What stage are searches applied for? Before or after draft contracts are drawn up?

simon_or

doingitanyway said:

My vendor has applied for searches and the EA suggests I do the same to get things going. But I am not sure if this should be done before or after draft contracts are drawn up? Thanks for your comments.

As others have said above, once the chain is complete.

"Vendor will go into rented if needed" is bandied about by estate-agents willy nilly to get the buyer invested in the purchase, always take that with a pinch of salt and make your own mind up on the likelihood of that being true based on what you can gather.

Tiglet2

To answer your question simply, most solicitors will order the searches after they have received the draft contract.  Solicitors will ask for monies to be put on account so that the money is available for them to order searches as soon as the draft contract comes in.

However as others have pointed out, it's best to have received your mortgage offer and have a complete chain before you start spending money. 

Noneforit999

As said, it can be done anytime.

People often wait until they have a mortgage offer in full before spending money on searches but if you are confident the mortgage should be ok then you can order them early on.

Enquiries tend to depend on the searches so the earlier you can get them, the earlier the enquires can be raised etc etc