Dates of Entry

Although these elements are interlocking, each requires a certain amount of work which would normally be carried out over a period of time. There is, therefore, a natural "normal" length of a transaction of around six weeks.

If the date of entry is selected by either the purchaser or seller to occur earlier than six weeks of the offer being made or reaching McVey and Murricane, there is a likelihood that certain parts of the transaction will require some degree of urgency.

If that urgency is required then, understandably, additional work and time is expended over that which would normally be applied to the transaction; we need to ensure that the three elements making up the completion are all individually brought to a conclusion. Consequently it is not possible to deal with the transaction in the normal manner and timescales.

Unfortunately, in most of the cases described in this section it means that McVey and Murricane require to render an additional charge. That additional charge will be covered in quotation material provided to you.

Similarly, one impact of the recent Mortgage Market Review is that lenders can be much slower in issuing the offer of loan and solicitors' instructions that are necessary to enable the purchaser to both conclude the missives and enable completion of the transaction. In summary, if any of the three elements do not fall into place within the timescales that are generally expected, then additional work is required.

There are many reasons why you may want to specify an early date of entry. You may have nowhere to live or alternatively the early date of entry may be an essential part of securing an attractive deal from the seller of the property. However, for the reasons explained above, the selection of a date of entry less than six weeks in advance increases the likelihood of urgency in one of the elements making up the transaction.

Of particular importance, it may be that the offer of loan and solicitors' instructions from your lender may not arrive until shortly before the intended date of entry. While it is often possible to deal with the late arrival of these mortgage related papers, it does involve a great deal of additional time and energy. That in turn will lead to an additional charge as stated above.

To assist McVey and Murricane and to facilitate the speed of your purchase it is important that you stay in touch with the financial intermediary or financial organisation who is dealing with your mortgage. Keeping on top of the intermediary organisation is not part of the role of McVey and Murricane; it is a matter that you must deal with and communicate the position to McVey and Murricane. Without the mortgage related papers, it is impossible to complete the transaction unless you have the finance available from your own resources or do not require a mortgage.

The issue of the mortgage is less problematic when you are selling, unless you believe that the amount of the mortgage may be greater than the proceeds from the sale. If you believe that to be the case you must immediately advise McVey and Murricane because a special approach is then required. In such circumstances an additional fee will be payable.

However, just as the provision of mortgage related papers is important when you are buying a property, this will be equally important to the people who are buying your property. In other words, while there may on the face of it be sufficient time to complete the transaction, if the purchaser's mortgage arrangements are delayed this will have a knock-on effect in respect of your transaction.

The problems are exacerbated by the fact that many solicitors (not McVey and Murricane) will not carry out a great deal of work before receipt of the mortgage related paperwork, as they are anxious not to carry out work for which they may not be paid, in the event of the transaction not proceeding.

While McVey and Murricane will exert as much pressure as possible on such solicitors, they are unable to force those solicitors to deal with the work involved with the transaction in accordance with normal timescales. If those solicitors endeavour to avoid work before receipt of the mortgage related paperwork for their clients, McVey and Murricane are placed in a position where work requires to be carried out urgently and under pressure. While you are not the cause of such a situation, nevertheless extra time and energy is involved, and an additional charge will be rendered as stated above.

You can assist in avoiding these problems by communicating with the purchaser or the estate agent indicating that McVey and Murricane are still awaiting the normal paperwork and that delays in dealing with these by the solicitor acting for the purchaser are likely to result in unnecessary costs and delays.