When will we get a completion date?

[JammyGeorge]

We are in the process of house buying and are having the usual problem of heels dragging on completion dates!

The house we are selling seems to be all in order. The house we are buying we have...

1. Written mortgage offer and valuation report through and all in order

1. Searches back all fine and one small query where the solicitor has asked for a copy of a covernance (spelling?).

1. Contract docs through including sellers info, contents form etc. which we are happy with, there was one query where they hadn't ticked a box to check about whether the cooker is staying.

When I pushed the solicitor for a completion date she got a bit shirty and said to leave it with her.

Tonight I had a knock at the door and it's our buyer, his solicitor told him we are way behind on our purchase, our searches aren't back (I've got the land registry & water searches is there something else missing?) and that there was a huge gap between to two completing!

The poor guys wife is 35 weeks pregnant and stressed out. I'm fuming as unless I'm missing something we are on the cusp of completion?

Anyone know anything about conveyancing? Am I missing something?

Obviously I'll ring the solicitor in the morning but for now I'm pacing around like a caged animal.

[meadowquark]

I am in a very similar position. My purchase is slow while my sale is (nearly) ready. I have local (council) search, drainage search and environmental search. Chancel repair search has been skipped as it is cheaper to get indemnity insurance. I am afraid there is not much more to do.. just sit tight and wait!

[JammyGeorge]

Thanks! So I'm not missing a step in the process?

I was beyond shocked to have a knock at the door and someone telling me that there was a problem with my purchase.

The solicitor said the land registry search was back and water search, no mention of an environmental search. They took the money for my searches out of our bank on 1st dec!

[RaphaellaTheSpanishWaterDog]

I can sympathise OP.....we sold (and bought) at the end of 2014 and whilst the process was quick - but not completely painless due to various issues with our buyer's solicitor and our buyer's buyer - overall, taking exactly ten weeks from offer to completion, we did encounter hold-ups caused by searches taking longer in some areas than others.

From the outset our buyer was extremely keen to have the whole process wrapped up within five weeks, which tbh we always thought to be a little optimistic. It was a short chain - our vendor, ourselves, our buyer and their buyer - but as our buyer's buyer was a charity worker based overseas, there were a few logistical paperwork issues there too.

Despite setting the searches wheels in motion very early on and all surveys /valuations being carried out within two weeks of offers being accepted, things started to grind to a halt and it was only constant email contact between myself and our buyer that kept us all sane, lol.....

Our purchase was in a different part of the country where local authority searches are renowned for raking only a couple of weeks. Our buyer's searches, however, took closer to five!

The hoped for completion date of 21st Nov slipped by and by early Dec we began to doubt we'd be in before Christmas, but these things do have a habit of coming right in the end and once we'd exchanged on 5th Dec (with completion set for 16th) we all breathed a sigh of relief.....till we realised how difficult it would be to find a removal co free that close to Christmas and all our chosen firms were fully booked.

Now we're settled in our new home that's all a distant memory......

Hopefully in a few weeks you'll be able to say the same....GL!

[PigletJohn]

until you have exchanged contracts, any dates are just dreams.

I'm sure there will be someone along to say that solicitors are not habitually slow and inefficient.

[JammyGeorge]

So in a chain do you all exchange contracts on the same day or is it I'm the order that they are ready?

[specialsubject]

OP, get on to your solicitor and demand to know what is really happening, and that if there is confusion, it is sorted TODAY.

if she gets rude, remind her who is paying and speak to her boss.

you don't complete until you exchange. Find out what is going on now.

BTW the whole chain exchanges on the same day, that fixes it all to complete a week or two later.

[JammyGeorge]

Spoken to solicitor. As expected all is in order, there is no problem!

We are going down to sign on Monday as are our buyers. The vendors of the house we are moving too have had the contract docs posted out to them so we are looking at exchange of contracts middle of next week!

For some reason when the buyers solicitor rang ours yesterday afternoon the solicitors secretary told him our purchase was miles behind our sale, when it isn't!

At least it's sorted now.

Once you've exchanged is there a time limit on when you have to complete?

[pilates]

I would speak to your Solicitor and ask if there is anything outstanding as you had your buyer on the doorstep saying there was a delay on the purchase. Perhaps your solicitor is waiting for replies to enquiries raised on the paperwork. I wouldn't rely on what your buyers say speak to your own Solicitor.

[pilates]

Sorry my post crossed with yours. Glad you got it sorted. All parties in the chain need to agree a completion date before you exchange.

[specialsubject]

good news.

no, no time limit between exchange and completion, but your next step is to decide when you would like to complete (=move: have you got provisional bookings for removers?) and propose that.

take control, everyone dozes off otherwise. Your solicitor should have been asking you this.

[JammyGeorge]

Yes it's good news.

We are easy on a completion date but our buyer is getting very stressed and pushing for next Friday (a week today).

I've said that's fine by us but it needs sorting through the solicitors as I don't know if it's fine by our vendor.

I've not booked time off work or removals as the solicitor won't discuss completion dates until we have exchanged contracts.

It's not us that are getting het up about it, it's our buyer. I think he's told his buyer that they will exchange contracts on Monday and complete Friday and he's going to have to move in with family until our completes which seems absolute madness if it might only be a few days.

It all seems like a storm in a teacup to me, the solicitors need to tell them all to behave themselves and exchange/complete on the same day as there is no reason not too!

Arrrrrrrgh

[specialsubject]

the solicitor won't discuss completion dates until we have exchanged contracts

WHAT?? you can't exchange without agreeing a completion date!!

Who is this solicitor? Is she really a solicitor? Why won't she discuss with you, the paying client?

pushing it to get removals at a weeks notice...

[JammyGeorge]

This is all a mystery to me!

When I've spoken to her in the past she's refused to discuss completion until XYZ is done, not even indicate.

When we spoke today she made an appointment for us to go in on Monday and sign papers and said we could discuss a completion date then.

I've since spoken to the estate agent who explained we all sign the papers then the solicitors exchange them all when they are all signed. I didn't realise this, I thought once we'd signed that was it.

So maybe it's me getting confused! I now think Monday we sign, say when we'd like to move and if everyone agrees then we exchange.

The meeting Monday should sort it all out.

We've already got a lot of our stuff in storage so will have no bother hiring a smaller van to do the removals, luckily.

I thought everything was going smoothly until last night!

[specialsubject]

you've got a useless and stroppy solicitor. Part of their job is to guide you through the process, recognising that most people don't buy a house vry often.

you signing the papers indicates you agree all the details (fixtures and fittings, price etc). With those, the searches, the survey and so on all checked, completion date agreed and with everyone's finance in place, exchange can then be done.

the solicitor is also responsible for checking you have all the right paperwork and checks. Ref the other thread where the solicitor let exchange happen with an outstanding debt on the property.

remind the solicitor who is paying, and don't hesitate to take a complaint to her boss.