We are looking at buying a home but we have a tight deadline that we would need to move in by. How do I reduce the chance of the sales (conveyancing) process going beyond my deadline?

When buying a property there are countless variables that could cause the conveyancing process to pause.

The advice I would give you and any prospective property purchaser is to be realistic with time frames from the outset. Standard house sales will typically take three to four months to complete and typically one month if it is an auction sale. If there are any issues such as title, planning, a poor survey, boundaries or rights of way, these can all have an impact on the time it takes to complete a property purchase. However, there are a few things you can do to help ensure the process flows as quickly as possible:

• Stay in contact with the estate agents throughout the process. You should find out, first of all, whether your transaction is part of a property chain or not. Is the seller moving somewhere as well? Have they made an offer? The property chain you are in has a big influence on the duration of the conveyancing process. You may be ready to go, but buyers and sellers elsewhere in the chain may not be as advanced. It takes just one buyer to pull out, and the whole process is slowed or can even collapse.
• If you are anxious to close the sale and take possession of the property within a specific period, you should make this a condition of your offer.

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• As soon as you have an offer accepted on the house, arrange a mortgage valuation and a survey as soon as possible. Lenders and surveyors can take a while to book a valuation or survey into their schedule, so the more notice you can give, the better. Keep your lender updated. You can find registered valuers and chartered surveyors on the SCSI website.
• Organise your home insurance – this needs to be in place from the date of exchange.
• Make sure your finances are in order. If you have agreement in principle from your mortgage lender, there will be an expiry date. If the conveyancing process is moving slowly, with a risk that the agreement in principle will expire before completion, talk to your solicitor about expected time frames and consider taking steps to secure a new agreement in principle.

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• Liaise with your solicitor early in the buying process. Inform them when your offer has been accepted. Ask your solicitor to contact you as soon as they have received the sales advice note and put time in your diary for a weekly catch-up by phone so you are up to speed on where you are at in the process.
• Similarly, keep in contact with the estate agent. Staying up to date is key to facilitating a swift transaction while effective and efficient communication will help avoid or at least minimise any unnecessary delays in the conveyancing process.

Majella Galvin is an estate agent and member of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland