The NEW waiting to exchange thread...

Golden_Glow90

mpa91 said:

mpa91 said:

Mkk298 said:

So after previously being told (by our solicitor) that we could complete any day after the 8th (today), we are now being told by the estate agent that the top of the chain is still waiting on a leasehold management pack and are hoping to complete next Friday or the Friday after. 

Heard horror stories about how long it takes to get the management packs so once again feeling quite deflated. 

Obtaining a Management Pack for the sale of our flat is becoming the bane of my life. Having previously posted on here about my frustrations with my solicitor's, this is the current timeline specifically relating to the Management Pack: 

- 06/04: Memorandum of Sale issued
- 16/05: Pack Request Form received from solicitor and completed same day, together with payment for level of service that aims to provide the Pack in 5 working days. Big frustration for me is why it took over a month for my solicitor to get the ball rolling on this. 
- 19/05: Form and payment received by Management Company (MC). Unnecessary 3 day delay.
- 25/05: MC advised Pack was ready to issue however required Housing Association (HA) written consent (as the freeholder), which they advised they told my solicitor when sharing the Pack Request Form on 14/05. NB. I only became aware of any of this on Wednesday (8 June). 
- 26/05: MC received confirmation from my solicitor that I own 100% of the flat, having previously staircased from shared ownership. MC advised this is not what they had on record.
- 30/05: My solicitor chased for the Pack
- 01/06: MC advised solicitor that because the HA, and not me, was named on the account then their permission was still required. 
- 01/06: Being unaware of all of the above, and having only been told by my solicitor that the Pack remained outstanding, I raised a complaint with the MC and requested a refund of the difference between the level of service I paid for compared to the standard service. 
- 07/06: Having also raised a query on Twitter with the MC, I was advised of the outstanding HA authority. I then contacted the HA directly and was able to be put through to the correct person who advised no such authority was required. I provided the HA contact with the details of my solicitor and they called my solicitor to confirm the same. 
- 08/06: Followed up with solicitor to confirm if everything was now resolved. Solicitor advised that a Sale Pack was also outstanding from HA (never mentioned this before). I followed up with HA contact who confirmed this was not required as  per their conversation with my solicitor the day before, and asked for any queries to be directed to them. 
- 08/06: Formal response to MC complaint received, confirming refund requested. The response detailed a lot of the above that I was until then unaware, and advised that they were waiting on a response from HA to release the Pack. I provided the details of the HA contact I had to avoid any further delays. 

As of this morning, I am still to receive confirmation that the Pack has been shared. Apologies for the long post - am I being unreasonable in being thoroughly dissatisfied with the level of service being provided, primarily by my solicitor? 

The saga continues for us. MC finally provided management pack on 14/06, however there was some information outstanding that needs to be provided by the HA. As of today this remains outstanding. 

Our buyer's solicitor has suggested we take out an indemnity policy for our buyers. This was shared with us by our solicitors without any explanation as to why this is required. We are selling a 7yr old flat and have been the only owners so I'm a bit baffled. Plus the fact our solicitors are asking for an arrangement fee of £70 on top of the £100 policy. I realise the policy will probably help speed things up but resent having to pay if it's due to issues that could be easily resolved if people communicated in a clear and timely manner. 

Sounds almost identical to our situation, albeit a few days behind.  Management pack should arrive at some point next week but worrying that there are other things that have been missed which will slow us down again. I have no idea about indemnity policies though, how does that work?  Does it mean you can exchange without the management [ack and any enquiries arising from that?

mpa91

Megaross said:

You do have to factor in risk and cost of the alternative path when it comes to indemnity insurance.

If £170 gets you in the position to complete and secures the buyer, it may well be worthwhile.

Depends if you think your buyer will wait around for the housing association or how long you think they'll take. 

I'm inclined to agree with your perspective. The wife less so on the principle that this is likely due to less than great service from conveyancers/MC/HA. But for me it just isn't worth our sale collapsing for the sake of £170, particularly given the horror stories some people have (fingers crossed for you!). 

Need to speak to the conveyancer and find out what the reason for the policy is. Needless to say their email didn't explain this, I never received a follow-up call as I requested and 7 calls of mine went unanswered. Here's to another day trying!

mpa91

Golden_Glow90 said:

mpa91 said:

The saga continues for us. MC finally provided management pack on 14/06, however there was some information outstanding that needs to be provided by the HA. As of today this remains outstanding. 

