First time buyer in Scotland

[noddingninja]

DH, DD and I moved to Glasgow last summer and got a rental property for a year. We then found a house and our offered was accepted, we appointed a solicitor who was recommended by the estate agents. After some dragging of heels by the mortgage broker we got our mortgage selected and approved. The approval letter from the mortgage company (received about a month ago) said that they would be in touch with our solicitor to arrange release of the funds. I rang the solicitor today and he said he was still waiting to hear from the mortgage company.

I'm beginning to get worried all these delays will affect our proposed completion date (3 July) and am getting despondent that the cogs are turning so slowly. My question is to anyone who has bought a house before - are these delays normal? Should I be kicking up more of a fuss?!

Funds don't usually get released until the completion date I thought?

What you need to know is has your Offer of loan been issued You should have. Received a copy Your solicitor also receive their copy and their instructions to act If this has been issued then that's fine Loan funds are only requested about a week to ten days prior to the entry

Sorry posted too soon Beginning of July is ages away so all should be ok But speak to your solicitor they should've talking you through the process

Thanks for your replies; yes we've had the offer of loan on 17th April so I need to check the solicitor received a copy of it too. I just want them to confirm the completion date so I know for sure that it is happening

If you have your offer of loan the solicitor will have received their copy Have your missives been concluded July is quite a bit of time away ,solicitor probably has you in the 'missives concluded ,loan papers received,all ok category '
and would be getting in touch shortly to arrange for you to sign the security

But you need to know Em or phone and ask

The solicitor have confirmed that they received our offer of a loan from the mortgage company but the completion date has not been confirmed with the seller yet. She is waiting for a new flat to be built but I don't see why we should have to wait for that too! The solicitor asked if I had any means to contact her directly, which I was somewhat surprised by. I haven't even met her as the viewings were done with the agent.

Is there anything to gain by approaching the estate agent regarding move in dates? Also is it normal to request access to the property prior to the entry date to measure up for curtains/carpets etc.?

Your entry date should have been agreed as part of your offer e.g. we offer £x with an entry date of DD/MM/2015 and the seller should have accepted both parts of that offer or negotiated on the date if it wasn't suitable for her.
Your solicitor should be working with your mortgage provider and the seller's solicitor to progress everything in time for the agreed date. It isn't unusual for missives not to be completed until just before that date but there would be penalties if the seller didn't meet an agreed date.
Get back on to your solicitor and ask for an update. They shouldn't be asking you to speak to the seller directly.

And yes it's normal to get access to measure up. Usually after missives are completed .

Entry dates used to always-be agreed at the time the offer was accepted but recently that is not always happening
When did your offer go in

If it was just in the last week or so it is probably just not been agreed yet

However if it was any longer and given what you say about the buyer waiting for a new build then it may be that the seller is not going to agree to an entry date until they have an entry

This also probably mean that you don't have concluded missives

If this is the case you can either agree to this or try and push for an entry
You need to check with solicitor exactly what position is

Phone tomorrow and if you can't speak to solicitor keep phoning until you get through

If you don't get anywhere speak to the agents
They can speak direct to seller which
Solicitor can't
Very unusual to advise you to speak to purchaser

Hope this helps

The offer was accepted at the beginning of March, when our solicitor put forward the proposed entry date of 3rd July, but it appears that this date has not been agreed which is not ideal for us (we have our rental property til 11th July and I don't want to extend it, if indeed that is possible).

I did call the estate agent and she said that she would approach the seller regarding the entry date, so we shall see if that does anything.

It seems like we should have kept chasing and pushing everyone involved in his whole house buying process from the start.

Sounds like you have now done all you can
On a positive note there is plenty of time to get things in place for a July entry
You really shouldn't have to chase this up You should be kept advised
Good luck

I checked our paperwork and the seller's solicitors accepted the offer on the condition that they set the entry date with no less than 14 days notice. Surely in law there is a sort of "expiry date" to the offer otherwise we could be left waiting to move forever! I know that our mortgage offer is valid for 16 weeks from date of issue.

You're right that I shouldn't be having to chase this. I am not impressed with the solicitors.

Thank you Rangirl and everyone else for your advice

What was your response to the 14 day clause Normally your solicitor would take your instructions on the points contained in the seller's solicitor's acceptance Did you get asked if you agreed and if so did you say yes And yes there normally would be an end point eg If by x no date has been agreed then Or date to be no later than y Can you see that in the contract

I have had email correspondence with my solicitor today and it looks like we may be making some progress (fingers crossed).

"With regard to the entry date, the clause you mention is taken from the seller's solicitors qualified acceptance of 20th March. It is open for us to go back to them with a different provision or even re-instate our offer clause which specified a fixed entry date of 3rd July. Ultimately, both parties need to agree on a date of entry provision. At the moment, the provisions of the contract are up for negotiation.

I have received a letter today from the seller's solicitors in which they ask for confirmation of your preference regarding an entry date and I propose to write to them simply to confirm that you want a fixed entry date of 3rd July as per your offer for the property, following upon our telephone discussion yesterday."

So I've said go ahead and hopefully we can secure an entry date by the end of this month.

Sounds good Well done