How long should it take to draw up contracts?

aniascor

Got sale agreed on a house the last week in February, and am still waiting for the contracts to be finished. There have been no delays on my part - all finance was in place, insurance and life assurance, etc. all sorted within a week of sale agreed. Last week i finally met with the solicitor because he had received the contracts from the vendor, only to be told that he expects it to be another few weeks yet because he is still waiting on some documents that he needs to check out the title.

He seemed shocked that I might want to move things along, saying that the closing date isn't until the end of June and we had loads of time yet. I feel that it has been long enough already and we should be wrapping things up. I feel that it is already taking longer than necessary and am worried about the possibility of gazumping the longer it takes. How long does it normally take to get the contracts signed? Is he right that 2.5 - 3 months is reasonable?

Culchie

If you have done everything on your side...Finance arranged, surveyors, bank valuers etc... the vendors solicitors just need to send out contracts, normally setting a 14 day deadline to sign contracts, in that contract should be a closing date.

It should only take 2 or 3 weeks from when signed contracts have been received back by vendors solicitor.


Sounds like seller has a new house to move into that won't be ready to move into, until end of June.

Beruthiel

last year I went sale agreed in the middle of feb, moved in on june 17th. Between one thing and another, it can take that long.

gamer

usually takes at least 2 months, solicitor,has to make sure all ownership documents are in place,deeds,title etc.THEY EVEN CHECK ,DEBTS,IE is there any large esb or gas bill due.THE older the house the longer it takes.

aniascor

I was aware from early in the process that we wouldn't be getting the keys until the end of June - but what's bothering me is how long it is taking to get a legally binding agreement in place. I am all too aware that until contracts are signed there is nothing to stop the vendors looking for more money or pulling out. I understood that it would take months to get keys, I guess I just wasn't expecting it to take so long to get the contracts...

FillSpectre

8-12 weeks is the usual span with 10 being the norm.

delly

Had a similar type of story with my second gaff which went a bit like this:
August. Put offer on house, offer accepted, put own house up for sale.
September. Offer made on my house, I accepted offer, happy days.
October. Waiting for contracts to be returned for sale of my house, people who i'm buying house from, putting pressure on me.
November. Finally get contracts for my old house which meant I could sign the contracts for the house i'm buying. Was also told that they had been waiting to sign the contracts for there new house, which was only done after i signed.
December. Moved into new house, stress of the last half year lifted, prepare to feast over Christmas to regain weight loss.

Being part of a chain sucks, but it means that somebody who you don't even know, being the cause of your delay.

aniascor

Seems like I am just being impatient then. By my calculations, it's been 10 weeks. Friends of mine had their contracts signed within 2 weeks, so that's what's been making me think this is a really long time to wait. Talking to the solicitor again a few minutes ago and he said it'll be a couple more weeks yet, so I probably just need to take a few deep breaths and wait it out!

aniascor

delly wrote:

Being part of a chain sucks, but it means that somebody who you don't even know, being the cause of your delay.

We're not really part of a chain though, because we are FTBs, and they already have the dates for their new house (sometime in May - but leaving the closing date till the end of June just to ensure they have enough time to move). Spoke to the auctioneer last week and she said their house is pretty much ready, so no delays on that front.

When I met my solicitor last week I became convinced he was the root cause of the delays because he seemed really disorganised and only discovered while i was there that the documents he received from the vendors solicitor a week previously were incomplete. The fact that it took him a week to notice this, and therefore meant further delays just drove me insane!

delly

Could be a missing document somewhere, could be a problem with there mortgage, you'd never know cause the perception is that everything looks ok, but in fact they could be stalling.

It was a FTB investor who bought my house, and I thought this would be a quick sale, however it turned out that the Ulster Bank had a problem issuing her mortgage offer, her brief wouldn't let her sign until it was sorted.

The most headwrecking part was asking my solicitor to get an update, and he would reply 'We'll send them a letter':mad: . Why they can't email or phone i'll never know.

aniascor

E-mail seems to be a big no-no as far as I can tell. Maybe it's a fear of having something in writing.:) My solicitor always ignores my emails until I talk to him on the phone.

Beruthiel

then hound his ass!

aniascor

Certainly trying to! Ringing him every day for an update - doesn't seem to urge him to speed things up though!

sapper

Sounds to me like it is your solicitor - normally if someone is buying a house with the money that you are paying them they want you to sign the contracts asap. If you pulled out they would have to find another buyer and get everything wrapped up with them before they could move in to their new place. Did you check with the estate agent when the vendors sent the contacts? Maybe they did it ages ago...

gamer

you,ll only annoy solicitor,by ringing him every day, ring him every 2 or 3 weeks ,max, most house purchases take 2,to 3 months to go thru,for all you know he,could be dealing with 30 other clients as well as you.IN a few years time the system will be online,conveyancing, at present its the same documentation system as was used in 1800.The seller may be waiting to get documents for the house he,s moving into ,thats what they call the Chain,so he can instruct his brief to slow things down abit,its quicker if you are buying new house from builder.

aniascor

Have only started ringing him daily in the past week or so because i needed to find out when we could sign contracts - had to arrange time off work to do that and i needed to give my boss a few days notice - was ringing him about once a fortnight before that.

