House buying question

[pollyannaparrott]

No idea where to post this sorry!

Just wondered, anyone who has bought a house recently....how long after the searches were done did you complete? We had notification last week that the searches are now back and I was led to believe that was the longest wait in the process. We started back in October and am eager to get in the new house asap.

So does anyone know what comes next in the process and how much longer we may have to wait now? Thank you :)

Bump

There's a whole forum for property and diy which you might find useful.

Now your solicitor needs to review the searches and draw your attention to the findings. You then review and if you're happy sign the contract (undated) and return to your solicitor. They will confirm you're happy to exchange once everyone else is in the same place, as long as the mortgage offer is in place, your funds are proven and available for deposit, and that the results of the searches are ok. That's a lot of IFs!

On my simplest purchase (I bought an empty flat, the owner already lived in another house), it took around 3-4 weeks from that point. It can take days, it can take months.

Honestly it will depend on your conveyancer. We really had to do a lot of chasing with ours.

We offered in August, we completed 20th December. There was no chain, so it was very annoying that it took so long. I think the searches were back in October.

Hi OP, I moved last summer when market was frantic! We completed within 3 weeks of searches coming back. There were no complicated enquiries arising off the back of them (nor did our buyers raise very much from our sale). So quite straightforward from there! Chain of 4.

Oh wow I thought we were nearing the end now! All official mortgage offers in place, deposit sat waiting in the bank and there is also no chain so on paper it sounds quite straightforward but it does sound like there are still quite a few bits to do. Our solicitors have been pretty good so far. I will contact them for an update of what else there is to do.

Oh, with no chain and funds in place you should be very near the end (assuming no weird enquiries). I'd be trying to float a completion date.

Absolutely. Give them a date of six weeks from today and see what they say.

We offered beginning of March and completed at the end of June. Chain of 5 with us at the top buying a vacant possession. Searches were OK until the person at the bottom of the chain (first time buyer) got cold feet about an indemnity policy to cover a missing piece of paperwork for the garage conversion on the property she was buying. We were looking at completion dates and I think she just panicked. Worked out in the end, but it did delay things a bit. You do have to take a deep breath and try to factor these things in - it’s rarely straightforward so difficult to put a timescale on it.

Also I would chase your solicitor. If it’s as straightforward as you say, they shouldn’t be dragging it out.

Depends on so many other things.
Offer accepted here end of Sept (FTB) and not in yet. Solicitors do things like not realise they have had the formal mortgage offer and just sit waiting for it, when it was sent to them weeks before. Depends on if a survey is commissioned, and how long it takes them to actually share their findings. Then if those findings result in re-negotiations. Solicitors do things like sending out documents with dozens upon dozens of things wrong in them....wrong sale amount agreed, wrong name or buyer.... fairly crucial just guessed (?it seems?) info about the house which was clearly all wrong even to non-professionals eyes.
Really difficult to guess a date for completion.