Arghh!! Moving house and conveyancing frustrations

My last move was so bad I had visions of hiring a hit man to see to certain parties.
And then when we thought it was all over ( 3 months in new property) we received a court summons for non payment of council tax on the property we had sold.
Reason being: my buyers solicitors hadn’t registered the property in the new buyers name.

Shame you didn't hire that hit man Petra - I'd be asking for his name

OP, it’s your obligation as the seller to provide the information the purchaser’s solicitors needs and that includes all the management company information. The management company’s detailed accounts will not all be available from Companies House and they can’t go looking in the files they hold for another client, the management company, to find information!

"they can’t go looking in the files they hold for another client, the management company, to find information!"

Why not? They've asked the Management Company for this information as well as me.

The accounts on Companies House website are exactly the same as those distributed to residents.

You obviously don’t understand that a lawyer can’t go looking through the files of one client to provide information to another.

Ah right, so a member of the Management Committee (i.e any resident) goes into said solicitor's office and asks them for a document they hold relating to the Management Committee, which they are quite entitled to see. The solicitor gives it to them, and the resident then hands the document back to the solicitor saying "this is the information you require for you clients Mr & Mrs xxxx".

Or what is it that I'm not understanding?

As Secretary to our block of flats self-managed company, I keep on the computer the last few years accounts that have been presented and accepted by our AGM's. These are then just sent as an attachment to an email to venfors solicitors for them to pass on to the purchasers solicitors during each and every flat sale.

Also, sent in same manner - are the AGM minutes, building insurance, Fire Risk Assessment report, (all of which are required by purchasers solicitors). plus any other paperwork that may be requested.
There is a form, (LE1) with has many questions which is usually the first piece of paperwork required. I, on behalf of the Management Company, collate and send off this information. Not the seller of the flat.

The LPE1 is the problem - the Chair has sent it back to my solicitor but he has marked some documents "to follow" - he hasn't yet sent them and he is away overseas for a month and we're waiting to exchange contracts. I've managed to get a copy of the Fire Risk Assessment and other bits and pieces required, but the only other route for one piece of information are the solicitors who act for the Management Company - also the solicitor for my purchaser.

So I now have to ask them to give me that information - which I'll then pass back to them.

Unfortunately our Chair seems to be the person who has all the backdated information and he appears not to be very adept IT wise. Our previous Secretary is no longer with us and although we have a new Secretary who is proving very efficient, she doesn't hold the information required which dates back as far as 2006 in one case and 2016 in another.

Which is why I'm now trying to fill in the gaps of the LPE1.

I feel like I'm gradually disappearing down the rabbit hole!

ferry23

Ah right, so a member of the Management Committee (i.e any resident) goes into said solicitor's office and asks them for a document they hold relating to the Management Committee, which they are quite entitled to see. The solicitor gives it to them, and the resident then hands the document back to the solicitor saying "this is the information you require for you clients Mr & Mrs xxxx".

Or what is it that I'm not understanding?

A member of a management company is not the client of the management company’s solicitors. I own company shares but that doesn’t entitle me to go to the companies’ solicitors and ask for company documents!

Unfortunately your management company seems to be very badly managed. If the management company’s solicitors hold documents which you need surely the new secretary can contact the solicitors and request them - though I would be very surprised if the solicitors hold as much information as you think they do. I have also expressed doubt that the accounts are filled at Companies House as this is not usual for a small company - but there’s nothing to prevent you from looking online and downloading whatever relevant information there is.

Most management companies are organised in the way that Fran describes and all the necessary information is provided to purchasers’ solicitors for a small fee. You are unfortunately paying the price for bad management.

I am very sorry for anyone going through conveyancing now which seems to have got so more complicated than it used to be. We used to move house in 6 weeks no problems and the solicitor did it all we just signed this and that. Our last move last year was nothing other than a bloody nightmare of an enormous number of forms to complete which took forever. we could never talk to anyone resulting in us eventually exchanging a few days before completion and completion at 5pm on that day ONLY after DH had rung the conveyancer at the builder's and said something broadly anglo saxon. I'm so sorry I hope your move goes through OK.

More questions are asked now - I don’t know how domestic conveyancers deal with the absolute tedium, it would drive me mad - but buying and selling leasehold properties always has always involved asking many more questions than with a freehold property. The secret is to get yourself a good solicitor who will make it as quick and painless as possible. Don’t go for cheap quotes.

