How long has your house purchase taken [so far]??

[dubyalass]

I had an offer accepted in mid-June; no chain. I've had my mortgage offer through and the survey done. There is an issue with ownership of an outbuilding so the vendors are sorting that out with the Land Registry. Searches not done yet but unlikely to be anything tricky there.

I'm hoping that I might be in by the end of October but realistically who knows. I've no idea how long the LR are taking to process casework at the moment. Once that's sorted it should all be pretty quick.

@RM2013 I'm being asked to pay for it as it's my lease the has the 'defect'. My solicitors advised that I would need to pay it! Have heard nothing further. Sigh.

I'm now 8 weeks after having an offer accepted, with us both being chain free. I've had one update from my solicitor (2 weeks ago when I chased him). He's now ignoring my calls and emails, and despite originally saying we should be on track for end of November completion, I seriously can't see this happening, but he hasn't told me otherwise! I've still not had anything through from the vendors solicitors and literally have no clue what's going on. Is this normal?

@katmunchkin have searches all been completed? Have enquiries been done? Those are the issues that can hold things up. I hope you hear something soon

Update. Eventually an email back from solicitor (well secretary) just asking if we would benefit from a phone conversation with solicitor to ease our concerns. Just want things sorted

@RM2013 That's progress of some sorts I guess?!

@hanna65 yeah I think I will ask for the phone consult. Maybe she can alleviate some of my concerns although I guess they still won’t be able to tell me how long it will take to sort

Update: finally exchanged yesterday, moving today! After 9 months it's been a whirlwind the last few days . Totally underestimated how long it takes to pack up a house!

have a solicitor phone appointment booked tomorrow to discuss the issues with the leasehold to try and “ease our concerns”
all I want is a moving date 🙈

@RM2013 I really hope they are able to discuss dates with you too!

Congrats @windysocks

@hanna65 thats weird you're expected to day for it. We had to pay for indemnity for the house we just sold due to the estate management company and our vendor had to due to land purchase.

After today, I need to work out who's lying because the vendors estate chased for an update from our solicitor today and was told that pre exchange checks have been done and we just need to agree dates, she called dh to let him know, he then called and was told the checks aren't finalised so dates can't be discussed yet... at least I managed to sort out the council tax and tv licence today, still struggling to contact British Gas about closing our account 🤦‍♀️

Now dealing with a total shit show for my gifted deposit. My parents received an inheritance from my maternal grandma and this has been passed on to me for my deposit. We have to provide the original will or a certified copy, plus a death certificate or a certified copy. However, my mum died a few years ago (after grandma) and it occurred to me that my grandma's will probably only named my mum as beneficiary, not my dad. So I queried with my solicitors whether we'd also need to provide my mum's will and death certificate (or certified copies) if dad isn't named on grandma's will. Answer, of course, is yes.

I have no idea if my solicitors are massively overcomplicating things here. So currently my uncle is trying to find grandma's will and dad is off to his solicitor tomorrow to get mum's stuff certified. What if my uncle can't find my grandma's will? What do we do then? Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of Dubyalass's Housebuying Woes... Surely there's an easier way to do all this??

@RM2013 I have no idea tbh, all I know is that the searches have been returned but that's it! I literally cannot get any more from my solicitor - I even ended up ringing the vendors estate agent to see if they knew anything and to reassure them it wasn't me holding things up and they said the same, the vendors solicitors and frustrated with the lack of contact from mine. So annoying, tempted to raise a complaint.

@katmunchkin could you escalate to a senior partner if you’re having no luck with communication? It’s frustrating when you’re not sure what the progress is. Hope things start moving soon

@dubyalass oh no 🤦‍♀️ Just when you think you have one issue sorted another one pops up. How bloody frustrating for you. I hope your uncle manages to find the paperwork you need and hopefully in the near future this shit show will be a distant memory

@RM2013 annoyingly the branch I have used only has this one solicitor, but there are another 5 branches, so I'm tempted to go that route. The complaints email address is to the Senior Partner based in another branch. So frustrating - I'm not even in a particular rush, as long as I complete before my mortgage offer expires in February, it's just that he said completion by the end of November (which I'm now presuming isn't happening) and I know if I don't keep on at him I'll constantly be put to the bottom of the pile. Thanks for your input!

@RM2013 I only found this out now because my spidey senses tingled and I suddenly thought oh crap, I bet they'll need mum's stuff if dad's not named. It's utterly tedious. We didn't have to prove any of this last time but that was pre 2018 regs. I just hope it can be resolved otherwise I can't ever buy a house and the deposit money will just sit in my account forever 🙄🙄🙄

Oh @dubyalass how frustrating. Hopefully everything needed is found!

@katmunchkin I'd email that partner and hopefully they will talk to the person concerned and get things sorted.

Thanks both! I've had the bright idea of downloading the wills from the Probate Registry to start with and if we then have death certificates I'd really hope that's enough. Probate should have details of executors. Just got to wait for the download links as it isn't instantly available for some reason.

£3 well spent if it does the job!

Definitely worth it, hope it does :)

Sigh.

I downloaded both mum's and grandma's wills and probate documents. Mum's is fine, all good, says what I need it to. Grandma's will, however, is from before my grandad died and so he is named as beneficiary. Mum isn't named on it anywhere although her brother is named as executor. So now I have to ring my solicitors and find out what else we need to do to prove the money was an inheritance. We have bank statements showing my aunt transferring the money to my parents, but my aunt isn't named as an executor, although she dealt with most of it. I feel like this could all be resolved with a simple letter from their solicitor but that probably won't pass my solicitors' "stringent requirements".

I am on the verge of tears because I don't know what to do to sort this out. I need to ring my solicitors but I think I'm going to end up crying at them.

@dubyalass That's really stressful. Have you spoken to them?

I spoke to my solicitor today who confirmed as far as she's concerned we are ready to exchange. Shortly after that, my buyer emailed me to say that she hasn't had her contract to sign yet. The rest of the chain get them last week 😭

Spoke to them this morning and explained the situation - they said they would be able to apply some discretion. I don't know exactly what that means but they are going to discuss it and let me know. We shall see.

@dubyalass fingers crossed they have enough info to do what is needed.

@hanna65 hopefully they can get the contract and signed as soon as possible

So have had an email out the blue from solicitor saying they have had no response from our buyers and could we chase them?
think this was an error as been in regular touch with them and contacts have all been signed. They have confirmed that their solicitor is now ready to discuss completion dates.

just waiting news on purchase but have a telephone appointment this afternoon