How long did your (recent) conveyancing take?

[mindutopia]

If you have had conveyancing done in the past few months, how long did the process take from when you instructed your solicitor to when everything was done and contracts ready to exchange?

Our only other experience has been during the first lockdown (it took 5 months and then vendors changed their mind and decided not to sell at the 11th hour!). We had an offer accepted 3 weeks ago, mortgage valuation is done and I'd expect formal mortgage offer to come through shortly. We are in rented and vendors are moving into their 2nd home until they find a new place. We would like to be in by the start of the school term in January (first week of). I'm feeling it's possible this could be realistic as we aren't in a chain? It would be about 11/12 weeks from offer.

That should be a realistic aim.

However, property transactions can only go as quickly as the slowest element. There a huge number of variables that can affect timing, each transaction will have something slightly different that affects the timing.

Yes from what you have described, it sounds feasible

We accepted an offer on our place mid March 2021, then found our onwards purchase and had offer accepted 9th April - completed on our sale 24th June and our purchase on 28th June.

Our buyer was selling to a cash buyer, and they were in turn selling to a cash buyer - so the start of the chain! Our vendors went into rented (they always planned to as they didn't want to jeopardise the chain) but they found their onwards purchase during the process and were in a position to exchange on that when we all exchanged! Potential for disaster if any one of us had pulled out but no one did! And we all had great solicitors and fairly good estate agents. I would actually use the estate agent that sold us our new house if we sold again - a small independent agent that went above and beyond for us (despite not acting for us) because he had the foresight to see that keeping us on side would ultimately benefit his client! (And get him his commission!)

Did mine in five weeks in July/August. Solicitors need to be on top of it and searches back within reasonable timeframe. If it's a flat be sure the seller has requested and paid for the management pack as that often takes weeks.

We accepted an offer on our house mid August and had our offer accepted end of August and we’re moving next Friday.

Bought an empty house with no onward chain and sold to FTB.

I'm 5 weeks in from offers being accepted. There are only 4 in the chain. I'm a cash buyer going into a vacated premises. I'm literally just having searches undertaken now. Apparently 'draft contracts' are with the solicitors & I've been told today that searches can take a few weeks, depending on how quick the council work. I'd like to think we would have moved by Christmas, but I'm not confident... 🤞🏻

We should be moving next week. No chain, same day purchase and sale, will have taken 8 weeks. There’s still an outstanding item on our purchase, which shouldn’t be too dreadful to sort. I hope...!

Everyone hugely motivated to do it quickly, so information requests from solicitors to vendors and buyers have been answered same day.

Sounds fine. Your conveyancer will love you for wanting to be in just after Christmas, not by Christmas

Mine has taken forever We instructed in August and the number of pedantic requests for information have been insane ! We are taking out a mortgage on a previously unmorgaged home that belongs to us Simple you would think but apparently not!

We sold on the 5th august. Ftb for our house and people moving in with family on the house we were buying. We exchanged yesterday moving next Friday.
This has to be the quickest move ever and it is all down to the amazing solicitor we had. If ur in the south east I highly recommend then.

For context one house move we did was over a year.
I am truly never moving again. Even though this one has been relatively easy and stress free for the most part

One lady I know did it in 10 days. She was from rented to empty. But the searches where I live come back really quickly.

Ours took 9 weeks, 3 person chain, us in the middle. We all happened to have efficient solicitors, I honestly think the quality of the solicitors in the chain make a huge difference to the timelines.

Oh and we lost 2 weeks due to delays at the bank so if it hadn’t been for them it would have been 7 weeks!

Fantastic, thank you, so seems entirely doable. This past year has been such a nightmare, that it's so hard to know what is 'normal' anymore.

16 weeks from offer to completion June - September. Our buyers were FTB and our vendor pulled out of their onward purchase at the end of August. They found another house and had that done in 5 weeks but it took a lot of pushing to get in by the end of the stamp duty holiday.

We accepted an offer on our flat on 20th July and completed 30th September. Chain free both sides. Could have been a bit faster, some very last minute queries delayed the process by about 10 days.

I think I had offer accepted early July and completed mid October. Have to say it was pretty smooth

Beginning of January is quite unlikely, most firms shut down over Christmas and are still very busy after the stamp duty. February is probably more realistic.

Searches here in Wiltshire are taking 12-15 weeks 🤦‍♀️, it took 17 weeks to get them for my parents house which we had a buyer for in March and finally completed on 30 September.
We’re hoping to move soon, cash buyers and dreading the whole process. The estate agent has told us they have buyers lined up for houses here and it’ll sell in a week.

@Bessiebigpants

Mine has taken forever We instructed in August and the number of pedantic requests for information have been insane ! We are taking out a mortgage on a previously unmorgaged home that belongs to us Simple you would think but apparently not!

I feel your pain! I had a whole ream of questions fired at me from the buyers solicitor, one of them I literally didn't understand. 🤷🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️

We put in an offer on15 July and completed on Monday last week. We were in a chain of 4 with us second from the bottom.

We had our offer accepted in May, we may or may not be ready to complete next month. Sigh…

Think the average is about 12 weeks, longer if in a chain?

9.5 weeks from offer acceptance to exchange, then a further 2 weeks to completion.

How’s this thread has made me sweat. We’ve accepted an offer end of July, roughly 13 weeks ago now. To be fair the solicitors are being really slow and took weeks to get any paperwork. - our only issue is our new build won’t be ready until at least January, which I understand is a long old wait for our buyers. They’re buying to rent too so I’m not sure how long they’ll be willing to wait.

There’s absolutely nothing around to short term rent and family don’t have houses big enough to keep us sheltered for a month or three. I have no idea what to do but I really need the buyers to not pull out.