Buying a house in lockdown three

FearsomeHippo74

Helloooo! My partner and I are currently in the middle of buying a house in Yorkshire. Our offer was accepted in early November, and we’ve had our mortgage offer and building survey through - in fact, from our point of view we’re all-but ready to go. 

Unfortunately we spoke with our conveyancer this week and she said that they’ve only just begun processing their side of things, because they were waiting for the seller’s solicitors to send through the draft contracts. We’re buying the house from a developer, as the old owners part ex’d it for a new build, so always knew there would be a bit of a delay, but we’re dismayed to know the process hasn’t even begun. 

The solicitor has told us they’re looking at an average of 160 days to process the sale from here, which means we could potentially be looking at not exchanging until mid-June - seven months after our offer was accepted. 

I realise things have slowed down in the pandemic, but five months to process basic searches and information seems a bit ridiculous, especially given that the house was only sold to the developers a few months ago, so most of the searches have already been carried out fairly recently. 

Additionally, we’ll need to renegotiate the tenancy agreement with our landlord for the current house and don’t want to commit to five months if it’s likely to go faster, but equally don’t want to risk asking for a shorter contract and potentially higher rent if we’re in for the long haul. 

People who are in the know/have been through the process recently - should we be preparing for the full 160 day wait, or is the conveyancer offering a worst case scenario? Any tips or advice on moving things along sooner? 

For the record, the previous owners have already moved out, so the house is staying empty until we’re in and there’s no chain. We’re first time buyers and almost completely flexible with dates, minus one weekend in the summer. 

TL;DR - as lockdown three begins, our solicitor is saying we’re likely to be waiting 160 days for the searches to be returned. Does this tally with others’ experiences? 

davidmcn

I would look at getting search insurance rather than hanging around for searches.

Swash

Our searches were applied for on 10th December, were due back 30th December, actually came back yesterday 11th January. Obviously different councils will have different timelines. Our solicitor was also late in applying for them, our offer was accepted in September.

I have a friend who is a solicitor (she is not doing the conveyancing for us) and she told me that generally the more you contact your solicitor (within reason), the more likely they are to work on your file. Since then, our sale and purchase is moving along much more quickly. 

In terms of your tenancy, can you not just go onto a rolling tenancy? 

Slithery

FearsomeHippo74 said:

Additionally, we’ll need to renegotiate the tenancy agreement with our landlord for the current house

Why? If you're coming up to the end of a fixed term then don't sign anything and automatically get a rolling periodic tenancy.