Maya, I am not a solicitor, but am involved in a surprising number of property transactions as a result of winding up my mother's estate.
What normally happens, and I am more than happy to be corrected, is that there, what might be three tracks.
- Mortgage offer. You fill out lots of forms, the mortgage company send in a surveyor to do a valuation (you can also do your own homebuyers or structural survey) and eventually (lots of Covid delays) you get an offer.
- Searches. Your solicitor lodges these with the local authority. Some Local Authorities are being very slow.
- The contractual/conveyancing stuff. In my experience the vendor's solicitor asks the purchasers solicitor whether they are content to use standard forms, ie contract and questionnaire, which includes all sorts of things like are there problems with the neighbours, and whether carpets and curtains and white goods will be included. Once received, the purchasers solicitors will raise questions. If it is an older property there may be obscure covenants, or if the boiler was not serviced recently they may ask for some form of indemnity, or for FENSA certificates for new windows, and, and, and. The will obviously have to check title and so on. Your solicitors are also almost certainly working for the mortgage company so would have things to do for them once the mortgage offer is in. The contract can be signed at any point, but should not be exchanged until all the queries have been sorted.
(4) If it is a flat there will be another set of work requiring information from the management company (some of whom can also be very slow.)
In normal circumstances you might choose to do the three stages sequentially. Then,, if you don't get your mortgage offer you don't waste money on searches etc. But these are not normal times.
I am assuming that the financial checks (passport etc) are the checks the solicitor needs to do before taking on a client who plans to purchase a property. This is nothing to do with the purchase itself.
Is the estate agent any good?
I would talk to them about getting a clear set of milestones, for both sets of solicitors. They only earn money if the sale goes through, so up to them to put in some work. If the individual agent is inexperienced, you might speak to the branch sales manager. They will know better, but I suggest:
- for the vendors solicitor to get the contract pack out.
- for searches to be put in
- for queries to the to be raised etc.
- At the same time keep an eye on the mortgage offer. If you are using a broker get them to give you an estimate of how long it will take.
The aim is to have everything in place at about the same time as the search results come through. (If it is an ordinary residential neighbourhood it is unlikely that there will be major shocks in the searches.)
I hope that helps.
BTW I am more than happy to be corrected by someone who understands the process from the other side.
I once bought a property in 2 weeks - sheltered housing for my mother - but it was cash, and I used a solicitor who knew the block so we were comfortable skipping both searches and survey. You can do it by 31 March, but you will need to be assertive and demand that busy people give you priority. And also be clear/reasonable on what you expect to be done when.