Any conveyancers out there? Advice needed please

[bananatrifle]

We put an offer in on a house mid August which was accepted. We currently rent privately and the vendors are happy to move out mid October. We have given our month's notice to our letting agent, thinking that we would be moving this month (fair enough? - two months after the offer was accepted?)

However, due to personal circumstances on the vendor's part, they only sent their paperwork back to their solicitor last Friday and the contract package has now been sent off to our solicitor.

I've now been told by our solicitor that it will take 6 weeks for completion from receipt of these papers.

Please tell me, that can't be right, can it?

All other stuff has been done (don't know about the searches though) - mortgage offer from the lender been received, valuation done, our ID checks done, our purchase of property questionnaire - what else is there to do? Does it really take 6 weeks for the contract to be sorted out?

I was feeling quite calm about the move, but have shot up into feeling very stressed mode. For lots of reasons we need to move out of here this month.

Help.

Anyone? :)

Retract your notice but be honest with your landlord - personally, I would not give notice until I have exchanged contracts and have a completion date agreed within 1/2 weeks after. An overlap of 2 weeks is less stressful/cheaper than having to move into a hotel and putting stuff in storage temporarily.

Yes, thanks for the advice - I think we're going to have to do that. I was hoping we'd be having the overlap of 2 weeks in October, but I think it'll have to be November.

I just wondered if what our solicitor told us was right....it'll take another 6 weeks........

Hmmmm

We exchanged and completed around 28 days from agreement of offer so it can be done quicker.

You'll need to chase your solicitors a lot though and so will the vendors. It only worked in our case because there was no chain, just us and the vendors and both sides were committed to getting it done asap so we made sure paperwork was passed on and signed very quickly.

Agree with Myron's advice that you should only give notice once you've exchange. There will always be things you want to do to the new house and an overlap will give you the chance to paint/recarpet in an empty house.

Yes, we're in the same position as you were threeisthemagicnumber so I thought moving by mid October was being realistic in terms of time allowed.

Just not sure what else to say to my solicitor as she seems convinced it's going to take another 6 weeks once they've received contract package from the vendor's solicitor. Just sounds very excessive really.

Beginning to really get me down.

I'm not a conveyancer but I have moved a few times . Pay your solicitors enough and they'll work faster but the vendor's solicitors have to work faster too and it sounds like your vendors don't really want to move as quickly. It's possible to exchange and comlete the same day and/or to move in after exchange but before completion.

Personally I'd plan on moving mid November and tell the vendor (rather more politely) that the sale may fall through if they dither too much.

You need to contact your Landlord and tell him/her what has happened.

You could end up homeless and all your things in storage. This will incur double removal costs. We did this voluntarily and lived in a hotel for 3 weeks as we desperately needed to get out of our old house and the vendors of the house we were buying wanted time to find a rental property.

You should only ever give notice when you have actually exchanged. My friend was buying and the vendor was in a car accident so everything ground to a halt.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

The estate agent (who also works in the same company as the vendor's solicitor) has admitted that the first 3/4 weeks have been lost due to the vendors not sending paperwork back on time. They have told me they were willing to move out mid October, but due to personal stuff going on for them they didn't return the paperwork when they should have done.

I'll have to email the letting agents for our house and ask them if we can stay on for a few more weeks paying a daily rate.

Thought it was supposed to be easier when there was no chain involved. Feel completely as though I've run out of steam.

It should not take 6 weeks between exchange of contracts and completion. 2 weeks is plenty in most cases, surely? 7 working days in between exchange and completion sometimes needed for mortgage drawdown purposes, and obtaining acceptable buildings cover but I am not sure much else goes on during this interim period.

Are contracts ready to be exchanged?

Solicitors associated with estate agents, sadly, are notoriously crap :(

PS I do know how you feel banana, you have my sympathy - it's really irritating and continually deflating to have your purchase dragged out for eternity. Been there, done that!

We originally sale agreed mid July. Then waited for the buyers to organize a survey for a few weeks before it finally came about they couldn't proceed due to lack of funds. :( They came back a couple of weeks later in mid August with parental assistance & we agreed to proceed with them again. A week later we sale agreed on a house for us & our lender was super speedy getting the survey done on that place within a few days. Our buyers didn't get theirs done for another few weeks. Then they decided they didn't want to use the same solicitors as us & insisted we change. This really threw a spanner in the works as the new solicitors are really sh!t. :( It took a month before they even acknowledged receipt of the memorandum of sale. Things have finally started moving & I have now received a letter with 19 questions from the buyers solicitors about my house. Most of these are related to paperwork regarding work completed years prior to my purchase which I have no information on. Feel like im banging my head against a brick wall! At this rate our mortgage offer will expire before we move. :(

I really hope your landlord lets you stay on a bit longer OP. For future reference NEVER give in notice until you have exchanged & have a move date.

Really appreciate your messages - it's incredibly frustrating to say the least and we just feel like no one's been completely straight with us. It's that feeling of powerlessness I think. It seems eons ago we eventually found the house we wanted and put our offer in, and could imagine ourselves living there and now I just want to say "f... it all, we're pulling out". But, I know that would just be cutting my nose off ........

I agree narmada that 6 weeks does sound too long. Our solicitor is saying she's waiting for the contract package from the vendors. Once it arrives she saying it'll take another 6 weeks to complete. This is what I've been questioning. I thought 6-8 weeks from start to finish is the norm, especially given that we have nothing to sell our end. The contract package should be with her by now but I have been assured and reassured it's on its way to her. I just don't know what to do.

