How long from survey to exchange

Given that the transaction is not legally binding until exchange has taken place, there is generally anything from two to four weeks between exchange and completion, to allow all parties to make moving arrangements.

The more parties in the chain, the more time it is likely to take to find a completion date that suits everyone, so be prepared to compromise and accept you might not be able to agree on your first choice. Because most people have a full-time job, completions tend to take place on a Friday to give everyone the weekend to get the initial moving in and unpacking done, without having to take more than an afternoon or a day off work.

As a buyer, if you can ensure your funds are sent over to your solicitor or conveyancer several days in advance of the proposed exchange date, it should help move things along smoothly. If there is a chain, it is usual that a seller may be using the funds they receive from their buyer to pay for some, if not all of their onward purchase.

As such, the deposit lodged by the buyer at the bottom of the chain may be taken into account and passed up the chain. The only exception would be if you required the deposit to be paid to an onward purchase of a new build, where the developer requires the deposit, in which case, the funds would be paid to them and guaranteed by a New Build Guarantee Scheme such as NHBC. In this case, granting the buyer access to undertake the required works may be the only way for the sale to proceed.

Key undertakings also often stipulate that the buyer is responsible for the utilities and Council Tax from the date of exchange. It tends to mainly be developers and property traders that look to carry out the transaction in this way. The buyer may want to own and start developing what they see as an excellent acquisition before anyone else gets hold of it, or the seller might have a pressing need to release their equity as soon as possible.

When a property is highly desirable and of great interest to a number of parties, if a buyer is able to push through a quick purchase in this way, that may give them an advantage and allow them to secure the property. Generally, it is only well-capitalised, professional property investors who attempt attended exchanges. At the point of exchange, both the buyer and seller are contractually committed to completing, so pulling out is a breach of contract and attracts financial penalties.

The key to moving the transaction along as quickly as possible is for all parties to respond to requests for information or action right away. There should be good communication between the buyer, their legal representative and their mortgage broker; similarly, the seller should be in touch with their conveyancer and estate agent to make sure things are moving along and there are no problems.

The estate agent should be in touch with all parties, checking in to progress the sale on a regular basis. It also helps if you can agree an exchange and completion date to aim for right from the start, to give everyone a timescale to work towards. Getting ready to exchange contracts is a matter of getting the right legal and financial documentation signed and funds being in the right hands.

As the onus is more on the buyer than the seller in the transaction, there is not as much for you to do. In the past, solicitors would meet up in person to physically exchange contracts, however, these days it is done over the telephone.

They verbally confirm and agree the terms of the contract, the completion date and that they hold the required documentation and funds. The time between conveyancing searches and exchange of contracts is typically between 1 and 3 weeks. In most cases, things usually move forward without any hitches but there are a number of factors that can slow things down. These may include:. Many of the enquiries are based on the Law Society forms completed by the seller at the start of the conveyancing process.

The conveyancer will also need to raise further enquiries on the back of the conveyancing searches results see below. When managing our estate agency sales, we always ask conveyancers to start the enquiries once the Law Society forms are returned. This means that any remainder enquiries resulting from the search results can be dealt with promptly before moving on to exchange of contracts.

When using mortgage finance, the lender will also want confirmation that there is nothing that will negatively affect its security over the property.

This essentially means that the purchaser is responsible for checking the property before committing. Conveyancing searches are undertaken at the start of the process and can take anything between 3 and 8 weeks to complete. Much will depend on the Local Authority search which takes the longest regardless of where you are in the country.

If such issues do emerge, the conveyancer will then need to have a conversation with the buyer which will naturally push the exchange date forward. The implications of going ahead with the sale will need to be fully explained so that the buyer has a clear understanding of any risks involved.

If the latter is proposed, the seller can withdraw as well. If this occurs, the seller should check the conveyancing fees to make sure there are no abortive fees. However, in our experience, the estate agent should have been aware of this kind of situation from the start. As a result, the majority of buyers move forward well aware of any risks which have usually been factored into the price.

A more typical transaction will take anything from weeks after enquiries have been completed to reach exchange of contracts. Many take longer. In fact, when considering why do solicitors take so long to exchange contracts, you probably want to look more at the next stage of the process, solicitors searches. A good solicitor will ensure that they start conducting searches at the earliest opportunity.

Searches including checking the flood risk of the property, looking for any potential environmental hazards, and confirming how the property is connected to the local water system. The amount of time solicitors searches take depend on exactly which searches are requested and how quick the authorities providing them are.

However, you can easily be looking at weeks for all searches to come back. If the enquiries and searches are typically the areas were most people see delays then how long does it take to buy a house from start to finish? Well, if you are purely considering the process from when an offer has been accepted on a property, the conveyancing process takes around months.

However, if you consider the entire process from when someone first starts looking at properties then, on average, the process will be around months. Of course, some people spend months, even years, just trying to find the right property. Others literally find a property in a matter of hours.

Generally, purchases and sales with no upward or downward chains complete the quickest and those with multiple buyers and sellers involved take the longest and are at most risk of falling through altogether. There are a number of things that can hold up the exchange of contracts. These include, but are not limited to:.