I have no doubt that he is dealing with loads of other clients - his firm deals mainly with conveyancy. But the reason I am getting so impatient is because a lot of the delay seems to be stemming from him not checking documents when he receives them and taking ages to send requests for missing information.

And the estate agent keeps ringing us to ask why there is a delay because the vendor says they are waiting to hear from our solicitor. But when I ring him he says he is waiting to hear from them... Hard to know who to believe. Maybe there is confusion (incompetence?) on both sides. I'm just hoping that since the vendor is getting anxious to close too, between us we can speed these solicitors up!:)

lomb

right, well the story is if u dont sign soon, u will lose the sale. my advice is get an appointment with your solicitor and tell him u cannot afford to lose this sale and get him to get u sign the 2 contracts with a letter saying subject to title documents being received and most importantly pay them the balance of the money due on signing.(this is legal by the way) get him to courier the lot to them the same day.
worked for me and i was being gazumped:D

aniascor

Thanks lomb. What you're saying makes sense - but I'm not sure I could convince him to do that.

We have actually signed the contracts already - he just won't return them to the vendors, and when we asked him to, he said that we didn't seem to realise that he had an obligation to protect the bank's interest and had to make sure the title was ok.

The vendors are aware that we have signed the contracts because we told the estate agent that we had last week. When i spoke to the solicitor this week, he said that he has sent the request for the additional title documents and hasn't received a response. He also said that the vendors' solicitor won't return or take his calls. It all sounds very odd to me.

And now I am really wondering if it is our guy who is stalling, because even though we signed the necessary docs last week, he only sent off the loan request for the deposit money in the middle of this week. So he said it will be next week before we will be in a position to pay the deposit. I feel very frustrated by this, because there is absolutely no reason for it - we had all our loan approval in place two months ago.

It just makes me feel like screaming...:(

lomb

aniascor wrote:

Thanks lomb. What you're saying makes sense - but I'm not sure I could convince him to do that.

We have actually signed the contracts already - he just won't return them to the vendors, and when we asked him to, he said that we didn't seem to realise that he had an obligation to protect the bank's interest and had to make sure the title was ok.

The vendors are aware that we have signed the contracts because we told the estate agent that we had last week. When i spoke to the solicitor this week, he said that he has sent the request for the additional title documents and hasn't received a response. He also said that the vendors' solicitor won't return or take his calls. It all sounds very odd to me.

And now I am really wondering if it is our guy who is stalling, because even though we signed the necessary docs last week, he only sent off the loan request for the deposit money in the middle of this week. So he said it will be next week before we will be in a position to pay the deposit. I feel very frustrated by this, because there is absolutely no reason for it - we had all our loan approval in place two months ago.

It just makes me feel like screaming...:(

sorry to hear that , i can see where hes coming from. are u getting a 100% mortgage with eposit paid by bank?
its normal for solicitors to not take calls from each other, dont ask me how i know this...
paying a deposit and signing subject to title being good is legal i believe but im not a solicitor. i did it a few months ago signed with letter attached saying it was subject to some things and paid them. my guy suggested it after i told him i was signing NOW and wanted it sent by courier that day. but the thing was it was my money not the banks and if u know anything about banks they are definately not gamblers. . just keep the pressure on on ur guy and possibly get the estate agent to ring the vendors solicitor to see what the delay is. that takes the pressure of u and onto the vendors solicitor. rememebr the estate agent will tell the vendor then the delay is on the part of his own solicitor.

this is one of the reasons u need a good solicitor , the 1000 euro ones are a false economy..best of luck with and let us know how u get on.

lomb

aniascor wrote:

And now I am really wondering if it is our guy who is stalling, because even though we signed the necessary docs last week, he only sent off the loan request for the deposit money in the middle of this week. So he said it will be next week before we will be in a position to pay the deposit.:(

just read that, yes i think u are right, if the bank is paying the deposit then i think it is this delay thats the problem. can u raise the deposit urself by borrowing the money from family or possibly getting a personal loan?
ul probably be ok though as it will only be a few more days. good luck with it.

aniascor

Deposit should be through today or tomorrow - it would take me longer than that to get the cash together myself.

Just have to keep waiting and hoping and waiting...

aniascor

Good news from solicitor today - he has received the title docs he needs, and he expects to be able to return the signed contracts to the vendors' solicitor tomorrow. Finally some progress!