Who was the bloody fool who decided to sell one property and buy another? Oh yes, that was me

[LadyDeGrump]

Six weeks since offers on the place we are selling and the place we are buying were accepted. Solicitors instructed, surveys done. So why, why, why is it so stressful? The endless palavar of questions - why didn't you get a cert from X person when they fixed X in 2008? I DON'T BLOODY REMEMBER. My solicitor got the law wrong on an enquiry I raised and then had the cheek to tell me my enquiry wasn't important. I'm spending over half a million quid on this purchase, of course I want to know about the freeholders' obligations! (Flat so leasehold).

Why does every bloody thing in it take so long? Why can't shit happen without my calling at least one of the parties every single day?

Fortunately it is only a three house chain (I'm the one in the middle).

I am actually going insane. I have no idea how far we are from exchange. Enquiries have been raised and responded to on both sides. My solicitor gave my buyer's solicitor the wrong address (typo) so there has been some issue with a mortgage offer and with searches. So far as I can tell there is just a lot of faffing with paperwork and because none of the brokers, lenders, solicitors seem to be able to do stuff by phone or email it gets endlessly convoluted and the only way to speed things up is to call everyone and pass messages to the other side through the estate agent.

Is it too early for gin?

[Slowlybutsurely]

I am so with you on this one...we were due to exchange on Wednesday. Solicitor realised that they had incorrect redemption figure for mortgage and had failed to get redemption figure for secured loan. Cue a day of ringing, begging and chasing from me. Still don't know if it's going to happen today. I have had to ring/ chase someone daily for last 5 weeks. Luckily we have no chain as we are going into rented until we find something we like. So frustrated with the constant waiting and lack of returned phone calls!

[Gunpowderplot]

It's hell as a seller these days. Buyers ask endless questions. By the time we got to the 3rd list of questions, they were getting really random and petty. And they made a huge fuss over everything that wasn't totally perfect. The market was very bad, so they could behave like petty dictators.

[Trumpette]

Completely agree with your post. Our house went on the market last year in
May, we were offered on it right at the beginning of the school holiday so declined as we did not have time to look for a house, then had another offer at the end of November 2014. It took ages to find a house and we eventually moved at the end of June. Despite meeting with the buyers of our house to ' answer questions' at the request of the estate agent. They still asked really ridiculous question via the solicitor and kept repeating them! The solicitors seemed to object to talking with each other. This resulted in me chasing up and down the chain and tbh this was quicker. I felt like I was the conveyancer!

The only people that make money out of this area the estate agents and the whole system seems to generate money for everyone but those buying and selling and everything costs more money!

I know this is not our last house so we will be doing it all again but hopefully (like childbirth) I will leave it long enough to forget the pain we went through this time!

I would say it is early days for you so try not to get too stressed as you will be exhausted by the time you move. The whole process is ridiculous. Next time I will rent and then sell and buy to try and minimise the chain. Although, like you, there were only three people in ours.

Good luck x

[Spickle]

Sorry to hear of your stress LadyGrump. Unfortunately, your solicitor doesn't start work until the draft contract has been received by the other solicitor so although offers were accepted 6 weeks ago, this is not how long the transaction has been ongoing. You will need to provide paperwork from 2008 or agree to an indemnity policy. The management company of the leasehold property will need to supply a management pack which the seller pays for. This can take weeks to provide but will give vital information on the freeholders obligations as well the last three year's accounts. Your solicitor will go through the management pack as well as the lease to check all is in order and that takes time. Ringing every day is very disrupting to their work and most certainly does not speed things up.

[LadyDeGrump]

Ringing every day is very disrupting to their work and most certainly does not speed things up.

My solicitor, and my seller's solicitor only HAVE the draft contracts because I rang every day. They've had the draft contract packs for three weeks. We are in pernickiting/fucking around stage on everything bar the freeholders' packs. Oh, I fully know we need to provide an indemnity and that was what I suggested the first time but it doesn't seem to stop the same questions coming back or the endless fucking around.

