The nervous wait to exchange....

  • Thread starter Thread starter noj
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Chain all ready to go and I get an email from the solicitors this morning saying our local authority (Stratford-Upon-Avon) searches aren't due to come back until 21st December.

We paid for them to start the searches mid September.

Rage.
 
About to start the process of selling and buying. (2nd time buyer, 1st time seller).
Property due to be listed next week.

How do people decide on a Conveyancer? We used a local conveyancer in the past and they weren't very good. I've been looking at some of the bigger online firms but no idea if these are any better.
 
Participant said:
Chain all ready to go and I get an email from the solicitors this morning saying our local authority (Stratford-Upon-Avon) searches aren't due to come back until 21st December.

We paid for them to start the searches mid September.

Rage.
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Ooft that's not cool :( Ours came back 3 weeks after I made payment to the day. Can't imagine how frustrating that is.

Kohaashi said:
About to start the process of selling and buying. (2nd time buyer, 1st time seller).
Property due to be listed next week.

How do people decide on a Conveyancer? We used a local conveyancer in the past and they weren't very good. I've been looking at some of the bigger online firms but no idea if these are any better.
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I asked my Father as he'd recently sold a house. So probably best to ask around for some ideas and get some quotes. I am using Wake Smith Solicitors in Sheffield and they've been pretty good through the process.
 
So, mortgage valuation completed and we now have an official offer to loan. Survey been done today and had a call, they said the roof looks like there's a few loose tiles and evidence of previous repairs. Now, from what I've heard it's basically unheard of for a 1930s house to ever not have the roof brought up on a survey unless it's obviously new, imagine it's not something to worry about too much?

We'll obviously wait for the full report to come through but I'm aware a surveyor is always going to lean on the side of caution when pointing out any potential issues. For comparison, there's only 2 houses currently in the same rough area for sale at the same price or lower, and both needing significant work doing internally which our one does not. I'm half tempted to try and negotiate down a bit but if they say no, suck it up and sort it out later.
 
Participant said:
Chain all ready to go and I get an email from the solicitors this morning saying our local authority (Stratford-Upon-Avon) searches aren't due to come back until 21st December.

We paid for them to start the searches mid September.

Rage.
Click to expand...
Your solicitors are probably doing a "personal" search (done by the search provider). Ask them to do an "official" search instead. Contact the council to see what their current turnaround time is [email protected] as of July it was 15 working days but may be longer now. Shouldn't be December though.

Local searches are a gamble as some councils are terrible (West Dorset current turnaround time is 60± working days) whereas some areas of London for example are currently less than 5. Personal searches can be quicker but also can be slower as councils don't like doing them as they don't get the money.
 
Well, having lived in our current house (140m2 1925 semi, which we extended a few years ago) since 2009, and feeling a bit of a lack of space with our 3 kids, we've put a deposit on a new build. Due to be completed in just under a years time. 374m2 with a 38m2 garage. Excited, bit nervous, and entirely not looking forward to moving house again. Housebuilder seems very reputable (Kirkwood Homes), and due to them having taken over the development we are going to, the houses are very well spaced unlike a lot of newbuild "estates", and only contains 20 odd homes.
 
Posted a while back about our journey. Got to within about a week before exchanging only for the guy at the top of the chain to pull out and therefore it was back to square one for us. That was on September 16th.

Had a viewing at a house on the 20th September, perfect in pretty much every way and not more than a mile from the location of the house we were going to buy. Offer was accepted straight away.

Happy to say that we exchanged yesterday, 38 days (5 1/2 weeks) after our offer was accepted! It would have been even quicker as we were due to exchange on the 25th of this month but our sellers solicitors had lost their copy of the sellers contract and our bank hadn't updated their LMS system with the new address we were purchasing. That mess got sorted out in 2 days though so not a big a deal as it could have been. The estate agents said that it's not often that the process goes so quickly and so well but when you have a really good seller, a really good buyer, and solicitors that get **** done (mostly), it makes things very easy! even the searches got one in 5 days!

Our seller moved out today but due to a clause in our mortage there needs to be 7 working days between exchange and completion so we're now sat around waiting to move in!
 
Robdav said:
when you have a really good seller, a really good buyer, and solicitors that get **** done (mostly), it makes things very easy! even the searches got one in 5 days!
!
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Nice one. Truer than ever at the moment. Today I completed one transaction that's been going since 2020 and yesterday one that had the offer accepted 13 days ago. Two ends of the spectrum :eek:
 
So our survey came back, aside from the sort of things you'd expect with a 1930s house which we fully expected, they pointed out that there's no evidence of any electrical or gas safety checks. Now I'd imagine us requiring the seller to provide independent checks on these is wholly reasonable and shouldn't prove an issue, from what I understand they're meant to be a requirement anyway when selling?

I'd also very much have the mindset of if the vendor would refuse to have a £140 EIHC check done, it would raise many red flags that they know there's issues that they don't want revealed.
 
Invertigo said:
So our survey came back, aside from the sort of things you'd expect with a 1930s house which we fully expected, they pointed out that there's no evidence of any electrical or gas safety checks. Now I'd imagine us requiring the seller to provide independent checks on these is wholly reasonable and shouldn't prove an issue, from what I understand they're meant to be a requirement anyway when selling?

I'd also very much have the mindset of if the vendor would refuse to have a £140 EIHC check done, it would raise many red flags that they know there's issues that they don't want revealed.
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Electrical safety and gas safety are not requirements for a private house sale.

I would expect a recent service certificate for a gas central heating but it's not a legal requirement, and most sellers will tell you to pop-off if you ask them to pay for a full safety check.
 
Indeed, certainly not a requirement. You may sell a property in any condition whether that be structurally sound or not, bad or even no electrics, anything you like. I'd expect the buyer to initiate any checks like this if they felt urged to.

As a buyer, i guess a bit of a red flag if the vendor resisted you commissioning one though, sort of as you say.
 
Right, so I'm expecting through the lawyers paperwork soon. I've got it from a previous one that fell through so took a look through that. Got a few questions if anyone is happy to answer.

Expected completion date... I don't know? Surely the solicitors should be in a better position to know that than me? 8 weeks seem reasonable? 6? It states that things change, so it's only ever a guesstimate, just put 6 weeks and to hell with it?

Buildings insurance. They want the details of the company etc, but until I have a completion date, then buying insurance seems daft? Or can you get it all in place, and then you let the insurance company know when exchange/completion is meant to be?
 
This is certainly one of those ‘if you want it, feel free to pay for it’ scenarios from the sellers perspective.

Gas and electric inspections are a standard caveat of a building survey. They are not qualified to comment so it’s mainly their to cover themselves. No house older than a few years will be up to the current regs and periodic inspections are not a requirement in domestic properties.

There should be certificates for any new installations though.
 
Unseul said:
Right, so I'm expecting through the lawyers paperwork soon. I've got it from a previous one that fell through so took a look through that. Got a few questions if anyone is happy to answer.

Expected completion date... I don't know? Surely the solicitors should be in a better position to know that than me? 8 weeks seem reasonable? 6? It states that things change, so it's only ever a guesstimate, just put 6 weeks and to hell with it?

Buildings insurance. They want the details of the company etc, but until I have a completion date, then buying insurance seems daft? Or can you get it all in place, and then you let the insurance company know when exchange/completion is meant to be?
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They want a steer from you as to when you want/need to complete by.

As for insurance, either give them the name of the current lot (assuming you’ll just move it over) or tell them TBC. You need it in place for exchange and your current insurer will normally cover both properties between exchange and completion before transferring it over to the new one. There was no charge the last time I did this but your mileage will vary.
 
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