Enquiries from HA - help please!

stressed_FTB

Long time lurker, first time poster here. You people seem really knowledgeable and helpful, and I'm just after some advice. We are FTBs, had our offer accepted end of november, no chain, everything now in place except for a few enquiries - they have been taking ages! The seller's solicitor seems quite slow, and the last update from the EA was that the enquiries outstanding were about the insurance (it's leasehold ex Housing Assoc flat) and the maintenence charge, and then we are ready to go! We are really excited at the prospect of finally moving, but nobody will give us a date, I am getting really stressed as we have to move out of our rented flat 2nd week of Feb. We thought it would all be done by now.
Anyone got any experience of these types of enquiries, Housing Assocs, and how long the enquiries are likely to take. These are not the basic enquiries, they're additional ones, everything else, searches, mortgage offer etc, are all done and in place, it's just these enquiries. Hope someone can give me an idea, I'm getting so stressed out with it all
Thanks in advance xxx

UK007BullDog

Housing Associations and Councils are notoriously very slow.

You might have to call them to get things moving yourself or ask the seller to get them to move quicker.

stressed_FTB

Thanks for that - I was unsure if I was going to be able to ring them, ie if they would discuss with me. I guess Monday's step is to get the EA to find out who at the HA the seller sent it to and get on with chasing them. If they charge for the info is it the seller or buyer who has to pay? They have already provided some info but guess sols need more clarification. What do you think is the sort of time scale I can expect as it is only those 2 questions I wrote above?

UK007BullDog

It really depends on the council. Here where I am in London some councils take 4 weeks and others can take up to 4 months (dealing with RTB).

lynzpower

Do you know what the questions actually are?

This is the first point you need to be clear on.

then I would do everything in my power to get the job done myself. Stuff 0protocol and just get on the phone. You can follow the highs and ( predominantly) lows of selling shared ownership in the "race to be in for winter" thread

I just fathomed it out and got on the phone and knocked heads together.

Dont let your case sit in some in tray ( yes Ive worked for local government and I know how slow it can be!)

Richard_Webster

As a Conveyancing Solicitor (http://www.rwco.co.uk) I have found that Housing Associations are much worse than Councils. The problem is that very often they are smaller.

Their admin is set up to deal with things like collecting rents from tenants and they often don't understand how to manage a block of flats or get it all mixed up.

I had one case where a client was buying an ex Housing Association House and there was a small service charge to cover items like maintenance of a shared brick paved parking area and a few planted areas. I asked for a breakdown of these charges and was it hell trying to get the info out of them! We eventually got a breakdown, which was obviously related to a nearby block of flats rather than these houses because there was an item for lift maintenance!

All you can do is get the agents to kick the seller to kick the HA to answer them - maybe try and find the HA's website if they have one and make complaints direct to their Committee members.