Sympathies to you Sparkle. House buying is up there along side divorce and death for stress levels, but I'm not convinced if much of it is really necessary. It all makes what should be an exciting, but nervous time, into a complete ball of frustration and hanging around. I hope it goes ok for you.

I have bought & sold 8 or 9 times now. (Lose track) & every transaction took 4 months from accepting/making the offer until moving. The only exception to this being when we exchanged & completed on the same day & HIP's were in use. It still took 3 months even then.

There is simply no need for it to take so long whatsoever. Its all to do with solicitors being cr@p dragging things out in an attempt to justify their massive fee for doing pretty much f**k all!

I hope things work out for you soon bananatrifle. :)

Having worked for a mortgage brokers as an advisor/underwriter I will say that not all solicitors are crap. Sometimes there are other reasons for delays. However, there are times when solicitors need a kick to get them moving but without knowing case history I would think it is hard to determine.

The contract package from the vendor's solicitors (finally) arrived at our solicitor's today. Have asked for some kind of reasonable time scale from now until completion.

Luckily, our letting agents have been very helpful with all of this and it looks like we can stay here into November on a pro rata basis. So, things are perhaps not as bleak as I was thinking.

Would really love to be able to move over half term though, that was the dream, as we have time off work that week and the kids can have time to settle in too before the mad rush of going to work and school and coming home in the dark begins again.

Gonzo I agree, I have heard of transactions which have been done within reasonable time limits and gone smoothly to boot, which only goes to show it can be done. Our experience, unfortunately, has just shown us first hand that we seem to fall within the majority of unhappy customers who are being dealt with remotely by people who don't really care about the effects long drawn out delays have on you.

And charge a fortune to boot.

Hey ho.

Really, do ask the solicitor what is preventing a 2 week completion. You're paying them for their work after all.

I have asked a few times already, why it has to be 6 weeks and once she just directed me to their website which explains the process (none of which means much to me as I'm not in that line of work) and another time she replied 'in my experience that's how long it takes'.

Think I'll have to be the squeaky wheel. But, a direct question like you suggest sounds like a good idea to me. Thanks

Well you lot clearly all hate conveyancers so I'm reluctant to admit I am one....

Ask: has the local search been done and how long, exactly, does that take? (It varies from authority to authority)
Is the package from the sellers complete? People sometimes miss stuff out... then you can get the estate agents to chase the sellers as well.
What is wrong with the contract, if anything? Get her to admit it's agreed, and then ask for a copy to sign
Has your solicitor had instructions from your lender? (this can take a while, chase the lender)
Is she doing things sequentially or simultaneously? By this I mean, does she wait for the search to come in before she considers the contract and the replies from the seller?
Have you sent the deposit? This often seems to take about a week to arrive in the solicitors' client account. You will not get much interest on it, but I don't suppose you are getting that great a rate anywhere at the moment.

Yes, you can exchange faster than 6 weeks, but everyone needs to be up for it. Searches and lenders are the external factors most likely to delay things.

When you chase, phone is harder to ignore than email. Ask what the next step is and when it will be done. If someone says "nothing can happen till the search arrives on the 12th" then leave them in peace till the 12th.

And if you are renting a removal van to move all your stuff I would advise a month between exchange and completion, personally. I think you need the certainty of the move date, and time to get things like a phone line organised etc. I moved once on 2 weeks between exchange and completion and I found it terribly stressful - and I know the process like the back of my hand and the work was being done by a mate.

Thank you for that Fridayschild. I just thought that the whole process should have only taken up to 8 weeks (from the time our offer was accepted mid August) at the most considering there's no chain our end and no chain the other end either.

I know that the reason there has been a hold up til now is due to the vendors not returning their paperwork (they had a family bereavement in week 4) but I just couldn't get my head around it now needing another 6 weeks til completion from the date (today) our solicitor received the contract package from the vendors.

By 'instructions from our lender' do you mean the lender has sent the agreement to our solicitor? In which case, yes, that has happened.

Don't know the answers to the other things you raise, so I will ask those things.

Many thanks for your help.

these days much of the paperwork can be done online, although not every solicitor does that, so things like searches can often be done very quickly. Most of the delay arises because solicitors handle more than one case and yours may not be the priority. They (or actually the clerk who does the work) aren't always terribly good at doing things at the right time.

6-8 weeks start to finish is certainly not the norm, 3 months is a more reasonable estimate and longer if you've used a cheap solicitor.

I disagree I think a chain free move can be completed in 6-8 weeks in most cases, if the vendor and purchaser are keen. I have dealt with many of these purchases as a mortgage broker in the past and found that this has been the case.

OP did the lender out any specific conditions on the mortgage apart from buildings insurance? As it may take some time to gather the information the lender needs before they will allow drawdown.

Fridayschild is right though, if they truly cannot do anything until x date then there really is no point harrassing them inbetween (that is how they will see it anyway)

Gonzo - I haven't seen anything about specific conditions from the lender. What kind of things do you mean?

It's a bit of a minefield, one way or another.

The last time we moved we exchanged and completed in two days, things can be done quickly.

That sounds incredible Notmost, was it a bit too quick??

We've given our letting agents a date we're hoping to be out by (luckily we can stay here into November pro rata) in November - 13th. Ooh. Hopefully it'll not be an unlucky day. Hadn't thought about that!! It's not a Friday though.

(Not that I'm relying on every good vibe passing to make this happen or anything)