What MUST be in contract before exchange - advice please!

nightsong

Would appreciate advice from anyone with appropriate knowledge here -

My son is buying his first property, which is a cheap maisonette (very long lease) over a shop. No mortgage (bank of mum and dad, to be repaid). The correspondence between the solicitors has been going on for over four months. The vendor's solicitor is doing a lousy job, has failed to fill in the Property Information questions adequately, is very slow etc etc. However I feel my son's solicitor is not blameless either as they are insisting on ultra-detailed responses on peripheral issues, e.g. they keep asking if there is a guarantee on a replacement window (who cares?).

The latest is that our son's solicitor is proposing to go over every single question they have asked and prepare a detailed report for my son. Apparently this will take over a day and cost several hundred (more) pounds. He has asked if they can't do a pared down version that covers the basic questions that MUST be satisfied for exchange of contracts to take place but evidently they don't do things like that (!).

So to try and short-circuit this process we want to present them with what we consider the essential questions that need to be answered for an adequate contract. We can look at all the correspondence that's been sent so far and pick out the obvious non-essentials, e.g. the blooming windows. Would appreciate any advice people can offer here. Thanks!

LEJC

I understand your frustration...but in my mind the devil is in the detail.

When buying a property you need that detail correct so I would be thankful that your son's solicitor is being diligent.

....better to pay a few hundred now rather than thousands later for something that was missed......

MyOnlyPost

Before you go any further you need to consider (if you haven't already) what happens when your son wants to move on? Whilst he may not need a mortgage to buy, most people do and maisonettes/flats over shops are notorioulsy difficult to get mortgages for.

The last thing you want is to buy a property with limited resale potential

ThePants999

Incidentally, there's a bit of a vicious circle there, because the limited resale potential is the REASON why they're hard to get mortgages for, which of course makes the resale potential even more limited :-)

gingercordial

Even if you (as the lender here) don't care about the answers to the detailed questions, if/when your son comes to sell his buyer may well be trying to buy with a mortgage (notwithstanding it's harder for flats over shops) and that buyer's solicitor and mortgage lender may well care about the answers. Better to have them on file now than not be able to satisfy a buyer down the line.

eddddy

nightsong wrote: »

He has asked if they can't do a pared down version that covers the basic questions that MUST be satisfied for exchange of contracts to take place but evidently they don't do things like that (!).

There are no questions at all that MUST be answered before exchange of contracts.

If you / your son are happy to take the risk, you can instruct your solicitor to exchange contracts immediately (assuming the seller is happy to do so).

Or, you can just ask your solicitor for copies of all pre-contract enquiries and any answers received - and judge for yourself how safe it is to exchange contracts.

But if the seller is refusing to answer questions, that would ring alarm bells for me. What is the seller trying to hide?

nightsong wrote: »

The vendor's solicitor is doing a lousy job, has failed to fill in the Property Information questions adequately

It's the seller, not the solicitor, that fills in that form. Once again, why has the seller done that? Are they trying to hide something?

AnotherJoe

eddddy wrote: »

It's the seller, not the solicitor, that fills in that form. Once again, why has the seller done that? Are they trying to hide something?

They may be struggling with idiotic questions about FENSA certificates

G_M

and I have to ask....

this will take over a day and cost several hundred (more) pounds.

why on earth has he not agreed a fixed fee for the conveyancing?

But as edddy says, the contract needs to name the buyer, and seller, and property address/title, and price.

Everything else is 'optional', though it's added for good reasons.

3mph

I would second Gingercordial's comment, anything that isn't answered now is going to be that much harder to do next time. So it really is a good idea to have patience, getting everything done properly, THEN make copies, organise these and then make two files which have everything. You and your son each keep one so when you come to sell hopefully one of you still has a file. What it costs you now you will save later.

EDIT and vice versa

nightsong

Many thanks all. It is interesting to know that there is basically no minimum information required to exchange contracts.

The property may not be mortgageable due to being over a shop (there has also been a fire in the past) and this is reflected in the price, it has previously been a rental property and I imagine could well be one again. The survey was fine. Yes we understand that this limits resale and are not bothered about it.

My concern is that they will lose a perfectly good property because their solicitor is being so nitpicky.While I know the vendor's solicitor is doing a poor job, I also know that the vendor is close to pulling out due to frustration, and that he could easily now market the property again and sell it for a good £10 - 15k more than we are paying - prices are rising strongly in this area and getting away from my son's price range.

As to why he hasn't got a fixed price deal - the answer is that we were stupid enough to use a highly reputable but expensive solicitor, who to be fair have been very good previously in other areas, thinking we would get a superior service. Lesson learned! But it is really not about the money, it is about not losing the sale.

I don't think the vendor is hiding anything - I think he is thick and has a terrible solicitor. But of course, who knows?

Anyway thanks again and any further comments appreciated.

steampowered

Could you just ask for a copy of the responses to pre-contract queries and read them yourself, and instruct your solicitor not to bother with reporting on them?

I do not think it is a good idea to present your solicitor with a list of "essentials". The solicitor would need to review this list, and would probably have a professional duty to advise you on things you have missed. This will lengthen the process rather than shorten it.

If they do prepare a report, and even if you don't care about the windows, I can't see that the solicitor mentioning the windows in the report should delay the report. The report would just say there is no guarantee on the windows and that would be the end of it.