What would you do???

K_and_N

Hi,

We are in the process of buying a house and at the moment we feel are at our wits end. So...just want to know what would others do in our position.

- Offer accepted in the first week of March.
- Mortgage applied and got valuation done within 2.5 weeks.
- Mortgage offer and solicitor ready on 30th March.

Since then we have been waiting and waiting....and no sign of exchange so far. I am so depressed!!!

It took nearly a month to get the plan from seller's solicitor so that our solicitor can start searches. Then our solicitor has one query on searches results and asked at the end of April. And it's been a month and no answer yet.

I've been calling EA like 3 times a week and I'm fed up of so many excuses.

- First they claimed enquiry from our solicitor was never arrived.
- Then the seller tried find the documents to answer the query.
- Then they said they have to get the info from council.
- Then that enquiry letter to council was lost in the post.
- Then they said it was sent again by email to council and apparently the council has 5 days turn around time.
- Today is the 10th day and EA is not returning my call.

What do we do? We went around the seller's and asked. They are an elderly couple and they don't know much other than awaiting their solicitor. My solicitor is getting no reply to his calls. And I can't contact the seller's solicitor directly. EA is not returning all my calls. When they did in the past, all they said was no news.

What are our options? We know we can pull out but with the cost already spent and not many properties coming up in the area, we are very reluctant to pull out.

Sorry it's been a long rant but I'm very close to crying and feel powerless.....

K&N

sonastin

Start looking for something else. Pull out if you find something better. Looking will make you feel like you are back in control of something and will be a distraction from the rest of the hassle so that you're not fretting about it all the time.

Is your solicitor chasing regularly or moving onto his other clients while he waits for them to respond? You need to make sure he is on side with trying to push things through. Vendors and EA might be more proactive at chivvying things along if they think there is a risk that you might give up and walk. Don't go giving ultimatums though unless you are ready to see them through (i.e. when you have something better waiting in the wings).

And most of all, relax. It took my vendors 9 months to get everything sorted. At every stage, I believed that we could be moving within the next couple of weeks. In the end, it was just a matter of rolling with it. I even went to work on completion day because I was beyond the point of being able to believe it would actually happen until it did. I did take the afternoon off when the keys were eventually released though!

spirit

I really empathise with you after going through similar myself. What you find is that the estate agents lose interest once they've done the 'exciting' deal stuff.

Luckily many solicitors have email now. If yours has then badger them constantly for updates. Your estate agent would only be doing the same thing anyway. Your solicitor would know if they were waiting for further queries from your sellers or local search etc.

Good luck, I'm sure you're almost there :beer:

K_and_N

Thank you both for the replies.

I think I need to push our solicitor more. He always replies emails and phone calls but I don't think he is very proactive. I suppose I'm also very anxious. I need to relax like Sonastin suggested.

Spirit, what you said about EA is true. They have lost interest in us and they don't want to hear from us anymore. I just couldn't understand why they are like that. They will get paid as soon as this sale is finalised and they don't seem to be too worry about when the sale is finalised.

bluebeary

when we had our offer accepted on our current home, it took forever to get things completed, wed sold our last place and had to stay in a hostel for about two months with all our belongings and furniture in storage, i was on the phone every day trying to get things moving, its all red tape and paper work

maybe every day is a bit obsessive but keep on at them and as someone else said, look at other properties too. your paying your solicitor to do this anyway

tristinh

I just know our purchase is going to be complicated and long winded too. We put an offer in and it took 3 weeks to get it accepted (not negotiating - to actually get an answer!). It has taken 2 weeks for the surveyor to get in. Long and short of it is he has to move as he can't afford to buy his wife out. Vendor takes every opportunity to tell us he doesn't want to move... what does he want to do, live in our spare room??

I would pop into the EA and get them to chivvy it along. Just letting them know you are viewing elsewhere might spur them into action?

spirit

K_and_N wrote: »

Thank you both for the replies.



Spirit, what you said about EA is true. They have lost interest in us and they don't want to hear from us anymore. I just couldn't understand why they are like that. They will get paid as soon as this sale is finalised and they don't seem to be too worry about when the sale is finalised.

When my sale/purchase looked a bit wobbly about 4 weeks ago I spoke to my agent, well, one of the women in the office rather than the guy who I normally dealt with; she told me that the lads in the office got over excited at doing deals yet they forget that houses are not sold til they are sold.

You are the client so don't be afraid to chase people. You are paying good money so badger away until you get the answers you need.

K_and_N

Hi All,

More than 2 weeks after I posted this, not only we haven't excahnged but also things got worse.

We have ignored the EA completely and are talking to vandor directly these days. We found it quicker than having EA in the middle. The problem we are having now could delay our purchase several weeks.

Our solicitor found out that a Power of Attorney exists for one of the vendors on the day we were supposed to exchange! That was 1 week ago and he told me yesterday that it is a Enduring Power of Attorney and it needs to be registered with Court of Protection!!! And he said that registration could take 3 -4 weeks !!!! It must be our luck.

Now we are worried that our mortgage offer could get expired before we can complete. Our mortgage offer will last until Sep but we know that our vendor would take more than 3-4 weeks to get POA registered. Has anyone experienced such issue? We just would like to know if 3-4 weeks is doable.

Thanks.

Emmzi

POA is not a thing they will have "just found out about now."

This could take forever!

Personally I'd be looking at somewhere else, this falls into the "too much fannying about" category for me. Your vendors are not motivated enough.

Grimbal

I can't comment on the PoA thing, but can you call your mortgage lender to advise them of the situation? They may grant an extension to your offer if they know

womble12345

I feel your pain, my straightforward chain free sale took ages, accepted offer on 24th feb, completed on 8th June. You hear in bandied around that the average is 9-12 weeks but I tell you that is rubbish.

Have you checked if your bank has reduced rates? if so work out if it saves you any money and get a new offer if it does, that way you save money and get an offer for longer.