Private sale - any tips to complete before stamp duty deadline?

[OscarandLucinda]

We have the opportunity to buy a house via a private sale. We are in rented and there is no onward chain. AIP with Halifax but otherwise not started anything else eg searches.
We have a solicitor lined up from a previous failed purchase so have done the ID checks etc.
Would appreciate any tips on anything we could do to try and make the stamp duty deadline? Call around other solicitors and see who might be most proactive? Any advice welcome

@PomPomSugar

Please do not chase your solicitor daily. It really does not help!

Quite.

Do, however respond immediately to any requests for info, ask if there is anything outstanding or that you can get ready or prepared for, and give them any updates.

Thank you everyone. Just updating for anyone else in same situation - we are still hopeful as mortgage application approved and advised couple of weeks for valuation, same for searches.

We must be in a lucky area but waiting for something will come up to bugger up the timeline!

I wish you luck OP, going to be very tight to get in before 31 March. We sold SSTC in Oct, chain of 3, none of us require a mortgage, we are hoping to exchange next week or the week after, it just takes so long, solicitors are so busy, councils are busy so this can cause delays on searches etc. We waited 4 weeks for our survey! I hope you manage to complete by the deadline, personally I think they may grant an extension, but it’s wise to have a contingency just incase. Good luck OP.

I think the average number of weeks for a sale to go through is 8-12 without COVID thrown in to the mix!

We had offer accepted mid November. We are FTB and it’s a vacant property as vendors inherited another house.
Mortgage offer came through just before Christmas. Surveyor had covid so that delayed things a little bit. Searches came through last week. We are probably looking at early feb to exchange/complete.
We have had Christmas so that’s slowed things down a little bit it will still be 2.5-3 months for a straight forward sale.
You say mortgage approved but then valuation still to be done? So you haven’t actually had a mortgage offer yet? What if they value the property at far less than you are buying it for? That seems to be quite common at the moment. Then there will be enquiries from the searches which will require a bit of back and forth. Have you had a survey done on the house to pick up on any unhidden issues?

Rose thank you - yes I think there may well be some sort of extension eg maybe for those that have exchanged before the deadline. I’m hoping that a single transaction will be even more straightforward and vendor is moribund

Brie thanks that is a good comparison - I guess we have around 2.5 months so maybe can just make it - might need to exchange and complete same day though!
Yes sorry meant we have been approved for the mortgage from our side, but not the property yet. I hope the valuation is ok - I don’t think the vendor would negotiate if not. A few properties in the same specific area have gone through recently so I would assume not much to come up on the searches? It’s a local solicitor and he doesn’t seem to have any concerns about this. Neighbours house is extended as far as is humanely possible so at least not too worried about that!

• motivated, not moribund