How soon do solicitors decide on an exchange date?

[Expelliarmus88]

Hi
We have been told our buyers' buyer has a mortgage expiry end of next month but our solicitors still haven't given us an exchange date. How soon before the date will they ask us? I kept asking them but they keep coming back to say there are a few outstanding queries. Can a chain collapse due to solicitors being slow??

Solicitors only act on the instructions of their client, they don’t decide an exchange date by themselves. You let your solicitor know when you want to exchange and then they work towards that. The more time you give them however, the longer they’ll take, in my experience…!! Do not underestimate the value of a good solicitor in a house purchase

I see! Thank you @Tryingtokeepgoing ...maybe we should have said mid November!! Do they agree on an exchange and completion date with all parties? Or do we wait till exchange to get a completion date? I forget the process as its been a while!

You tell them a date you want to move. Hopefully that will give them the nudge to get a move on but to some extent they will be dependent on other solicitors in the change.
our buyers, us and our sellers all agreed a date between us and told our solicitors to sort it out. There was lots of hitches but it got sorted.

End of next month is ages away! And it's completion that's the critical one - once that's been agreed then exchange just needs to happen in time for money to be in the right place by completion. I would pick a date or two that work for you, ask your agent to negotiate with the rest of the chain to agree on something, then tell your solicitor that's what your working towards.

Completion date isn't set in stone until exchange, but I think it's worth getting the ball rolling while you still have plenty of time.

Sorry, that's not to say exchange isn't critical - obviously it is, but I would focus on completion date and get them to work backwards from there to ensure exchange happens at the right time.

@Frazzled2207 and @Reallybadidea thank you!! That makes sense. I think it is all very tense as people have mortgages expiring and the damn interest rates means our buyers can't afford any products sadly. Thank you govt!!

Will confirm completion date and work backwards. Is end of the month ages away?? Our estate agents terrified us saying the whole thing takes 5 months but luckily we have a short chain!

@Expelliarmus88 end of this month or next? (I think you said next in your first post?)

I think end of next month should be plenty of time. Presumably if they're waiting for responses to enquiries you've had searches returned so once these have all been answered them you should be ready to exchange.

To put it into context - we've had numerous issues which have caused delays, the most significant being that our sellers only found somewhere to buy at the beginning of September. At this stage it became apparent that our buyers' mortgage expired on 1st November. At the end of September our solicitor became critically ill and we had to find a new solicitor. Our searches had been returned but no enquiries raised and we basically had to start from scratch with a new solicitor. We got from this point to exchange within 3 weeks. To be fair, all the solicitors and agents in the short chain were excellent but I still think you're a long way from needing to panic. Get everyone to agree a date and I think you'll be fine.

@Reallybadidea thank you, you're right. It's end of next month so fingers crossed!