quickest time from sale of house to completion?

[sashmum]

FIL has died and left house to dh and BIL, we have excepted an offer and the buyer will be paying cash, how long should this take to complete? Buyer and estate agents reckon it will be all wrapped up within 2 weeks!! is this possible, seems really quick to me, also buyer not doing survey, so solicitors are sorting out paperwork

All depends on the solicitors. We had willing buyer/willing seller/no real chain with our last purchase and still took six months because seller's solicitor "forgot" to apply for probate (he was the beneficiary of his dead brother's estate).

IMO it is worth getting a really good solicitor who you pay a little more for and who is willing to do plenty of chasing etc. It is always more complicated if the property owner has died though, if the property is leasehold and if there are any infuriating unpredictables (non-mains drainage/shared access/whatever).

depends often on probate

Mmmmm, I've found that the longest thing you normally wait for is Local Authority land searches which can take weeks. (6 weeks for my last house buy). But maybe if he is a cash buyer he isn't going to bother waiting for the results or even have them done.

I think local authority searches have to be back within two weeks now - a recent improvement.
or maybe that's just out area? (unlikely that they would voluntarily mprove efficciency, though!!)