Buying a house/local authority search

Hi all, after a bit advice if possible. Basically me and the missus are buying a house from immediate family and there’s no chain.
we’ve been told by family’s solicitor (sellers solicitor) that there’s a 16-20 week wait for the searches, local authority, land registry, drainage etc. But when looking online it seems like it’s only 4 weeks. Can anyone shed any light or guidance ? 20 weeks seems mental, hate to think we have to wait 5 months, as there’s a lot of work we need to do in order to move in also. It’s it’s Northumberland.
thanks
There is a delay but not 20 weeks, few solicitors have took on more than they can handle during these times causing delays
 


Ah, RR, if I remember correctly they use a national search provider who turn searches around quite quickly. It’s not very often searches delay the conveyance process these days.
That sounds great to me then. 🤞.

Our broker seemed to be quite confident in an 8-10week turnaround from application to completion (that was 2 weeks ago) so hopefully we can be in by the anticipated date mid May.

The mortgage offer was with a view to completing by 1st May but as that was only offered at 7pm on 1st April that seems very quick and id assume they just put that as its the next "1st"

Thanks.
 
Not a clue who he’s going to use for the searches but he’s the family solicitor so trust him wholeheartedly.
Can’t start the searches until the sellers solicitor sends the contracts next week. It seems like they are the ones who are massively dragging their heels.
And this is most likely your issue, sellers solicitors. You normally find there is at least one solicitor in the chain who causes issues.

Thinking about Cows point, it is most likely that they’re covering their own back side as they’ve got too much work on.
 
Don’t think you need to wait to do searches mind. Contract is the last thing they do after everything else. I would assume he has a conveyancer in his practice.
I think they atleast need a draft and then they order searches. Atleast that’s what I’m reading online.
And this is most likely your issue, sellers solicitors. You normally find there is at least one solicitor in the chain who causes issues.

Thinking about Cows point, it is most likely that they’re covering their own back side as they’ve got too much work on.
But surely it’s all down to us and our solicitors once they send the contract? Which they said they would do next week.
 
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Mine went on market at beginning of December. I’d already moved and buyer was first time buyer so no chain.

Given 2 weeks over Christmas when nothing happens we’d have completed mid Feb.
Searches were done.

Delayed because the buyer decided she wanted a survey done 2 days before the completion date she’d asked for 🙄 and then because the surveyor left it 2 weeks after being in the house before asking for a garage key 🙄 (no problem a survey being done but the timeliness of it peed me off).

Still completed on 18th March even with the Christmas fortnight and the 4 week delay because of the survey shambles.
 
The more it seems like it’s the sellers solicitor that will be the pain. Once they send the contract next week, is there any other way they can hold it up by being slow? Saying 16-2 week wait for searches when it’s not even them doing it seems crackers. Just wondering if there’s an ulterior motive.
 
The more it seems like it’s the sellers solicitor that will be the pain. Once they send the contract next week, is there any other way they can hold it up by being slow? Saying 16-2 week wait for searches when it’s not even them doing it seems crackers. Just wondering if there’s an ulterior motive.
As I say my sale was last week on November. Pretty much December/jan(2 weeks either side of Xmas a waste of time getting anything done. I was told around mid March that all searches were done. A little bit of solicitor cock up. Gave the buyer 1 alpril moving date and forgot to tell me (unbelievable) delays another 10 days. So say 12 weeks for searches.
 
Hi all, after a bit advice if possible. Basically me and the missus are buying a house from immediate family and there’s no chain.
we’ve been told by family’s solicitor (sellers solicitor) that there’s a 16-20 week wait for the searches, local authority, land registry, drainage etc. But when looking online it seems like it’s only 4 weeks. Can anyone shed any light or guidance ? 20 weeks seems mental, hate to think we have to wait 5 months, as there’s a lot of work we need to do in order to move in also. It’s it’s Northumberland.
thanks
Bairn has same problem in Newcastle. Taking a long time.
 
The more it seems like it’s the sellers solicitor that will be the pain. Once they send the contract next week, is there any other way they can hold it up by being slow? Saying 16-2 week wait for searches when it’s not even them doing it seems crackers. Just wondering if there’s an ulterior motive.
This is what I was getting at, they only answer to their client so will tell them that any hold up in proceedings is yours / searches fault when in reality it is them who don’t have the capacity to process the work.

They’ll have banked on you two not being in communication with each other.
 
This is what I was getting at, they only answer to their client so will tell them that any hold up in proceedings is yours / searches fault when in reality it is them who don’t have the capacity to process the work.

They’ll have banked on you two not being in communication with each other.
The seller is just as keen as us so she’ll take no shit from them.
hopefully if the searches take 4-6 weeks the sellers solicitor will have no excuses.
 
Is this not all digital now ? Few clicks of a button ? Not like 10 / 20 years ago when people actually had to find paper work.

if it’s not they need a kick into the modern times.

You'd be interested to know that hmrc systems are the same as they were 30 years ago.

Can't get my head around it, a few software engineers / coders and you could have the systems 5x as efficient as they are now and much more user friendly for the dosile staff that use them.
 
These search things are an absolute con.
They should all be publicly accessible information, free to everyone.

The location of pipes, mining activity, flood risks etc should be available to all.

And I'm sure they don't need to pull this information from a vault each and every time - its a con.
 
You'd be interested to know that hmrc systems are the same as they were 30 years ago.

Can't get my head around it, a few software engineers / coders and you could have the systems 5x as efficient as they are now and much more user friendly for the dosile staff that use them.

only 30 years. I know people involved with the infrastructure. And they say it takes ages to make any change. And any chance of big change will cost billions due to the legacy systems only a couple of people know about as they are that old.
 
only 30 years. I know people involved with the infrastructure. And they say it takes ages to make any change. And any chance of big change will cost billions due to the legacy systems only a couple of people know about.

Me dad recently started in the department I've just left and he literally burst out laughing when he looked at the systems they use (he used to fix computers for a living so is very techy).

What's these legacy systems? I could never get my head around why they were never updated like. Just thought it to be typical civil service crack where ne one had the initiative to change anything.
 
Me dad recently started in the department I've just left and he literally burst out laughing when he looked at the systems they use (he used to fix computers for a living so is very techy).

What's these legacy systems? I could never get my head around why they were never updated like. Just thought it to be typical civil service crack where ne one had the initiative to change anything.

database systems that are obsolete these days.
Old. Complex and everything is linked together like a rats nest. I worked at one company and one server nobody would turn off as it may or may not stop something else. That was business critical and needed to run 24/7

its not just a case of moving a to b. As application c needs to use database a. And b needs d to be on a newer version than a. X 1000
 

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