To think that the house buying process in this country is stupid

[moomiemoo]

We're trying to buy and sell at the moment with three small dcs so I apologise if this is a bit ranty!

I can't believe how stupid the system is in this country and how much it relies on trusting people you've never met to do what they said they will, when they said they will without any real commitment on anybody's part.

We did 3 viewings on our new house and, even with a good memory, I barely remember most of it a month later - goodness knows what it's going to be like when their furniture is out of there. The surveyor has spent more time and looked around more thoroughly than we have!

We will spend the best part of £2000 on essentials (solicitors, surveys, mortgage arrangment fees) before we're ready to exchange. Until we do exchange, our vendor, or anyone else in the chain for that matter, can change their minds or decide they want more money or find out that they can't get the 10x income multiple they thought they could. We then lose any money we've spent.

We also can't do practical things like applying for school transfer or setting up utilities until exchange.

I know estate agents and solicitors are there as professionals to help you through this but, honestly, how many horror stories are there of useless examples of both. And, in the case of estate agents, you have no choice but to use a specific one if they're selling the house you want.

I know, I'm very lucky to be able to afford a house at all and we are looking forward to moving but it could be so much easier surely?

"We then lose any money we've spent"

If your solicitor is any good then they will build in a penalty clause to the contract that compensates you if the vendor pulls out. Moving home is a stressful process but things like that can remove some of the financial risk

Really Chil??? I have honestly never heard of this and have bought and sold 3 times!

So we need to get our solicitor to draw up a contract for the vendor to sign that compensates us for any money we've spent on things like mortgage arrangment fees??

Well as a vendor I wouldn't sign a penalty clause unless the buyer signed as well.

Talk to your solicitor about it. Things may have changed because it's quite a few years since I moved house but that's what mine did.

@notherisnobodyetc... Not sure of the total details now but I'm pretty sure the penalty clause applied equally to me as it did to the vendor. If the vendor pulled out, I got compensated and vice versa. It was set high enough to cover the fees

YANBU. We have just moved and it was hellish. We were already in rented, because we relocated for work. We were told that our buyers had sold their house and were also in rented, hence we accepted their offer that was less than we wanted, expecting a quick sale.

About 8 weeks into the process, when our solicitor said we were ready to exchange, the other side started stalling. 3 weeks later when we threatened to put the house back on the market it transpired that one of them still had a mortgage with an ex partner that had to be legally cleared before they could get a new mortgage. Apparently their solicitor told them not to declare it . Had we known, we would not have accepted their offer.

Their delay cost us extra money in rent, in bills on 2 houses and more frustratingly on council tax that we are being told we have to pay, even though we have not lived in that county in this financial year.

We had to buy a HIP too, but didn't even get to see the HIP on the property we bought until after exchange. Apparently the searches were included in the HIP process but we still had to wait for them and pay the solicitor.

The process seems to have been designed by solicitors and estate agents to be as long-winded and expensive as possible to make them money.

Oh I've just remembered our other gripe. The latest money-making scheme in house buying is the "indemnity insurance". A colleague had the same problem and was asked to pay indemnity insurance for all sorts of things. You pay the insurance so the buyer is protected.

Yes its stupid.

We lost the fees for a full structural survey (£1500 or so) when a seller took his house off the market one week before completion, because he 'changed his mind'.

They do things better in Scotland where its much harder to break the deal without penalty.

Does anyone know why we can't have the Scottish system in England?

You don't want that, spooky - it's "offers over" up here - there were 8 people who bid on our flat when we sold it - the asking price was o/o £59,500 and the highest bidder was £77,100 with all sorts of bids in between. Means you pay stupid prices just to get that perfect house. Maybe a mix of the two systems would be ideal.

I think a mix of both would be great - although I don't know that much about the Scottish system.

I hate the uncertainty of not being able to plan anything until exchange - especially when moving area. Equally it's silly that people further up the chain have to just trust that we'll complete eventhough they basically have no information about us.

It's not always offers over in Scotland - and the rule about only paying what the house is worth still stands (anyone with any sense makes all offers subject to survey). Scottish system is better though, although sellers/buyers can pull out they are usually held liable for the other party's costs if they do.

lal123 - you're right, it isn't always - particularly now when it's difficult to sell, we are seeing more 'fixed price' properties on the market.