So near...so far... a few annoyances

Hmmm... I got worse today....

one of the people in my chain is a "Key" worker... and is getting some special mortgage but the conditions are ther has to be 3 weeks between exchange and completion and not 3 days.

This is despite their solicitor agreeing in principle to everything last week...so that has stuff us and means the solicitors will have our cash for even longer... and we have to wait even longer for the woolwich to pay the money back to us.

Alternatively I might get my solicitor to request another redemption certifciate and see if they can return the extra cash directly to me....even a cheque from them would be quicker.

Hopefully we exchange tomorrow...at least the chain hasn't collapsed..... yet!

Well wedidn't exchange in the end :mad:

But clearly alot of people are talking behind the scenes and bring pressure to bear on the part of the chain that is holding things up. This hasn't been helped by my buyers solicitors and I believe their buyer.... as there seems to have been some big communication problems over the timescale. Also today apparently there is so mention of one buyer defaulting on the lease??? and now some paper needs to be drawn up to indemnify them????

It didn't really make sense but my solicitor felt it was a fairly standard thing and should prolong things much longer - she hopes to exchange later today.

I am hoping for a 30th August completion now.

Hi again all...

I thought I would post an update... things have gone from bad to worse... the last few days have been a real eye opener on just how one solicitor can hold up everything and in fact how crucial estate agents can be.

Basically my buyers solicitor is causing a lot of problems....

The lease that I mentioned actually relates to some windows that my buyer fitted into his lease hold property. Last week his solicitor noticed this and said that consent was needed from the freeholder. It has come to light today that my buyer did state on his legal papers about the sale that he had fitted windows without any consent so his solicitor should have picked up on this weeks ago.

No problem said everyone, we can get a retrospective agreement from the freeholder - he was happy to oblige and sent a letter. The solicitor refused to accept this as it was "unclear"...no one is sure why but it seems to have something to do with the windows not being the same style as the original ones.

At this point things got rather silly and his solicitor really dug her heels in, the relationship between my solicitor and her had all but broken down because my solicitor was get no feedback, told that such and such was in meetings... basically my solicitor was get ignored. Finally my buyers solicitor said that she would not proceed unless a variation of deeds was completed. This has then bounced around for the last few days whilst the estate agents and solicitors try to understand what impact this is likely to have - in fact the chain has been very close to collapse.

I then heard yesterday that the buyer of leasehold property (my buyers buyer) was happy to accept full responsibility and felt the window issue was minor and certainly not something to stop us exchanging, with a view to then completing on the 5th Sept. Again my buyers solicitor was adamant - no variation of deeds no exchange.

Today was the last straw... my buyers are emigrating to France (they have kids), my kids are due to start at the new school on the 5th, the first person in the chain has a keyworker (tower scheme?) mortgage and must move within a certain time frame - also the company had reduced the 3 week period that first held us up last week to help the chain proceed.

At this point today I had to really focus my estate agents and they have been chasing around today trying to salvage the situation and try to ensure all parties remain committed. They contacted my buyer and he supposed told his solicitor to proceed with exchange and he would accept full liability for all cost arising after completion relating to this matter - again she refused point blank.

The latest is that my buyer has agreed to pay (and this what was quoted to me - £1200) to his solicitor (the obstructive one) to start the variation of deeds. In the meantime he will pay his buyer additional costs so that his buyer can rent somewhere and the first time buyer/keyworker can still buy her place (closing off that part of the chain). In doing so the agents and solicitors will be hounding my buyers solicitor as she needs to get the VoD done within 7-10 days and it is then likely we will exchange and complete (not ideal but there doesn't seem to be much we can do). My buyer must be livid with his solicitor but his actions do prove his commitment to buying our property I guess. Apparently (going by the estate agents) all parties have agreed to proceed on this basis - except my vendor who has yet to be contacted (their solicitor is aware however and is totally supportive). But I feel we are all praying that finally my buyers solicitor will do her job properly and quickly so that we can just get on and resolve this whole non-issue that she has caused.

There is I suppose the vague glimmer of hope that someone will talk sense into the solicitor...afterall... would you class window replacement as structural changes (i.e. as in bricks and mortar, an extension, load bearing wall removal etc...) if not then we are all wasting time and money.