No chain freehold house sale to FTB

[Kittley]

Has anyone bought or sold a no chain freehold house recently and just curious to know how long the process took for you from offer acceptance to completion?

We've accepted an offer in our freehold house on the 31st Jan to first time buyers. There is no chain as we're relocating to another part of the country so will be renting initially. The buyer's solicitor has confirmed that all queries have been answered 2 weeks ago, searches all back, surveys all done and mortgage paperwork and signed mortgage deeds all received. The buyer is very eager to exchange ASAP and has been complaining about how slow their solicitor is. It'll be 2 months tomorrow since we've started the process and I don't know if I'm just being impatient. Everytime my solicitor chases the buyer's solicitor, the solicitor just says "were not ready to exchange, will tell you when we see".

How long is a piece of string...

But I don’t know why they can’t exchange as it sounds as if everything is in? Maybe the solicitors just haven’t prepared their reports back to the clients.

My mum thinks her conveyancers must all be dead, as no one ever answers anything, so maybe your buyers’ ones are catching conveyancer-virus too.

I think they were all massively busy in the run up to March when the stamp duty deadline was there.

2 months would be reasonable (on the fast side I’d say) with no chain but a mortgage.

Our buyers ended up threatening to sack their solicitors. We were ready for exchange on ours (new) but their solicitors told them they needed a further six weeks despite been told the date from the beginning (6 weeks, both with mortgages) and all queries been sorted. We did it in 6 weeks.

My FTB dd bought one. I’d told her to expect it to take at least 3 months (she was in a very expensive short-term rental) but amazingly enough, it was all wrapped up, from offer accepted to getting the keys, in 6 weeks.

Goes against the grain to say it, but I think that was partly down to the fact that she’d used the EA’s recommended solicitor (having recommendation of no other) and having used the in-house mortgage advisor (after having found the same deal online for a rather lower fee, which he said he’d match.).
So they were all in the same team, so to speak, none of them wanting to hang around waiting for their money.

7 weeks to the day for us but this was in June/July 2020 as we were viewing on the first day estate agents reopened. Now there are huge delays in conveyancing. Have they given a reason why they're 'not ready'?

I think in the current climate 8 weeks so far is OK, so many things are down to others, searches, mortgage approval, surveys, it’s not just solicitors.
It sounds like you are close to exchange and you could even ask to exchange and complete at the same time or within a few days.

Don’t forget it’s not just about getting the paperwork back, a good solicitor will be checking everything to make sure other issues don’t arise, it may be there are more questions they may ask, why don’t you ask what they are waiting for? Our last sale was only us selling to one person and it took months and our solicitors were excellent.

Our offer was accepted on 13th November and we are exchanging next week. No chain from seller side and we are FTB. Our solicitor has been really slow and we literally has to chase him up to do everything quickly . Now quickly looks like 5 months ! Going to find the best solicitor next time when we sell even though they might be bit expensive. solicitors literally gave us so much unnecessary stress by slowing things down which we didn't even need.

Our buyer has been chasing their solicitor for an update however the solicitor isn't answering their calls or replying to emails. The solicitor hasn't explained what else they need as the estate agent and our solicitor have both said they now have everything they need for more than 2 weeks now. Both the estate agent and my solicitor have also been chasing the buyer's solicitor without any reply.

Your buyer needs to escalate to the solicitors boss. If it is a body shop conveyancer then probably quicker to change solicitor. If it is an old family firm on their high street then even harder to get any action!

Btw don't complete on a Friday in this situation, no need. Solicitor likely to be on golf course by noon on Friday!

Thank you for your response. The buyer's solicitor is a large-ish sized conveyancing company. They have absolutely terrible reviews so I'm surprised the buyer even appointed them.

Oh dear. They were either cheap or the buyer didn't spot the backhanders. What does the buyer propose to do?

I am completing next Tuesday,no chain it's taken 3 months.There seems to be a flurry of activity at the beginning of the process, then nothing,followed by a rush to sort out any loose ends in the last week.Solicitors on both sides routinely blame the other side for delays.

They're not proposing anything at the moment, the buyer just keeps chasing their solicitor. Both parties are also aware that we need 4 weeks between exchange and completion as we're relocating and need to find somewhere to rent etc.

the buyer needs to realise that only they can sort this, the solicitor won't speak to anyone else. As it sounds like the solicitor won't speak to them either they need to think of a plan B or the sale will collapse.

I agree, we will keep gently chasing them to do something. Thank you 👍😊