House sale Coming up for 12 weeks and still not exchanged

House sale Coming up for 12 weeks and still not exchanged

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wack

Original Poster:

2,103 posts

206 months

Sunday 17th July 2016
quotequote all
14th April house goes on the market , 20th April house sale agreed , first time buyer and we're not buying another property so no chain

16th July , still not exchanged, the buyer is adamant he still wants to buy it

Our solicitor is never in the office, they offer conveyancing but based on my experience they shouldn't because all I ever get when I ring is the secretary , the solicitor is ALWAYS out of the office/ with a client

The buyers firm are online and it seems uncontactable other than by email

On the advice of the estate agent we've given their solicitors a deadline of Thursday to exchange or it goes back on the market. we've had no advice at all from our solicitors on how to speed things up, all they say is they email but the other side replies via the mail which seems odd for an online firm.

They're asking questions 11 weeks in which are either in the information they already have or easily found out

Anybody been through something similar, it's a long time since I sold a house

Is there anything else I should be doing before Thursday comes and goes because my patience is wearing thin, they've had the contract for 6 weeks now

wack

Original Poster:

2,103 posts

206 months

Sunday 17th July 2016
quotequote all
Andehh said:
Change solicitor at your end immediately, keep phoning Estate agent and warn them you will walk away & put the house on the market.

How long are you stuck with current Estate agent? Them loosing their commission will bring them back into line of chasing the buyer!
This is the problem, the estate agent is chasing the buyer but their solicitors in his words shouldn't be practicing law

the house is a town house with an entry between, over the entry is a bedroom , our house has the back half of the entry , bigger bathroom, next door has the front, bigger bedroom, 9 weeks in they ask who owns the bit over the entry at the front ! The information is in their file , it's been like that for weeks one question at a time by letter through the post

I was going to give it until Thursday when the deadline expires and if it's still not exchanged it'll be back on the market with a new solicitor

fesuvious said:
Average offer to completion period we keep data for is 12-17 weeks.

This referenced across @10k customers in total.

'Convey Law' recently put out that their average timeframe is 12 weeks. They claim to be the largest conveyancing firm in the country.

12 weeks being the figure they were happy to release to the press.......
Our solicitors say they're responding to questions from the searches as they come in , the estate agent says he has properties that have exchanged that sold a month after mine which have been through the same searches

12 weeks sounds too long to me



Edited by wack on Sunday 17th July 18:32

wack

Original Poster:

2,103 posts

206 months

Sunday 17th July 2016
quotequote all
essayer said:
Have your buyers done a survey?
Have your solicitors received any questions from the buyer's solicitor? (And have yours replied..?)
Are they approved for a mortgage IN FULL?

If no to any of these, I'd be putting in strict deadlines.

Are your local council particularly slow at answering questions ? It might be that his solicitor is just waiting for the council/searches etc to come back before proceeding with more correspondence - but 12 weeks is definitely slow. Good luck!
Survey was done in early May, no issues reported

Loads of questions, all by mail , every time I ring the secretary always has a tape ready to type which I'm sure is BS

Buyers have a large deposit and according to the agent ar good to go, contract signed



wack

Original Poster:

2,103 posts

206 months

Sunday 17th July 2016
quotequote all
The buyers are Eastern European , I was concerned they were delaying to see if anything happens re BREXIT but they've given notice on their rental property and were round with the agent last week measuring for curtains

I'll ring the agent in the morning to check he's actually seen a mortgage offer , he does seem very professional, local guy with a business at stake rather than a national chain

wack

Original Poster:

2,103 posts

206 months

Monday 18th July 2016
quotequote all
dazwalsh said:
However I bought my own home and it took 5 months of constant chasing and emailing and ringing to get anyone to do anything from both sides. (no chains)
That doesn't sound hopeful

Solicitors and weather forecasters , the only 50k jobs you can be crap at and still get paid

wack

Original Poster:

2,103 posts

206 months

Monday 18th July 2016
quotequote all
FailHere said:
With any communication chain you will generally experience the chinese whispers, your agent will tell you what you want to hear, your solicitor will blame the other solicitor, your buyer will blame the lender and so it goes on. Sometimes it is made worse when one, or more, party is incompetent.

My last move was typical of this, I had already moved and the old house was going to first time buyers. They were the ones who wanted a 1st September completion, to tie in with giving up a rental. They were the ones who delayed searches, as their mortgage offer was not in place, despite what the agent told me.

They held back exchange finally exchanging and completing on the same day. When this appeared to be what was going to happen I warned the agent that any attempt to lower the offer on exchange would be met with a refusal to sell to them at all.

I also made a point of saying that I had not arranged to clear the house, as I was uncertain that the sale was going through, this did result in a few slightly panicked phone calls back and forth.
I'm starting to wonder is the agent wants the deadline so the other side start hassling their solicitor more, I can't think for a minute he wants to go through finding another buyer when this one is supposed to be close and still wants it

I'm the same as you, if they try it on at the last minute they'll be told where to go

wack

Original Poster:

2,103 posts

206 months

Monday 18th July 2016
quotequote all
I'm paying for conveyancing but getting the typist it by the looks of things , the solicitor is never there

wack

Original Poster:

2,103 posts

206 months

Saturday 23rd July 2016
quotequote all
well the deadline worked, no contact at all for a week then they exchanged yesterday, so much for saving money, the guy had to drive 200 miles to visit his online solicitor and kick ass to get them to do their job

so the advice is don't sell to anyone contemplating using an online only service