Our buyer's solicitor has suggested we take out an indemnity policy for our buyers. This was shared with us by our solicitors without any explanation as to why this is required. We are selling a 7yr old flat and have been the only owners so I'm a bit baffled. Plus the fact our solicitors are asking for an arrangement fee of £70 on top of the £100 policy. I realise the policy will probably help speed things up but resent having to pay if it's due to issues that could be easily resolved if people communicated in a clear and timely manner. 

Sounds almost identical to our situation, albeit a few days behind.  Management pack should arrive at some point next week but worrying that there are other things that have been missed which will slow us down again. I have no idea about indemnity policies though, how does that work?  Does it mean you can exchange without the management [ack and any enquiries arising from that?

Fingers crossed for you! From my reading yesterday that's my understanding to a point, although I think this is for items that are not necessarily provided in the mgmt pack. More to do with if evidence of compliance with building regs for the original building, any renovations, installation of boiler etc cannot be provided. 

I'm a bit miffed as, after a lot of running around, I have shared with my conveyancer the planning permissions for the building from the council website, have paid for a copy of the building regulations certificate regarding the installation of the boiler, and the NHBC warranty/certificate for the building. Arguably these should all be provided by the HA/MC but luckily I either had copies or was able to obtain myself in the hope of speeding things up. I need to speak to the conveyancer to understand exactly the reason for the policy being requested, and ensure they haven't missed anything at their end that I have already provided. 

Zerforax

nicknameless said:

Zerforax said:

Has anyone got any good tips to try and get solicitors to move a little faster?

We've got our mortgage offer so basically the main gating item is enquiries and responses. Our solicitors haven't raised yet and when I asked on timing, they just said they have lots of work on and so will get round to our enquiries when its our turn. No chain either so no reason why we couldn't try and exchange/complete relatively quickly.

Pay them more?  Not being facetious but with most it seems to be a numbers game due to the relative low cost of conveyancing work and so with the system as it is this seems largely inevitable and ubiquitous.

I tested out the responsiveness of ours prior to instructing but of course that is not necessarily representative of response once underway.  I did ask about frequency of updates and said it was fine for me to ask for them every week or so (Lol - thanks, I'm the client).

We are ready to exchange and have asked the question (even sent deposit), but now waiting on response re exchange and timings - it's a PITA isn't it?

Starting to consider this. Not sure what a reasonable amount is to propose as extra payment to get my solicitors to pull their finger out!

We've got our search results back so now the only outstanding is enquiries but our solicitors haven't started yet and refuse to give me any kind of timing on when they could do them by. Really hoping we can complete in the month of July but this delay by my solicitors is infuriating.

Mkk298

We exchanged and completed this morning but we’re still waiting for the keys 🙄

hpsauce86

Mkk298 said:

We exchanged and completed this morning but we’re still waiting for the keys 🙄

Good news! But never simple is it 😂 congratulations none the less! 

elb11

Hi everyone - just venting as I've had my mortgage offer since 1st May, no chain, seller's moved out and the only thing that's been holding us up is enquiries, which the sellers solicitor seems to be useless with (the firm seems to have a terrible reputation on here which is just great!). Obviously no comparison to some of the stories on here but I wanted to be in by July (and seller wants to be out asap) but looks like that's not happening. Whole process is very frustrating! 

Megaross

Welcome to hell, the house buying waiting room.

Hope yours goes better than mine, DC Law is it? Awful firm, had dealings with them in relation to my sale and my onwards purchase, so useless we need a stronger word to describe them.

salduck

Im trying so hard to not get impatient! 
Offer accepted 24/4 Mortgage offer through on 20th May. Solicitor has said all searches etc were complete when i spoke with them 3 weeks ago- We were awaiting the leaseholder pack. Emailed Monday for update-, chased on Thursday- Still no response! Phone call Monday i think! 

I know im only 9 weeks out but i have to hand in notice on rental property on 28th of A month and was hoping that would be june for a mid july completion! Looking more likely to be July now if things havent moved!

I did email estate agents too who said they couldnt do anything! 

Will see what Monday brings!

elb11

Megaross said:

Welcome to hell, the house buying waiting room.

Hope yours goes better than mine, DC Law is it? Awful firm, had dealings with them in relation to my sale and my onwards purchase, so useless we need a stronger word to describe them.

Premier Property Lawyers, same parent company I think? I'm on good terms with my buyer so tempted to suggest she switches solicitors - she'll probably save money considering how slow they're notorious for being!