How long does it take for seller's solicitors to send the draft contract pack?

LittleMax

I am helping my Mum with the sale of her house - she accepted an offer on 30 July.  We instructed solicitors same day and returned all forms to them on 3 August.  I chased yesterday as I was worried that nothing seemed to be happening, EA advised that buyers were still waiting for the draft contract - insinuated that we had not returned the forms (cheek!).  Mum's solicitor just shrugged and said she had been on holiday and last week her assistant was off sick!  So a 3 week delay down to solicitor just sitting on it!

arrows123

LittleMax said:

I am helping my Mum with the sale of her house - she accepted an offer on 30 July.  We instructed solicitors same day and returned all forms to them on 3 August.  I chased yesterday as I was worried that nothing seemed to be happening, EA advised that buyers were still waiting for the draft contract - insinuated that we had not returned the forms (cheek!).  Mum's solicitor just shrugged and said she had been on holiday and last week her assistant was off sick!  So a 3 week delay down to solicitor just sitting on it!

This is my issue with solicitors, that and lack of communication. Most other sectors wouldn't be able to get away with it!

Raneynickel4

Thanks all for your input. The chain is indeed still incomplete (and also found out it could be longer than initially expected) so that could be why. 

firebubble

Whilst you're waiting for the chain to complete, have you booked your survey and chased up your mortgage offer?

Let the seller's EA know when these have been done too, as both steps show you're serious about progressing.

Also ask the EA to confirm with the seller that the seller has sent all the information back to their solicitors - it's easy to blame the solicitors, but people are so slow returning stuff (or return incomplete information, necessitating the solicitor to go back to them and request the missing information...).

Don't forget it's free to pester the EA and get them find out what's happening from the seller, rather than call your solicitor which costs you every time.

Raneynickel4

firebubble said:

Whilst you're waiting for the chain to complete, have you booked your survey and chased up your mortgage offer?

Let the seller's EA know when these have been done too, as both steps show you're serious about progressing.

Also ask the EA to confirm with the seller that the seller has sent all the information back to their solicitors - it's easy to blame the solicitors, but people are so slow returning stuff (or return incomplete information, necessitating the solicitor to go back to them and request the missing information...).

Don't forget it's free to pester the EA and get them find out what's happening from the seller, rather than call your solicitor which costs you every time.

I've already received my mortgage offer and emailed that to the EA. Haven't booked survey yet since I'm waiting for chain to complete to do that and I've already lost money from a previous purchase so I'm hesitant to do that.

I actually found out from the EA not my solicitor that my seller's seller is still looking for a house. They said they'd keep me updated but I think I'm gonna have to call them once in a while to get an update (which is annoying because I'm basically doing their job for them).