Mainstay managing company

remembermee

We are in the process of moving.... the house we are buying is leasehold and our solicitor requested the management pack on the 22nd July.
Nothing has arrived.

The vendor's solicitor is chasing them twice a day... Their excuse is that they have a back log.

Any one any experience of how long it takes? As it stands we are having to move out next week so that we don't lose our buyers and so we need this final bit on our purchase to complete.
ugh:(

Propertyauthor

OK, this isn't an ideal situation and you want to make sure not only that you get the pack requested, but that the freeholder/management company won't be this rubbish while looking after your property and fixing problems.

Make sure your legal company checks thoroughly for lease length and any extensions required/costs (properties can fall in value if under an 80 years lease). Also find out if their is a major works fund and/or what work is going to be carried out and has been in the past.

What you want to make sure is they fix problems quickly, cost effectively and update the property at a reasonable price, giving you plenty of notice and ideally involving leaseholders in the decision making process.

I would give them a deadline and if required, sorry to say, but look out for another property, just in case.

remembermee

Thanks for your reply Propertyauthor.
We weren't keen on a leasehold house but I know that compromises are always needed when buying a house.

There are 117 years left on the lease and having read the lease through (and also the solicitor having gone through it etc) it would seem that what we pay the management company is merely rent. They do not pay for repairs or anything like that and there are no communal areas. We aim to buy the freehold as soon as we can.
We have the lease but not the management pack which includes the vendors transactions (so we know they are not in arrears).
Who do we give the deadline to - the vendor's estate agent or the solicitor?

remembermee

Also, we can actually give a deadline as we early birded a new build further down the estate but we'd rather follow through with this purchase (especially as we are so close to the end!). BUT the builders will be contacting us in the middle of September to get us to put a deposit down. The risk is that we could end up losing both houses! So giving them a deadline would atleast mean we wouldn't lose both ... but it would mean a long wait before we get our house