How long should it take to instruct solicitor when selling?

circuit

After having an offer accepted, how long is reasonable to wait for the seller to instruct their solicitor? Days, weeks, a month?

Or, to put it another way: at what point would you suspect that your seller is not really ready to sell?

pinkteapot

Has the seller found something to buy? Or is there no onward chain?

There's not much point instructing solicitors until the chain is fully formed - from FTB/chain-free buyer at bottom, to a chain-free house at the top. No-one's going anywhere till then anyway.

If the seller's found a place, or it's being sold with no onward chain, they can instruct a solicitor the same day they accept an offer if they're organised.

circuit

Good points, thanks. It is a short chain. The person at the top is still at the offer stage.

pinkteapot

As in the person at the top is making an offer on a place? Is that place chain-free?

I wouldn't worry at this point. The seller certainly should instruct the solicitor as soon as the chain's in place. And the process just comprises ringing a few solicitors to get quotes then ringing one back and telling them to go ahead. Technically, the solicitor will then send out instruction forms which must be returned before they are properly "instructed", but the seller can give other parties their solicitor's details as soon as they've decided who they're using.

A lot of people do instruct before - as soon as their own purchase and sale is agreed. But even if their solicitor gets all that work done, the chain can't exchange until the other sales have had their legal work done. So it doesn't really make much difference if everyone instructs at the same time.

Thrugelmir

circuit wrote: »

Good points, thanks. It is a short chain. The person at the top is still at the offer stage.

How do you know that this is going to be the top of the chain?

circuit

Yes, sorry, apologies if I gave the wrong end of the stick. I have bought/ sold twice before, so know the process, but have never come across a seller that has not instructed their solicitor within a couple of weeks max. The other people in the chain are under time pressure. I'm trying to understand if slow instruction is perfectly normal, and it sounds like it might be. Perhaps we have just been lucky by dealing with very motivated/ organised people in the past.

circuit

I don't know who will be at the top of the chain, I'm just describing the chain as I understand it today, to be concise.

pinkteapot

If you want to be more certain you could ask the EA to find out why the seller hasn't instructed a solicitor yet. If it's because they're waiting for the chain then I wouldn't be unduly worried.

Others in the chain who want to move quickly will need to be told by EAs/their solicitors that they won't be going anywhere till everyone's found a place, unless the current top of the chain is willing to move into rented in order to get things moving. But a couple of weeks isn't that long so it's probably a bit early to start asking for that.

circuit

Thanks, that's more or less what we were thinking, and it helps to hear other viewpoints.

Rambosmum

I wouldn't be instructing my solicitor until the chain is complete (that's whether I was you, your buyer or your seller). No point doing work if the chain has still to fully form. It doesn't mean they don't have a solicitor lined up.


You have three options - proceed on your sale and hope your purchase catches up or be prepared to move in to rented, pull out or wait.

circuit

Yep, agreed, and we're fairly sure the chain will have to break, but we're not sure when or how. Our main aim is to be reasonable, particularly when it comes to timing.