When will I know moving date

Redwino222

This is probably a stupid question but I am sale agreed on current my house and on my new house.

short chain, first time buyers buying my house and the owner of my (hopefully) new house is moving in with relatives.

Survey done on my new house and mortgage offer in, survey not yet done on my current house.

i know all sorts can go wrong and delay things, but at what point will we start to talk about dates?  At the moment everyone is just saying ASAP. 

I need to book two weeks off work, and have provisionally booked the last two weeks in June, but that’s just wishful thinking! 

Natbag

I'm signed and have been ready to exchange for 3 weeks now (you can see my timeline below), and my solicitor still won't talk dates due to an outstanding query at the top of the chain that is painfully slow to fix. You can't possibly estimate at any point, as some things take longer to resolve than others and unexpected issues crop up. It's 'how long is a piece of string' question until it happens I'm afraid, and then it can be quite short notice.

princeofpounds

You can really only start to talk about dates for exchange and completion when almost all the paperwork has been done. That's just because what determines it is the last important item to come through. 

You may get a sense of how things are going when you are through initial enquiries - that will normally make it clear whether a) the important things are fine, b) more enquiries are needed or c) there is a problem that needs to be worked on. And similarly as you move through each round of enquiries (if there are multiple). Once you get to the stage where your solicitor is broadly satisfied then it's usually a question of weeks rather than months.

Of course in a chain you don't typically get that granularity of information from the other links, but sitting in the middle of a two-transaction chain you should have a little bit more visibility.

End June? It's possible. But depends on what comes up in the process.

moneysavinghero

Unfortunately you don't tend to know until it's near the end. No one know what will crop up when the solicitor will do their searches (and how long it will take for people to respond when the solicitor requests information) or what the survey on your house will bring up.

End of June is probably optimistic.

Redwino222

thank you both.  The nature of my work make if difficult to take leave at short notice, but it’s just something I will have to try an navigate!  

And of course I am impatient😊.

i know end of June will only be possible if everything goes well.  My solicitor is very proactive, but two other solicitors in the mix and a first time buyers, so plenty of opportunities for delays and hiccups and queries.

Natbag

Have a look at 'The NEW Waiting To Exchange' thread - it will give you a good idea of timelines and issues from others, and you can join in our frustrated, impatient chatter too to help while the time away!

Redwino222

Brilliant thank you.  It’s an awful process

Redwino222

Thought I would come back with a quick update.

Hopefully exchanging contracts tomorrow with a completion date agreed for 29 June.

later than I would have liked, but at least in June!  Fingers crossed.