How long between questions answered and exchange?

[CrapBag]

Mortgage offer done, surveys back and questions went off to the vendors solicitors just over a week ago. I was hoping to complete around the 20th of this month.

I said this to my solicitor but because I 'suspended' the account and he was not able to do any work on it until July the 17th he said this month is unlikely. Basically I wouldn't pay for the surveys until we had our mortgage offer. Given how we are only waiting on the responses, surely it won't take that long? Our buyer is ready to exchange and getting anxious about it now, I am fed up and just want to move and get it done now. Our solicitor said he will try for this month but he doubts it.

Once the questions are back, how long will it actually be before exchange?

Unfortunately the enquiries sometimes do take a long time. Obviously it depends on the responses and whether the other solicitor is able to provide all relevant documentation and permissions etc. If title deeds/plan are correct and all paperwork requested is forthcoming then hopefully exchange won't be too far away, but, this is often not the case. Any query over title, searches and works done to the property need to be answered in full by the vendor's solicitor to the satisfaction of your solicitor and this can be quite a lengthy process.

are you searches back?
what is the actual hold? Who is waiting for what?

not sure why you 'suspended' things or what that means, but now - keep chasing.

Could be same day , could take longer depending on the replies and if further action or enquiry is needed. Have the searches been returned satisfactorily ? What do you mean you "suspended" the account ? You won't get a formal mortgage offer without a survey valuing the property and cannot proceed to exchange without this in place.

The searches are all back. Our mortgage offer is in place. We are ready to exchange on our sale.

We had to pull out of our previous purchase and lost £800. We had paid for all of the searches straight away and we had trouble getting the mortgage on the type of house it was and we ended up walking away. With the new mortgage rules in place, we decided (and I asked on here if it was the right thing to do) that we wouldn't pay for the next lot of searches until we had a mortgage offer. We informed the solicitors of this and this is what he means when he said we 'suspended' our account and wouldn't let him do any work. Now he is saying this purchase has only been officially going since the 17th July because that is when I paid for the searches, the day our mortgage offer came in.

The only thing we are waiting for is the questions. I guess it is a case of hold on because it may take a while. I hope not really. My solicitor did say he was going to chase them up on Friday. Ours were back in 6 days on our sale.

Your solicitor will only be able to ask questions of the seller's solicitor when the draft paperwork has been received. Has your solicitor received the draft contract, title deeds/plan, fixtures & fittings and property information form from the seller's solicitors and have you had copies? His questions will be based around this information with the usual right to raise further enquiries should it be necessary. If you've had a survey, was there anything revealed on that you would wish to query? As I said in my previous post, if the replies to the queries are answered in full (and with accompanying paperwork/permissions etc), there is no reason for exchange to be delayed, but if there are gaps in the replies or paperwork missing, then the replies to the questions can be a long process. If the house you are buying has had alterations and improvements, then expect your solicitor to require planning permission, building regulations approval and guarantees etc from the seller.

Yes everything has been done and received so the questions are based on that and the survey. Just frustrating when we wanted to move this month and we had an offer accepted on this at the end of June but the solicitor is saying it hasn't been 'active' until the 17th July, when I paid for the searches.