Get some sense into me - how long it took you to buy a house as a FTB

GDB2222

KSS1991 said:

Just looking for experiences of others - how long it took you to buy your first house? ***from the point the offer is accepted***
Our situation - FTB (no chain) buying a probate house (no onward chain) 4 months and counting due to probate not being granted. 
Wondering how long is the average process in general?

I think you should be insisting on answers to some detailed questions about the probate application:

What was the application date?
Submitted electronically or on a paper form? (Apparently, a 5 weeks delay until paper forms are scanned at the moment.)
Have they had anything back yet? If so, what and when? 

Date any queries were answered? 

You clearly don’t need to know the ins and outs of family Matters, but you do need to know that probate has been applied for and any issues are being dealt with.

I can understand that the vendors may be affronted by this, particularly if the answer to your questions is that they have been slow. 

It can take several months to get probate at the moment, and the Registry won’t answer any questions until at least 16 weeks after application. 

GDB2222

Oh, and I do hope that you are looking round the market still, as prices seem to be dropping.

london21

It varies but usually 2-6 months. 

Sunsaru

For me it seemed like ages but in truth mine only took 4 months. I was a FTB buying an ex rental so no chain.

KSS1991

Thanks all for the answers. I wish there was like the 'maximum' time limit for the sale,i.e. 6months and then at least I would know it will happen at latest at 6months mark. Now it really can be forever no one knows. Very annoying but all we can do is wait. There is nothing else to match the house on the market at all. Seems like it has stalled for sure and only very very crappy/ overpriced houses on the market at the moment. So it is worth the wait as we dont have another option (at all)

ArbitraryRandom

In my experience, these things stall until they suddenly happen. You might be surprised how quickly things can happen overnight. 

But, if you set yourself a limit of 6 months, then it could be some better properties come onto the market between now and then - worth keeping your eyes open. 

KSS1991

We are 4 months in already.... 🙈

TBG01

KSS1991 said:

Thanks all for the answers. I wish there was like the 'maximum' time limit for the sale,i.e. 6months and then at least I would know it will happen at latest at 6months mark. 

The people that would advocate for this, would be the same people to moan about how they've missed out on their dream house because they went over the 6 months.

SensibleSarah

Bought my house as FTB in 2010. Chain-free - probate had already been granted so I hoped it would be fairly straightforward. It wasn't. 
Took around 8 months from offer acceptance to completion. Multiple problems along the way - including the freehold house turning out to be leasehold really late in the day (at least it was an old-style leasehold), the lenders losing multiple pieces of paperwork I'd sent them that caused delays, a structural issue on the lender's survey that the vendors kept trying to insist I paid to fix (I didn't and couldn't have), vendors making mistakes on forms when they didn't know the answers so just seemed to make stuff up, and the vendors also refusing to empty the property before completion (they were not local, which they seemed to believe absolved them of any responsbility). 

In the end, I moved into a house half-full of the late old lady's stuff - including her toothbrush in the bathroom, hair in the plughole, furniture in every room etc. Spent the 3 days of crossover I had between picking up keys and moving out of rented house trying to dispose of all her old stuff and cleaning rather than decorating as planned, but I just needed the whole thing to be over. 

I learned a lot from the process