Searches Returned - how long to exchange?

RandomGuy87

I'll try to keep this as short and to the point as possible. 

Searches were returned from the local authority last week and have been given to solicitor today. 

Solicitor advised they will review and if no problems, will send out contract to sign.

By contract, does the solicitor mean to exchange? 

We are buying a new build and the exchange deadline was last week. Developer has advised today that completion date may be pushed back if there are delays in exchanging. Is this normal?

I suppose the one good thing is that the exchange deadline has passed and the developer is still keen to exchange and move forward. 

666666

Has your solicitor raised queries and have those queries been addressed? Best thing I reckon would be to ask your solicitor clearly and plainly where they are in the process and what are the next stages up to completion. We are 2 weeks past deadline to exchange now but my solicitor is still at queries stage, some queries have not been addressed by the seller's solicitor. It has been the longest part of the process so far and still no definitive date when it will end and we can move to exchange. 

Snookie12cat

If you have the same solicitor as my buyer, months...
But in an seriousness you could be ready to exchange in a week. As soon as the enquiries are done. If your solicitor is slow and doesn't do the enquiries for ages then it is them who is delaying it.

Tiglet2

RandomGuy87 said:

I'll try to keep this as short and to the point as possible. 

Searches were returned from the local authority last week and have been given to solicitor today. 

Solicitor advised they will review and if no problems, will send out contract to sign.

By contract, does the solicitor mean to exchange? 

We are buying a new build and the exchange deadline was last week. Developer has advised today that completion date may be pushed back if there are delays in exchanging. Is this normal?

I suppose the one good thing is that the exchange deadline has passed and the developer is still keen to exchange and move forward. 

By sending out the contract for you to sign merely means they have 'approved' the contract, so you can sign it, return it and it can sit on the file until all the other processes are complete.  Then you can exchange.

All developers set 'deadlines'.  It is just to ensure that you and your solicitor start progressing with the purchase.  Legally, it is not binding.  If the developer is happy that things are moving, generally they are agreeable to wait.

RandomGuy87

666666 said:

Has your solicitor raised queries and have those queries been addressed? Best thing I reckon would be to ask your solicitor clearly and plainly where they are in the process and what are the next stages up to completion. We are 2 weeks past deadline to exchange now but my solicitor is still at queries stage, some queries have not been addressed by the seller's solicitor. It has been the longest part of the process so far and still no definitive date when it will end and we can move to exchange. 

Solicitor has only today received the search reports so she is going to review which I assume will result in queries being raised or not. 

Are you buying a new build as well as you have the exchange deadline? 

The local authority advised that the searches were coming back last Wednesday so I'm frustrated it's taken until I've chased it today for them to be passed to the solicitor from the conveyancer. 

RandomGuy87

Snookie12cat said:

If you have the same solicitor as my buyer, months...
But in an seriousness you could be ready to exchange in a week. As soon as the enquiries are done. If your solicitor is slow and doesn't do the enquiries for ages then it is them who is delaying it.

Thanks. So in an ideal world, I want no queries to be raised so it can progress? 

RandomGuy87

Tiglet2 said:

RandomGuy87 said:

I'll try to keep this as short and to the point as possible. 

Searches were returned from the local authority last week and have been given to solicitor today. 

Solicitor advised they will review and if no problems, will send out contract to sign.

By contract, does the solicitor mean to exchange? 

We are buying a new build and the exchange deadline was last week. Developer has advised today that completion date may be pushed back if there are delays in exchanging. Is this normal?

I suppose the one good thing is that the exchange deadline has passed and the developer is still keen to exchange and move forward. 

By sending out the contract for you to sign merely means they have 'approved' the contract, so you can sign it, return it and it can sit on the file until all the other processes are complete.  Then you can exchange.

All developers set 'deadlines'.  It is just to ensure that you and your solicitor start progressing with the purchase.  Legally, it is not binding.  If the developer is happy that things are moving, generally they are agreeable to wait.

Do you know what other processes are involved between now and exchange?

I was hoping that this was the last step before we could exchange. 

The developer may push our completion date back a month. We're not in a rush to move however we had agreed to July which suits us fine. The house is finished and the only reason to not complete sooner is because of nearby houses being built. 

Tiglet2

RandomGuy87 said:

Tiglet2 said:

RandomGuy87 said:

I'll try to keep this as short and to the point as possible. 

Searches were returned from the local authority last week and have been given to solicitor today. 

Solicitor advised they will review and if no problems, will send out contract to sign.

By contract, does the solicitor mean to exchange? 

