Shared ownership property holding up the chain.

[Jennifaerie]

Can this be chased?

We've all been working towards a completion date of the 3rd of July. Everything else is now in place except for issues with a shared ownership property at the bottom of the chain. The EA states that they work at their own pace and the solicitor has said they can't be hurried along.

Surely everyone involved can be chased? Did starts her new school 70 miles away on the 3rd July and my husband leaves his job ready for new one on 30th June.

Does anyone have experience of this? How long was the delay for you?

TIA

We sold a SE property and there were delays with it as a result, as documents had to be signed off by the housing association and us. We did, however, chase relentlessly ourselves and got our solicitor to as well.

What is still outstanding and how long has the process been so far? Ours was about four months from start to finish, but our vendor delayed things as well so it wasn't all down to the SE property.

It's 4 weeks ahead of our sale, I believe it's just the final signing off that needs done. They're 10 weeks into it as far as I know with another week and a half to go.

I hope it doesn't take 4 months as DH would be commuting for a month thanks for your reply

I would talk to your solicitor and stress your position again and ask them to chase on your behalf. DH rang our HA constantly through the process, sometimes being persistent will be the only way to move things along. Your buyer should be doing that to keep to the timescale. Good luck!

My trouble is it's not my shared ownership property. It's 2 down in the chain so my hands are tied apart from nagging the estate agent. Fx they manage to get it sorted!

We are almost completed on the process of selling our previously shared ownership property - which is now owned 100% (no chain now as we lost the house we were buying because of the time it was taking!)

Exchanged yesterday and move out on Friday. It has been a nightmare!

The housing association didn't receive our initial letter, then failed to record one subsequent phone call to chase up. They repeatedly told us that their policy is to provide written responses in 5-10 days but it took 6 weeks of 3-4 phone calls a week (between us and our solicitor) to finally get some info! DP was eventually told to stop calling as it was being classed as harassment, so we had to leave our solicitor to it. I really don't understand why it takes so long. No one seemed to be able to give us ANY info on the phone and the letters just never arrived. They are the most unhelpful and incompetent people I have had the misfortune to deal with! They even tried to tell DP they weren't aware of our contact and then later said to him that he needed to stop calling as they had records of calls on X,y,z dates.... So obviously knew exactly what the issue was.

It has been the most stressful process. The final certificate needed from the HA only came through yesterday at the eleventh hour for exchange to take place. We accepted the offer and started the process in mid February!

I hope your process runs more smoothly, but I would recommend making sure that the EA and your solicitor keeps on top of chasing updates or it will drag on for months.

Afromum- sorry if I'm misunderstanding but if your home was fully staircased to 100% why were HA involved?

Op, sorry to tell you but they won't go any faster... and they won't care that they're holding you up

It's because even when you buy 100% share and the freehold there is a clause in the deed, for 21 years, that the HA must be given first option to buy the property and if they choose not to they then have to provide paperwork to confirm that you are free to sell on the open market. This is what we were waiting for them to provide.

When contracts are exchanged they need to provide a certificate of compliance to agree the sale. This is at a cost of £75 to the buyer. It's a real pain.

I did not know this... although it doesn't surprise me. 🙄 Thanks for the info!

No we didn't either. I have read that some HAs have written the clause out though, so yours could be different. It's in the title deed if you wanted to check.

The document is arriving Monday am apparently.... I'll believe it when I see it

Fingers crossed for you!