Buying and Selling - draft contracts / enquiries

uklaura

Hello 

I'm currently in the process of selling my house and buying a new one and just need some advice to put me at ease.

Our purchaser is a first time buyer so there's no chain there and the house we are buying, the seller has already moved out so there's no upward chain either. Our solicitors have had all of our searches back on the 15/06, survey reports have been completed and our mortgage offer was approved came through on the 07/06. Our solicitors sent across the draft contract to our buyers solicitors on the 16/06 and they raised enquiries straight away but it doesn't look like they have been responded to yet. We have only just received the draft contract from the solicitors on the house that we are purchasing yesterday and it doesn't look like our solicitors have reviewed them yet.

I just wanted to ask if anyone knows if the solicitors hold onto these things to deal with all at one go so they will draft the enquiries at the same time for purchase / sale and how long it usually takes them to do it once the draft contract has been received.

I had to chase the draft contract from the solicitors for the property we are purchasing via the estate agents and had been chasing for over 2 weeks, so I feel like I've been annoying my own solicitor and the estate agents so want to leave them alone a bit now to get the enquiries done but just wanted to know if there's usually a timeframe in which they raise them after the contracts are received? 

Thanks 

dimbo61

Are you asking due to the Stamp duty holiday ending on the 1st of July ?

uklaura

dimbo61 said:

Are you asking due to the Stamp duty holiday ending on the 1st of July ?

no, the house I am purchasing is under the stamp duty threshold it was £157k but I was wondering if this may slow down the solicitor with ours as they may be focusing on other matters to try and avoid the stamp duty. 

GDB2222

uklaura said:

dimbo61 said:

Are you asking due to the Stamp duty holiday ending on the 1st of July ?

no, the house I am purchasing is under the stamp duty threshold it was £157k but I was wondering if this may slow down the solicitor with ours as they may be focusing on other matters to try and avoid the stamp duty. 

Yes, I'm sure that's a factor. 

NameUnavailable

I'm chasing my solicitors, they were at least honest to say that they had to prioritise transactions that could complete before the SDLT holiday ends, which is fair enough I guess.

mortgage_noob

Seems like solicitors can take as long as they want and they are prioritising those wanting to complete by 30 June. 

Ours has had the draft contract for the place we are purchasing since 1 June and has yet to look at them. She said she's busy. 

uklaura

mortgage_noob said:

Seems like solicitors can take as long as they want and they are prioritising those wanting to complete by 30 June. 

Ours has had the draft contract for the place we are purchasing since 1 June and has yet to look at them. She said she's busy. 

Hopefully by next week they will all start to speed up a bit then how often do you chase your solicitor? 

Slithery

uklaura said:

Hopefully by next week the end of next month when they get back from their well deserved holiday they will all start to speed up a bit then how often do you chase your solicitor? 

Fixed that for you.

Chandler85

As much as I sympathise with solicitors and how busy they are with the stamp duty holiday etc.  But no one forces them to take on more work, work piles up because they keep taking it on when they don't have the time.  That isn't the customer's fault, then this annoys the customer, they then start chasing the solicitor more and creates more delays.

Solicitors should be honest with people and just say when they are instructed, we are currently really busy and it will be a couple of weeks before they even start looking at the paperwork.

I'm not getting into the holiday issue, as there are plenty of people who haven't been able to take holiday and not because they are selling their own time multiple times over.

Tiglet2

Chandler85 said:

As much as I sympathise with solicitors and how busy they are with the stamp duty holiday etc.  But no one forces them to take on more work, work piles up because they keep taking it on when they don't have the time.  That isn't the customer's fault, then this annoys the customer, they then start chasing the solicitor more and creates more delays.

Solicitors should be honest with people and just say when they are instructed, we are currently really busy and it will be a couple of weeks before they even start looking at the paperwork.

I'm not getting into the holiday issue, as there are plenty of people who haven't been able to take holiday and not because they are selling their own time multiple times over.

I agree with you - solicitors shouldn't take on work when they are already swamped with other transactions.  However, many solicitors don't have that choice, if company policy is to secure as many instructions as possible.  The solicitors where I work don't choose how many files they manage - they are given them by the sales department who actively seek new instructions, as that is their job.  The solicitor is not involved at that stage. 

Octothorpe

Tiglet2 said:

Chandler85 said:

As much as I sympathise with solicitors and how busy they are with the stamp duty holiday etc.  But no one forces them to take on more work, work piles up because they keep taking it on when they don't have the time.  That isn't the customer's fault, then this annoys the customer, they then start chasing the solicitor more and creates more delays.

Solicitors should be honest with people and just say when they are instructed, we are currently really busy and it will be a couple of weeks before they even start looking at the paperwork.

I'm not getting into the holiday issue, as there are plenty of people who haven't been able to take holiday and not because they are selling their own time multiple times over.

I agree with you - solicitors shouldn't take on work when they are already swamped with other transactions.  However, many solicitors don't have that choice, if company policy is to secure as many instructions as possible.  The solicitors where I work don't choose how many files they manage - they are given them by the sales department who actively seek new instructions, as that is their job.  The solicitor is not involved at that stage. 

But that doesn't stop them clearly communicating to their clients about time frames,  does it?

Just say - nope, not gonna happen for at least a fortnight.  Not just radio silence.