Factors That Can Delay Your Conveyancing Process

If you are engaging in a conveyancing process, whether buying or selling, it would be wise to educate yourself on the factors that can impede your progress. Both parties on either side of the transaction are always under pressure and under deadlines to get the job done. In fact, some agreements have a duration within which both parties should have all their papers ready or else the one party may pull out.

By knowing what can delay the process, you can predict hurdles and try to do something about it. Unfortunately, some of these scenarios cannot be altered as they are out of your hands and all one can do is wait it out. Sometimes estate agents will put pressure on you but really, you can only go as fast as your solicitor.

Being in a chain

A chain refers to where a buyer is hoping to sell their house in time to make payment for the next. The person buying that house could also be relocating in a similar situation and on it goes creating a ruthless chain of dependency that could crumble should one person pull out. A chain is one of the most common factors that cause delays in such kind of situations. Some buyers even try to avoid buyers in a chain for that reason. Unfortunately, if you do not have the cash, like most people, you have no option but to join one, knowingly or unknowingly.

Additional searches

Regular searches on a property do not take much time. Usually it takes about 7 working days to get done with these. Trouble comes in when more searches are required due to one reason or the other. Your conveyancer may deem it fit to carry out searches on common registration or building and planning. This will have to be followed up with the council and will require more work than the local searches. Consequently, you’ll have to wait another 2-3weeks till these are cleared.

Surveys

Surveys are not always a smooth procedure. Sometimes there might be boundary issues or structural problems that need to be investigated. All parties including the mortgage lender and the insurance company will want to get a clean bill of health before taking another step.

Mortgage

The mortgage company always has to look at each case and decide whether to give full funding or not. They also have to undertake an independent valuation before they can decide on a figure. If the money requested is deemed overvalued for the property, this can halt the transaction or require the buyer to top up the amount.

Problems with the title

Sometimes a title may require to be updated to read the names of the current owner. This is a separate process that also takes its own time. If the home owner has passed, a probate process has to take place and this can take a very long time. Other times, the titles get lost even when in custody of the bank or the mortgage company. This will also require a replacement to be produced first, adding more weeks to the conveyance process.