We are buying a new build and the exchange deadline was last week. Developer has advised today that completion date may be pushed back if there are delays in exchanging. Is this normal?

I suppose the one good thing is that the exchange deadline has passed and the developer is still keen to exchange and move forward. 

By sending out the contract for you to sign merely means they have 'approved' the contract, so you can sign it, return it and it can sit on the file until all the other processes are complete.  Then you can exchange.

All developers set 'deadlines'.  It is just to ensure that you and your solicitor start progressing with the purchase.  Legally, it is not binding.  If the developer is happy that things are moving, generally they are agreeable to wait.

Do you know what other processes are involved between now and exchange?

I was hoping that this was the last step before we could exchange. 

The developer may push our completion date back a month. We're not in a rush to move however we had agreed to July which suits us fine. The house is finished and the only reason to not complete sooner is because of nearby houses being built. 

The main part of conveyancing which takes time are the enquiries.

If enquiries are fairly simple, then exchange may not be too far away.

However, enquiries can be quite lengthy and problematical and can cover many legal aspects of the property.  As an example, enquiries can be made about:

• Legal rights of way
• Boundaries adjoining the property
• Any planning permission or planning constraints
• Outstanding disputes
• Your new property might be located near major road work planned by the council
• Someone else may hold a right of way to cross your land.
• If there is contamination in the land on or near the purchase property
• Whether the council will be adopting the roads
• Whether there will be a management company
• What the likely service charges will be for the managed areas of the estate
• Your mortgage offer 
• Paperwork relating to HTB Lisa or ISA

Etc etc!

TheJP

RandomGuy87 said:

Snookie12cat said:

If you have the same solicitor as my buyer, months...
But in an seriousness you could be ready to exchange in a week. As soon as the enquiries are done. If your solicitor is slow and doesn't do the enquiries for ages then it is them who is delaying it.

Thanks. So in an ideal world, I want no queries to be raised so it can progress? 

Yes in an ideal world but you also want your solicitor to be diligent and protect your investment. Remember you aren't the solicitors only client and they can only act as fast as the process lets them. I doubt you will exchange in a week, the solicitor receiving the files today means they need to review them in a set block of time for you (again they have other clients to work on), they then send this to the developers solicitor and the same process happens for them, they respond to the queries and this process is repeated until both solicitors are happy with the responses.

Could be 2 weeks could be months, it all depends on what is raised and the responses given.

Snookie12cat

RandomGuy87 said:

Snookie12cat said:

If you have the same solicitor as my buyer, months...
But in an seriousness you could be ready to exchange in a week. As soon as the enquiries are done. If your solicitor is slow and doesn't do the enquiries for ages then it is them who is delaying it.

Thanks. So in an ideal world, I want no queries to be raised so it can progress? 

@RandomGuy87

There will never be no enquiries, but if its a straight forward house then there should not be too many if any that cant be answered easily and so should be able to be replied to on right away. If the seller is fast at responding to the questions the solicitor does not know, then it will be fast.

I sold mine and the buyers solicitor was hot on it, and we completed in 5 weeks, enquiries were sorted in 2 days (but I think that solicitor missed vital questions which the buyer will be annoyed about soon enough) - so speed isnt always great. 
My new sale the solicitor has been sitting on the searches for a week and not yet raised the enquiries and we are 6 weeks into the sale.  

666666

RandomGuy87 said:

666666 said:

Has your solicitor raised queries and have those queries been addressed? Best thing I reckon would be to ask your solicitor clearly and plainly where they are in the process and what are the next stages up to completion. We are 2 weeks past deadline to exchange now but my solicitor is still at queries stage, some queries have not been addressed by the seller's solicitor. It has been the longest part of the process so far and still no definitive date when it will end and we can move to exchange. 

Solicitor has only today received the search reports so she is going to review which I assume will result in queries being raised or not. 

Are you buying a new build as well as you have the exchange deadline? 

The local authority advised that the searches were coming back last Wednesday so I'm frustrated it's taken until I've chased it today for them to be passed to the solicitor from the conveyancer. 

Yes, I'm buying new build but not off plan honestly after being in this waiting game for the second month going on to 3rd month now since my offer was accepted I feel like everybody in the process is just competing to make this process as painful as possible. 

But you want queries to be raised by your solicitor, if a solicitor is not raising any query at all I would be extremely worried whether they read the documents/contract properly or not. They have a duty to you and normally to the mortgage lender as well to make sure all important information are presented and there is no major issues that will be your problem later on or when you are about to sell that property or at least let you know about them so you can make an informed decision.