House purchase - Scotland

TazTia

Our offer was verbally accepted on 28/09/21 on a house in Scotland.  The Paralegal advised the seller was separating, assuming the process will be longer than normal as there will be two solicitors involved as well as ours.  I asked a week later 05/10/21 how we were doing on the sale and I was told they were waiting on the Deeds and the official letter of acceptance of our offer.  This is now 15/10/21 and still no further forward. Come Tuesday it will be 3 weeks and still no further forward from being told verbally on the closing date our offer was accepted.  We are cash buyers so was expecting our sale to go through relatively quickly. I emailed the paralegal this morning but never got a reply. We have never purchased in Scotland before. Is this normal to still be waiting on written acceptance 3 weeks later ?  Advice appreciated

user1977

Yes, not abnormal. Nothing in particular to be concerned about. They can't formally respond to the offer without (both) going through it with their respective solicitors, they may need to check what's with the deeds to know how to deal with some clauses in the offer, etc.

TazTia

Hello user1977 - Thanks for replying. Yes, we were getting concerned as it's nearly 3 weeks and still no written offer accepting our verbal offer! I do hope you are right. We have had a mare of a time with house purchasing. Fingers crossed we get some sort of movement next week. Thanks again.

Faodail

In my experience (And it’s really limited) it is, quite a bit of time... but then that could be down to being 2 other solicitors involved. We are cash buyers, we put in our offer on the 8th Sept, we had it accepted the next day with a qualified acceptance a few days later. We have today concluded missives and move in next week! 

Our solicitor was amazing! 

TazTia

Hi Faodail, That's what we thought.  We were hoping to have completed in your time scale but as we haven't even started yet 3 weeks on, it's definitely not going to happen lol!  We thought we would have had written acceptance within a few days at least. Nothing can be done until this has been received ;(  Thanks for sharing your own experience. We wish you the very best in your new home.  Fingers crossed we get movement next week

Faodail

Bless, thank you! It’s tricky as I have no idea how the other 2 sol’s have on making the process longer, I have an idea but not sure. 

Has your solicitor got good reviews? Maybe worth a quick search... I would be gently pushing him to make enquiries, to find out why etc.

I really hope it moves forward this week coming for you... 

TazTia

Thank you 

We are going to call first thing Monday and if he still hasn't heard anything to ask him to chase up with the other solicitors.  I had read that the buying process was quicker in Scotland but seems we have chosen the wrong house or solicitor, not sure yet as it certainly the slowest conveyancing we have ever experienced...

Pixie5740

TazTia said:

Hello user1977 - Thanks for replying. Yes, we were getting concerned as it's nearly 3 weeks and still no written offer accepting our verbal offer! I do hope you are right. We have had a mare of a time with house purchasing. Fingers crossed we get some sort of movement next week. Thanks again.

What do you mean your verbal offer hasn’t been accepted yet? When it went to a closing date did you submit a written offer through your solicitor? If that what you are waiting formal acceptance of or have you only made an offer verbally? 

rose_T

Hi, 

we have been trying to buy a house since may. After our verbal offer was accepted and our solicitor sent the official letter of offer I expected the other side to have a letter of acceptance sent with in a week. 

My solicitor sent a letter of official offer and gave a 2 week timeframe for them to send a letter back, obviously they missed that! 

There is 4 executors and they have one solicitor acting for them and he really is useless! His reply was always he was waiting for instructions. 

We still don’t have the official offer as this would make the sale legally binding and none of us can really back out without giving the other person money to cover the lost sale. 

This I now understand has worked in our favour as the house we are buying has an old charge this is the reason why sale hasn’t completed yet. 

The usual time frame is about 6-8 weeks from verbal acceptance to completing sale, my solicitor always said not to worry when I was asking about the letter of acceptance, she said these things once they get going they can move very quickly. Obviously we didn’t expect a bump in our journey at the time she said this. 

I would definitely ask on Monday for a update. 

Has your solicitor sent the formal letter of offer? 

TazTia

Pixie5740 said:

TazTia said:

Hello user1977 - Thanks for replying. Yes, we were getting concerned as it's nearly 3 weeks and still no written offer accepting our verbal offer! I do hope you are right. We have had a mare of a time with house purchasing. Fingers crossed we get some sort of movement next week. Thanks again.

What do you mean your verbal offer hasn’t been accepted yet? When it went to a closing date did you submit a written offer through your solicitor? If that what you are waiting formal acceptance of or have you only made an offer verbally? 

Hi, Pixie5740 - Our verbal offer was accepted but our solicitor said he is still waiting on the Written acceptance and the Deeds being sent to.  Verbal is ok but must be followed up with a written. It's 3 weeks on Tuesday since our offer was accepted but nothing has been done. We are literally in the same situation as we were when the offer was accepted 3 weeks ago. 

TazTia

rose_T said:

Hi, 

we have been trying to buy a house since may. After our verbal offer was accepted and our solicitor sent the official letter of offer I expected the other side to have a letter of acceptance sent with in a week. 

My solicitor sent a letter of official offer and gave a 2 week timeframe for them to send a letter back, obviously they missed that! 

There is 4 executors and they have one solicitor acting for them and he really is useless! His reply was always he was waiting for instructions. 

We still don’t have the official offer as this would make the sale legally binding and none of us can really back out without giving the other person money to cover the lost sale. 

This I now understand has worked in our favour as the house we are buying has an old charge this is the reason why sale hasn’t completed yet. 

The usual time frame is about 6-8 weeks from verbal acceptance to completing sale, my solicitor always said not to worry when I was asking about the letter of acceptance, she said these things once they get going they can move very quickly. Obviously we didn’t expect a bump in our journey at the time she said this. 

I would definitely ask on Monday for a update. 

Has your solicitor sent the formal letter of offer? 

Hi rose-T,

Yes our solicitor has done his bit but not had anything back from the sellers.  I believe anyone can back out until the missives have concluded without charges.  We would be fine if the missives had been done but nothing can be done until the written acceptance and Deeds have been received by our solicitor.  We will definitely be calling Monday as we feel that 3 weeks with nothing done on the conveyancing is a bad omen.  I feel for you too - May and you are still not in your new home!!!!!  Hopefully it all works out soon for you too