Draft property report & report on mortgage

[whereischiomunk]

We are in the process of buying a house but we are having trouble getting information (we understand) out of our solicitor in terms of how far along we are in the process. We have asked for estimated exchange/ completion dates but haven't had a reply yet.

Can anyone who understands the process more than me let me know at what stage this happens? Most recent email from solicitor said:

"I have drafted your property report and report on mortgage and will be sending you documents for signing shortly" (this was a week ago, nothing since.)

Does that happen after all enquiries have been answered? Would that be the final thing before exchange or would more need to happen?

When I got those things I was still months away from completion. It depends how good your solicitor is. If they're as bad as mine ("Simply Conveyancing" - fingers-crossed you are not using them) you have to keep chasing, you have to make it more inconvenient for them to ignore you than for them to actually do the work.

In my experience the survey, mortgage report, flood risk report, radon report and so on were completed within a couple of weeks of me making an offer on the property. There was then a load of back and forth between my solicitor and the seller's because mine wanted to ask lots of seemingly irrelevant questions.

In theory if you have the property report and mortgage sorted, and the seller is prompt with their information, and the survey is done, exchange could take place within a week or two. Or if your solicitor is as shit as mine was, several months.

It's frustrating how little some of them care, so you just have to keep chasing them.

Thanks for the reply. We have the surveys done. So from what you're saying the enquiries back and forth with the vendors solicitor may have not happened yet?

We're buying with no chain.
Search reports came back fairly quickly
Then enquiries.... This is the bit that has seemed to take forever. I think the solicitor has a different definition of shortly to mine. When I got the email saying they'd send the reports shortly I thought he actually meant shortly... Not two weeks later, or whatever it was
I'm at the stage where I'm expecting a call with a date any day now. All enquiries are done and they just need to come up with a date. They know that both us and the seller are keen for ASAP
Offer was accepted beginning of April if that helps

If you can get in touch with the vendor (not their agent/solicitor) and see what they know. Sometimes this things get held up as any one of the number of parties in between have filed the papers somewhere "helpful". We waited ages to exchange "because of covid and buyers being elderly" turns out buyers were desperate to move and were a young couple!!