How long between mortgage offer and completion?

ohdarn

Hello everyone. 
We are in a short chain with a landlord buying our house and we're buying a house with no upper chain. 
We've finally received our mortgage offer from our lender after a five week wait.
During this time we completed our draught contract and our seller sent their draught contract to our conveyancer.
We were given an estimated completion date of the 18th December for the sale of our property.
We asked our conveyancer if that date was still likely for our purchase as wel but they seem to think that was wildly optimistic and that it's more like 8-12 weeks. 
To me, this seems like a long time considering everyone is ready to go and all of our paperwork is submitted. 
How long does it usually take from mortgage offer to completion does anyone know?
Thanks very much. 

davidmcn

Are you sure "all of your paperwork" is done? If that really were the case then you could complete pretty much immediately. I suspect it isn't, so you'll need to ask your solicitor to clarify. You've seen the search results, replies to enquiries, report on title? 

ohdarn

Thanks, when I say 'all of our paperwork' I mean all of the paperwork we've been asked to complete.
So it would not include the conveyancers paperwork, such as searches etc. 
Our conveyancer has said that the searches will be done electronically and shouldn't take long. 

davidmcn

ohdarn said:

Thanks, when I say 'all of our paperwork' I mean all of the paperwork we've been asked to complete.
So it would not include the conveyancers paperwork, such as searches etc. 
Our conveyancer has said that the searches will be done electronically and shouldn't take long. 

OK, sounds more like pretty much nothing has been done yet then (common for the solicitor to wait for the mortgage offer to turn up first), in which case 8-12 weeks may be a reasonable estimate (especially as nothing much will happen over the holiday period). 

wazza07

I think the estimated completion date of the 18th Dec is wildly optimistic. Even if your searches only take 1-2 weeks, all of that information needs to be collated alongside all the other paperwork and enquiries raised. I guess you have no idea what will come up in regards to enquiries that could delay things. All the enquiries need to be responded to which can take some time and only then can you start discussing exchange/completion. With the Xmas shutdown as well you're probably looking at January onwards really.

We completed this week just gone and received our mortgage offer at the back end of August - approx 12-13 weeks. 

ohdarn

Thanks for the replies. Seems we'll be spending another Christmas here then. It does seem like this house buying experience involves a lot of people that want an awful lot of money for not really putting much effort into things.
Hope we won't have to do it again in a hurry.

Tiglet2

There are lots of processes involved in conveyancing - having the mortgage offer is just one part of the process.  Completion dates can only be discussed when nearly all the processes have been ticked.

Thrugelmir

ohdarn said:

 It does seem like this house buying experience involves a lot of people that want an awful lot of money for not really putting much effort into things.

No one is prepared to pay for people to sit around doing nothing. Cheap conveyancing fees can only be achieved with volume. Those with money to burn can opt for a more personalised service. 

badger09

ohdarn said:

Thanks for the replies. Seems we'll be spending another Christmas here then. It does seem like this house buying experience involves a lot of people that want an awful lot of money for not really putting much effort into things.
Hope we won't have to do it again in a hurry.

If you were a cash buyer, you could, if you wished, instruct your conveyancer not to apply for any searches and not to raise any enquiries. That would hugely speed up the process.

However, in most cases, it would be a really stupid thing to to. And, as you need a mortgage, you don't have that option. 

Bottom line is, you just have to be patient.

greatcrested

Last time I offered to look in my kitchen drawer for the various old balls of string I keep there, I was critisized for not being helpful.

But the reality is that this constantly recurring question is impossble to answer in a meaningful way. There are too many variables so the length of time will be as long or short as the various balls of string.