Offer accepted in July still no home!

livben57

I'm looking for some advice. In July after viewing many apartments in Manchester I finally found one I loved. We put an offer in the middle of July which was accepted, the mortgage was approved and we were recommended a solicitor by the estate agent to deal with the paper work.
It is now past the middle of October and still no flat. We think the main problem is the vendors solicitor, we've been told they've hired new staff who seem to 'not be coping with the work load'
The solicitor recommended to us was positive I'd be moved in by the 22nd of September, then went on holiday as well as our estate agent and conveniently also the vendors solicitor.

The problem is paperwork, the vendors solicitors aren't sending the correct paper work or any paper work at all. We even asked if we would be able to rent the apartment from the vendor while the exchange of paper work is going on, which we were told could be an option and have heard nothing since. Our solicitor said a sale should be completed six weeks after paper work has been received, still no paper work so god knows how much longer this will go on for.

We have phoned and emailed both estate agent and solicitor countless times to be told the paper work has arrived then to be told it hasn't or isn't valid. Being told one thing from the estate agent then something different from the solicitor.

Because I live two hours away commuting is not an option. So unfortunately I have had to fork out £1,700 to stay in an apart hotel until the end of the month along with £70 on a months parking, which is not something you want to be doing when you're soon to be paying a mortgage.
Still nothing is happening so it looks like I will have to pay even more money to stay longer. We've been very patient up until recently that we threatened to pull out of the sale and still nothing.

My question is, is there anything I can do to speed this up? I know who the vendors solicitors are (they're close by) would it be inappropriate to pay them a visit? Why is this taking so long? I've pretty much given up contacting both estate agent and solicitor as I am just so fed up, should I be putting more pressure on them to hurry things along? Help.

Pete9501

Give them a deadline or you are off. Make it realistic though so that starting next week they can achieve it.

Pete

dj1471

What paperwork hasn't been sent? You imply that no paperwork has been received at all?

If your solicitor has not received the draft contract after all this time the vendor does not want to sell and you are wasting your time. You can try giving a deadline but it doesn't sound like that'll work. You can't talk to or visit the vendors solicitor.

Start looking for another property.

jamie11

I bet CW is involved here.

Yorkie1

livben57 wrote: »

I'm looking for some advice. In July after viewing many apartments in Manchester I finally found one I loved. We put an offer in the middle of July which was accepted, the mortgage was approved and we were recommended a solicitor by the estate agent to deal with the paper work.
It is now past the middle of October and still no flat. We think the main problem is the vendors solicitor, we've been told they've hired new staff who seem to 'not be coping with the work load'
The solicitor recommended to us was positive I'd be moved in by the 22nd of September, then went on holiday as well as our estate agent and conveniently also the vendors solicitor.

The problem is paperwork, the vendors solicitors aren't sending the correct paper work or any paper work at all. We even asked if we would be able to rent the apartment from the vendor while the exchange of paper work is going on, which we were told could be an option and have heard nothing since. Our solicitor said a sale should be completed six weeks after paper work has been received, still no paper work so god knows how much longer this will go on for.

We have phoned and emailed both estate agent and solicitor countless times to be told the paper work has arrived then to be told it hasn't or isn't valid. Being told one thing from the estate agent then something different from the solicitor.

...

My question is, is there anything I can do to speed this up? I know who the vendors solicitors are (they're close by) would it be inappropriate to pay them a visit? Why is this taking so long? I've pretty much given up contacting both estate agent and solicitor as I am just so fed up, should I be putting more pressure on them to hurry things along? Help.

1. A solicitor who says that you will have completed a purchase of a leasehold flat within 8-ish weeks after offer, is frankly telling you what you'd like to hear. The average time to completion is about 12 weeks in England/Wales, I believe, and leasehold flats are often more complicated because of the need for the seller's solicitor to obtain additional documents from the freeholder (assuming it's not a new build).

2. Renting the flat pre-purchase is not usually an option, despite what you've been told. Once the seller has accepted rent from you, an AST is created in which you have security of tenure for 6 months and cannot be evicted before then unless you've breached the clauses of the tenancy significantly. It's a really bad idea for the seller to let you rent it.

