FTB - really confused by the process and why it takes so long

[Firsttimebuyer2024]

Hi all,

Any advice for a clueless first time buyer would be very much appreciated. I feel a bit let down by my solicitor as the process hasn't really been explained to me properly and I don't feel like I can approach or ask her questions (I phoned her office yesterday about something after not contacting/bothering them for 4 weeks and spoke to her PA and she seemed really annoyed that I'd rang her). I've not pestered them at all during this process and tried to educate myself by reading articles online instead but I still don't understand certain things including what part of the searches takes so long. I think she just assumes I know these things already but how would I when I've never done this before. The last time my mum bought a house was over 30 years ago so she isn't much help either.

Apparently my searches were ordered on the 31st July and won't be returned until the 3rd September although the estate agent said searches in my area were only taking 2 weeks.
I've just rang the council now as I couldn't see anything on their website about timescales and she said the local searches were only taking 3-5 working days and cost £6. I've paid £350 but I have no idea what for. I told her it had been over 3 weeks and she said they were returned 2 weeks ago. I asked if there was anything else that a solicitor would request and she said no. She also said kept mentioning something about a private company?? I feel even more confused now.

Can someone who's experienced/knowledgeable about this process please explain?

I'm just trying to understand what it is that my solicitor is waiting for/won't be returned until the 3rd September if it's not the council searches (solicitors PA specifically said on the phone yesterday that they were waiting on the council searches) but the woman in the council said there isn't anything else?

What searches or surveys did you pay for?

On the quote they originally sent me it says property searches costs £183 and the land registry search is £3.

There is also another email that says Local searches, water and drainage, radon gas, chancel repair, climate change, environmental search and other searches (index map, coal, tin, brine, commons registration and highway search). I'm assuming this is what the £350 covers?

I thought all of this was provided by the council but the woman said it wasn't and only cost £6. The form was returned 2 weeks ago, so I have no idea what is taking until the 3rd September.

I paid for my own Level 2 survey which was returned nearly 2 weeks ago.

If your solicitor is like the solicitors I've used in the past for convenyancing, they're probably on one of their many holidays.

@WearyLady I'm pretty sure she's working as I emailed her on Tuesday morning with a query but she never replied so I phoned the office yesterday afternoon and that's when I spoke to her PA. I'm pretty disappointed with the service though. I did my research and chose her because of the reviews online saying how great she was, good communication, regular updates etc but I don't feel like I've received that service at all.

I'd say some of it is waiting for the vendors to get their shit together and some is your solicitor will have a day each month to look over your file and see what has come back and what hasn't come back, chase the things that need chasing, then put your file away til next month.

No point rushing the most expensive purchase your likely to make.
Add in holidays, as it's the school summer holidays. Post, from their solicitor to your solicitor, the other side taking their sweet time to fill stuff out. I wouldn't worry yet.

Okay, as far as I know, local searches ARE taking 3-4 weeks, that's normal. Ignore what your EA said, she's not the professional dealing with them daily.

I just pulled up the email from my old lawyer containing searches, there was:

Regulated local searches - 32 pages (Infotrack)
Water and drainage - 32 pages
Groundsure Avista report - 36 pages
Planning application - made by the owner - 3 pages

But, more importantly, there was a 7 page document from the lawyer himself, which was tailored to the house with relevant information, such as the below.

So, you see, it doesn't matter how quickly the searches come back, what matters is the lawyer finding a considerable amount of time time to read through around 100 or so pages, looking at any problems, and making recommendations to you. If he misses anything, you could sue him.

Thus 'leave us alone for 4 weeks' is entirely appropriate, if not poorly worded.

Some of the things in his 7 page letter include:

General

Searches contain important information about the property you are buying. We have outlined below some of the main points from the search results and attached copies of the individual search results for your records.

Please read this document carefully and contact us as soon as possible if you have any concerns. It is important that any concerns have been addressed and settled before exchanging contracts. You should contact us if you need any further information, an explanation or would like to discuss in greater detail.

Building Regulations
Based on the searches we have carried out for you; we are aware of the following building regulation entries relating to the property:
2006
2007
2017
2018
2022
Dormer extension
GASAFE Record for Installed Gas Boiler Dining room
Install one or more new circuits
Single storey dining room extension

Roads
The Local Search confirms that PLACENAME is adopted by the Local Authority and is a road which is
maintained at the public expense. This means that you have public rights of way to use the roadway.

Drainage Search
The results of the drainage and water search confirms that the property is connected to the mains drainage system for foul waste and surface water.
[a bunch of drainage history]

Groundsure Avista
Enclosed is a copy of the Groundsure Avista Report. The search contains 7 key areas of environmental data including Contaminated Land Assessment, all four major flood risks, ground stability, radon, current and planned energy features, transportation and 10 years of planning data. A brief summary is detailed below.
Contaminated Land
You will note from the Contaminated Land section that the Property has received a ‘Passed’ result, which confirms that for the purposes of your conveyancing transaction the property is not deemed to have any issues regarding contaminated land.
Flooding
No significant flood risks have been identified as a result of the flood risk search but please read the section carefully as some degree of flood risk may still be highlighted. The report shows the different types of flooding and the likely impact of each on the property. It also provides important information about steps you can take to mitigate potential flood risk.
The section on insurance is very important. You will see that the report states that insurance should be available on standard terms. We advise you to obtain quotations from insurers prior to exchange of contracts to ensure that cover is available at a level you can afford.

[a bunch of other stuff electricity, ground stability and so on]

Transportation
No results for Phase 1 or Phase 2 of the HS2 project have been identified within 5km of the property. However, HS2 routes are still under construction and exact alignments may change in the future.
The Property is not within 250 metres of the Crossrail 1 or Crossrail 2 Project.
The Property is not within 250 metres of any active or former railways, subway lines, DLR lines, subway or railway stations.

