Instructing solicitor (FTB)

TomCruiseFan

Hi,

FTB here.

We received the draft contract pack and management pack from the seller's solicitor. My solicitor asked me:

"Would you prefer me to review the pack first and then order searches? or order searches straight away now?"

Reviewing the pack takes a week at the latest he said.

What is the most sensible way forward?

clairec666

The solicitor could/should have made it clearer to you - usually you have to pay a non-refundable sum (£300 in my case) to conduct searches. So if you order searches now, then he reviews the pack and finds you something that puts you off buying the property, you won't get that money back.

But searches can take a long time, depending on your area, so it can be beneficial to order them straight away to get things moving. Check on https://www.propertysearchesdirect.co.uk/turnaround-warnings to get an idea of how long it might take.

Bigphil1474

As above, it's all about speed. If you crack on with searches now, it will speed things up but you can end up wasting money. If you aren't in a rush, e.g. if the seller is still looking for a property, you'd be better off waiting until the pack is reviewed.

RelievedSheff

It depends how quickly you (and the rest of the chain) want to move.

We ordered the searches straight away but if you are not in any great hurry there is some merit in waiting until the packs are reviewed for if anything that might be or become a problem is highlighted.

HouseHuntingAmy

Hopeful FTB reading ahead here - this is exactly the kind of fork I wouldnt have known to expect, so this thread is an education.

The money framing seems to be the crux: £300-400 of search fees is real money, but small next to the purchase, while three lost weeks on a slow council search matters far more if the rest of the chain is ready to move. So as the others have said, the deciding question is the sellers position - somewhere to move to means order now, still looking means wait for the review.

One thing that might be worth asking the solicitor: is there a middle path where they give the pack a quick red-flag scan (a day, not the full week) while the searches are already running? That way a genuine deal-breaker surfaces early without holding everything up. No idea whether solicitors actualy offer that, but it sounds like the best of both. And the turnaround-time link further up is going straight in the bookmarks folder.

Albermarle

Many people also delay searches until they see the results of the survey. Although as said above it depends how much urgency there is.

lfc321

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82167084#Comment_82167084

It isn't going to take the solicitor a week to go through the pack: that's just how long it will take to get to the top of their pile. So there won't be a middle way here, and they won't want to advise on a purchase based on a quick scan - they'll need to read it properly.

Unless there's a mad rush, I would personally wait to order the searches until everything else looks in order (management packs in particular can contain nasty surprises in relation to fees etc).