Buying a house

Solicitors can take an age!
I am selling a freehold on a block of flats that I own.I first saw the solicitor in October who deals with these issues, and so far have had to chase her up 4 times with outstanding documents requiring attention!
I too am a lawyer, but my area of law does not allow for these prevarications since it involves court and Tribunal work!
It’s all very annoying but sadly quite normal

This is frustrating but normal.
You have a long way to go as yet.
They say three months is average yet be prepared for more.
None of the professionals keep in contact much then there is a flurry of activity to complete.

It took nine months of near silence in my experience. There was no chain , a sale of an empty house and a purchase from a lady going into rental.
This length of time was not the norm but not so very unusual.

Us sellers and buyers all communicated by phone in the end this was after months of worry about the lack of contact from the professionals.
The estate agents hated it but we had the assurance of each others continuing loyalty to sell.

Tell your solicitor to contact the buyers solicitor and set them a deadline. Either they send the draft contract to your solicitor by a certain date or the sales off.

Not much risk, because if I had not heard from my seller in a month and they then fail to respond to a deadline, I would have doubts as to whether they really wanted to sell or whether they had a another buyer in sight who would pay more.

We have set deadlines several times when sellers and/or buyers have been dilatory. It has worked each time.

As previously said you have to be extremely proactive, and keep on their case!! Solicitors, Estate Agents and surveyors have lots of projects on the go at any one time.

In my experience this is frustratingly normal. I moved into my current home (empty, no chain), from a rental property. Should have been simple and straightforward. The solicitors were a nightmare.

I was in friendly contact with the couple that I was buying from, so knew when they completed certain steps and vice versa. The solicitors were the ones dragging their feet. I lost count of the times I phoned to chase something up, only to get a call back almost immediately saying it ‘had just landed on their desk’.

The only advice I can offer is to be a bit of a thorn in the side of your solicitors. Setting deadlines as a previous poster said sounds like a good idea too.

I am homeless at the moment because the people who said they wanted to sell so that they could move abroad hadn’t done anything after five weeks. Nothing.

Turned out they just had a sort of dream of moving to a sunny place. They hadn’t looked into the reality of it at all.

I didn’t want to lose my buyers so went ahead with my sale.

I’d be very wary of sellers who haven’t made any progress after four weeks. Especially in the current market where good buyers are hard to find.

Eglantine21
How traumatic for you.
How are you managing.
Are you staying somewhere that's reasonably alright?

My business partner and I were buying a property from which to run our business. The sellers were very keen to sell, we were keen to buy and we were using different solicitors from the same firm.
No postal delays there then?
Not a bit of it, we still got the same line.
“I haven’t heard back from my colleague yet”!

Thank you for the kind thought gmelon.

The idea was that the lover would sell his place, I would sell mine and we would start a new phase of our lives together. Now we are living out of a suitcase each and shuffling around relatives and friends.

Hoping for a rental in the New Year but even that hasn’t been easy.

All part of life’s rich tapestry!

The outgoing tenant of the rental has refused to move.

You couldn’t make it up, could you?

I do think you made the right decision to continue with your sale. You will be in a better position to buy.
Could you find an empty holiday property and negotiate with the owner for a good deal until the holiday season starts?
There are plenty where I live but maybe not where you are.

People don’t come to holiday much in the Midlands. Don’t know why it’s lovely!

I’m off to a friend in the south west today for a week before her family arrives. Maybe I’ll end up down there?

We have friends in the same position. They have agreed the sales but exchange of contracts is just not happening and all parties are getting very twitchy. Solicitors can be a nightmare and I expect most of them are off now for a three week break.

Sorry to hear you are homeless Eglantine hope you get sorted out soon. Like the idea of a lover though - how do you get one of those

Thanks for all the advice. Just to clarify, our solicitor has sent emails and made phone calls but the other solicitor is not responding. Going to speak to the estate agent with a view to putting a time limit on it. We really want the property and expect ours to complete in January so going to start looking round again. We are also cash buyers without the proceeds of our sale so expected the sale to go through quickly.

Buying a house requires a lot of time and effort, Tell your solicitor to contact the buyers solicitor and set them a deadline.

Had call from agent yesterday. Apparently draft contract was posted to our solicitor last Friday so at least something seems to be moving. Not expecting much now till the new year but it feels like progress. We were all set to start looking at other properties but will wait and sèe. Going to ring our solicitor later in the week to see if it has arrived.

Your solicitor will read it.
Then forward questions to the other solicitor who forward to the other party.
The other party reply through their solicitor who sends replies to yours.
No wonder it takes forever.

I am afraid it is a waiting game. Solicitors do not seem to have hearts!

I would gladly shoot the lot of them except for one solicitor who I had for years who unfortunately died.
But as for the rest of them they are B......ds of the first order: I despise and loathe them all.

Draft contract received Wednesday and our solicitor is raising enquiries so finally moving. Nothing will start again till the new year so thanks for all your comments. Hope everyone has a lovely Christmas.

Hello again. Can I ask does anyone know if induction hobs need to be on a separate circuit. There is one in the new property and as I don’t have one I wondered what the position is. Thanks

We have an induction hob. I know the oven is on a separate circuit but not sure about the hob. If there is o e already in place it should not be a problem.

Thanks for your reply dragonfly. Hope you’re right. All communication seems to have stopped again, can’t even get hold of our solicitor.!

They don't like it when you keep turning up at the office and make a fuss. May be worth a try. I honestly think there is nothing as stressful as moving house.