Buyer's support thread #5

[scribblegirl]

Sorry for breaking the last one

and for all....

Heyhey - can you try and find out if they're on holiday? That's what happened with us and in the end the EA started making demands that someone take over at the vendors end to make sure we exchanged on time. The only reason we knew the vendors solicitor was away is because the estate agent told us and our solicitor.

heyhey hope things all work out for you. In my previous experiences of house buying/selling I've always found solicitors to be infuriating - they never seem to have any sense of urgency.

I came within seconds of placing a higher offer earlier. Then had a quick look on Rightmove and saw that a house had come back on the market - similar to the one I'm offering on, but needs some work (no photos of kitchen or bathroom). Asking price is £20k less. I called estate agents to view today, but vendor not able to do it till tomorrow.

So I'm now going to see that one tomorrow, whilst the other house has more viewings this evenings. Nerve-wracking - I could be making a big mistake

Oh god Heyhey, you must be so stressed. Wouldn't be remotely surprised if he's on holiday. The EA has been putting pressure on me daily to move things along, but my solicitors have been waiting on the other side for 4 days now,. So it's not us he should be chasing!

Shall I tell you why solicitors seem to have no sense of urgency? Because 99% of clients think their sale/purchase is more urgent than anyone else's and that if they phone every hour every day, that this will mean theirs will gain priority because the solicitor will want to get rid of them. It doesn't. That client will just be replaced by another one and another one. The reasons clients want everything done at their pace is because of their holiday, the school intake dates or catchment areas, someone emigrating, getting married, a baby is due etc etc. This has got no relevance in the legal conveyancing process.

It is the clients themselves who pose these deadlines and the solicitors will work with the deadlines up to a point. The conveyancing process takes as long as it takes for all parties (including third parties) to do their bit and provide all responses and paperwork in a timely manner. The solicitor is acting for their client in the legal disposal or procurement of a property, this is what you are paying them to do. It is a huge amount of money to be spending and clients would be unwise to try and skip through the legalities towards exchange before the solicitor is satisfied that everything has been addressed. Oh, and the process does not officially start until the buying solicitor has received the initial draft contract pack from the seller's solicitor, not when an offer was accepted.

Oops apologies. Can you tell I had a bad day??

Spickle

The process takes as long as the process takes, but there is no excuse for a professional to reply to an email five working days after it was sent. I woudl be shot at work if I left a client hanging for 5 days waiting for a simple response.

Thanks for all the supportive comments I like my solicitor and she is singlehandedly getting this done for us. There is a bottle of champagne in her future. I just do not trust the vendor one shitbrained inch!

Just hanging in there as best we can...fifteen weeks and counting...

P.S. Spickle I know I've said this before but if solicitors would talk to clients like you do (i.e. clearly and like a person) I think things would be much better! I've had more information from you than anyone I'm paying. You're a star and I'm sorry you have to deal with us shrieking loonies all day at work and then again when you log on to MN!

for you Heyhey, you're too kind!

Heyhey I'm crossing everything that your vendor sorts their shit out. I hope the house is worth it all!

spickle I'm impressed with our solicitors actually, communication is good and they have a client log in to track the case. I did feel a bit guilty reading your post. I am extremely stressed about the start of term. I feel so shit for dd that she's missed all the settling in sessions, no home visits. Moving to a completely new area where she knows no one and is starting at a school she doesn't know when I've been telling her she's going to our local one for months. If I have to drive her the 20 miles each way because we haven't completed on time it's going to really put the stress on us all

I realise this isn't the end of the world but feeling the pressure at the mo!

And now I'm getting teary, time to put the wine away!

Nervybuyer2016 I'm sure it will all be fine and it sounds like your solicitor is doing a good job - I do understand how stressful it can be, but unfortunately there really isn't much you can do - the whole process is dependent upon so many involved parties that one person responding quickly doesn't make much of a difference if someone else drags their feet. Best not to stress if at all possible!

YelloDraw a professional should respond to emails within 24 hours ideally but a lot of solicitors take the view that if there is no new development to report, then don't waste time responding that "there's no new development" (IYSWIM)! When there has been a development, they will be in touch. If you are sending an email to query something with the other side, it's possible your solicitor will forward on the query but won't get back in touch with you until the response is in. If there is a tracker system/case management system in place, any new developments will be entered there. If your solicitor is working on a fixed fee basis, then the service you receive will be limited, as they will have hundreds of ongoing transactions and don't have the time to respond to the many emails or calls that come in on a daily basis. Not ideal, but cheap conveyancing is not necessarily a good choice.

