sellers solicitors not sending over draft contracts

rdixon555

Hi, we are first time buyers and had an offer accepted on a property at the end of May. As of this writing (5 weeks in) we have still not received the draft contracts from the sellers solicitors.

Our solicitor and the estate agent are chasing daily for us (or they say they are).

The property is part of a chain, and we are wondering if we have not received the contracts because they have not yet instructed a solicitor to start work for them, and are waiting to find a place to start the selling process. This is just a guess as no one can get hold of the solicitors, or the vendors either apparently. This seems rather odd, as wouldn't you start the process while trying to find a property? (unless they're not 100% on moving and want to save fees in case they don't find anything)

We are having our survey and mortgage valuation done next week. 

My question is, is this 'normal' to wait this amount of time for the draft contract? What we don't want to happen is be stuck in limbo waiting for the draft contract for months, and then when we do finally get it then have to wait more months for contract enquiries, searches etc

Thanks in advance

Turtle

We're in the process of buying a property that's going through probate and everything with the executor has taken forever. We waited 9 weeks for her to provide the info for the draft contract, then another 6 weeks for her to respond to 2 queries from the contract (and those responses were 'don't know').

On our solicitors online portal timeline, it shows they normally allow 2 weeks for draft contracts to be received. So I'm not sure what's exactly normal, but I'd guess 5 weeks is considered a fairly long time.

kasqueak

Have you got the estate agent to chase it up? See what the hold up is?

When I bought my place last year we waited 7 weeks for the draft contracts. No reason it seems other than they just took ages filling in the property/seller questionnaire forms! 

Don’t forget a lot of solicitors have also been really busy in June trying to push through transactions before the stamp duty holiday ended. So some new transactions maybe be on the back burner a bit. 

GDB2222

“ This seems rather odd, as wouldn't you start the process while trying to find a property? (unless they're not 100% on moving and want to save fees in case they don't find anything)”

You are probably right on this. You are being strung along, whilst your sellers are looking. 

Personally, I’d withdraw my offer. It may be better to leave it on the table, but stop incurring any more costs for now, though.

In any case, I always carry on viewing properties until contracts are exchanged.

rdixon555

Thanks for all your replies. The estate agent is chasing up every day for us but is getting no response.

We will give it until the end of this month just in case they're being slow, and for us to get our mortgage offer. 

If no response by then, we will start looking at other property's (perhaps with no onward chain to avoid this happening again), and withdraw our offer when we find a place we like.

If indeed they have not started the conveyancing process they're end, it seems extremely arrogant that they think we will wait x amount of months for them to find a place, and then 3-4 months on top for the conveyancing process to be done - not to mention if there is any hold ups higher the chain as well, and it will cost us money to pull out when we have done nothing wrong.

Thrugelmir

rdixon555 said:

This seems rather odd, as wouldn't you start the process while trying to find a property? (unless they're not 100% on moving and want to save fees in case they don't find anything)

We are having our survey and mortgage valuation done next week. 

As the vendor I might be questioning why 5 weeks later you haven't had the survey performed or obtained your mortgage yet. There's no rush to issue draft contracts. No need to incur expense when there's not certainty that the transaction is going to proceed. 

Ally_E.

Thrugelmir said:

rdixon555 said:

This seems rather odd, as wouldn't you start the process while trying to find a property? (unless they're not 100% on moving and want to save fees in case they don't find anything)

We are having our survey and mortgage valuation done next week. 

As the vendor I might be questioning why 5 weeks later you haven't had the survey performed or obtained your mortgage yet. There's no rush to issue draft contracts. No need to incur expense when there's not certainty that the transaction is going to proceed. 

It's a 2 way street, no commitment from you -  why should the buyer be showing all the commitment and incurring costs? 

csgohan4

OP why has it taken 5 weeks for the survey?

fishfingerbutties

It's fairly standard advice not to spend out lots of money on surveys and legals etc until the chain is complete. 

rdixon555

“ As the vendor I might be questioning why 5 weeks later you haven't had the survey performed or obtained your mortgage yet. There's no rush to issue draft contracts.”

Due to a backlog of surveys and mortgage valuations - we had dates for these weeks ago, not that the vendors have asked.

“ It's fairly standard advice not to spend out lots of money on surveys and legals etc until the chain is complete. ”

Is it? So we have for everyone in the chain to find a place and then wait for surveys/mortgages/conveyancing after that?

Justonemorecupoftea

rdixon555 said:

“ As the vendor I might be questioning why 5 weeks later you haven't had the survey performed or obtained your mortgage yet. There's no rush to issue draft contracts.”

Due to a backlog of surveys and mortgage valuations - we had dates for these weeks ago, not that the vendors have asked.

“ It's fairly standard advice not to spend out lots of money on surveys and legals etc until the chain is complete. ”

Is it? So we have for everyone in the chain to find a place and then wait for surveys/mortgages/conveyancing after that?

On the point about the survey, if you've got dates for that, surely your vendors know because they'll have agreed to have the survey on that date?

On the chain - yes it's much safer to wait for the chain to form before booking things, getting mortgages etc. If they can't find anywhere they might decide not to sell.