Silly questions from buyer's solicitor

Full_of_angst

greenbee wrote: »

Good luck. I'm currently planning to never move again :-)

Me too Isn't just awful?

witchy1066

do you think I need help ?

because
I think most of the questions are quite reasonable things to ask
especially the one about the sink and draining board, if it was an especially nice one , what is to stop the seller taking it out and putting in a cheap ugly replacement , same could apply to other things like real wood good quality skirting boards , seller could take them of the wall quite easily
you would be surprised what some sellers take from the house once sold,

phoebe1989seb

When my parents went into a nursing home last year I had to sell their house and one of the questions posed by the buyers/their solicitor was 'Have you seen the plans for the next door neighbour's loft conversion?' Not only was this work almost completed by the time the buyers viewed my parents' house, but the two properties were not even adjoining so there was no Party Wall Act notice served etc. We weren't sure why we (or for that matter, my parents who were living at the property when work started) would have known anything about the loft conversion of a non-attached neighbour

OTOH, when we bought our [STRIKE]renovation project [/STRIKE] current house in 2011, we were guilty of asking whether the vendors (who had already moved out to live at her mother's nearby farm and who had completed only some of the renovations on this place) were intending to leave the new central heating boiler, as they had not filled out that part of the form

I should add that they (well, he, in particular) were very odd and not to be trusted - there were about ten beautiful old staddle stones around the property that we believed they were leaving......the property form said garden ornaments were remaining, but they actually had a man take all but two away, breaking the Georgian front step in the process, as witnessed by our neighbour!

Full_of_angst

witchy1066 wrote: »

do you think I need help ?

because
I think most of the questions are quite reasonable things to ask
especially the one about the sink and draining board, if it was an especially nice one , what is to stop the seller taking it out and putting in a cheap ugly replacement , same could apply to other things like real wood good quality skirting boards , seller could take them of the wall quite easily
you would be surprised what some sellers take from the house once sold,

But wouldn't a sink and draining board be classed as fixtures and fittings??

The home information forms we have to fill in for the contract when selling would end up like War and Peace if we had to clarify every single 'fitted' item that we were leaving or taking.

I know we've all heard the horror stories about vendors who strip the house of everything that moves down to the last light bulb, but aren't they few and far between and possibly a thing of the past? Or am I just ridiculously naïve?

I think my original post was more about asking obvious questions and/or questions that have already been answered in survey reports etc.

I'm really surprised that anyone would go to the trouble of removing the kitchen sink and replacing it with a cheaper one; but I suppose it take all sorts!

witchy1066

LOL, once bitten , makes you a little more untrusting,

taking bespoke sink and drainer or worktops and leaving cheap ones is not unusual

seller saying they have no idea about JK in there garden doesn't wash with me , its been so well documented this last few years anyone thinking of selling property would know if they had it or not , pleading ignorance doesn't wash with me

light bulbs were not my problem , they took the whole fittings, leaving nothing but bare wires , I couldn't even use the electric until I got a sparky come to make them safe , I was a young widow with 2 small children at the time ,
I am now much older and a great deal wiser

Full_of_angst

witchy1066 wrote: »

seller saying they have no idea about JK in there garden doesn't wash with me , its been so well documented this last few years anyone thinking of selling property would know if they had it or not , pleading ignorance doesn't wash with me

Now this is I do understand. I have a VERY small garden; also, it's easy to google image JK and find out what it looks like. I would say with certainty that my garden does not have this; nor does the front. I have a courtyard garden mostly paved, with one flower border, and the front of the house has a flower border; very, very easy to check for JK as there is literally no where for it to hide.

ValHaller

492800 wrote: »

Possibly not. You'll probably find that a lot of Solicitors are on a flat fee for conveyancing, so a letter wont cost most people anything extra at all.

But then, most conveyancers like that would work quite hard not to send the questions in the first place.

Full_of_angst

Well if I was in any doubt over whether I was just being irritable or not when I opened this thread, I no longer am. My buyer's solicitor is without doubt officially rubbish. After they told my solicitor on the phone that there are no further queries and all responses to previous queries had been received, my solicitor received by snail mail a letter they wrote on Monday. 2 new questions which were fair enough, but one repeated questions which has already been answered twice with supporting paper work. Also, the letter was not just full of typing errors but the grammar was atrocious. They did not follow the existing numbering system either, these were questions 1,2 and 3 and should have been questions 15,16 and 17 if they were sticking with their original numbering system.

Oh, and they are avoiding answering the question 'Has your client received their mortgage offer yet?' which my EA and my solicitor have asked them today. We're supposed to be completing on the 12 August (at the buyer's request). Trying not to be irritated but I'm actually feeling annoyed now and starting to snap at people (something I never normally do). I have put pressure on my vendor to complete on 12 August so everyone has been scurrying around to accommodate my buyers request, and as usual it's their solicitor holding everything up. I wonder what inanities they will bombard me with tomorrow. (they can ask me anything as long as they also tell me they have their mortgage offer)!!!!

ETA - I don't care if they write it in Japanese, a long a they just flippin' well get a move on!!!

Snods

I sympathise. We exchanged on Monday following weeks of frustrating questions. The favourite was "was the garage built at the same time as the house". We don't have a garage!?!