Spickle - just out of curiosity, what size caseload does a solicitor / conveyancer normally have? I'm imagining quite high?

My solicitor for our purchase is great. Our problem has been with a buy to let remortgage which is raising funds needed for the purchase which came with "free legals".
I have a vision of a sweatshop with hundreds of young clerks and one solicitor maybe.
The free legal service insisted that a notice about the drains in favour of waterboard be removed but then said they didn't deal with this sort of thing..
Our lovely solicitor has kindly sorted it for us even though she's not dealing with that mortgage.

This is our 5th house purchase and it does all seem to be taking longer each time. Not sure if it's more checks or just that agencies like the Land Registry have fewer staff.

A team of 3/4 people at our firm averages 25 new instructions per week. Currently around 200 live ongoing transactions, around 40 completions per month. Post completion registrations not included in the above. Definitely think a combination of more checks, fussier lenders, more paperwork/indemnity policies and fewer staff both in conveyancing and at Land Registry.

Sounding old now but yes Spickle indemnity policies. In the old days buyers would ask a question and vendors would provide information which would be OK or not. Now we all have to buy policies

Fussier lenders. Indeed. In the bad old days of unsafe mortgage lending, DH, self employed, could self certify, literally just sign to say he earned £X a year. Our current applications have been epic in terms of information, proof and queries. All time consuming.

Sorry, didn't mean to offend all conveyancers in one sweeping comment. I am sure there are good and bad, as in all professions. Admittedly, my previous house moves were all before mobile phones, internet and email were commonplace so I'm sure things are different these days.

I'm a solicitor and there is definitely good and bad in my office (litigation firm) and my experience of my conveyancing solicitor, ignoring the fact the process is slow, is that I had to ask very specific questions to get answers and activity only seemed to happen if he was reminded. He does seem to have problems with spelling, too. That came as a surprise to me. I'm used to advising and making recommendations which seems very different.

Not all solicitors are crap of course and most are extremely busy with specific time recording targets per day but in my line of work we have contractual targets to the client which means responding to emails quickly (although it is sometimes hard to do).

I do agree with Spickle that this is one of the biggest transactions in our lives so we want them to get it right. I say this now we've exchanged obviously. I've spent the last few months fuming and frustrated although a great deal of our delays are a direct result of our vendor who struggles with being completely honest.

Just hoping to vent a bit here. We've been "on the verge" of exchange for about 3 weeks now. We transferred our 10% deposit.... and then nothing. Faffing at the top of the chain about price adjustments for building work . There are 4 in the chain and we are cash buyers at the bottom - we go away in 2 weeks so are pushing for exchange before that. It's been a horrendous year so far and I am very worried about how I'll cope or not if everything falls through. We had our offer accepted late May so it hasn't been that long but it all went so smoothly and quickly at the start and now radio silence. I've emailed the EA this morning - will phone if no reply. Can't bear the thought of being told it's collapsed. Too early for gin??!

Hello, can I join the thread as well, I feel your pain AvonCallingBarksdale, as am currently also living in the limbo of waiting to exchange. Had originally hoped to have completed for 1st August but now aiming for the 23rd, will feel so much less stressed once we have exchanged. Fingers crossed that it happens soon for those of us that are waiting.

Finally got to speak to the EA today. We're ready to go, the people above us are and so is the person at teh top. So we're just waiting to hear back from person number 3. Everyone seems to think exchange will take place on Friday, but I know that nothing's certain until it's all signed... It's such an emotional rollercoaster - really not my cup of tea. Good luck happymum47 and anyone else waiting, waiting, waiting!

That's great news AvonCallingBarksdale, it's the not knowing that's hard isn't it, just trying to keep busy each day and resisting the urge to call solicitor for an update! Just keep envisaging myself with a big glass of wine in the new house thinking ahhh it's allover and we can get on with our lives. Hopefully not too much longer for those of us waiting! I fear is the answer until it happens!

Yes wine has been my friend in this whole process!!

Mortgage offer through and draft contract received today, hazzah! A step forward.

That's great, I think thats the best way to view this process that's what I've been doing anyway, one step at a time, moving forward towards the end result! does ease the process though!