Sale agreed but nothing's happening: is this normal?

Conveyancing is the legal process of transferring a home from seller to buyer. Most of it happens quietly between solicitors, lenders, and local councils, so long stretches with no news are normal rather than a warning sign.

Why does nothing seem to happen after a sale is agreed?

Because the visible part of selling ends when you accept the offer, and the invisible part begins. Solicitors have to be formally instructed, the buyer applies for their mortgage, searches are ordered from the local council, and legal enquiries pass back and forth. Each step can take days or weeks, and very little of it generates an update for the seller.

How long should the whole process take?

Which steps are the slowest?

Local authority searches and the buyer's mortgage offer are the two usual bottlenecks. Searches are ordered from the council and come back on the council's timetable, which varies widely by area. The mortgage offer depends on the lender's workload and the valuation, so both can sit for weeks with nobody at fault.

When should I actually start to worry?

How do I protect myself while I wait?

Here is the part most sellers are never told: in the early weeks you are usually more committed than your buyer. Sellers rush to instruct solicitors, pay for management or leasehold packs, and take the home off the market, while the buyer has often spent nothing, is still browsing other listings, and can change their mind at no cost. Around 1 in 4 agreed sales fall through, so the gap matters.

The fix is simple: judge the buyer by what they have spent and instructed, not by what they say, and move in step with them rather than ahead of them.

Lining up your own solicitor early is cheap and keeps momentum, so do that. But hold off on the bigger, harder-to-recover costs, your own searches or a paid management or leasehold pack, and think twice before coming fully off the market, until the buyer has put their own money down. When they commit, you commit. That keeps the risk balanced instead of stacked on you.

What can I do to keep things moving?

1. Instruct your solicitor the day your sale is agreed, and return their paperwork quickly.
2. Reply to legal enquiries promptly, as your own delays are the part of the process you can control.
3. Ask your agent or solicitor for a short progress update every couple of weeks.
4. Keep the chain informed, as a stalled link elsewhere is a common hidden cause of silence.

ValuQ is a platform that gives UK homeowners free, side-by-side property valuations from competing local estate agents, so your sale starts on your terms and at your pace. Once a sale is agreed, the quiet weeks are usually the system working, not failing, and a calm progress check, with your own bigger costs held back until the buyer commits, is all most sellers need.