Taking action to combat the inevitable delays due to COVID-19
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant delays to the conveyancing process. Both sellers and buyers are urged to take prompt action wherever possible to lessen the impact of these delays.
The conveyancing process involves many milestones, and some of these are taking much longer than usual to complete. We have seen a significant increase in activity in the housing market since the initial restrictions were lifted in the summer, and this has had a knock-on effect to the conveyancing process in particular. It is paramount that both buyers and sellers have identified the conveyancer they wish to use in advance, and instruct them as soon as a sale has been agreed.
We recommend that you instruct our in-house conveyancing team to handle your sale or purchase. By doing so you will be keeping everything under one roof and enjoy the added benefits of our dedicated sales progression team being on hand every step of the way. If you are selling you will also be able to promptly complete your initial paperwork therefore saving a potential delay of 2-3 weeks.
We also strongly recommend that sellers get all of their necessary warranties, guarantees, and (if applicable) leasehold documentation together to avoid unnecessary delays; and hopefully reduce the number of enquiries raised by your buyer.
For buyers, it is often their first experience of the process, and so it is important that they get their paperwork completed as quickly as possible, and provide the necessary ID. Furthermore local authority searches are now taking between 20 and 30 working days (three times longer than usual) so it is critical to get your searches paid for and ordered as soon as possible!
Most buyers will require a mortgage and the time taken to receive a mortgage offer has doubled to 4-8 weeks. Therefore, as with your searches, you need to apply for your mortgage as soon as a sale has been agreed.
The net effect of the above, and other factors, has meant an increase to 16-20 weeks in the overall transaction time (from sale agreed to exchange of contracts). As we have discussed, there are several things that you can do, as a buyer or a seller, to mitigate this. Talk to Pygott & Crone today for a free conveyancing quotation on 0800 9177 404, or click here.
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