The only time ANYTHING has happened in this process is when I have picked up the phone. Literally anything, from receiving the enquiries from my solicitor, to the sending out of the draft contract packages, to various documents being sent on between solicitors. For example, sol told me that contract was going out "in the next two days". It went out a week later and only because I asked what had happened to it. So it might be disruptive to their practices as they want to run them, but frankly I don't fucking care because I don't trust them, or anyone else in this process to do anything in a timely way or communicate anything with me pro-actively because the things I don't keep on top of don't happen. Yes, I may be pushing to the front of her queue for action. I sure as hell don't want to be at the back. If solicitors and estate agents and all the rest of them don't want to be distracted by customers then they need to organise more efficient processes and provide better customer communications.

slowly I read your thread with a shudder. My solicitor has a redemption statement on my mortgage with a date of August 17th. I have told her clearly over the phone, by email, and on our instructions the date for completion which my buyer, seller and I have agreed. You would think that they could either request a statement relevant to that date, or not request it for a date so soon that it was blindingly obvious it was never going to happen by then.

[Slowlybutsurely]

Am so upset. Didn't exchange today, issues throughout the day. However, no phone call/contact regarding lack of exchange. Why is there such a lack of common courtesy? Especially as it's now the weekend. We are meant to sign up for our rental 9.30am on Monday. That can't happen now. Another wasted day. I should be packing boxes but can't see the point at the moment. I hate this!!

[LadyDeGrump]

Oh Slowly, I am so sorry. Why didn't it go through today?

[LadyDeGrump]

Oh sorry, being a daft mare I just twigged that of course you wouldn't know if the fuckers didnt call you!

[Slowlybutsurely]

They've told us all day buyers solicitors were ready. They at 4pm they suddenly needed something from them! Then silence.... So pissed off!

[Badders123]

God, yes.
We moved 3.5 years ago.
I was on the phone daily to solicitors, bank, estate agent....
It was horrendous.
I never want to move ever again :(

[Badders123]

You can see why estate agents are so hated tbh.
Such a lack of common courtesy.

[HarlettOScara]

In a similar hell here.

We are selling to self-employed first time buyers and buying from a couple in the throes of an acrimonious divorce. I don't recommend it.

[LegArmpits]

We exchanged today. I'm still so fucking fuming at the sheer ridiculousness of it all I can't even bring myself to speak yet, but suffice to say, if we hadn't chased our conveyancer then we'd still be waiting to move in twenty years time.

The system HAS to change. Frothing at the mouth. I totally feel your pain.

[Sotonwhere]

I'm jumping in with sympathy- I've just been through all this after offers accepted in may. Then our buyers pulled out. Found new buyers in late June who are moving incredibly slowly (only just had their survey). However all this time gave us the space to ask endless questions and we've now just pulled out because something very important was flagged by FIL despite it being semi-raised and then ignored by our solicitor.
So now we're 4K down in wasted fees and reports with pregnant buyers nearly ready to go and nowhere to buy.

It's a fucking horrible waste of time and money. Let's not forget the surveyors who make a killing by surveying the property multiple times every few years if a sale isn't straight forward. And all the searches which a solicitor does- the info on chancel/radon etc hasn't changed since we bought the place in 2010. There should be a register where updates are stored which can be accessed in minutes. There probably is but we still get charged hundreds for the info.
So angry about it all.

Good luck to everyone else trying not to lose the will to live

[lalalonglegs]

Exchanged on a flat I am selling on Thursday after more than 3 months of the buyers' solicitor being a complete arse. She ignored the management pack that we had provided back in the middle of June and then had the cheek to ask for a new one because that was now out of date (yes, because she sat there not looking at it for 8 weeks); towards the end the enquiries just got ridiculous: she wanted the minutes from the last RTM group's AGM, she was going to have to speak to the bank about a potential tram extension that isn't happening so the flat is in no way affected by it etc. I despise the buyers now because they could have done any number of things to hurry her along and they just sat there and whined about how busy they are at work .

[PettsWoodParadise]

I had such a bad experience with a solicitor I went to the stage of threatening to report them as you are required to do under the complaints process. 100% refund on fees plus compensation which we used to get another solicitor to check over paperwork. I already knew they'd failed to register the property at land registry so we got that sorted and second solicitor spotted they failed to prove they'd paid stamp duty to HMRC - lucky we got that sorted as a few years later we got a letter saying as a previous customer of theirs we needed to be aware that they were being investigated for not passing on stamp duty - apparently loads of people then had to pay again and try and claim back first lot from now defunct solicitors. Nightmare. Next time we had a great solicitor - all very professional and smooth, they were about three times the price of the awful one but I was glad to pay it.

[Sunnyshores]

Estate agents an solicitors seem the only industries that havent embraced technology. My solicitor refuses to email me (actually she does, to tell me theres a letter in the post!).

Do convenyancers pass exams? would be interested in seeing the course prospectus or is it their fuddy duddy solicitor employers that insist on letters.