I hope that helps. The search results that come back aren't just a tick box with: everything okay, everything not okay. They have a load of reading to do.

Chancel repairs aren't something the council handle. It's about who is responsible for paying for repairs to the chancel of the parish church. Simplified, if a property was ever church land, responsibility for repairing the chancel may have remained with the property even when the property was sold off.

These searches are important. Some years ago, some householders near here claimed not to know they were responsible for maintaining and repairing a retaining wall in front of their properties. It's the sort of thing that should have been flagged up on searches, so either all the solicitors were at fault, or all the householders had ignored it and hoped it would never be an issue.

I believe you can insure against the cost of chancel repairs, if there's a possibility you may be liable.

Thank you @KievLoverTwo that's really helpful. Completely understand there's several factors and information involved in the buying/selling process and I wouldn't want to rush my solicitor with reviewing all of it but she hasn't actually received the documents yet. Apparently they won't be returned until the 3rd September.

What I'm having difficulty understanding is what part of the searches is taking so long as when I spoke to the council the woman said there wasn't anything else that a solicitor would request. I thought the local searches were from the council but apparently they were returned at the beginning of August (a week after my they were ordered) and only cost £6.

Like I said, they come from various different sources. If you want to see the ACTUAL information I received, pop me a PM with your email address, and I'll forward all the stuff over to you. Might help it make more sense to you. Probably when they say 'searches' they mean 'one of the searches from the various search sources I use' - it's just that they're not being specific.

Im in the process of moving (the last time I moved was 30 years ago) and I haven't got a clue either. Mine is taking ages and I don't know whether to call either EA, or the solicitor handling buying/selling or to just wait it out so this might end up an interesting thread

Okay, as far as I know, local searches ARE taking 3-4 weeks, that's normal. Ignore what your EA said, she's not the professional dealing with them daily

It varies. Each local authority will have a different turnaround time for returning a local authority search. There are over 200 local authorities in England. Some take 3 - 4 days, some will take 3 -4 weeks. It depends.

@KievLoverTwo sorry I must have missed that part, but that makes more sense if it's coming from different sources rather than just one department. Thank you!

I expect your solicitor is waiting for all the searches to come back, not just from the council, before they report on them.

But I would ring them again & ask to speak to the solicitor dealing with your case. Ask that you would like breakdown of what they have recieved & what they are still waiting for.

@Pixiedust1234 I feel your pain! I think because solicitors/estate agents deal with these things every day they just assume buyers already know this stuff 🙃

Yep. In the grand scheme of things, they don't get paid enough to 'hand hold' us FTBs, they're probably one of the lowest paid group of professionals who have had to go to law school. It's understandable if you get a 'we haven't had the searches back' 'leave us alone' type responses, although it doesn't make you feel any better when you're panicking!!

Like I said, I can pop you over the reports if you want to see how detailed they are - just DM.

Be careful about phoning/ emailing solicitors. Some of them charge for every correspondence. So every email they send in reply or phone call you make adds to your bill at the end. 😬 I know how you feel as I was clueless when we bought and still am, but you kind of have to just let them get on with it.

Thanks @oneleggedspider I've tried to leave them alone (literally not had any updates for 4 weeks so just queried if there was any) and that's it. I think we just have to put up and accept a terrible service, wish I could do that in my job 🤣

>I think we just have to put up and accept a terrible service, wish I could do that in my job

As a PP says, they'll have around 30 cases running at around the same point in time, it goes something like this:

Dealing with cases completing today - making sure the money goes from a to b
Dealing with cases completing this week - making sure all the legal boxes are ticked and the money is ready to go from a to b
Dealing with cases that have an exchange date set and are aiming for completion for next week
Dealing with cases where one party in the chain is threatening to pull out immediately because lawyers are too slow
Dealing with cases where vendors and searches have thrown up problems; talking clients through those problems, giving legal advice
Dealing with every new case that comes in: memorandum of sale, searches, to-and-fro between lawyers, in the order in which they arrived in their in-tray.

They've got a lot of prioritising to do.

@KievLoverTwo oh I know that but my job involves a lot of prioritising too (as I'm sure most jobs do) and I still have to provide a good service. Anyway that's my opinion but I'll leave them alone now and will hopefully get an update in the next few weeks 😊

Solicitors work in mysterious ways … which is my way of saying I’ve little idea what they do in the conveyancing process despite having moved several times.

Sometimes you just have to trust the process. House sales normally take about 3-4 months so as long as your solicitor isn’t delaying things beyond that time scale, I would assume they are doing their job.

@Twiglets1 it should hopefully be a straight forward transaction (first time buyer, no chain, vacant property) so fingers crossed it will all go through smoothly.

I don't think it's unreasonable to check in every few weeks though as some pps have suggested (this is the first I've contacted them after instructing them over 4 weeks ago) and I won't bother them again now for another few weeks unless I hear from them first. I know some people who have contacted their solicitors every week which I wouldn't do. I think it would be a bit crazy to not contact them at all through the entire process as that could be 12-14 weeks with no updates etc

My purchase took 13 weeks. The searches took AGES. They need them all to come back before they send you the report as they need to go through them all and then send you the report en masse.

I would email your solicitor once a week to ask where things are at. Always be polite and calm.

Respond to any paperwork asap and if you can hand deliver anything do that rather than post things.

I was a total pain to my conveyancers as we were living with my parents and desperate to move.

I took them a box of chocolates as a thank you once we had moved.

You never know when you'll need them again.

Oh yes it’s definitely reasonable to check in with them every few weeks.