Sale Agreed procedure

Parchment

We went sale agreed on a house two weeks ago. Straight away our solicitor/bank etc were told. We have our surveyor ready to go.

Our solicitor advised us to wait two weeks and if we had not heard from her to call her - she anticipated getting the papers from the vendors solicitor in that time frame. She told us to hold off on the surveyor until she had looked at them.

The EA rang me yesterday wondering what was going on and why we had not had a surveyor in yet. I told him we were instructed to wait until our solicitor got the papers to send in the engineer. I also told him that it was not us delaying anything - we have everything in place and are awaiting the vendors solicitors moving.

This seems to be the norm, it happened with the last house we went sale agreed on (sale fell through). The EA pushes the buyers - when its not them delaying the process.

Is this the norm? Have you had similar experiences?

sk8board

Hi there,
its unusual for the EA to wonder where the surveyor is, its hardly their concern.

My experience on this over 4 properties is that it will take about 3 months (allowing for some small delays) - very generally speaking:
3-4 weeks to get the contracts across between solicitors, deposits paid etc etc
4-5 weeks of solicitors replying to each others questions regarding the contracts and doing the searches. This is the point you submit the survey as its only valid for 2 months and if there's a delay down the line you'll need to resubmit it
(N.B. a good solicitor is one that's thorough at this stage in the process and protects you, not the one that's fastest)
2-3 weeks for banks to close and transfer monies.

It can be done quicker, but not by much and quicker is not always best.

e.g. I closed on a perfectly normal property just 3 weeks ago, which went sale agreed exactly 5 months previously. This was the longest I'd experienced, and the delay was my solicitor had concerns over the viability of the management company and sent them some questions; coupled with solicitors at both ends being on leave and things slowed down.

Mink

sk8board wrote: »

This is the point you submit the survey as its only valid for 2 months and if there's a delay down the line you'll need to resubmit it

I thought it was the bank valuation that expired after 2 months, but the survey once done did not have to be resubmitted.

I'm only asking as we got the survey done a week after sale agreed & now I'm a little worried. I knew to leave the valuation til nearer closing.