Searches re-used?

russ401

Hi all

I was wondering if anyone has any experience of, or thoughts on, the below before I go any further with it? I may be missing something obvious.

I was recently purchasing a house and had gone pretty far through the process, almost to exchange of contracts. My conveyancer had obtained all the searches for which I paid £350. However I subsequently had to back out when the upper chain collapsed.

I have seen since that the vendor is now looking for a quick sale and as a selling point they are saying the searches are already done/included.

Is it possible they have bought them off the conveyancer? If so, shouldn't I have been reimbursed as they would in effect have been paid for twice?

Kind regards
R401

Flat_Eric

As an aside, searches have a shelf life (i.e the Local search - usually six months)

I would anticipate that when your purchase went abortive and your solicitor returned the contract papers, he would have said to the sellers solicitors that he had searches (which ones) and what date and what cost.

This will save time for the new buyer on the next transaction.

You paid for them so yes you should be reimbursed but sometimes you won't get full reimbursement as the new buyer might only offer so much.

Email or ring your solicitor to find out.

There's a slight chance of course that when your solicitor returned the contract papers that your searches got included too but they don't belong to your seller they belong to you so if that is what has happened and is why your seller says they are available then get your solicitor to ask for them back or say this is what I want to be reimbursed.

eddddy

A mortgage lender will only accept searches that are less than 6 months old on completion.

A cash buyer can do what they want - use old searches (could be weeks, months, years old), insist on new searches, or even do no searches at all.

The main reason for buying searches is speed, if somebody wants a quick sale/purchase. In some areas new searches may take 4 weeks or more. But if a mortgage application takes 4 weeks, and you do searches at the same time , there's no time benefit to buying old searches.

If somebody does buy your searches, your conveyancer should pass the payment on to you.

russ401

Hi both

Thank you for your replies. Glad to hear I wasn't missing something. Some enquiries are definitely due then....

Cheers
R