Need a bit of advice with timings

firsttimebuyerhelpme

I’m just after a little help with timings really, I haven’t posted on here since purchasing our first property back in 2020, which was a little different as we were first time buyers buying an empty property. Purchase went through in 8 weeks from viewing to keys and we exchanged and completed on the same day!

This time round we are selling our house to FTB and our purchase is an empty ex rental. 

Just for a bit of a timeline 
23/1 Our house sold 
24/1 Offer accepted on our purchase 
5/2 Our mortgage offer came through 
15/3 Searches back and enquiries raised (there was an issue with sending the contract pack so it took a little while longer than we’d have liked) 

We've been informed our buyers are ready to go so we emailed our solicitor and asked if we can start floating some ideas of completion dates to our buyers (as they are in rented accommodation) but they’ve said we can’t until the enquiries have been answered. We’d really like completion to be 12th April due to my partner being on annual leave then (we are moving over an hour away) so will just make logistics easier. Does anyone have any idea if that’s likely or even possible? Is there any harm in us suggesting a potential date to our buyers anyway even though our solicitors said to wait until enquiries are back? And in terms of exchange, do we just do this as soon as the enquiries are back? 

In terms of the enquiries. The estate agent has chased our vendors solicitors and they were just waiting on a boiler certificate which she has sent them this morning so hoping we will have them back soon. 

Feel free to tell me to just calm down! We’re also waiting to sort daughters schools as she starts secondary school in September and the sooner we can exchange the sooner her school place can be sorted so the sooner the better really. 

FlyMeSomewhere79

Having just recently been through the exchange and completion process myself, i can't see why you can suggest the 12th if all solicitors are now happy that everything is in place plus it sounds like your buyers don't need to give a months notice to a landlord or anything if they are ready to go. 

lika_86

Sounds tight but might be doable. It really depends how quickly the responses to enquiries come back and how satisfactory they are. Then your solicitor will need to report on title to you, you will need to sign everything and confirm you're happy. Exchange will need to take place with sufficient time allowed for drawdown of funds.

Mark_d

The next step will be for your solicitors to review the responses to the enquiries.  If all is ok then you can arrange your completion date.  If there are issues, your solicitors might need to raise further enquiries, or you/they might want to negotiate with the seller for price reduction/indemnity insurance etc.

Why the rush to agree the 12 April date?  It looks there's a fair chance you can complete by 12 April but I think you want to avoid making agreements which might need to change.  Perhaps you can communicate, to the estate agents, that you're aiming for completion on 12 April.

If enquiries are ok then your solicitors will need to agree contracts; you will need to get the contracts signed and witnessed and have the completion date agreed; you might need to transfer money for your deposit.  And then the contracts can be exchanged.  How long do you take all this will take?  There is often a week between exchange and completion but there's no reason why there things can't happen on the same day.

Do your solicitors know that you are aiming for completion on 12 April?

firsttimebuyerhelpme

Our deposit is coming from the sale of our house. 

There isn’t any real rush per se, it would just make it easier for school applications if we can do it sooner rather than later. I guess I am just a little impatient! I am hoping we will maybe be able to start looking at dates soon, maybe the 12th April may be a bit of a rush but we will let people know that’s what we potentially want. 

Thanks folks! 

badger09

I think you are being impatient but it’s understandable. 12th April is tight, given the Bank Holiday weekend. Is there any reason you want to complete on a Friday? If not I’d go for midweek for lots of reasons. 

There’s no problem floating possible dates but be careful not to raise your buyers expectations if your solicitor is not yet ready to exchange. Your EA says your vendor’s solicitors were waiting for a boiler cert which has now been sent but more importantly, what is your solicitor waiting for?

firsttimebuyerhelpme

Thanks for your advice!
We’ve now received final responses to our enquiries so once our solicitor acknowledges them then we should be moving along nicely. 

No real reason for a Friday completion except obviously having the weekend off for moving purposes is very helpful, due to our jobs last minute annual leave is impossible unfortunately so timing it with my other half being off already is better for us.