3. The EA won't be sighted on the details of the paperwork - it is not their job to be involved in those details, and if the solicitor is discussing the details of your transaction with the EA then that's professional malpractice. Go with what your solicitor is saying.

4. Do not bother trying to speak to the seller's solicitor. They are professionally not allowed to talk to you because you have your own solicitor.

enthusiasticsaver

We are selling a leasehold flat at the moment and it has been 10 weeks since we accepted an offer and we are just about at the stage of being able to exchange in the next week or so which I think is about average even for a short chain. It does take a while and solicitors do not seem to move quickly. It is your solicitor you should be chasing, pin them down on exactly what paperwork they are waiting for or is there some other reason the vendor is not pushing the sale. Our problems have been with our property management company so maybe this is something to check out. Is it the contract or queries to do with the lease etc etc? There are loads of forms the vendor would have had to fill in with details of the lease, fixtures and fittings etc (30 pages worth we had to fill out!) so maybe there was a delay on that. Presumably the flat is empty or you would not be suggesting renting it although I would have to say if I was in the vendors' position I would not consider renting it out to you pre purchase. My advice would be to persist in chasing your solicitor to hurry the purchase along. The vendor's solicitor will tell you nothing but they will have to speak to your solicitor. Failing that maybe approach the vendor directly. They may also be fed up with waiting and if the solicitors are being chased from both parties there may be some progress made.

SG27

It took us four months for a fairly simple purchase. Find out what paperwork is needed and keep chasing them up. It's not out of the ordinary to take that long.

martin.cat

You need to have a frank discussion withh your solicitor
Find out what's been done and what needs to be done
If no contract has been recieved this could be a problem with the deeds
Never bought a flat but for houses you can check title and get plan from Land Registry online.
Once you solicitor has contract they will ask questions and send searches off. The searches especially local authority search can take 6 weeks
So for me get your solicitor to spell out timeline especially the critical items that will hold things up
If the vendors solicitor is being slow get your solicitor to chase. The EA will chase to and don't forget they are waiting for there commission so don't be afraid of talking to them.

In short you are still probably looking at 4 to 8 weeks but this could be longer if there are issues that need answers

TheMoist

I have just completed on my house, offered in April, so I don't think you have been waiting avery long time.
Our Solicitor reckons out buy / sale was quite straightforward, hate to think how long a complicated one takes!!

BeansOnToast_2

9.5 weeks from offer to completion. We also had to simultaneously sell not one but two houses. We think we were very fortunate with how smoothly everything went.

My partner's a great believer in fate and says it was "meant to be" !

smileypigface

We accepted an offer on our house on 30 June and completed on 15 August. So just under 7 weeks from start to finish.


Personally I think half the battle is understanding the process (our solicitor helpfully gave us a flow chart of who does what and in what sequence) - so you know who needs chasing, if at all.


We knew we wanted it to turn around as quickly as possible so prior to even marketing I'd spoken to the Solicitor and started to put together the pack of documents that he would need.


Obviously in our case our purchaser must have had an equally proactive and efficient solicitor; and luck on our side as it was a relatively straightforward purchase.




However, a few years ago I pulled out of a purchase after several months of inactivity and shambolic seller's solicitor (they were dealing with my seller's onward purchase and managed to mix up all the paperwork and send the wrong stuff to the wrong people .. that was just the tip of the iceberg). My seller then changed their mind about what to buy, pulled out of their purchase and went for a new build and didn't want to tell us that the result would be a vastly delayed completion date - so they just went off the radar and refused any communication.


So I set a realistic deadline, sent it to the seller direct, the estate agent and the seller's solicitor; and sadly had to pull out - even then, their solicitor rang mine a fortnight later to query a piece of paperwork regarding the purchase and then seemed surprised to hear that it was all off! It was a total nightmare and ended up costing me a lot more than anticipated in rental at my new work location - they lost out in the end too, because they eventually sold for a lot less than the price I had agreed with them.