How to progress your sale before you find a buyer

How to progress your sale before you find a buyer

Taking a few proactive steps soon after you put your property on the market could prevent stressful and costly delays once the conveyancing process begins.

How long does conveyancing take?

On average, the conveyancing process takes between 8 and 12 weeks - longer if your property is leasehold.

This estimate doesn’t include sales that fall through (around one third do nationally). The range of transaction times is also wide. A chain-free cash purchase might complete in under a month. More complex transactions, or those in a longer chain, might take 3 or more months to complete.

The time it takes to complete a transaction is not down to the amount of the legal work required in the conveyancing process. Instead, most delays result from various parties waiting for replies to information requests from other parties.

Why are delays so common?

Once an offer has been accepted, your solicitor will need to collate a wealth of information. This information includes the title deeds, mortgage statement and completed property transaction forms.

What follows next is a series of interactions between buyers, sellers, landlords, lenders, agents, local authorities, search providers, surveyors and so on. In a chain, there might be scores of interested parties each one waiting on replies from others.

Bottlenecks are common. If just one buyer experiences a delay in obtaining a mortgage offer, or one seller’s managing agent is unresponsive, the whole chain will be held up.

What can sellers do to help prevent delays?

When you instruct a conveyancing solicitor, you will need to complete a number of formalities before they can act for you. You will need to agree to the solicitor’s terms and conditions, complete identity verification and pass the money laundering checks.

With the above steps completed, the solicitor will send you a pack of standard property transaction forms. These forms include the TA6 - Property information form, the TA10 - Fittings and contents form, and the TA7 - Leasehold information form (if you are selling a flat).

These property forms can take hours to complete. You will need to locate and refer to various documents, such as gas and electrical certificates, guarantees or warranties and correspondence with freeholders. You may also need input from your solicitor on how best to answer some of the questions.

Once you have returned all of this information to your solicitor, they will send a draft contract pack (including your completed forms) to the buyer’s solicitor. Until the buyer’s solicitor receives these documents, your sale cannot progress.

In aggregate, the above steps often take weeks to complete. If you wait until you accept an offer, you are effectively thwarting the legal process before it has even started.

The shrewd move is to instruct a solicitor as soon as you put your property on the market. This proactive approach allows the solicitor to review your sale and complete the necessary formalities in advance. The draft contract pack can then be sent to the buyer the day after you accept an offer. 

Time to strategise

Once the buyer's solicitor has digested the draft contract and associated forms, they will ask a number of questions (known as ‘pre-contract enquiries’) about the property and how you have used it.

Chris Salmon, Director of Quittance said, “Most of these questions follow a set protocol. Even those that are particular to your property can usually be anticipated by your solicitor”.

“Your solicitor will be able to advise you on any potential issues, and recommend the best strategy to avoid delays.”

What if I am selling a leasehold flat?

Selling a leasehold flat typically takes three or four weeks longer than a freehold house. Leasehold transactions are more complex, both legally and practically. The solicitor will need to review the lease, the management accounts and correspond with the freeholder or managing agent.

The additional legal work is unlikely to be the cause of any major delays. More often, it is the time taken to source the management information pack from the managing agent, or freeholder, that can set a sale back by weeks.

The management information pack includes accounts for the service charges, ground rent and insurance, details of planned works, correspondence over disputes and other relevant information about the leasehold property.

When your solicitor receives the completed TA7 leasehold form, they will write to your managing agent, initially to ask about their fees for providing the pack. Once confirmed, the solicitor will again write to the managing agent or freeholder requesting the pack itself. Managing agents often take weeks to reply, in addition to which, major backlogs are currently occurring as the market accelerates post-COVID.

If, however, your solicitor is on board before you accept an offer, this information can be obtained well in advance and sent out with the draft contract pack.

Communication

The most common complaint from buyers and sellers is that they feel out of the loop during the legal phase. Buyers and sellers often feel frustrated by infrequent updates.

It may be that not much has happened, and everyone is waiting for searches to be returned or a mortgage offer to be made. However, there is a risk that your file is being neglected, as your solicitor tries to juggle an excessive workload.

Efficient communication between all parties is absolutely critical in giving your sale the best chance of success. At the very least, you should choose a solicitor that prefers email to snail mail. Ask your solicitor to BCC you and, where possible, your agent on all outgoing emails. This gets everyone on the same page and will help you spot any minor issues before they can be blown out of proportion.

If an issue does threaten to derail the process, you can simply contact your agent, or the buyer, and agree on a way forward without incurring unnecessary delays.

Together with your agent, a good solicitor will keep you in the picture at all times. Don’t be afraid to contact your solicitor whenever you want a progress update, however. Conveyancing solicitors are often busy, but a lot may be riding on your sale completing as quickly as possible.

Why do people wait to start the legal process?

Moving home is expensive. Sellers are understandably reluctant to incur any speculative costs until they are sure that they have a buyer in place. However, the increased availability of no sale, no fee conveyancing services should allay such concerns.

Concerns about solicitors hourly rates racking up are also unnecessary as most conveyancing solicitors charge a fixed fee. Instructing your solicitor before you find a buyer means you get more of your solicitor’s time for the same flat fee.

Your solicitor will also thank you for instructing early, as they will be able to take more time to review your sale. More time means the whole process will be less stressful, and mistakes are less likely to be made.

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Chris Salmon - Author Bio

Chris Salmon is a co-founder and Director of Quittance Legal Services. Chris has played key roles in the shaping and scaling of a number of property legal services brands and is a regular commentator in the legal press.

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