Searches and enquiries

[Movingdays]

Afternoon everyone.

I'm currently in the process of buying my first home (no chain, property is empty). Solicitors were instructed 2 weeks ago and so far the draft contract has been sent and searches ordered last week. I've found a website that says the councils turn around is roughly 15 working days - not sure if that's true though.

I've just had my mortgage offer today and the survey is booked in next week. Can someone please tell me if enquiries are raised before or after searches have come back? Or both?

I know it's how long is a piece of string, just trying to get an idea of when we'll complete. Hoping for end of September!

Likely all the way throughout! The contract may bring up some issues, the searches may bring up more, the other paperwork from the sellers might too...

Average time for things to take atm is 12 weeks, so end of Sept may be optimistic even for the smallest chain. All depends on how motivated both sides are- and the housebuying process seems to bring out the worst in people.

In my experience it's just a drip drip drip of things the solicitor finds and raises as they go along. And sometimes there are enquiries on the answers to enquiries. Plus in my experience as a seller, sometimes you get sent questions that make no sense, so it can take ages as you go back and forth asking for clarifications. Sometimes enquiries can involve asking the seller to go away and get extra documentation about things, so it's not just a simple Q&A process.

It is common nowadays that solicitors will wait for the return of the searches before raising initial enquiries. The reason being that there is not much point raising enquiries on the draft contract pack, then having to raise additional enquiries a couple of weeks later when the search results are back. It duplicates some of the work, so in order to keep costs down and the amount of time spent on your file, the solicitor would rather raise enquiries at one go, rather than piecemeal.

Then they can put your file away until all the responses are back and they can review it all at once.

It is quite likely that some of the responses may require further enquiries or further clarification, or result in additional matters being raised - that's probably what other posters mean when they say enquiries are raised all the way through.