No chain completion by Christmas, solicitor taking me for a ride...

looknohands

I had an offer accepted on a property October 23rd.
The vendor is buying an empty house that's not part of any other chain and we are FTB.

I kind of expected this to be fairly quick (as in we'd be moving before Christmas) but it took my solicitor three weeks to reply to some simple fixtures and fittings questions. Then today she has said we might not be able to complete until January.

Which was a bit annoying, I told her I'm a bit disappointed as there's not been any flags from her and she initially said if everything is ok it'll take around 8 weeks. After conveying my disappointment to her she now thinks it might be possible and is going to try and get the paperwork sorted before Christmas. Is she just saying this to keep me shush now?

Come January it will be about 14 weeks from offer if we wait until January. I'm a bit worried the vendors going to get annoyed waiting for us, we did everything else so quickly. Can i contact them some how to reassure them, or does the solicitor need to that (and take 3 weeks about it!)

alchemist.1

looknohands wrote: »

I had an offer accepted on a property October 23rd.
The vendor is buying an empty house that's not part of any other chain and we are FTB.

I kind of expected this to be fairly quick (as in we'd be moving before Christmas) but it took my solicitor three weeks to reply to some simple fixtures and fittings questions. Then today she has said we might not be able to complete until January.

Which was a bit annoying, I told her I'm a bit disappointed as there's not been any flags from her and she initially said if everything is ok it'll take around 8 weeks. After conveying my disappointment to her she now thinks it might be possible and is going to try and get the paperwork sorted before Christmas. Is she just saying this to keep me shush now?

Come January it will be about 14 weeks from offer if we wait until January. I'm a bit worried the vendors going to get annoyed waiting for us, we did everything else so quickly. Can i contact them some how to reassure them, or does the solicitor need to that (and take 3 weeks about it!)

How will it be 14 weeks until January when you had an offer accepted on October 23rd?
When did you actually instruct the solicitors?

PS the vendor buying another property means you are in a chain if is relying on the proceeds of the sale of the one you want to buy.

Thrugelmir

Is the property the vendor is buying a probate sale?

deaston

We had our offer accepted early September and we're completing 14 December, so January doesn't seem so awful to me.

I think people get obsessed wth xmas. It's one day. It's a big meal, a bit of booze and some Chinese tat wrapped in gaudy paper. Get over it!!

Buying a house takes time - unless it gets ridiculous, my advice is to relax and just accept the process - don't let xmas become a mental block.

Kynthia

Do your sellers want to complete before Christmas as they might not? 12 months is standard for purchasing a freehold property, longer if it's leasehold or there's a chain. So January wouldn't be u expected.

p00hsticks

Kynthia wrote: »

12 months is standard for purchasing a freehold property, longer if it's leasehold or there's a chain.

hopefully you mean 'weeks' not 'months'!

looknohands

We instructed solicitors 23rd October. Sellers said complete ASAP on some paperwork we had a month ago. Estate agent mentioned no chain, but I guess if they have to buy the house that could delay it.

Kind of figured it would be soon as our mortgage offer is Feb 2nd so seems to be cutting it a bit fine if we go into January. I don't really want to pay broker / valuation again,

Also not bothered about being in for actual Christmas, was more the fact of being able to do work on the house over Christmas as I have to have two weeks cumpolsary holiday. Can I contact sellers to ask if they're keen to move quickly or does that have to go through the solicitor? They already told us ASAP initially.

Pete9501

I have never known a solicitor to be rushed because they believe they are working in your best interest and the interest of lots of other clients they currently have.

Don't forget they also work for your mortgage provider too, ensuring the lender is lending on the right property, isn't being scammed etc, at your expense of course.

I agree with you it should be straight forward and quick, but it still takes 12 weeks or so. As the months roll on your purchase slowly comes to the top of the pile and stuff happens, all be it at a very slow pace.

Best you can do is gently keep the pressure on with the solicitor, EA and mortgage company. Write lists of things to do. Arrange insurance and moving quotes. Other lists of people to inform of new address and there are dozens even for a FTB. BTW as a FTB you don't have to move on the day of completion and actually having been there twice, it's better just to get the keys, visit the property and inspect, take the meter readings and then move in the following few days at your convenience. You won't have that luxury next time around.

BTW your vendor may be buying a vacant property, but do they really want to move the week before Xmas, many folk don't though for the life of me I don't see the problem.

Buy a bottle of wine and relax over the weekend, oh and good luck.

kingstreet

looknohands wrote: »

it took my solicitor three weeks to reply to some simple fixtures and fittings questions

They would be reliant on information from the vendor's solicitor to answer questions about fixtures and fittings. In turn, the vendor's solicitor is reliant on the information from the vendor.

You can blame your solicitor for wasting time only if they had the information and did nothing with it.

Azure11

If you instructed your solicitor on 23rd October I'd say you would be seriously lucky to get in by Christmas. Best bet is to accept you will only be in sometime in January and save yourself a whole heap of stress.

kinger101

When is solicitor says something takes 6-8 weeks they mean 12-16. One or both of them usually drag their feet.