How far left to go.....

katalyah

Hi,

I'm a FTB well into the process of buying. I'm trying to gauge how far I am from completing. My solicitors can sometimes be a bit like drawing blood from a stone as far as communication (i have complained about this).

I have signed the draft contract, the land registry transfer is signed, the SDLT form is signed, full mortgage off has been in place a few weeks now, draft contract from vendors is signed.

Its a free hold property, surveys done and ok.

From what I can tell we are just waiting on searches to come back from the council and the drainage and chancel searches.

Myself and the vendors have all the way through been pushing for quick completion. The vendors have no chain and are going into rented that they have secured and I have no chain as an FTB.

Just wondering if anyone out there who knows more about the process may be able to shed some light on what is left to do once the searches come back so I can gauge if we are on target (hoping to exchange in the first week of the new year or thats what we've been driving at).

I know I should have more faith in the solicitor but they failed to act on some thing then failed to communicate which caused a delay and if I hadn't been pro-active following a conversation with the estate agent I'm fairly certain the delay would have been even longer. Now I am keen to educatte myself on the stages of the process so I can keep a better eye on the progress and I lost a lot of faith in them.

Many thanks

kingstreet

Once all the paperwork is in, you've signed your contract, paid your deposit and agreed a completion date with the other party, then you can exchange.

Thrugelmir

Much depends what the searches disclose. May be nothing or possibly something of a material nature.

Your solicitor will communicate with you when there's something to tell you.

pinkteapot

Most solicitors now seem to prepare a large 'pack' for you once the searches are back. It'll have the searches, property information form, fixtures and fittings form, etc. After you've read it through, you let your solicitor know if you're happy to exchange or not.

Alongside searches, 'additional enquiries' are often the last piece to go in. After your solicitor has read info from the seller's solicitor, they'll often send over some extra questions that they feel it's raised, then will have to wait for the answer.

Timescale? Few days (although with Christmas shut-down that's not till early Jan) to several weeks! Depending entirely on how quickly the solicitors move. Then whatever amount of time between exchange and completion everyone in the chain agrees.

We exchanged on Thursday. The EA did an amazing job at pushing it all along. One one day early last week, she found out that our solicitor had just put additional enquiries in the post to our seller's solicitor. She had our solicitor email her the list, then forwarded it to seller's solicitor. She then phoned our seller and told him to call his solicitor and answer the questions over the phone. She then passed the answers back from one solicitor to the other, so it was all done in a day! Having said that though, this one EA is selling all three houses in our chain and is in for £15-20k in fees.

G_M

what about your sellers? Have they done everything on the property they are moving to? If not, this will delay your purchase.

Not to mention the people from whom they are buying - they too will be moving somewhere. Any delay in their move will impact down the chain........

etc.

SmlSave

It sounds like you just need the Local Land Search to come back and you're ready to go!

Unfortunately its not something that can be hurried up. Some Councils are just slow I'm taking to you Wiltshire Council.

Once you know the search is in use the Estate Agents to discuss a completion date that the chain likes and then let the solicitor know what date you would like.

You cannot tell the solicitors when they should/you want to exchange as its doesn't work like that (no matter what estate agents think) but they should try and work towards a completion you want if its realistic.

pinkteapot

Fair point... My answer assumes that everyone in the chain is at about the same stage as each other.

SmlSave

We exchanged on Thursday. The EA did an amazing job at pushing it all along. One one day early last week, she found out that our solicitor had just put additional enquiries in the post to our seller's solicitor. She had our solicitor email her the list, then forwarded it to seller's solicitor. She then phoned our seller and told him to call his solicitor and answer the questions over the phone. She then passed the answers back from one solicitor to the other, so it was all done in a day! Having said that though, this one EA is selling all three houses in our chain and is in for £15-20k in fees.

Sounds like a very proactive estate agent pinkteapot but please note that any replies given by an estate agent to a solicitor aren't covered by insurance if the information should turn out to be incorrect.

I know that estate agents are forever moaning that solicitors want to do everything by letter but if answers are written down on headed paper then if there's a complaint in future all parties are covered and the information is there in black and white.

Its just that bit more protection, little as it is