How long to receive replies to enquiries?

Luna1719

Good afternoon all,

I'm new to this Forum but I have been looking at some of the threads for the past few weeks.
Can I ask, from your experience, how long it takes for solicitors to reply to enquiries?

To give some context, we are purchasing a house (which is sold with no chain) but we have two houses behind us in the chain ( which are both ready to proceed).
We had to find a new property in the first week of January as our orginal seller pulled out of his onward sale twice. Long story short, we now have made an offer which was accepted on the 7 January and received the draft contract pack the following week. Our mortgage has been approved and valuation done, we are only waiting for the Local Authority search to come back next week. 

While waiting for this, our solicitor made some initial enquiries based on the draft contract - and I saw some additional wording was requested ( is that common?). After speaking to my solicitor, I understand the seller's solicitor has not even looked at the enquiries yet and it's been over 10 days. Is this normal?

We really want to complete before the end of March and I'm starting to wonder if that's even gonna be possible.

Sandtree

Luna1719 said:

While waiting for this, our solicitor made some initial enquiries based on the draft contract - and I saw some additional wording was requested ( is that common?). After speaking to my solicitor, I understand the seller's solicitor has not even looked at the enquiries yet and it's been over 10 days. Is this normal?

We really want to complete before the end of March and I'm starting to wonder if that's even gonna be possible.

Depending on how they are tracking it the "not even looked at" may be accurate or may be totally wrong, not all tracking methods are reliable. 

If its true they havent been looked at yet then that is clearly a long time but its also a long time for your solicitors to have not yet chased the other side if they believe it to be true.

If its inaccurate and they have read the questions then how long it will take for a reply will depend on the questions asked... I know our conveyancer asked for certain pieces of evidence and inevitably it can take time for someone to gather paperwork, potentially scan things etc.

moneysavinghero

A lot of solicitors will be very busy at the moment trying to clear the backlog of work they have due to people being desperate to beat the Stamp Duty holiday. Add to that a lot of them will be working from home with lots of distractions to keep them otherwise occupied. So it's not that surprising that things are taking a long time - especially if the solicitor is one of the 'stack em high, sell em cheap' style of operations.

SpendsLikeAnAubergine

My experience is that the solicitor will wait until there are a substantial number of enquiries then work on replies as one intensive piece of work. They don't seem to like hopping from one case to another during their day.

I got around this to some extent by talking to my buyer directly. He gave me copies of what questions his solicitor was sending to mine, then I had draft replies ready for my solicitor before they even asked.

Tiglet2

Luna1719 said:

Good afternoon all,

I'm new to this Forum but I have been looking at some of the threads for the past few weeks.
Can I ask, from your experience, how long it takes for solicitors to reply to enquiries?

To give some context, we are purchasing a house (which is sold with no chain) but we have two houses behind us in the chain ( which are both ready to proceed).
We had to find a new property in the first week of January as our orginal seller pulled out of his onward sale twice. Long story short, we now have made an offer which was accepted on the 7 January and received the draft contract pack the following week. Our mortgage has been approved and valuation done, we are only waiting for the Local Authority search to come back next week. 

While waiting for this, our solicitor made some initial enquiries based on the draft contract - and I saw some additional wording was requested ( is that common?). After speaking to my solicitor, I understand the seller's solicitor has not even looked at the enquiries yet and it's been over 10 days. Is this normal?

We really want to complete before the end of March and I'm starting to wonder if that's even gonna be possible.

It depends on what the enquiries are and who has to answer them.  If the solicitor has to pass on some of the enquiries to the vendor, to the lender, to the council, to the management company, then there will be a wait time to first send out the enquiries to the various third parties, then for the recipients to return the answers.  The vendor's solicitor then returns the responses to your solicitor.  

I actually think you are doing quite well so far.  Offer accepted 7th January, draft contract pack received the following week (14th January), your solicitor has reviewed the pack and raised enquiries since then and it is only 25th January today.  Additional wording on the contract is quite normal but it all has to be approved by both parties.

I would however suggest you consider how you would feel if you are not able to complete by the stamp duty holiday deadline (and the two transactions below you), because time is getting short now and any setback in the transaction will cost you in time, searches being a prime example of long delays.

