Just need to vent really. So upset, disappointed, frustrated with everything and everyone. I’m a first buyer and this certainly wasn’t the experience that I’d envisioned.
Back in May I put an offer in on a shared ownership house which was accepted. The vendor was an absolute nightmare from the beginning. It took her nearly three weeks to let me view the property and then over a week to let the EA know that she’d accepted my offer. Good news though so I didn’t mind too much at the time. 6 weeks into the process we found out that the vendor hadn’t even requested permission from the third party to sell the house which delayed things massively. She should have done this before even putting the house up for sale 11 months prior. The amount of paperwork I had to fill out and the hoops I had to jump through were ridiculous. The management company told me that they’d have to decide if I could even buy the house, after my offer had already been accepted by the vendor. In the end I decided to withdraw because it was all so disorganised and frustrating.
It was for the best, or so I thought as a beautiful house in a lovely location, closer to family, friends and work came up a week later. It was cheaper too and I’d own it outright. I viewed it a day after it was added to right move and put my offer in straight away as it had so much interest. My offer was accepted later that day. My solicitor was confident in the beginning that it would all go through smoothly with no issues, especially because the property is vacant with no chain. It’s a leasehold house and the EA made it clear to me that the freeholder was absent but that the vendor would have an indemnity policy put in place. I had no idea this would be an issue, as clearly I’m not a legal expert and the EA played it down massively during the viewing. It was never flagged as an issue until my solicitor looked at the paperwork 7 weeks later. I was furious as had I known it would cause such problems I would have asked my solicitor to speak to the mortgage lender weeks ago and get their advice. This could have all been sorted whilst the searches were going through. The vendors solicitor has been ridiculously slow throughout this whole thing and it took her nearly 6 weeks just to send over the contract pack, which didn’t contain the draft contract or leasehold form (we still don’t even have the draft contract which the EA said is really poor as it’s something that’s normally sent straight away). My solicitor has asked for this 3 times so far to no avail.
On week 9, my solicitor sent enquiries and explained that she couldn’t report back to the mortgage lender without the leasehold form and more information in regards to the absent landlord. It took the vendors solicitor nearly three weeks to reply and that was after I contacted the EA to chase them up. At one point the EA was actually emailing both solicitors to tell them to communicate with each other. Finally my solicitor was able to report back to the mortgage lender on the 24th of Sept to see if it would be approved, and I’ve still not heard anything from them. Originally it was sent to the valuation team along with the indemnity policy quotation that the vendors solicitor had obtained. It took the valuation team over a week to basically come back and say that it wasn’t something that they could comment on and that it would need to be passed down to the legal team to look at. I knew this would happen as my solicitor told me weeks ago it would need to be looked at by a legal team, so why it couldn’t have been sent there directly on the 24th, I have no idea (oh wait I do, the mortgage lender has a specific process and I just have to be patient 🙄). It was finally passed down to the legal team on the 5th of October and still nothing. I was told last week by two different advisors that I would hear something by the end of today, but then told by a different advisor earlier that the legal team don’t have a timeframe and it could take weeks for them to respond with a yes or no. The advisor could see on the notes that someone else had asked my caseworker to chase it up last Friday but he was off work yesterday apparently so probably hasn’t even done it yet (surely someone should cover him whilst he’s off but that’s for another discussion 🙄).
We are on week 16 and I’m still none the wiser or any further down the line than what I was on day 1. I’m so so angry and feel like I’ve been let down by everyone. How is something like this allowed to happen? I’ve spent all this time and money on a property that might not even be mortgageable and all I’m told every day is that they’ll contact me as soon as they hear something. That’s all well and good as it doesn’t effect their life. Maybe I should have walked away weeks ago but I’ve waited so long now that I just want to see it right to the very end, even it’s not approved. At least I’ll know I tried my best. I can’t even give notice on my current rental, and I won’t either until I have the keys in my hand (if it even goes through that is).
My mortgage broker rang me today to ask if I’d completed yet and I had to explain what was going on. I told her that I’d been chasing the mortgage lender for a couple of days now and her response was “your solicitor should be doing that really….”. She’s not wrong though, is she? I just feel so disappointed, stressed, tired, fed up with the whole thing. I knew it would be stressful as moving always is, but what an absolute shit show it’s been from start to finish. I’ve done most of the leg work myself, chased everyone for answers and to communicate with each other… and I’m actually paying for this shit service. It’s unbelievable. My whole life is in limbo and the mortgage lender can’t even give me a specific date as to when they will come back with answer, it could be weeks. People actually think I can just go and buy the next house that's added to right move as well if this one doesn't work out, like affordability isn't even a fucking factor. Maybe I should be more patient, but it’s bloody hard when it’s already been 4 fucking months…
