Mortgaged approved. How long from sale agreed to exchange of keys?

[presidenttttt]

Hi,

Possibly worth a thread covering the various scenarios. I will kick off;

Seller solicitor instructed to get deeds (mortgaged house) off bank, so ready to progress legal process within 1 or 2 days of sale agreed.
Buyer has mortgage approved and a solicitor name to provide the estate agent.

How long would it take to close the process/exchange, assuming everything runs as normal i.e no planning or similar paperwork issue?

 

[RedOnion]

How long between 'offer accepted' and 'keys in hand'

Looking for a bit of advice... We are currently in the process of buying our first house. Once our offer was accepted and our engineer had a look, we gave the auctioneer and our solicitor the go ahead, that we were happy to move forward with the sale - this was nearly 13 weeks ago. We were...

www.askaboutmoney.com

Anything between 5 weeks and several months depending on how willing all parties are to get things closed quickly.

 

[Johnno75]

@RedOnion is right. It depends on a range of factors.

I bought and sold properties in the past couple of years.

1. Family Home Sale: The family home, an apartment, went sale agreed in December. Keys handed over the following July. The significant delay was attributable to several factors (eg preparation of maps by me for 1st registration for the benefit of the purchaser etc) but was largely down to the cash purchaser and their solicitor messing about and delaying the closing for months. The purchasers were deliberately prevaricating for their own financial and tax reasons and were instructing their solicitor to delay and string things out. I had to serve a completion notice.

2. Family Home Purchase: This purchase (with the benefit of a mortgage) was agreed at the end of June. Keys handed over the end of August. Very straightforward transaction. Both parties were willing to push matters along and things got done.

 

[lff12]

I was speaking to an auctioneer who is selling a property with tenants who have been long term residents who are refusing to move out.

He says that they will exchange contracts but not close until they have vacant possession. They have legal action under way.

It seems daft to me. The uncertainty would put off most buyers. So someone who is not in any hurry, could get a great bargain as there won't be too much competition.

L.

It would very much be in the interest of the buyer (and more importantly to the solicitor, their lender) that the property is vacant. If they are there more than 8 years they are perfectly entitled to up to 8 months notice, which the seller should have given them before they even put the place on the market.