What happens next?

[AmilyChestnut]

Hi! We've bought our first house, sale accepted last month. No onward chain.

Had email saying contract pack will be issued to solicitor once seller has sent over a couple more things.

What happens next please? As in complete break down. I've tried googling all different phrases but it's all a bit vague and I don't understand.

I'm trying to guage when we will likely be getting keys.

Thanks!

Once the vendor's solicitor has sent the contract pack, your solicitor will start Local Authority searches. You should arrange a survey on the property as a first priority. Usually there is a period during which issues arising from the survey and any other contractual enquiries are worked through. If anything bad is in the survey, you may be able to negotiate a lower price. This process can take anything from a few weeks to (in the worst cases) a few months. At that point contracts will be exchanged and a completion date set, usually 1-2 weeks from the point of exchange.

Best of luck

A brief breakdown:

The estate agent should issue a memorandum of sale which states the purchase price, seller details and solicitors for both sides.

You need to start organising your mortgage and funds. Apply for the mortgage now. At this point you’ll probably decide if you want a survey and which type.

At the same time your solicitor should receive the contract pack so they can start work. You’ll need to pay them so they can start searches. These can take a few weeks to come back. Some people prefer to wait for their mortgage offer to order searches, especially if they are unsure about being approved for the finance but I’ve never bothered. If the purchase doesn’t complete you won’t see this money again.

Your solicitor will start raising enquiries on the info they get from the seller, these could relate to the title (asking for details on covenants, restrictions etc) or the search results or anything else you ask them to. They will probably feed back on these as they go.

When the solicitor is satisfied with everything they will send a report on the title. When they also have your mortgage offer they can discuss dates with the sellers. Are you in a chain or are they? You’ll need to wait for the whole chain to be ready usually. At this point you need to pay your deposit money to your solicitor.

When a date is agreed they will exchange contracts, at this point you can’t pull out as you will forfeit your deposit. Completion follows this and this is when all money is paid, you formally own the house and get the keys.

In terms of timescales a lot depends on your seller and how motivated they are. I’ve bought in 7 weeks when a house was empty and it’s taken a year when there has been a long chain! Have you got any details on their situation?

Great info. Thanks

Memorandum of sale sent to solicitor

The seller is in a care home and her son is selling the property so want it all done asap for care home fees I imagine

It's all so anxiety inducing.

It's very difficult to say, but the average sale / purchase takes 5-6 months at present.

(I know.....)

As you have no chain either way the thing that is most likely to take the time is getting mortgage approval.

It is stressful but I think best to focus on and be organised with what you can control - sorting our finances, read/sign/return anything quickly, get a survey sorted etc. Your seller has a good motivation which is positive. A lot of my issues have come from sellers who dithered over paperwork and weren’t sure whether they wanted to sell or not.

We have that. The bank has approved it

Not just "approval in principle"?

In which case, great, searches are the next time-consuming thing.

We have been very quick to return paperwork. The seller has too as far as I know. We have to arrange survey.

I really want the keys by the 1st of October, is that likely given our circumstances? Or is there just no way to know?

It’s unlikely to happen that quickly if you haven’t had the survey done yet.

If you definitely have a mortgage offer I think it’s potentially possible, you could ask how long searches are taking in your local authority area. It depends if the survey throws anything up or if the title has any difficult enquiries.

Unlikely by October 1st. Has survey taken place yet and you received results, likewise searches(to check for any local planning or environmental issues)?

Very unlikely I'd say, sorry.

Thank you for everyone's input. Great advice

@AmilyChestnut we are at similar point. Google how long to do searches in your county- could ne 2 weeks for that.

33 days apparently. Didn't realise we had to do searches ourselves. DH will chase up if anything needs doing today, I wonder if we aren't at the searches part yet as all professional parties involved have been pretty good at telling us what to do along the way..

@AmilyChestnut we had to pay conveyancing company abd they started searches - have you paid yet?

Your solicitor orders the searches. You need to organise any survey of the property then discuss the results with your solicitor.

Your solicitor organises the searches.

The Lender you get your mortgage with will organise a Valuation survey to check the propery is worth what you paid (in their opinion), they charge you for this whether you want it or not because it protects their investment.

Most people also get their own survey which is more in depth but this is not compulsory. I wouldn't bother getting one with a new build say, but an older property it's good to know some of the problems in advance of moving in.

Searches are often done once the survey has come through, as they are only as good as the day they are run.

Right, so the mortgage will do their own search, and we can get a deeper one but that's optional?

It sounds as if you're getting a bit confused between surveys and searches.

The mortgage company will do a basic valuation survey but it's highly advisable that you organise your own survey as unless it's very new, you'll want to know if there are any problems. The valuation survey won't highlight that so it is important.

The searches are something different. These are what your solicitor orders once he receives the contract pack from the seller's solicitor. The searches are requested from the local authority and usually take 10-15 working days to be returned. The searches cover a whole range of things such as flooding risk, environmental issues, mines, gases, etc.

If you haven't organised a survey yet, and your solicitor hasn't requested the searches I can't see you completing by the start of October, sorry. There is a survey company out there that can organise a survey within just a couple of days. We're selling and our buyer had a survey organised with a national survey company within a day or two of the offer being accepted, so it is possible!

The problem is that there's no way to hurry up the results of the searches from the LA so even if you can organise a quick turnaround for the survey you're kind of stuck until the searches come back unfortunately.

@SpidersAreShitheads

That's great, thank you for clearing that up. I knew I didn't understand and you've made it a lot clearer

I'm someone who found the process very stressful, if you are already feeling anxious please do not set your heart on October. We had our offer accepted in September 21 and got the keys the last week of February. This was an empty property with no chain and no issues our side. I would say if you get the keys by Christmas you would be doing well.

A survey looks at the fabric and condition of the property you are buying, Searches look at what is going on in the area ie. If there is a housing development planned nearby, neighbours doing work, environmental issues like flooding, drainage, roads which may impact on the value or insurance risk. Your mortgage company is the initial place to request a survey and will nominate one from its panel, although you may want a specialist or fuller independent one as well. Your solicitor will contact the authorities to run searches.