We accept an offer on the 25/02 and our buyer have only had their survey done last week (what a scary time that was) anyway we are at the stage where my solictor has answered all their queries that they had sent to us after she had sent them a draft contract and she has just sent off a TR1 form which transfers our half of the freehold to our buyer. We were told by our ea that our buyer were waiting on a full mortgage offer and money for their searches to come through from their lender ( I assumed searches were done on the outset of the conveyancing process?) what I am trying to figure out really is whther we are near exchanging contracts or will we still have a way to go??
In relation to my one experience - nowhere near! My mortgage offer, survey went through fine then it dragged and dragged for five months. I think there's no set way to tell. It all took ages for me solely because of my solicitor. Some search results didn't even appear for six weeks. Are all the searches in the HIP now? Or does the buyer side still do them aswell?
Am totally confused! Your buyers solicitor prepares the TR1 which is the document which transfers legal title to your buyer and which is given to your buyer in return for their money .This is normally done near to the end of the transaction.Their enquiries have been answered but no searches done, bit back to front. Searches are in your HIP pack if you had one.Lender wouldn't send your buyers money for searches, they don't send the mortgage advance until ready to complete.None of this is following normal proceedure so confusing,ring your solicitor and ask where they are up to as sometimes EA do get confused.
Lender wouldn't send your buyers money for searches,
yeah, I just thought I'd read that wrong, or you'd written an error. Why is the lender paying for the searches?
I also wondered why the survey has only just been done. That was basically the first thing when I bought, valuation etc. all happened very quickly. All the draft contract stuff happened way after
From the outset my solicitor sent to our buyers a draft contract from which their solicitor raised queries and these queries were all answered by ourselves and my solictor. At this stage our buyers had an agreement in principle but not a full ortgage offer and as of yesterday they still have not had an offer but I was told by our ea that it should be through anyday now. The TR1 form I assumed was prepared by our solicito because we received it from her thanks for clarifying that point for me lawyerlady. My solicitor received a letter (which I have a copy of) from their solicitor saying that she was waitint for the full mortgage offer from their mortgage lenders and money for searches I am baffled now as I assumed our buyers paid for their searches. Survey wa done last Monday and our ea said it was fine as it was a straighforward valuation survey and things looked good.
We had put our flat opn the market in October 07 so we did not need a HIP. Our vendors are going to sign contracts on their house next week I have been old by their estate agents.
I know what their solicitor means, she is waiting for the search fees from her clients, most don't pay for them until their survey is ok as otherwise the money is wasted if there is an adverse survey.She seems to have done a lot of the work in preparation.
Are searches quite expensive then because they have paid for their valuation and these cost about £450 don't they? Who would you recommend that I should speak to to get an honest answer about their circumstances as I seem to be going round in circles at the moment? Once the searches have been done and are ok does that mena we are nearly there?
nat77, it's so frustrating isn't it, but not a lot you can do about it. It sounds like the buyer is dragging their feet a bit. When I bought present house, I'd had survey done and formal mortgage offer through in less than a week. Despite the complete absence of any complications it took another 12 weeks to complete and this was with no chain on either side. Good luck. Perhaps you should instruct your EA to put the house back on the market, that might focus the buyers mind on the task in hand...
Nat, searches cost about 190.00.At the moment I can honestly tell you that there are huge delays in getting mortgage offers through, Nat West is about six weeks.There is nothing you can do, believe me I have tried for several clients.This is because there are not as many mortgages available .The times when mortgages took a week to process are gone for the moment.However once the survey is ok then usually searches only take about a week so hopefuly most of the work can be done in readiness for the offer coming through. I'm afraid everybody is having to be more patient at the moment but not easy when you're stressed I know.I don't think there is anything out of the ordinary here , your buyers are probably just as frustrated.
6 weeks for a mortgage approval! Is this with an AIP, too? I'm amazed at this because with the lower volume of business, you'd expect the staff to have more time to perform their due diligence. Once again the paying customer "has to be patient" due to some other agency...
[apparently with fewer lenders offering mortgages, the ones who are are inundated with applications.They tell me their staff are working till 11pm and weekends to try to beat the backlog and there is now no such thing as an urgent application!
Thanks StampMan and Lawyerlady. This is the first time we have bought and sold at the same time the first time we bought was 10 years ago so things have changed quite a bit in that time and it is such a scary process for us. We have a little girl ho things we are getting her a garden and I honestly would not not know how to tell her that we might not be getting one if this all does not go through (touch wood) it does though. Thank you all for your comments this has really help me put my mind at rest. It just seems the only person being honest with us is our solicitor and she seems as much in the dark about this whole thing as we are.
