Solicitor refusing to estimate a timeframe for exchange

[Bodgejobvendors]

Our buyer is twitchy and we may need to break a chain and move into rented.

We’ve asked our solicitor for a ball park best case scenario of when we may be able to exchange on our onward purchase.

She is refusing to give any kind of estimate and insists that her practice is to not do so until all parties are ready to avoid disappointment.

Is this normal? We now can’t plan at all.

It's a pretty normal response.

There are so many variables in a housing transaction, only some of which the solicitor is in control of.

As the process moves along and one gets closer towards the point of exchange it should become easier to make a 'best guess' - although there is always the possibility that unforeseen events can affect things.

Seems totally normal. We are supposed to exchange and complete this week - still don’t know if it will be Wednesday, Thursday of Friday. Or even the next time a blue moon appears. 🤷‍♀️

How annoying. I don’t remember it being this vague when I brought last time, but there was no chain involved.

It’s pretty frustrating that someone won’t even give me the vaguest of ballparks for my own good in case I end up disappointed.

Very. I agree it wasn’t like this when we last bought or sold - but as with everything it was pre covid so 🤷‍♀️

it’s annoying as there is no chain - we are buying a house that the vendor has moved into his girlfriends house, and we aren’t selling as yet. All the monies are deposited with our solicitor as of 10 days ago and all contracts are signed. We are both using the he same solicitors office as well - so the two are literally only a corridor apart. There is nothing I can think of to hold it up?

Get the EA to give you an update on all outstanding tasks that everyone is waiting on.

EAs should be contacting the solicitors and finding where everyone is in the process. EAs won’t discuss specific exchange / completion dates but they should be keeping the process moving along where possible.

Who is waiting on what? Mortgage approved? Searches back? All enquiries answered?

Normal. What’s the point plucking a date out of thin air just to give everyone false hope.

Can you guarantee you wouldn’t complain if it didn’t exchange on the suggested timescale?

My vendor has chosen a tiny local EA who don’t seem to operate in the normal pushy way.

She is the choreographer- the main dancer step searches, mortgage and other side have to turn up before she can do anything.

(many more dancers if a flat or leasehold)

I had/have the same problem. Never been given a date, I assumed (and the estate agent said initially that this will be realistic) I would complete in May (4 months after my offer was accepted, no chain), now its late June and I'm still waiting...it could be next week, it could be in July, it could be in autumn....no one seems to know, which is really bloody hard for any sort of planning. How the hell am I supposed to decide whether or not to renew my current rental agreement without any kind of timeframe. IMO the property market is just broken in the UK, I'm from mainland Europe and we agree on a contractually-binding completion date when the offer is being accepted.

Yes and I have.

I strongly disagree that a date needs to be “plucked out of the air” and that doing so provides “false hope”. I don’t think it should be seen as unprofessional to say “we still have X to do, that normally takes Y weeks, but if something else comes up you’d need extra time”. I’m just asking them to give a ballpark of when it might become feasible.

It doesn’t help that my buyer (a FTB) seems to think that the date we mutually agreed to target is set in stone. I wish her solicitors were half as cautious as mine.

We are in the same position. It does feel like there ought to be some kind of tick list of everything that needs to happen to be ready so we can at least see what it left to do.

Yep normal.

could order title then it have an awful restriction that takes weeks to deal with.

mortgage offer could take ages depending on bank.

the council the house is situated in could be really slow at returning local search.

if they give an estimate people do often take that as gospel and then hold it against them. Better to play it safe.

so annoying when an agent then tells people “this should be through in 6 weeks” grrrrrr

I feel your pain. There may of course be unexpected developments but surely the Solicitor can advise “If all goes to plan we should be in a position to exchange by such and such a date but there may be delays caused by xyz so this is not a guarantee”.

My solicitor & buyers solicitor were exactly the same when I was selling, would not give a date. I then received an email out of the blue at 6pm one evening asking if I could give permission to exchange that same evening (I didn’t even realise it was possible to do this so late in the day!)

We have a set a deadline (price dependent on it) and are chasing our solicitor to meet it.

No delays at all on searches, mortgage offer (2 days) or survey so if we don’t meet it then quite frankly it’s due to their slow work.

It's perfectly possible to give an estimate based on previous experience and set out the variables that are outside of the control of your solicitor. (Eg: 8-10 weeks assuming no problems discovered from searches and sellers respond to enquiries within 14 days or similar).

It's too easy to just say 'how long is a piece of string' and absolve oneself from driving the timetable.

I'd be wanting firm commitments that your solicitor was going to do everything they can (or: within their control) in a timely manner.

Conveyancing is low margin high volume business so it's constant plate spinning of hundreds of files - much easier to do that when there's no timetable to work to.

So we’ve been ready nearly a fortnight now, contracts signed, monies ready at solicitor. Both solicitors used are in the same building and practice. No outstanding paperwork from us. The vendor has demanded it’s all done by tomorrow……. Apparently he won’t sign the fucking contract…….. exactly how does he think this is going to be done and dusted if he won’t sign? Should have seen this coming given he’s been a complete idiot from the start.
we’ve said that as he wanted this deadline of tomorrow, if it’s not met them we are walking away. We aren’t playing any more games or paying any more as the market there has already begun to collapse. We could easily wait 6 months for something to he same but cheaper. Fully expecting to have to pull out tomorrow as he still hasn’t even re registered his business at his new address, let alone moved any of his crap.

Could this be crossed wires?

Are you asking for a ballpark exchange date, when what you mean is "how long will it take for x or y to be done"? They are very different questions.

There is such a list, if nothing out of the ordinary happens.

i'm beginning to think some solicitors expect clients to know this from online.

when I first bought, years ago, I was given a handy guide, which I wish I'd kept!

No, no crossed wires. Spoken to both the solicitor and the estate agent. He is refusing to sign the contract. Both the estate agent and the solicitors (his and ours) have an email from him saying he wanted this all to be completed (and money in his bank) by the 24th June 2022.
We have also paid our solicitors bill in full - so it’s not even that!!
he is just refusing to sign. Unbelievable.

My query on crossed wires was for the OP.

hope your situation gets sorted.

Apologies

We got a vague 'it's usually taking this long at the moment' 4-5 months. At the beginning of the process. Ours was estimate to go faster as very straightforward. We ended up with four suggested exchange dates failing as vendor's solicitor was useless. Then finally exchanged on the fifth. So it was all very uncertain until literally ten minutes before it happened!

We have got a 3.5 week gap before completion which at least gives some certainty/planning room.

This drives me mad too. I live in the US now and most house sales are completed in 30 days, 45 at the most. I can't understand why it takes so long in the UK. I have a relative who's currently waiting for a date and their solicitor is literally not responding. How on earth can anyone make plans without a definite date??