Solicitors enquiries.. How long is a piece of string?

ccornwell

We are FTB, our solicitors sent the sellers solicitors queries two weeks ago. I chased last week and it was in typing? I chased again today but didn't quite believe the solicitor when she said the responses are with the seller to review. How long until we get this back roughly? Feels like a lifetime.

ACG

This is down to the solicitor.
Some are good, some are bad.
The only person who can answer your question is the solicitor.

We try to work with 1 of 2 solicitors, primarily so we can manage them and if things are dragging out, we have the threat of no more business going to them. As an individual on the other hand, you have the threat of not using them in 10 years when you move home or a complaint, but realistically the claim will probably not stand up as although it is slow, it is not beyond the realms of acceptable... The buyer for my house last year took 4 months! He hung up when threatened with a complaint and still did things on his own timeframe.

G_M

My sister is currently selling her BTL flat.


She recently received Enquiries which had been passed by her solicitor from the buyer's solicitor.


Se had no idea what many of the answer to the questions were as it's a BTL flat so she's never lived there.


I offered to help, so she waited till I was free. I went down, hunted through her paperwork, found some answers but not all, and advised her how to identify other answers which she is now doing.


Eventually, in time, she'll return the completed Enquiries to her solcitor, who'll forward.......... you get the idea?


And if she'd been on holida that fortnight too..........

TamsinC

my brother always thought a witty answer to 'how long is a piece of string' was "a loud as a one legged duck's quack" It is as much help now as then.

Just keep plugging away.

Tiglet2

My son is buying a flat, offer accepted and solicitor instructed 9th April.
Draft contract papers received 30th April.
Enquiries raised 14th May.
Leasehold Pack received 20th May.
Response to enquiries received 6th June. Most were not satisfactory (lots of don't knows)
Additional enquiries raised 19th June, including asking for more clarification on original enquiries plus new enquiries following receipt of leasehold pack, searches and surveys.
On our side, everything has been done - mortgage offer in place, searches done, survey done
To date: Awaiting responses to original enquiries and additional enquiries.
If these responses are not satisfactory, then my sol's solicitor will have to revert to the seller's solicitor again.

Hope that timeline helps how long enquiries can take.

TBagpuss

It's mostly down to the seller. Your solicitor may have been a little slow sending out the enquiries but how long it takes for the replies to come in is entirely down to the sellers, and their solicitor.

2 weeks is not very long for this kind of thing.

avacapri

You have to love it that some solicitors havent discovered email yet!

Lauralou79

2 weeks is nothing! We waited 2months and the second month i began pestering as there was no chain and the house was empty!

I got the same reply over and over. Waiting for enquiries or not correct response so sent back etc. TBH I think both sides sols were rubbish. When we did get the few enquiries there actually was back , I've no idea what took so long!!

2004nsnazir

im on the same boat. valuation and mortgage in place. Just waiting to hear back from solicitors. We received the sellers draft contract about 2 weeks ago. I queried with our solicitor when we will receive our contract she said its too early and she will get back to me when she has all the paperwork. I have no idea if our searches have been complete. We instructed Solicitors during mid may!


I want to know when we are looking to complete by!

Surrey_EA

2004nsnazir wrote: »

im on the same boat. valuation and mortgage in place. Just waiting to hear back from solicitors. We received the sellers draft contract about 2 weeks ago. I queried with our solicitor when we will receive our contract she said its too early and she will get back to me when she has all the paperwork. I have no idea if our searches have been complete. We instructed Solicitors during mid may!


I want to know when we are looking to complete by!

You instructed your solicitor mid-May, so about 6 weeks ago. Your solicitor only received documents from the solicitor acting for the person you are buying from 2 weeks ago.

Probably not what you want to hear, but the process has hardly begun, and too early to have any meaningful discussion on when completion might take place.

It will take as long as the slowest component of the process takes, and right now nobody knows what the slowest component might be.

martindow

This is where a good estate agent should be earning their money. They can contact people up and down the chain to see where problems are and chase things up. It is in an agent's interest to keep the chain together as they will only get paid when sales actually go through.


Time to see how good your agent is...