Timescale

[HouseHouseHouse7]

Hi. Our solicitor was sent TA6 /TA10 on Friday by the seller’s solicitor.

Our solicitor responded by sending us their Terms of Business and anti money laundering docs for completion.

TBH we’d emailed the solicitor about the purchase 3 weeks ago when the offer was accepted and naively assumed that things were underway. But it looks as if we’re still at the beginning of the process.

Completion by Fri 19th Dec is unlikely now, isn’t it? We were hoping to be in by Christmas.

It depends on a number of things. How speedy the solicitors are and how promptly queries are responded to, by purchasers and vendors and solicitors. How many are in the chain and whether it’s complete. There’s also the length of time that the searches take.

It’s only two months realistically to your hoped for completion date, so it doesn’t seem very likely, but is possible if it’s straightforward.

As the PP said, it depends on a number of factors (and I’, assuming you’re in either England or Wales):

• how many in the chain
• Is there a mortgage involved anywhere in the chain, if so has a formal mortgage offer been received
• how long searches take in your area (for my recent purchase, all searches were back within 9 days, but some areas in not on the online system take a lot longer)
• then if anything untoward comes back on searches which needs further investigation
• how long the vendors then take to respond to any enquiries

For context my sale was ready to exchange in about 12 weeks, and my purchase in just 8 weeks (with a mortgage involved) - but my buyers sale was a nightmare; it was a new build when they bought it 3 years prior, and there were various issues around section 106 agreements, management charges etc. - so we ended up with a 4 week delay.

Thanks both of you.