Ferry23
I was asked 14 times if I had Japanese knotweed. 🤦🏼‍♀️
So much of that awful time is imprinted on my brain. 😡

Why were you asked this 14 times? How useless was your solicitor?

I am glad the management company are self-managed ferry23, however,it would have been so much easier if you had volunteered to have taken on some workload at an agm. It always seems to be that only a few people volunteer to take on management duties, whilst the others sit there trying to avoid eye contact

Our accounts, including insurance docs, were easy to provide as I was chair/secretary of our management company

How true.

We made the mistake of using the same solicitors firm as a tenant, (not residential) it was a nightmare, the 2 solicitors were very combative, trying to score points off each other. They were niggling over trivialities trying to charge more time.

In the end I stopped them and told the tenant either accept the lease as it stands or the deals off.

If you had insisted on a fixed fee they would have been conscious of the need to turn a profit rather than engaging in unnecessary one upmanship. Men are particularly prone to this in my experience.

Knotweed is a question on the LE1 form. Once answered in the negative, it should never come up again.

I do find that some of the extra questions that come up (usually a good few weeks after LE1 form and documents are all returned), quite 'imaginative' but not usually very relevant to anything.

One asked us if the Management company had any plans in place for 'unplanned expenditure'.

karmalady

I am glad the management company are self-managed ferry23, however,it would have been so much easier if you had volunteered to have taken on some workload at an agm. It always seems to be that only a few people volunteer to take on management duties, whilst the others sit there trying to avoid eye contact

Our accounts, including insurance docs, were easy to provide as I was chair/secretary of our management company

I was a Director of the Management Company for 5 years. I was also a Parish Councillor. I headed up the events team in my town and also fundraised for the hospital League of Friends and the Women's Refuge. I sit on the Board of a local Community Interest Company that benefits the local community and I also support our local branch of The Royal British Legion.

I can't stretch myself any further!

House-moving and Divorce are two of the most stressful events. I should know, having endured both 😂 Have a good Lawyer !

Me too crazyH I couldn’t go through either ever again!
It must be a nightmare for you ferry23 good luck to you.

ferry28 U really do feel for you. When I moved here in 2019 I promised myself I would NEVER, EVER go through that again.
Used same Solicitor that I had used when I had moved back in 2002. All so easy and speedy back then. One of the problems is that Solicitors mainly used their clerical staff for most of the conveyancing, only picking it up to sign off or if a particular problem presents.
GSM has told us often, that if we want qualified Solicitor to do ALL the work, then we would have to pay considerably more. BUT......clerical staff so often gets things confused and wrong. Moving here, I was told that there was a query regarding the garage which goes with this flat.........Solicitor tried hard to persuade me not to continue with the purchase, because of this and if I wished to do would have to send him a letter saying it was against his advice due to this (?) problem.

In fact there was no problem whatsoever, just clerk had not read all the paperwork carefully enough. I was lucky that one of my children (Legal Executive) visited me layer that day, found me in tears, and took the paperwork and carefully read it, finding the information they had told me was not there. When this was pointed out, no apology was made to me, although there was no further mention of indemnity letter!!!!!

As secretary to the Management Company, I am very aware as to how both sellers and purchasers are feeling, and try not to delay them as far as I can. I reply to ALL solicitors queries within 48 hours.

All the documents that I send to them on the computer are also in our office in hard copy, so if worst comes to worst, they can be photocopied and given to solicitors.

I have written out a detailed 'crib' sheet, regarding information needing to be sent to solicitors when flats are being sold. So that should I be unwell, on holiday or retired from this position, any other cttee member can easily know how to find such information easily.,

Unfortunately solicitors who give cheap quotes will use secretaries and the like to gather the information and the solicitor doesn’t see any of it until it’s all been gathered. They then either don’t pay proper attention because they haven’t charged enough to cover much time, or a problem doesn’t get spotted until all the paperwork eventually lands on their desk, when it could have been identified much earlier. Just using a qualified solicitor isn’t the answer. The answer is using one who guarantees to give you their personal attention, and to look at the search results and replies to enquiries as and when they come in, not simply when the secretary/other minion has gathered it all. This will cost more but it’s money well spent. You are buying a service and are entitled to ask exactly how that service will be provided.

It gave me a headache just reading the first 8 posts on this thread. I've moved 7 times since 1996, once buying, then selling, a flat in Spain, and although there were lots of problems came up, items in leases, buyers backing out etc, I didn't have to provide all those documents. I've been here now since 2011. Has it got worse since then or was I just lucky with the solicitors?