Vendor solicitor taking quite a while?

Chrislawrence92

I'm a ftb and had an offer accepted around the end of June. I had trouble finding a solicitor but started the conveyancing process around mid July. My mortgage is sorted and I've had a survey done. The searches were done around mid August and I felt like everything was going quite fast.
However, my solicitor informed me that they have been waiting on answers to quite a few queries since 9th August. Without these answers, they'll be unable to draw up the draft contract and are also unable to approve the draft title deeds.
I've had an estimated completion period of the first week of October, I'm now getting quite angry as I feel like this may not be achieved anymore. Is this slow? If so, what could be the reason?
Thanks :cool:

hazyjo

Average is 12 weeks from offer to completion. Some are 5 weeks, some are 5 months.

Not sure why you're blaming your solicitor as he's kept you informed and said he's waiting on stuff from the vendor/their solicitor.

tbh, not sure why it took you 2-3 weeks to find a solicitor, I've always managed to do it on the day if necessary - so I'd count those 12 average weeks from mid-July as nothing could really be done before that.

You really can't take an estimated completion date as a given. They change all the time until you have exchanged.

It has also been the summer holidays with lots of people going away - possibly including your solicitor.

Be patient, stay informed, and good luck.

Jx

G_M

Does your solicitor know how conveyancing works? The contract is prepared by the seller or seller's solicitor.

An estimated completion date at this stage is purely that - an estimate. Do not rely on it.

9 August to 7 Sept does seem a long time for the sellers to reply to enquiries. Whether it is their solicitor, or the sellers themselves, you cannot know.

They may be on holiday of course (August), or they may have found some difficulty with one or more of the enquiries which they are trying to resolve.

Or they may be stalling for some reason. Or even (less likely) looking for a better offer.

Try to get an answer via the estate agent if one is involved.

Thrugelmir

Are your vendors buying another property?

contrivant

Double check that the vendors have formally instructed their solicitor with the estate agent.

Having just been through a 2 week period of our solicitor saying they hadn't heard anything from the vendor's, we checked and turned out they hadn't formally instructed him, just verbally, so their solicitor was just twiddling his thumbs.

Kynthia

First time buyers always think they are nearly ready to exchange once their mortgage offer is in and the searches are back. However this is often only half - way through the process as the enquiries now go back and forth until you and your solicitor are happy to proceed and you are possibly getting quotes for anything your survey found tgat worries you. An average purchase takes 12 weeks and this can be much longer if it's leasehold or there's a chain.

There's no point estimating an exchange or completion date until near the end of the process as how are you going to know what the survey or searches will find that needs investigation or how long the queries will go back and forth? Plus I've never taken more than a day or two to find a solicitor, so I wonder if your delay worried your sellers and they held off starting their process?

So is it leasehold?
Is the chain complete as you shouldn't have even started your process if it isn't?
Have you asked the estate agent whether tge vendors have received the enquiries, have they been away and when do they think the answers will be provided (some may have taken time to get the info)?