If you are buying or selling a property, you probably want to avoid unnecessary delays. As well as dragging a transaction out, delays can risk a chain collapsing. We take a look at the best way to keep your sale or purchase moving.
A slow start
Once you have a buyer or seller lined up, ideally your solicitor should be able to start work at once. For this to happen, it is helpful if you instruct them beforehand. This will give them the opportunity to open a file and do some of the preliminary work such as verifying your identity and giving you property information and fixtures and fittings forms to fill in.
This means that as soon as an offer is accepted, the transaction can start moving. Another important way to reduce delays is to obtain a mortgage offer in principle. You can ask your lender for this and they will carry out most of the work upfront, such as checking your identity, credit scores and your eligibility for the mortgage advance.
Once you find a property to buy, it is then a much quicker process for the lender to issue their formal mortgage offer.
Survey reveals problems
If a survey reveals issues with the property but you still want to buy it, you should arrange for experts to look at the problems straightaway and provide quotes for doing the work. You can then use the quotes to renegotiate the price with the seller to take into account the cost of remedying any defects.
Because it can take time to organise quotes, the sooner you start ringing round, the better.
Delay in receiving search results
In some areas, local authorities have been swamped by search requests and are taking a long time to process them. Your solicitor can let you know how long a search is likely to take and may offer you the option of asking a private search company to carry out the search instead, which is generally a faster and more accurate option.
Legal problems or delay in providing paperwork
Where the paperwork reveals a defect in the title or some paperwork is missing, such as planning consent or an easement relating to access, this can slow a sale or purchase down. An experienced solicitor will be able to address this promptly and will know how to resolve matters without delay.
A lengthy or slow chain or slow response times from your buyer or seller’s solicitor
Where other parties in the transaction are moving slowly, you can ask your estate agent to keep chasing them regularly for progress reports. Your solicitor should stay on top of the transactions you are involved in, which could be both a sale and a purchase, checking in regularly with your seller’s and buyer’s solicitors to ensure they are working proactively and that there is nothing they require from you.
In summary
Conveyancing can seem to move slowly at times, but an experienced conveyancing solicitor will know when to keep the pressure on and will work actively to move matters forward throughout. They will also be able to deal efficiently with any issues that arise and keep you updated as to progress.
Staying in close touch with your estate agent is also a good idea, so that they can also chase people where necessary.
Contact us
If you would like to speak to one of our expert property lawyers, ring us on 0333 305 5189 or email us at info@lpropertylawyers.co.uk
