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Original poster

How long to complete with no chain?

24 replies

SpidersAreShitheads · 14/08/2023 20:38

We accepted an offer on our house on 17th July - first-time buyer, mortgage all in place, no chain at either end.

My ex is still on the property and he was overseas on holiday until the start of August so we couldn't get his signature on the paperwork to start the ball rolling until 4th August. He's all on board with getting it sorted quickly, no issues there - it's just that he was physically out of the country.

Buyer seems extremely on the ball and keen - surveyor rang within a couple of days to organise a date, and that's all taken place and fine.

I thought, based on what I'd read before, that we'd probably only need another 6 weeks or so to complete, maybe 8 weeks max.

My solicitor today has told me to expect it to take 12-14 weeks from 4th August!! With no chain for either us or the buyer, mortgage sorted, survey done and agreed by mortgage company I really, really wasn't expecting it to take that long.

I know this solicitor is excellent, and very efficient. She dealt with the sale of DM's house last year and she was outstanding.

There are very specific reasons why I desperately need this sale to go through asap. I'm struggling to keep going and my heart sunk at the thought of 14 weeks!!

DM's house sale took 6 months last year, so I know 14 weeks is nothing. But just wondering if my solicitor is being cautious?? Has anyone here sold a property with no chain to a buyer with a mortgage all lined up - how long did it take? Have things changed that much? Maybe the 8 week completion stories are from a long time ago??

OP posts:
EldenRing4 · 14/08/2023 20:41

SpidersAreShitheads · 14/08/2023 20:38

We accepted an offer on our house on 17th July - first-time buyer, mortgage all in place, no chain at either end.

My ex is still on the property and he was overseas on holiday until the start of August so we couldn't get his signature on the paperwork to start the ball rolling until 4th August. He's all on board with getting it sorted quickly, no issues there - it's just that he was physically out of the country.

Buyer seems extremely on the ball and keen - surveyor rang within a couple of days to organise a date, and that's all taken place and fine.

I thought, based on what I'd read before, that we'd probably only need another 6 weeks or so to complete, maybe 8 weeks max.

My solicitor today has told me to expect it to take 12-14 weeks from 4th August!! With no chain for either us or the buyer, mortgage sorted, survey done and agreed by mortgage company I really, really wasn't expecting it to take that long.

I know this solicitor is excellent, and very efficient. She dealt with the sale of DM's house last year and she was outstanding.

There are very specific reasons why I desperately need this sale to go through asap. I'm struggling to keep going and my heart sunk at the thought of 14 weeks!!

DM's house sale took 6 months last year, so I know 14 weeks is nothing. But just wondering if my solicitor is being cautious?? Has anyone here sold a property with no chain to a buyer with a mortgage all lined up - how long did it take? Have things changed that much? Maybe the 8 week completion stories are from a long time ago??

It'll be the searches OP. Nothing you can do to speed it up unfortunately. If your solicitor is local she'll know how long the relevant authorities take to response.

EldenRing4 · 14/08/2023 20:41

*Respond!
Ours took 2 months. You may be lucky though and have them back sooner.

Tryingtomoveisdrivingmecrazy · 14/08/2023 20:46

We just bought a property from offer to completion in six weeks. We had already sold ours and the property was an individual new build from a small developer. It can be done when there are no chains involved and all the solicitors and vendor and purchaser are on the ball and responding immediately. Good luck!

Frecklespy · 14/08/2023 21:06

12-14 weeks is an average estimate. Sometimes it will be quicker and sometimes it won't. Your solicitor can't really give a detailed timescale until she sees what the enquiries are and how easy/difficult they are to answer and if any of them require a third party's input. Not everyone will respond within a day or so.

Also, it will depend on the current workload of your solicitor, your buyer's solicitor and any other necessary party.

Obviously it's unfortunate that your ex was away, but because the signed papers weren't received by your solicitor until the 4th August, that's when the transaction started, because that's when your solicitor could send over the draft contract pack to your buyer's solicitor. That's the first delay in the above timescale.

Plankingplanks · 14/08/2023 21:39

Completed earlier this on an empty property with no chain. Sold to a ftb with no chain and they had a mortgage in place....they offered early May 22!! Finally exchanged in bloody late January 23.

EldenRing4 · 14/08/2023 21:40

Plankingplanks · 14/08/2023 21:39

Completed earlier this on an empty property with no chain. Sold to a ftb with no chain and they had a mortgage in place....they offered early May 22!! Finally exchanged in bloody late January 23.

That sounds so much like us it's canny - but a couple of months apart.
In our case it was a rentcharge and several enquiries that caused the hold up

Plankingplanks · 14/08/2023 21:41

So, I'd say 12-14 weeks is optimistic. Sorry, but I think you should be aware. As they were FTB they had no clue, they kept bloody asking ridiculous questions which took up weeks and weeks of delays. I have a thread on it somewhere

Punkyskullyy · 14/08/2023 22:00

FTB here, offered end of May, ready to exchange now. Our solicitors advised 12-14 weeks too, it’s expected as it could be under or over. I wouldn’t sweat it, I’m sure it’ll be fine.

Earhell · 14/08/2023 22:03

I actually spoke to my solicitor about this today. She tells me they had a meeting this week and were told that the current national average is 195 days!

Original poster
SpidersAreShitheads · 14/08/2023 22:06

Thank you so much for all for your replies.

@Plankingplanks - oh god, that sounds like a nightmare!! And yes, although it's not what I want to hear, it's better that I have a realistic idea so I appreciate the honesty.

