Solicitor journey when buying 1st House

FtbDreaming

I am buying my house for £82,000 with £9,000 discount (£73,000) and £3,300 deposit so require a mortgage of £69,700. I have the mortgage approved via a broker and now the solicitor has just emailed me saying the figures don't add up. They've plucked up a purchase price of £85,300 from nowhere. I went through a broker and they do add up! I am paying £1,035 for the solicitor for a very low value house in the grand scheme of things and they have not communicated at all and when they do they look thick! 

I am so stressed now. They're saying I need to go back to Halifax and change my mortgage but I cant see anything wrong. Just forwarded their email to the broker. Hope they can resolve it. 

akorn77

How much is your deposit %? Assuming Help to Buy, a 5% deposit would be £3,650, so your current deposit of £3,300 (4.5%) is less than the required 5%. Or is it not a Help to Buy? 

JGB1955

Why get stressed?  It may well get worse as you go along. Just point out, without getting cross, that the purchase price is £73K. deposit £3.3K, mortgage £69.7K.... sorted!

FtbDreaming

Its a right to acquire not help to buy. £9,000 is the maximum discount that I can have which i have got. Halifax valued the property at £80,000 and Im paying £3,300 deposit too making the mortgage around about 87% ltv. 

@JGB1955 haha i did reply to the solicitor politely explaining! Just venting on here. I think its between night shift grumpiness too. 

On the bright side at least now I finally know they have received stuff from the HA solicitors so its going in some direction! 

Smodlet

Just want to wish you luck, FtbDreaming.  It sounds as if the dream may become reality before too long. 

fred246

When you employ a solicitor to do house conveyancing they often don't do it themselves but employ a lower paid worker to do it for them while they do important things like phoning people up and telling them they've had an accident they need to claim for.

FtbDreaming

Thanks @Smodlet thats nice of you to say! 

I certainly hope not @fred246

MovingForwards

@FtbDreaming
Mine are just as useless, I sent a stroppy email to them today!

No, the solicitor will have a team of trainee solicitors, CILEx, paralegals plus trainees of them and assistants all with their own caseloads and all being supervised by the head of department. What tends to happend is they are piled high with cases and all the clients are wanting their sale / purchase to be the only one that is dealt with, not expecting there to be 90+ cases (for lesser experienced) and about 200 for those with experience.

The ambulance chasers are just call centre kids, not solicitors. solicitors certainly don't do that as a side gig to make money. 

Most litigation solicitors also have a team, they will also focus on contract and dispute work.

(Some members just like to cause panic and post poo to stir)

FtbDreaming

Your interpretation sounds more like what I was expecting @MovingForwards i think the most frustrating part is the lack of communication at all. 

I read other threads and they know where searches are up to and seller sol said this etc.:. Ive had literally nothing. Todays email started with thanking me for the £400 for the searches which i paid 2 weeks ago. It took 2 weeks to acknowledge the money 

CrazySexyCool

From the figures that you quoted, I think that the solicitor (or trainee, whoever) has added your deposit to the house value.
Simple error for someone who is inexperienced.
Maybe you should send an email, explaining the figures and how you reached the amount needed for the mortgage.

henry24

Solicitor's do seem to drag things out to make it look as though they are earning their money, my friend rung his solicitor up on Monday to see how his purchase was coming along to be told they are waiting for an answer to some questions from the sellers solicitor turned out they have been waiting 2 weeks and nobody's thought to follow it up. He made a phone call and answers came same day.