How long til exchange & complete

samminich

So far its 10 weeks since our offer was accecpted. We have everything ready to exchange, however we are now led to beleive that our seller has not yet got mortgage offer, even though EA said everything was in place, about 2 weeks ago. We have nothing to sell, but we are in the hands of everyone else. All we can do is wait and hope that it happens soon. Good luck.

beachbeth

michjoe wrote: »

I can't fault our EA's it the solicitors that are dragging it out.

Same here. My EA chased my seller's solicitor up for me when they were dragging their heels and they got things moving for me. They've been very helpful. Its the solicitors who aren't doing their job properly, ie. filing things away that they are supposed to have sent to our solicitors!!! I really don't think solicitors are value for money at all - they're useless!

greenoak

I had an offer accepted in Mrach for a 2 bed house in Liverpool.

I finally exchanged TODAY. Complete next week.

Part of the delay was due to a 4 property chain and I am sure a sale was broken early on, but I was happy to sit and wait as the purchase was investment BLT.

The other source of delays was that my seller was using a cut price online conyancing service.

On the other hand I am also purchasing a non chain house and that has taken 6 weeks for start to finish. Only delay was again the sellers taking to long to send papers back to their solicitor.

To get things done quickly you need 4 efficient parties, buyer, seller and the 2 firms of sols, any of these will slow down the process.

The other delay is often the mortgage co taking 2 weeks to get the survey done and another 2 weeks to get the mortgage offer. Some sols will not even start work until you have an offer in place.

koksrob

FTB no chain. empty flat. put offer in 4 months ago even with my daily chasing still waiting

roosterbean

Thanks for all your replies - it seems from most your comments that its the solicitors that slow things down:(

Phirefly - what are your secret powers and can they be taught to a willing apprentice?;)

How can you check that solicitors have requested searches? Can you enquire of the council? I read somewhere that councils were under charter to return searches within 7-10 days - is this not the case?

nik_k

My situation...

Offer Accepted - May 14
Completion Date - July 6

Solicitors both slowed things down a bit, and searches weren't very quick coming back, but still under 2 months

BTW - you CAN ask the council if the searches have been requested, but don't be disheartened if they say they haven't... We enquired with the council, they said no, then we found out the solicitor was using a private firm to undertake the searches on his behalf. Literally a case of a guy on a bike riding down to the council offices and conducting searches there and then. Quite why they still took a while is anyone's guess! Moral of the story - don't necessarily jump down the solicitor's neck if the council say the searches haven't been requested

samminich

I have to say that our solicitors have been very good and they were an online company and they case trace all the way, so we get text messages when another part of the process has been done. We knew when they requested the searches and when the results were in. Our biggest hold up was all the questions the seller needed to answer, about building work, boundaries etc and the resulting chain, that just seems to grow as the person at the top couldn't decide whether to rent or buy. Looks like they are now buying (aaarrrrggh)

roosterbean

No doubt the recent postal strikes will also have a small impact - I hope they can resolve their issues without any further strikes!

I, too, have got to say that our EA and vendor's EA have both been very good at chasing and progressing matters and one has in fact already told me that my solicitor is useless at returning calls!!!!

I was shocked at the difference in time certain councils take to return searches - Manchester 5 weeks / Dudley 6 days !!

I'm still holding out hope for a completion date sometime in August before my boys go back to school as they will have to start new schools - but if anyone has any other ideas on any time-saving tips, who to chase, what to ensure solicitor has etc, I will be really pleased to hear them....

Phirefly

roosterbean wrote: »

Phirefly - what are your secret powers and can they be taught to a willing apprentice?;)

Its as simple as mustering up all your belief, optimism, positivity and energy and willing something to happen. Sounds mumbo jumbo but it works

roosterbean

I'm a "my glass is half full" kinda person thankfully.

Is this the same "power of the universe" thing that Noel Edmunds goes on about?;)