Buying a house - so far taken coming up to 4 months

Sponge_Cake

So as the title suggests, this is currently the situation. It's so frustrating as the property we want to move into is vacant and was an ex rental property.
We rent and are FTB so no house to sell.

I'm currently awaiting the solicitors to read through the replies to enquiries sent to the seller's solicitor two weeks ago.
Our solicitors are supposed to be reviewing them and then getting back to us which I hoped would be the exchange of contracts stage.
I sent an email to my solicitor asking what the hold up was and I got a rather snotty email back which I wasn't very impressed by. Basically telling me they'll review any 'mail' they have received within 48 hours and practically telling me to leave them alone.

I'm not sure what to do now.

Thrugelmir

Frustrating as it may seem wait patiently. Telling someone else how to do their job isn't advisable. Unless you are fully conversant not only with the process but the full facts.

foxy-stoat

You can speak to the Estate Agent to ask the vendor to ask their solicitor if there are any holdups their end.

My sale was being held up by both solicitors writing to each other (which took over a week) about a pointless/worthless indemnity policy that they wanted me to buy for like £25 over some irrelevant point - after chasing my solicitors I said I would of just paid the £25 to save a weeks worth of pointless waiting.

Good luck - you will get there.

KL0001

Im not really sure what your question is, but as a bit of support, house buying is frustrating. We had offers accepted at the end of March/beginning of May for our sale/purchase and the whole system seems to be vague and difficult. I email our solicitors weekly if I have t heard from them that week just generally asking for an update and they seem polite enough responding even if its just to say there isn’t anything to report. I also find the estate agents useful when it comes to getting information and generally pushing people along, so you could always ask the estate agent to give the solicitor a nudge.

julicorn

We were first time buyers, the flat we were buying was vacant, and it still took over 6 months in total. Some transactions take a while (it was totally worth it in the end).

SG27

Do you know the replies to enquiries have been recieved? Maybe they are waiting for some to come back? I see no reason why your solicitor can't explain the situation. Either soery we are waiting on so and so. Or yes all recieved will we review soon. Sounds like bad customer service to me.

enthusiasticsaver

Frustrating as it is you are unfortunately at the mercy of solicitors and they can be painfully slow. Enquiries seem to be constantly sent to and from solicitors and they take days if not weeks to look at them. It usually does take months unless everyone in the chain wants to move quickly. Presumably as the house you are buying is vacant the seller is not in a massive hurry. Estate agents can sometimes put pressure on solicitors but from my experience they don't rush. To them it is just shuffling paperwork.

amnblog

You have received a standard email of the type they send out several times a day.

Presumably you have a contact at the Solicitors.

Call them, speak to them, explain your frustrations and ask them to explain why everything is taking so long.

Sienna1990

It's been 3 months for us now and we are at the enquiries stage. We've paid our 10% deposit to the solicitor, signed everything etc. There is an enquiry over the conservatory in the house we are buying. There is a radiator in there but the sellers don't have building regulations for it so our solicitor has said for them to get indemnity insurance which they are not willing to pay for and said it should be us paying for it. So at the moment the solicitors are going back and forth to each other arguing the case. Frustrating

Sponge_Cake

Thanks for all your replies. I've just heard from our solicitor.
Unfortunately the seller's solicitor hasn't answered all the enquiries to a satisfactory standard and some parts haven't been answered at all !!!55357;!!!56852; massively disappointing.
I'm very aware that our mortgage agreement runs out at the end of August. What happens if things haven't moved forward by then? Can we get an extension. I know that's three months away but I'm covering every possible issue here.

Sponge_Cake

I don't really understand why or how they haven't answered three of the enquiries. The estate agent actually said they were very straightforward enquiries.