No chain house sale timescales

[LivewareProblem]

fido said:

LivewareProblem said:

I think the issue has been identified, the "memorandum of sale" wasn't sent to my solicitors until the 23rd of August

If they take that long to prepare a "memorandum of sale" (normally get that within a few days of accepting an offer?) it doesn't bode well for queries etc. - do you have a local solicitor or one of the cheaper conveyancing chains? I always use a solicitor than I know well and chases up matters quickly - after some bad experiences.

It's been handled by Taylors/Countrywide and I would never recommend them to anyone after this farce.

[Matt_N]

LivewareProblem said:

It's been handled by Taylors/Countrywide and I would never recommend them to anyone after this farce.

Ah ha, I've just completed a sale and purchase through Taylors & Countrywide, we accepted an offer on the 19th of June and had the memo of sale through on the 22nd, I forwarded it straight on to my solicitor.

We moved in on the 28th of August so 11 weeks all in, with our buyers, our new house and another property (probate) in the chain.

We were buying the inlaws house (private sale so no EA, but conveyancing done through CW aswel) which helped things along as we all kept each other in the loop and pressed our solicitors when needed from both directions.

Countrywide is hit and miss as you could up with an outsourced conveyancer, ours was in Barry, we're in Bristol!

[Ruskie]

Currently selling in a no chain arrangement.

Out of interest in this day and age why does the housing market/estate agent/solicitor thing take so long? Surely it's just computer work. Always baffles me.

[LivewareProblem]

I don't know how true it is but I've been told its because its so simple you just simply get forgotten about and rushed through when they find the time

[Charlie1986]

Ruskie said:

Currently selling in a no chain arrangement.

Out of interest in this day and age why does the housing market/estate agent/solicitor thing take so long? Surely it's just computer work. Always baffles me.

don't know about the estate agents but the solicitor can have up to 100 files on dictation and with holidays etc some are running behind, My FIL has over 160 waiting on dictation and is currently doing 70 completions a month

[Jobbo]

Ruskie said:

Surely it's just computer work.

It's not. For a nice simple title for a detached house which has never been extended or altered, wasn't part of a larger plot or had parts sold off and not changed hands in years then it can be straightforward. However, how many transactions are like that?

[Sheepshanks]

LivewareProblem said:

I don't know how true it is but I've been told its because its so simple you just simply get forgotten about and rushed through when they find the time

I was told it's because they work in sort of event driven way - your solicitors sends off enquiries then, when they get the answers, they do the next bit...etc. So if the answers come back in a week, that's great. If they take a month, then so be it.

My daughter is buying a no chain (either way) house. She's a teacher and is in no hurry but would have liked to have the property before the end of the school holidays. Now they're humming and harring about whether it can be done for half-term. The solicitor has basically told her that it'll happen when it happens!

Apparently the vendors are very anxious to get shut but allegedly the outstanding actions are with them. As prices are starting to soften around here again (perhaps just a time of year thing) this could be a nightmare for the vendors as daughter is starting to wonder if she's doing the right thing.