Well they aren't bloody joking, are they?
After losing 3 buyers in as many months, we have finally decided to cut our losses and PX with the developer for our newly built house.
The developer asked very nicely if we would use Solicitor A, as they are a well known local firm who have had lots of experience of PX sales. We were happy to say yes, because Solicitor A is our go-to solicitor anyway for any legal matters we've ever had, so we were all happy.
Solicitor A sent the huge pack of forms, which we have spent all weekend filling in, and wrote them a cheque for £300 for searches.
Today, the mortgage broker dropped into conversation with DH that the lender has an 'approved list' of solicitors, so she would have to check if ours was on it. If they're not, we either a) have to change or b) pay a £200 fee to get round it.
I am waiting for the gas fitter to come and do the gas safety certificate. It will be another £45. He is 50 minutes late.
I am chain-eating Malteasers and haemorrhaging money.
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IAmRubyLennox · 23/07/2012 14:50
I hate the whole house buying thing, however I think the most stressful factor in our attempts is my DH (even MIL describes him as the most exasperating person she's ever met).
We're FTBs and we're trying to buy a house that's been part-exchanged. So it should all be fairly straightforward, but it's not. DH just panics about everything and it takes me days to talk him down/get him to see reason. The house is considerably under our budget but it needs some work. It is considerably under our budget because it needs some work. All the houses in the area we want that don't need work are over what DH is willing to pay.
DH has this completely unrealistic idea that we can just buy a house, rent for a month after we complete while we decorate and buy lovely brand new furniture and then move into a perfect house. 
. This was never going to happen, no matter what. So every time he learns that something needs to be done, he panics and starts going on about how we have to pull out. I am so fed up with explaining that it's not worth losing the house over repairs that'll come to 2% of the asking price. This is especially so given that this is just about the only realistically priced house that's come up in the area we're looking in during the 18 months that we've been looking.
The latest panic is over permissions and building control for extensions. The builder didn't bother checking the obviously incorrect information that the part exchangers provided them with. The house has two extensions (one to the kitchen and one above the garage) and the garage has been converted into a room, but the seller information claims that the house is just as it was built and they don't have any information about the extensions. So DH spent all weekend going on about how we couldn't possibly buy the house, etc, etc. I persuaded him to do what sane people do and phone the solicitor to find out what the actual implications are. He has now done this and it turns out that it's very unlikely to be a problem (especially since the surveyor thinks the extensions are about 20 years old and we want to turn the garage back into a garage) and that we can get insurance to cover any risk for £150. All this fuss over £150!
Just be glad none of you have to deal with my DH as well as all the solicitors/banks/etc. Our bank, surveyor and solictor have all been pretty good so far. The only thing the bank have managed to cock up so far is getting DH's middle name wrong and having to send out more documents with the right name on them.
As I was only selling a property and not buying - it belonged to my late parents - and did not have any mortgage company to deal with I naively thought it would be plain sailing! Even after three deals fells through I was still relatively sane. However, nothing prepared me for the incompetence of my solicitor who (a) only communicated by e-mail (b) was never available when I tried to phone him (c) answered all of my queries with vague one sentence replies (d) failed to notice that I needed a second trustee to overcome the restriction on the property and tried to blame me for not picking it up at probate! This was actually picked up by the buyer's solicitor!(d) didn't contact me to confirm that we had completed - I found out from the buyer! 
Needless to say I will not be using the firm again but best of all they sent me a customer satisfaction survey after we completed - did I have some fun with that 
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