Buying a house

my new house is a new build, small development and is the first house. It went up for sale a bit too early and I jumped in,that was august. Expected completion, paperwork etc was early november. They are still awaiting one important bit of paper from the council. Five months so far. I don`t chase my solicitor, she is diligent and good. It is definitely a frustrating time. Maybe it will happen next month or the month after. I am quite thankful that I have no buyer for my house, yet. Using savings is reducing stress

You will be in an excellent position to look around and will be a cash buyer so able to negotiate well if you find another property you prefer. You have already incurred cost with your proposed purchase which you will have to pay but you could tell your solicitor to do no more work at the moment.

We found a house we liked, a very sensible house for older people, but it was being sold through Purple Bricks so we had to talk straight to the seller. They didn't always respond to emails and we found excuses to go and see them but didn't get the impression they were planning to move any time soon.

Our sale was going through quite quickly and our estate agent went through Rightmove with me and pushed us to go and look at two houses (not her agency) which we hadn't seen for various reasons. We fell in love with a less suitable house and were able to knock quite a lot off the asking price because we were going to be cash buyers very soon. Probably the best decision we ever made.

It all went though quickly because the seller and I kept texting each other and let our solicitors know we were doing so. Every time one of them didn't act quickly we told each other and this made the while thing very smooth.

When we told the sellers of the first house we were not proceeding they were rather upset but we explained why we felt they were not likely to move soon and they accepted it. Didn't take them long to sell again.

Just to update. A joint effort between ourselves and our buyer and we have a date. We are going to exchange and complete on Wednesday of next week so removals are booked and we are getting ready to move in with my son. The other property we were going to move into seems to still be very much in the air so we will see what happens next week. Thank you everyone for your input. The mystery of the induction hob still remains.

I also have built in appliances, oven is on separate cabling to the consumer unit with a on/off switch in the base unit.
The induction hob as a plug which is inside a base unit as is the microwave.
I wish I had bought an induction hob years ago it is so easy to keep clean.

How lucky was I to have a solicitor who did things the day he received them. It still took 3 months due to my buyers solicitor being so pedantic she not only dotted i's and crossed t's she dotted the t's and crossd the i's. An example was wanting an insurance policy as my water pipe crossed next doors land - as it had done for over 100 years !! My buyers were so good they tried to get her to withdraw her request and when she wouldn't they paid for it just to move things forward. My solicitor kept giving her helpful advice about the English law (she was in Wales).

When my MiL was moving, right from the start we told the owner of the flat she was buying she had a deadline six weeks ahead, which he said he was happy to meet as the flat was unoccupied. Except, of course, he actually had no intention of doing any such thing. Our solicitor, a close friend, kept chasing him but got no reply.

Finally, after the deadline had passed, we found a better flat, put an offer in and negotiations for that went ahead promptly. Meanwhile the owner of the first flat had still done nothing, we were not even anywhere near exchange. So we left it.

A month past the deadline he came back ready, at last, to start proceeding with his sale and we had great pleasure in telling him we were no longer interested in his flat as MiL was only days from completing on another property.

Your solicitors will charge for the work done on an incomplete sale.

We will let our sale go through. We always knew that ours would go through first and have sorted out storage and staying with relatives so our buyer is ok. We don’t know whether to carry on with our purchase or start again with something else. It would be another three months and up to now they have been slow with communications and answering queries. We have already spent money on a survey and searches for this property so we are out of pocket now if we don’t continue.

I think that if no contracts exchanged you can halt a sale. Hard for your purchasers too as money spent on various fees etc. There must be a better way! What happens in Scotland??

Sorry posted too soon. Does anyone know if we would need to pay penalties if we pull out of the sale. Thanks

Well here we go again. The latest is that the property our seller was going for has pulled out so they are now starting again looking at other properties. Not sure where that leaves us and no answers as yet to the queries raised.My other half is now very fed up. Starting looking round again ourselves as we hope to complete on ours in the next couple of weeks. Will be ringing solicitor on Monday. Never again !!!!

Thanks PECS, that is reassuring

Yes .. the qualified solicitor is only needed for signatures I believe! There must be lawyers here who can tell you..gabby were you a qualified solicitor?

Is it normal for a 'Legal Advisor' and a 'Trainee Solicitor' to be handling all of the conveyancing of a house purchase? we always seem to be communicating with these two people rather than the actual solicitor, I've never actually spoken to the solicitor.

I remember our daughters moving day. We had a van filled with all sorts of things to go into the new house and her husband was waiting at the estate agents for the keys. 3 of us waited in the van at the house and as it was nearing 5pm on a Friday evening you could imagine we were all getting rather anxious. The money was with the agent/solicitor and I couldn’t understand why the keys couldn’t be handed over. I eventually called the estate/solicitor to say they were going to have to find us a hotel for the night at their expense. Well that got them moving. Keys in hand and Bobs your Uncle. Never again. (Hopefully)

Sorry - missed the point, didn't read the end of your thread!

We had this problem and husband told our solicitor to tell theirs that if he didn't get cracking we would pull out.
I was worried at the time, but it worked.
We were desperate as virtually homeless and had to leave son's flat within 2 weeks as they were returning.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.