@EldenRing4 - sounds like your process was painful too! You might be right re the searches - I really do have confidence in the solicitor. DM's house sale was a right nuisance and she was amazing so I'm sure she'll speed it through as much as she can. I've asked our local council how long searches are taking - I just tweeted them 😅 - so that might be an interesting answer. I know last year they had a cyber breach and searches were taking absolutely ages.

@Frecklespy - that's all very useful, thank you. And yes, absolutely I appreciate there was an initial, unavoidable delay when my ex was out of the country. Completely understand that, which is why I mentioned it for transparency. I think I was hoping 6-8 weeks from 4/8 though.....I know, I know! Very unrealistic!!!

@Tryingtomoveisdrivingmecrazy - that would be amazing if we could match that haha!!!!

Our property is a bit of a fixer-upper and was priced as such. The survey mentioned a few things, and the buyer hasn't flinched. We gave them a couple of extra thousand off but we're at a price that is very competitive and our house is also in an excellent location. They're getting a banging deal 😅 But they didn't come back and ask lots of questions following the survey, which we half expected. And they have moved like the absolute wind with everything! So I'm hoping that we'll only have the absolute minimum of enquiries etc.

OP posts:
Original poster
SpidersAreShitheads · 14/08/2023 22:12

Earhell · 14/08/2023 22:03

I actually spoke to my solicitor about this today. She tells me they had a meeting this week and were told that the current national average is 195 days!

Thank you @Earhell, that's interesting. When we sold DM's house last year, it probably took around that length of time actually. But there was a chain - we were buying for DM, and DM's buyer also had to sell - so a relatively short chain, but a chain nonetheless.

195 days seems a crazily long time for properties where there's no chain if there are no complications!!! I know our FTB has their mortgage all sorted, and a big deposit. They've looked at the survey and have no more questions based on that. And they've been really, really quick with everything. So I was perhaps naively expecting that there was no reason for this not to progress swiftly!

OP posts:
Original poster
SpidersAreShitheads · 14/08/2023 22:14

Punkyskullyy · 14/08/2023 22:00

FTB here, offered end of May, ready to exchange now. Our solicitors advised 12-14 weeks too, it’s expected as it could be under or over. I wouldn’t sweat it, I’m sure it’ll be fine.

Exciting for you, congrats!

Interesting to hear your solicitor quoted the same turnaround.

OP posts:
maidmarianne · 14/08/2023 22:42

It took about 14 weeks for us from offer being accepted to completion. But the seller's solicitor was ridiculously slow, he pretty much only did anything after we called the estate agents. And our solicitor wasn't that much better. It felt like we had to do a lot of chasing. There were about 3 weeks wasted at the beginning and end of the process where not a lot happened so I'm surprised that this was faster than average!
I think with a bit of luck, it's definitely possible to get everything sorted a bit more quickly. You need to be prepared to keep chasing your solicitors though and be as proactive and pushy as you can be.

Frecklespy · 14/08/2023 23:07

OP it's all very well being proactive and to keep pushing your solicitor, but doing this also slows down their work. Every time they deal with someone chasing them, it takes them away from actually doing the work.

Redglitter · 14/08/2023 23:09

I was a FTB involved in a no chain purchase. Took just less than 5 weeks

Fifthtimelucky · 14/08/2023 23:27

We sold a property recently with no chain. Completion took place within 2 months of the offer being accepted.

However, my daughter recently bought one, again with no chain. It took nearly 5 months and was a complete nightmare!

maidmarianne · 14/08/2023 23:35

Frecklespy · 14/08/2023 23:07

OP it's all very well being proactive and to keep pushing your solicitor, but doing this also slows down their work. Every time they deal with someone chasing them, it takes them away from actually doing the work.

Obviously it's not going to speed up searches or anything. But in our case, I would call our solicitor to get an update, be told they still didn't have x from the seller/seller's solicitor. I would then call the estate agents and tell them, they would call the seller's solicitor and lo and behold, by the afternoon, our solicitor would have what they'd been waiting for. This happened several times. There were also things that our solicitors got wrong and I would email them and get no response. A quick phone call and suddenly it would get sorted. So sometimes you do need to be proactive. Depends what the hold up is, but if I'd just trusted that they were all getting on with things as fast as possible, we would still be waiting to exchange!

Changingplace · 15/08/2023 05:44

12-14 weeks sounds pretty normal and optimistic to me, last time we bought it was a very simple chain, and took 5 months even though our buyer was a first time buyer and the people we were buying from were moving in with family.

Frecklespy · 15/08/2023 08:58

Having a small chain or even no chain doesn't mean the transaction is going to be simple.

If there issues with the title or a defective lease then that will delay the process whether or not there is a short chain.

CatsOnTheChair · 15/08/2023 09:10

Short chain of three, with one ported mortgage between the whole chain: 4 months

No chain, one mortgage: 4.5 months

CrotchetyQuaver · 15/08/2023 10:30

Surprised by that.
I sold my late parents house (eventually) back in May to cash buyers. No chain, just the 2 of us and it took 5 weeks from start to finish, could have been even less but we didn't want to exchange and complete on the same day.

LA searches took 10 days.
Have you asked your solicitor why so long?

Mildura · 15/08/2023 10:35

Have you asked your solicitor why so long?

I suspect it's partly a case of 'under promise, over deliver.'

Chris002 · 15/08/2023 11:21

We are about 8 weeks in to the process - selling a probate property no chain to buyer with no chain like you I thought it would not take long - they have a mortgage in place, I have just answered buyers solicitors questions that have come up on the local searches so now awaiting next stage !! The searches seem to take a long time over a month.

honeyandfizz · 15/08/2023 11:29

I completed last month and was told 16 weeks but it only took 9. Bought from a developer and we both had shit hot Solicitors which was the key.

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