Luna1719

Thank you all for your replies, it's really helpful. I saw the enquiries that were requested from our solicitors . Those included:
Seeing a certified copy of the seller's mariage certificate ( as she got married since buying the house and the name on the title is different that her current married name), a clean copy of the contract and TR1  , and asked if she would have the boiler serviced.

Because the seller's solicitor will need to make amendments to the contract and TR1, does that mean that the seller will have to re-sign the contract? My understanding from speaking to the seller directly a few weeks back is that she had already signed this and returned it (maybe I misunderstood).

Tiglet2

Luna1719 said:

Thank you all for your replies, it's really helpful. I saw the enquiries that were requested from our solicitors . Those included:
Seeing a certified copy of the seller's mariage certificate ( as she got married since buying the house and the name on the title is different that her current married name), a clean copy of the contract and TR1  , and asked if she would have the boiler serviced.

Because the seller's solicitor will need to make amendments to the contract and TR1, does that mean that the seller will have to re-sign the contract? My understanding from speaking to the seller directly a few weeks back is that she had already signed this and returned it (maybe I misunderstood).

What normally happens is that your solicitor has to "approve" the draft contract and raise enquiries. 

Your solicitor drafts the TR1 which he then sends back to the vendor's solicitor with the "amended contract" and enquiries.  As soon as the vendor's solicitor receives the approved contract and TR1, he will send them to the seller for signature (providing he is happy with the amendments), together with any enquiries for the vendor to answer and return.  The signed papers will then sit on the file until exchange. 

It is usual that the seller signs the contract and TR1 much earlier than the buyer, as your solicitor won't send you the contract to sign until he "reports" to you - generally when he's happy with the paperwork and has satisfactory responses to enquiries back.

None of the enquiries you mention are difficult, all easy for the vendor to respond to.  There is no legal requirement to have the boiler serviced though, so the vendor may not agree to do this.  Are there other enquiries sent to third parties?

Luna1719

Tiglet2 said:

Luna1719 said:

Thank you all for your replies, it's really helpful. I saw the enquiries that were requested from our solicitors . Those included:
Seeing a certified copy of the seller's mariage certificate ( as she got married since buying the house and the name on the title is different that her current married name), a clean copy of the contract and TR1  , and asked if she would have the boiler serviced.

Because the seller's solicitor will need to make amendments to the contract and TR1, does that mean that the seller will have to re-sign the contract? My understanding from speaking to the seller directly a few weeks back is that she had already signed this and returned it (maybe I misunderstood).

What normally happens is that your solicitor has to "approve" the draft contract and raise enquiries. 

Your solicitor drafts the TR1 which he then sends back to the vendor's solicitor with the "amended contract" and enquiries.  As soon as the vendor's solicitor receives the approved contract and TR1, he will send them to the seller for signature (providing he is happy with the amendments), together with any enquiries for the vendor to answer and return.  The signed papers will then sit on the file until exchange. 

It is usual that the seller signs the contract and TR1 much earlier than the buyer, as your solicitor won't send you the contract to sign until he "reports" to you - generally when he's happy with the paperwork and has satisfactory responses to enquiries back.

None of the enquiries you mention are difficult, all easy for the vendor to respond to.  There is no legal requirement to have the boiler serviced though, so the vendor may not agree to do this.  Are there other enquiries sent to third parties?

Thanks that’s a really helpful explanation to understand the timeline of what happens with the contact and TR1 .

I’m not too bothered about the boiler if she doesn’t want to have it serviced but we got ours serviced in our current house for our buyers.

The only thing I’m hoping is that she provided the certified copy of the marriage certificate with the initial ID documents as I don’t know how long it takes to get a copy certified or to have to order the original one .

there were no other enquiries I’m aware of to third parties 

Robby1988

Everything takes ages. Days & weeks can go by in the conveyancing process just waiting for people to get round to doing things. It's terribly frustrating.

I'm afraid the answer is "how long is a piece of string?". If your solicitor is on it & the vendor is prompt with satisfactory replies, then the process will be a whole lot quicker than if they aren't. Sometimes as a vendor though you can get enquiries that are difficult to answer, particularly if you have had amendments/extensions done on the house and don't have your paperwork in order. It could take a vendor with a busy lifestyle weeks to reply to that sort of stuff.

Thrugelmir

Have you actually received your formal mortgage offer yet? 

Luna1719

Yes mortgage offer received following desktop survey