Nobody tells you the shape of this, so the silences feel like something has gone wrong. Usually nothing has; the case is simply sitting with somebody whose queue you cannot see.
Timescales vary enormously with the chain, the lender and the property. What does not vary is the order.
- The conversation, and the agreement in principle
We go through income, commitments, deposit and plans, then run an agreement in principle with a lender whose criteria the case actually fits. It is normally a soft credit search, so it does not mark your file. Estate agents usually want to see one before they will take an offer seriously.
- Offer accepted, and the full application
Once a price is agreed we submit the full application with the documents. This is the point at which a hard credit search is done. Getting the paperwork in complete on day one is worth more than anything else you can do.
- Valuation
The lender instructs a valuation. Sometimes it is done from data without anybody visiting; sometimes a surveyor attends. It is for the lender’s benefit, not yours — if you want to know about the roof, that is a separate survey and worth paying for.
- Underwriting
A human reads the case: the statements, the income evidence, the credit file, the valuation. They may come back with questions. Answering within the day rather than within the week is the difference between a fortnight and a month.
- The mortgage offer
The lender issues its formal offer, to you and to your conveyancer. This is the point at which the lending is committed. Offers carry an expiry date, which matters on a long chain or a new build.
- The legal work
Your conveyancer runs searches, raises enquiries with the seller’s solicitor, checks the lease if there is one, and reports to you. This stage is usually the longest and the least visible, and it is where a slow chain shows up.
- Exchange of contracts
Completion date agreed, deposit sent to your conveyancer, and the sale becomes binding on both sides. Before this either party can walk away. After it, they cannot without penalty.
- Completion
The lender releases the money, your conveyancer sends it on, and the keys are released. Your first mortgage payment is usually the following month and is often larger than the ones after it, because it includes interest from the completion date.
With the lender
With the solicitors
Where the time actually goes: not with the lender, most of the time. It goes on enquiries between solicitors, on a management pack for a leasehold flat, or on somebody three places up the chain who has not found anywhere to move to.
Things that stop the clock
- •A document sent incomplete, so the underwriter parks the case.
- •A valuation that comes in below the agreed price, which means a conversation about the price or the deposit.
- •A leasehold management pack, which the freeholder or managing agent produces in their own time.
- •A search result on a property in an area with mining, flooding or drainage history.
- •Anything in the chain. The case moves at the speed of its slowest link, and it is rarely yours.
What actually helps
Answer every question the same day. Keep the money where it is and do not open new credit. Tell your adviser about a change in job, income or plans the day it happens rather than the week before completion, because almost anything can be worked around with notice and very little can be worked around without it.
And ask. A case that has gone quiet is not a case that has gone wrong, but there is no reason to sit wondering.