tenancy in on this place on the 9th of aug, to move out on the 9th of sept (obv we have not done this yet) so now we don't know when to hand the tenancy in.

Only give notice once you have exchanged and have a completion date. Before this time, as you have discovered, you have absolutely no idea when or even if things will complete. Changed on the very last day before exchange are reasonably common.

Once you've exchanged it is still theoretically possible that they may fail to complete, but if they do then they are liable for your costs. So as long as you have the spare cash for hotels you should get it back. It does happen, but it is very rare. Some solicitors have gone through their whole careers without ever seeing the exchange fail. There have been three threads in my memory on these forums.

You could wait until completion if you are very paranoid but then depending on the date you might end up paying nearly two months of overlap of rent with mortgage.

Ivana_Tinkle

If I'd were you I'd delay until after the baby's here. MUCH less stressful all round.