title deed delay

furrylamp

I'm just after your thoughts on our house purchase:
March 23rd we had an offer accepted on a house we want to buy, we are FTB. The vendor is selling the house due to a divorce, and has already moved out, so there is no chain. We also actually have a mutual friend with the vendor. Our mortgage was approved, house buyer report came back, all ok. We had been calling the EA and our solicitor weekly and they keep saying they are waiting on contracts. After about a month they told us that the title deeds were in joint names which had delayed it, but that was now sorted.
Anyway, one month on and they still say they are waiting for contracts from the vendors solicitor. We are getting quite stressed with the waiting as it doesn't seem like anything is happening. We have been told by our mutual friend (who is trying to stay out of it), that the vendor wants to sell quickly and does want to sell it to us. What should we do? Start looking for a new house and lose the fees and things we have paid already? Out of 20 odd houses, this is the one we fell in love with, but cant wait forever. We don't really want to say "we need to complete by xx or we will pull out", as we don't want to pull out. Our solicitor seems hopeless, with one line email replies, but the EA actually is telling us things and replying quickly. They have now said this week, they don't know if the title deeds have been sorted out! Help!!

ValHaller

furrylamp wrote: »

I'm just after your thoughts on our house purchase:
March 23rd we had an offer accepted on a house we want to buy, we are FTB. The vendor is selling the house due to a divorce, and has already moved out, so there is no chain. We also actually have a mutual friend with the vendor. Our mortgage was approved, house buyer report came back, all ok. We had been calling the EA and our solicitor weekly and they keep saying they are waiting on contracts. After about a month they told us that the title deeds were in joint names which had delayed it, but that was now sorted.
Anyway, one month on and they still say they are waiting for contracts from the vendors solicitor. We are getting quite stressed with the waiting as it doesn't seem like anything is happening. We have been told by our mutual friend (who is trying to stay out of it), that the vendor wants to sell quickly and does want to sell it to us. What should we do? Start looking for a new house and lose the fees and things we have paid already? Out of 20 odd houses, this is the one we fell in love with, but cant wait forever. We don't really want to say "we need to complete by xx or we will pull out", as we don't want to pull out. Our solicitor seems hopeless, with one line email replies, but the EA actually is telling us things and replying quickly. They have now said this week, they don't know if the title deeds have been sorted out! Help!!

'The vendor' is everyone on the title deeds. As they are divorcing, do expect one or other to be motivated to sell and accept that the less motivated one will definitely put their needs before yours.

G_M

Yup. The 'vendor' is two people.

One may want to sell quickly, the other may be refusing to sign till the share of the proceeds has been agreed/re-negotiated.....

Could take monthsfor the divorce settlement to be finalised, and the property is part of that.

Start looking elsewhere and set a time limit. If things startmoving, fine, but if not, you've got Plan B in action....

furrylamp

Well finally today the EA has spoken to the vendor and told us that the title deeds are what is holding it up (9 weeks now), I have checked online and they are in the joint names (dated 25/4/13). Assuming that the divorcees are amicable, how long would the deeds take to update with the land registry? Obviously if the ex husband is being awkward I assume it could take months, but assuming he is amicable?

geoffky

You are being impatient...Have a search on here at average times for completion...

ValHaller

furrylamp wrote: »

Well finally today the EA has spoken to the vendor and told us that the title deeds are what is holding it up (9 weeks now), I have checked online and they are in the joint names (dated 25/4/13). Assuming that the divorcees are amicable, how long would the deeds take to update with the land registry? Obviously if the ex husband is being awkward I assume it could take months, but assuming he is amicable?

If the vendors were amicable, there would be no need to update anything at the Land Registry, there would be no need to raise the issue of Title Deeds and who was on it, the XH would just be a good boy, sign the contract and the transfer forms and the sale would b proceeding normally.

Your assumption is running counter to the evidence on the ground. Purchases from divorcing couples are generally difficult because 1 party or the other will use the sale as an opportunity to take a last pop at the other. This is generally known, so I am not surprised that the partner who is taking the lead in selling you the house is trying to represent everything as being amicable.