Unbelievable.

[debaura12]

Hi

Can you believe this.

I had my offer accepted on a flat on 1/08. The vendor sold the property with the leases having been written (she was the freeholder of the whole block).
Can you believe it is now 17 weeks later and the leases still have not been written!!! In this time I have been paying £525 pm rent.

What would you do, I am out of my mind.

I agree, it isn't an unusual timescale at all. Even so I would put an ultimatum on it.

wowfudge Of course it is wasted money.

Oh well I have written to my EA dropping my offer so we will see.

Thanks

dropping your offer without first putting pressure on to complete was an interesting move. They may well say "ok fine bye then"

you're renting the flat? sorry that has nothing to do with you buying it

but I would consider not buying it - she will drive you up the wall when you have to deal with her on anything.

Unlikely to have to deal with the freeholder on much if the leasehold is being purchased. Plus this isn't actually (yet) a particularly unreasonable timescale for a purchase so nothing to indicate that the freeholder is difficult in any way.

I have been putting pressure on to complete for the last 2 months.

your solicitors need to apply more pressure, they are not as good as you think they are by the sounds of it

yes she is driving me up the wall, the vendor is hopeless!

Then your timescales were unrealistic from the outset.

You had your offer accepted on 1st August. I would expect a completion in roughly 4 months(ish).

You need to call your solicitor and ask how far off you are.

Sorry, when I say complete, I mean for my solicitor to receive ANY paperwork from the vendor, which took 2.5 months.

As I say the lease documents have not been written yet.

Well, your solicitor should have been more on it, frankly. 6 weeks for any paperwork seems bad.

When you made your offer for a "quick sale", did you specify any terms then e.g. Offer conditional on completion within X weeks. Dropping your offer seems an odd move at this stage. Especially if the vendor is not that interested in a quick sale and dragging their feet - what's to stop them just pulling out and remarketing?

Honestly, 17 weeks is just average, so I am not too surprised.
and rent is not "wasted money" in the same way that the interest you pay on a mortgage is not "wasted money"

It is 17 weeks and there are no leases. Not 17 weeks and I am near completion. And my solicitor cannot do anything is she does not have the paperwork.

Nonsense OP: if you were paying £525pm for somewhere you couldn't access to live then that would be wasted money. You are not.

Yes but you are paying your solicitor to GET the paperwork - she should be chasing for it.

I'm not sure why you have dropped your offer - as others have pointed out, the 'wasted money' thing is a red herring. An ultimatum might have proved more effective.

And leasehold purchases are more complex than freehold and likely to take longer anyway. Give them an ultimatum and mean it or be more patient.

wowfudge Of course it is wasted money.

No, it isn't. Wasted money would be paying out on your mortgag and rented flat. Or paying rent and not being able to access it... but paying rent and in return having somewhere to live, is not wasted money.

If you rent was affordable before you started flat-hunting, then it shoudl still be afofrdable soi I don't see what your problem is.

debaura12 I can see the annoyance that it was advertised with the lease having already been sorted - but your timescale is still totally normal, and leasehold properties are often fraught with issues such as this.

Of course it's wasted money. If everyone had got their act together the OP would be paying that off of her mortgage. Not all of it obviously because of interest, but some at least!

It is NOT totally normal for NOTHING to be done in 17 weeks when the Leases have supposedly been written. The ball has been dropped and several someones need a kick up the jacksie!

Thank you CouldIHaveIt. The voice of reason. Of course it's wasted money smh... I am so close to withdrawal, my nerves are shattered. Why do vendors think they have the right to lie, costing me thousands of pounds in LOST RENT.

The wasted money would be the difference between your monthly rent and the monthly interest payments that you would have been paying on your mortgage

Ime you need to pick an extremely tenacious solicitor otherwise sellers who are in no rush will drag their feet.

I don't need a mortgage, but anyway that would be negligible thanks TheAntiBoop. My solicitor is fantastic but you can't get blood out of a stone. It is the vendor's game and she doesn't care. She has 30 properties she is selling at the same time!!

Obv I only found this out recently!

I would make sure you have your solicitor go through the lease with a fine tooth comb. With the recent money making on leasehold ground rent, you don't want to be out of pocket.

www.theguardian.com/money/2016/nov/05/ground-rent-scandal-engulfing-new-home-buyers-leasehold

www.theguardian.com/money/2016/nov/19/new-build-ground-rent-scandal-legal-battles-solicitors-negligence

While those are for new builds, a similar thing could happen on pre-existing flats where the freeholder sold the lease and the new freeholder increases the ground rent which caught out the flat owners.