Realistic timeframe to exchange on leasehold flat

sturgeon

I am selling a 6 year old leasehold flat. I've spoken to the management company and they can issue the leaseholders info pack in either 5 or 10 working days depending on the price I pay.

Having spoken to my solicitor, they think it can easily take 8 weeks to exchange when I accept an offer, even with a cash buyer. This does sound like quite a long time, is this realistic? What would cause it to take so long?

jbainbridge

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me ... that's how long it takes. It may take longer.

tomtontom

Mine took four weeks, albeit with a fair amount of badgering on my part. Lots of variables though, it depends on how much you control the process and how speedy each external party is.

jamei305

The main variable is how long your buyer takes to have everything ready. This may include survey, searches, mortgage etc and you have no control over this. Eight weeks is reasonable but it could take longer. As a seller you will generally be able to have everything ready before the buyer.

tomtontom

According to your other post you don't want to complete until December? If so you've got plenty of time. What I would be more concerned about is the idea of you staying after completion - most solicitors will advise their (buyer) clients strongly against this.

sturgeon

Thanks all. It's correct that I don't want to complete until later, however I do want to exchange asap to get that worry out the way. Appreciate that staying after completion isn't advised, but if it's a cash buyer and based on full and frank conversations I've had with them, if a contract is written up then I feel comfortable with this.

LJS2014

I sold my 2 year old leasehold flat to a cash buyer and that took 10 weeks from accepting offer to completion, both buyer and I were doing everything we could to hurry the process along but solicitors on both sides told us we were being pushy and should have allowed at least 12 weeks! I didn't understand why they needed so long given that they didn't seem to have anything left outstanding and I do feel it could have gone through quicker than the 10 weeks it took in hindsight.

Me? pushy?! :rotfl:

TrevorJ

I am currently in the process of buying a house (cash) and my seller is buying a flat (empty). Since we all agreed to the sales it has now been three months, with no end in sight - and we have all been pushing. Solicitors move at the speed of glaciers. That is the way it is.

All I can suggest is becoming friendly with fellow sellers and buyers. That is the only way to find out what is really going on - and to keep your sanity.

Brown_Eyed_Girl

I was told to expect 2-3 months. We are now at 2 months and it is just a case of pushing the sellers solicitor. The EA, the Seller and I are all chasing so fingers crossed. Would have been a couple of weeks quicker but there was a surveyor delay.

Rosetinted

When my family sold a leasehold flat last year it took 10 weeks to complete the sale from the day the offer was accepted. It was an incredibly straightforward sale - we'd been the only owner and kept every single bit of paperwork - but the buyer's arsing about asking questions we'd already answered slowed things down plenty.

Emmylou_2

It took us from the end of October 2014 to the beginning of March 2015 (4 months 1 week or thereabouts) to make a cash purchase of an empty freehold house.

Things always take longer than you think, unless you want them to take a long time, in which case they'll happen far faster.