How Long should it take for contracts - conveyancing

[MiaMia]

Hi

I put an offer on an apartment in late March and it was sale agreed. However 7 weeks later the vendor's solicitor has still not sent the contracts to my solicitor. The Estate Agent is no longer responding to me.

How long should it take to obtain the deeds and draft the sale contract?

The apartment is vacant - it used to be an investment property - therefore should the vendor not want to sell as quickly as possible - esp considering the market and the fact that he is presumably paying a mortgage but not earning any income.

The apartment still appears on the Estate Agents website for sale - though it does say sale agreed on the sign outside it- could they be trying to sell it to somebody else for a higher price and therefore delaying?

If they do - am I still liable for my solicitor's costs?

 

[CCOVICH]

How long should it take to obtain the deeds and draft the sale contract?

A contract without deeds isn't much good-there may be a delay in getting the deeds-or their solicitor could be taking their time, it's hard to say.

The apartment still appears on the Estate Agents website for sale - though it does say sale agreed on the sign outside it- could they be trying to sell it to somebody else for a higher price and therefore delaying?

It's possible-why not get a colleague to call the EA and ask them are they still showing the property?

If they do - am I still liable for my solicitor's costs?

Yes-unless they have said otherwise.

 

[giddyup]

Hi,

I'm at the other end of an identical (every detail) situation so it could even be my apartment you are buying (D15?). In my case my solicitors just do everything at a snails pace. It's an arcane process and IMHO needs to be reviewed top to bottom but that's another day's thread. It could be that your seller is in the same boat as me and everything is happening slowly and because they are not in the apt or moving somewhere else there isn't the same sense of urgency as there is for you.

I got a "you'd better hurry up" call from the estate agent this morning but I'm not even going to ring the solicitor bceause in my experience these things take as long as they take and solicitors always have some excuse/reason why things aren't moving at the pace you want.

I know that's a bit apathetic on my part but I'm not going to waste the phone-call to be told blah blah blah by a solicitor.

Hang in there and good luck.

 

[sheena1]

So if you are not happy with your Solicitor giddyup why did you go to them? Have you used them before? If they are this slow issuing contracts then imagine how long they will take to complete! You are paying the auctioneer and the solicitor. They are working for you and so they are accountable to you. By not phoning the Solicitor and finding out exactly what is taking so long you are also partly to blame for the delay. Call in/telephone/ask for copies of all correspondence etc. Usually in a busy office its the person who shouts the loudest gets priority. Get the Estate Agent to keep calling the Solicitor also...

 

[giddyup]

So if you are not happy with your Solicitor giddyup why did you go to them?

I didn't say anywhere that I was not happy with them. As far as I'm concerned they are getting on with it albeit slowly and I'm not really too concerned. I was just letting the OP know that this could be what's slowing their transaction down.

Cheers -

 

[MiaMia]

Thanks for the replies CCOVICH and giddyup.