Anyone else just started the "Buying a House" Process?

MyHouse75

Seems like a lot of people are at a standstill, just like us. Very frustrating, being stuck in a chain is the biggest nightmare!

We were due to exchange last week, but still haven't exchanged. Asked the EA to find out what's going on, since our solicitor doesn't want to tell us what the problem is!

EA called our vendors solicitor, turns out that the people at the top of the chain (people our seller are buying from) have not returned their signed contract:mad: ! We've now tried to exchange since last Wednesday and the reason we are unable to is because people haven't returned their forms!!!

All alarmbells are ringing in my head! There must be a reason why they haven't returned the forms, so am just waiting for the bomb to drop...Surely if they really wanted the sale to go ahead they would have got the forms to their solicitor in a week! I am sure there must be some bigger reason for this, ie. they want to pull out.

Solicitor told me that if we haven't exchanged by tomorrow we will need to negotiate a later date for completion, were due to complete next week. Glad we didn't book the removal van yet, I had this strange feeling that things were not going to go smoothly....

I don't even have words to describe how dissappointed and upset about all this I am. I am stuck in a chain of idiots! I feel like exchange is never going to happen.

If this sale falls through I am never going to put an offer on a property in a chain again, will only look at vacant properties.

Roma_3

My House75 ...been following your "adventures" (for want of a better phrase!) ...is it possible maybe that they have in fact returned contract but it has somehow been lost in transit?? (Here's hoping..??)
SO sorry for you ... we are so down today also .. nothing happening (suppose this has to better than bad things happening?!)
It's the "not knowing" that I hate as our solicitor seems to know even less than we do re the hold up!
Best of best of luck!!! :j

Socrates_3

I extend my sympathies to all you folks trying to negotiate the horrors of house selling/buying, especially if you are pregnant and have little ones.

I tried to unstick our process today. I rang the insurance company who are supposed to do the indemnity insurance top-up and got through to the right department in less than five mins - so no excuse, I thought, for a two month delay in organising this. I then emailed the senior partner in the law firm who are conveyancing the sale and explained the deficiences in their handling of the case. My husband said this was a useless intervention because, since we are not the client, they would take no notice - but it did make me feel better.

What kinds of extreme measures have any of you tried? I thought that physically camping outside the solicitors might be the final act.

gimpymoo

Well, after starting this thread on the 08-09-2006, I have not had much time to reply back.

Has mentioned previously, we offered at the end of August. It looks as though we may be exchanging at the beginning of December with completion the week before christmas :-O

I did have problems with the first solicitors we instructed, Countrywide Property Lawyers who did squat diddly for the first SIX weeks. When I rang them, they said things were fine. It turns out, they needed something from ourselves, yet nobody had mentioned anything to us, despite our phone calls.

When we took the decision to change conveyancers, not an easy one as essentially we were staring from scratch, although has CPL had not done anything, we were not any worse off. To be fair, CPL did send a FULL refund for purchase and sale monies the day after I phoned them and cancelled which I think indicates they had done NOTHING. Why couldnt they have been as quick with dealing with our case though?

Personally, I feel they are too big. You call and get through to a call centre and nobody knows your case, only the details on the screen, so you have to wait for callbacks which never happen or ring again.

Cut to the chase, we switched to Conveyancing Warehouse and never looked back, best decision we made. They have been FANTASTIC.

In a matter of 6 weeks, maybe less, searches were completed and all forms signed and returned. AMAZING.

Have recently found out that the Vendor is going away for Christmas, which could be a good or bad thing I guess.

Good if they want to move so when they come back, they can have new year in their new home.

Bad if they dont want the hassle untill after christmas. We shall see.

Weggy

We are also with Countrywide Property Lawyers, and they have been nothing but pathetic. We should have changed firms but stuck with them.... wish we'd followed your example!!

Re the size issue, I queried why post was taking so long to get processed by them and their excuse was "because we're such a big firm". The woman was speechless when I explained that I work for one of the largest law firms in the country, and we dont have a problem because we're too big!!

gimpymoo

Im sorry to hear your having problems with CPL.

Im gob-smacked, that is such a pathetic excuse but that is one of the reasons why we changed conveyancers.

You'd send a letter and knowing they had received it, ring them to be told "It should be on the system in a couple of days"? Same with faxes from anybody as well.

I dont know how far along you are, but mention you want to terminate the instruction with them. When I did that, I got a telephone call from the actual solicitor dealing with my case and a team leader all in the space of 45 minutes. They obvioulsy insisted I stayed with them but it was too little too late for me. Im certain at that stage you could barter and INSIST they can keep your business as long as you ONLY speak with either the manager or solicitor in the future. The solicitor was a nice chap.

Good Luck.

Weggy

Our solicitor is a chap called Brian, and he seems quite good - it's the idiots around him that let the whole thing down.

We're just about at the exchange stage now so too late to change....

Having said that, we had our offer accepted in the first week of September, so I'm really not sure we're too far behind you....

upset_2

upset wrote:

* 29-31 August: House viewed, offer made and accepted, mortgage application submitted, and solicitor instructed.
* 4 September: Homebuyer's survey carried out.
* 6 September: Survey results received - everything ok.
* 7 September: Sent payslips to mortgage company.
* 12 September: Searches completed by solicitors - all ok.
* 21 September: Valuation carried out by mortgage company.
* 26 September: Mortgage offer received in writing! Also received a load of stuff from the solicitors (fixtures/fittings details, property details, land registry details etc.)

Update:

We are signing everything tomorrow, should exchange on Monday, and *fingers crossed* will complete at the end of next week.

Well, we're finally settled in the new house, with the internet up and running! We moved in on October 13th in the end (it could have been sooner but the seller wanted to stay in the house for as long as possible), so it took just over 6 weeks from viewing the house to moving in. It was a very stressful experience, and one that I really don't want to have to go through again! We're very happy in the new house though, so it was all worth it. :j

emmaj30

Weve had an offer accepted on a place and we have had our mortgage approved in principle. The surveyor has been instructed and will be doing the valuation/homebuyers report tuesday. fingers crossed moved by february should we get a mortgage offer. Im being very paranoid about this as it will be brillant if me and my husband get this house. fingers crossed fingers crossed

good luck to you.

Weggy

Finally, we have exchanged contracts today, and have fixed a completion date of next Friday, the 8th of Dec.

We had our offer accepted on the 7th of September, so I don't think we've done too bad really..... just fingers crossed for a hassle free completion now!!