Solicitor's Enquiries

Panda126

Hi all,

Can someone tell me how long it should take for the buyer’s solicitor to send enquiries to our solicitors?

The searches came back over two weeks ago, the buyer’s mortgage offer is ready and we’ve been waiting almost two weeks now for their solicitor to send the enquiries and they keep saying that either they’re ready to send or they are under review. Our solicitor is waiting for the searches and now I feel like they just delaying the whole process and our developer is waiting for us to exchange the contracts – but to do it we have to exchange with the buyers first. We are afraid that the developer will lose their patience and they pull out. Is there anything we can do?

trakky14

Unfortunately this is the worst part of conveyancing...not a lot you can do except chase solicitors. 2 weeks isn't unusual...the actual enquiry stage could be weeks or months depending on the various solicitors involved. All you can do is chase yourselves or ask estate agents who are involved to chase on your behalf too. It's the most frustrating part of buying or selling!

housebuyer143

That's not too long. Our buyers solicitor took 3 weeks to reply to every email. 

lika_86

Are your sale and purchase linked? Your post mentions a few things, your solicitor is waiting for searches? Do you mean enquiries from your buyer or a pack containing searches for your purchase? Also, assuming your transactions are linked, all exchanges will happen on the same day, you don't exchange on your purchase first.

If you think things are happening slowly then get onto your estate agent to chase up the buyer's solicitor. 

Panda126

lika_86 said:

Are your sale and purchase linked? Your post mentions a few things, your solicitor is waiting for searches? Do you mean enquiries from your buyer or a pack containing searches for your purchase? Also, assuming your transactions are linked, all exchanges will happen on the same day, you don't exchange on your purchase first.

If you think things are happening slowly then get onto your estate agent to chase up the buyer's solicitor. 

Yes they are linked as we are using money from the sale as deposit for our new property. Our solicitor is waiting for the enquiries not searches sorry I made a mistake here.
The developer wanted to exchange contracts in October but we are still waiting for our buyer so we are worried what will happen if the developer find out about the delay. We've been chasing last two weeks but it didn't help. The new house isn't ready yet, it is predicted to be finished in January.

RM_2013

We are in a similar position.  As far as I can tell all enquiries have been answered for our sale but we only had searches back on our purchase last week so enquiries being raised but no idea how many have been raised and how long will take

trakky14

You are a long way off exchanging contracts if searches are still not back...your solicitor should be able to give you an estimate date for those being back, then they will raise enquiries (usually). The developers are being unreasonable if completion date is not till next year.

Waunakee

trakky14 said:

You are a long way off exchanging contracts if searches are still not back...your solicitor should be able to give you an estimate date for those being back, then they will raise enquiries (usually). The developers are being unreasonable if completion date is not till next year.

Poster corrected the information in a subsequent post....searches are in fact back and the solicitor is awaiting enquiries.

Enquiries can sometimes be the lengthiest part of the conveyancing process as you wait for all parties to play ping pong back and forth until everyone is satisfied.

As new builds are often delayed for a variety of reasons are you confident that your buyers are happy to proceed to exchange without a fixed completion date.I presume a long stop date would be inserted to coincide with the expiration of their mortgage offer.

Always tricky with a new build in the chain.