Buyers solicitor being difficult

[Mehmeh22]

So we had an offer on our house in September from a FTB. It took them 6 weeks to get a mortgage offer.

In November the buyer was starting to get annoyed at how slow the sale was going and said she needed to move by end of Jan.

There is a chain involved with three other houses. Ive had a lot of bad luck with that, but all being well, we should be completed by end of March at the very latest.

The buyer got annoyed at the delays with the chain and has been putting on a lot of pressure to move sooner. But here's the thing. Her solicitor is from one of those huge companies that employ monkeys for peanuts and who have no knowledge of the system whatsoever. Looking at their reviews, they are known for this. They just don't understand the lease system in the NW

My solicitor has passed on everything he can and he said in normal circumstances, that is enough, but the buyers solicitor refuses to accept it. And is charging my buyer for all sorts of stuff which has so far got to £4k (just for the purchase).

My buyer is now not accepting the indemnity policies for the extension that happened 25 years ago, before my time (and I had been upfront that it did not have building regs), and is demanding 10k off the price or for me to pay for a surveyor to check the extension. Baring in mind, she has been putting on pressure to move asap for about three months.

I can't reduce due to us putting an offer on a house and we are at our limit.

What do we do?? Im so close to telling the buyer to jog on!!!

It doesn’t really matter what previous buyers including the OP accepted

The purchaser is looking for comfort all is in order and the OP either needs to cooperative or find another buyer

We had a house which was of indeterminate age (100 years plus). It had an attic rooom for which there was obviously no documentation as it had been done at least 50 years earlier, we have no idea if it was done when the house was first built. The local authority came in to inspect for another matter and raised the issue of certification. Once we showed them that it had been sold to us in the 1980's as a bedroom they granted it retrospective permission.
Disregarding all this, if you are selling it as a three bedroom house with a loft room, at the price for a three bed house of this type, it should be fine. However if you are using it as a habitable room (for example furnished as a bedroom) and selling it at a price to include an extra room that is a different story. What are you currently using the room for?

Its used mainly as a store room. We've never really used it to be honest. The irony!

The buyer doesnt give a rats tu tu about the building regs. Its the solicitors scaremongering the lender.

Or suggesting that it is a good way to get the price reduced.

Ok

Its not scaremongering Mehmeh22.

The Solicitor gives the lender specific professional assurances regarding the title and attaching documents.

Lack of planning compliance impacts the resale value of the property.

The lender has a legal obligation to ensure the recoverable amount of the loan is correct when it issues the loan.

If the lender is not assured that the recoverable amount is correct it should not be paying over the funds.

In normal circumstances, I'd agree with you, but this conveyancing firm just seem to lack common sense

The more lacking of common sense it appears the more likely it is that the staff are working to a fixed process which must be followed. So likely more junior (cheaper) staff doing the legwork and sign off is only done when all the process boxes are ticked.

I agree with that. The problem is the house is so old it just cant follow their tick box exercise. Yet both myself and the buyer are having to pay for things that wouldn't normally be asked for.

I've had an almost identical problem - sale fell through in the end. Check with you local planning department. My buyers were going on about how there wasn't proper planning permission or building regs sign off for the extension, but the planning department found everything within a day. I guess it was a stall tactic while they made decisions about other aspects of the property.

It sounds more and more as though they are using one of the cheaper conveyancing firms rather than proper solicitors. A good solicitor does often use junior staff for legwork but applies common sense throughout the process.