Water search problems

Patsy89

Good evening all
I am a first time buyer, trying to buy a leasehold flat and about to have a nervous meltdown.
Our offer was accepted on the 25th of January and since then we managed to get the environmental search and local authority search pretty quick. Our mortgage is also approved and ready to go.
Now, the problem is that the water search provider came back saying they cannot complete a search because the property has been incorrectly set up as business and needs to be turned back into residential first etc. This has been going on for a month.We have given our notice on our rental flat and need to move out on the 3rd of May. I am starting to panic a bit. Is this likely to drag on forever? Should we be considering to drop the sale?
We are also still waiting for the managing pack.
Thanks for taking the time to read and hopefully provide some advise.

tom9980

You should not have given notice until you exchanged contracts. This might take months to fix, I suggest you ask your conveyancer for their best guess then ask your landlord if you can stay longer.

Patsy89

tom9980 said:

You should not have given notice until you exchanged contracts. This might take months to fix, I suggest you ask your conveyancer for their best guess then ask your landlord if you can stay longer.

Thanks for your answer Tom. Regarding notice we are in a bit of a dilemma. Our contract had a clause allowing us to break at 6 months (only) or on completion (1 year) 
We couldn’t really afford to be paying rent and mortgage at the same time for months on end, which is why notice was given for the 6 months period. Now this problem has come up and we are unsure on what to do next. We have been living in this flat for 7 years (rolling contracts) and been good tenants, I am hoping my landlord will be reasonable and allow us to stay a month more or so. Hopefully with the situation at the moment this will also work for his advantage and he won’t stop us staying a bit longer.

davidmcn

Your landlord won't be entitled to kick you out on 3 May, it just means that they can potentially start eviction proceedings.

What advice is your solicitor giving about the search? I'm not quite sure why the problem needs to delay the purchase, isn't changing the type of account something you can deal with after completion if you have to?

Patsy89

davidmcn said:

Your landlord won't be entitled to kick you out on 3 May, it just means that they can potentially start eviction proceedings.

What advice is your solicitor giving about the search? I'm not quite sure why the problem needs to delay the purchase, isn't changing the type of account something you can deal with after completion if you have to?

Thanks for your reply.
This is the last communication I have from my solicitors, a week ago :

”  Our search providers came back to us regarding the water account provided by the seller.  The provider, Business Stream, is a non-residential water company, so our search providers can’t carry out a residential search at this time.  We have written to the sellers’ solicitors and they advised today that their client has spoken to Business Stream and have been advised that the property has been incorrectly classified as a non residential.  It is in the process of passing back to Southern Water and the solicitors will advise us as soon as their client can ascertain when this will be done.  We will then be able to provide more information to the search provider”

I have asked for an average of how long this is likely to take but they came back saying they don’t know.
I would be worried to complete and then deal with this as I don’t know what implication this could have in the future (if at all possible) 

We are also still waiting for the managing pack, which is already 6 weeks...

All adds up to the FTB stress

davidmcn

The main point of the water search is to confirm that the property is connected to the water mains - which it obviously is. And to be honest such searches are fairly pointless in urban areas where the water patently doesn't come from a private spring or something.

I don't really see what problem there could be other than potentially being on a commercial tariff until it gets transferred to a residential one. Have you asked your solicitor what risk they're actually concerned about?

The lack of a management pack is however a better excuse for delay.

Dee_FTB

This sounds eerily familiar, I think you are my buyer. I will send you a private message

Dee_FTB

davidmcn said:

The main point of the water search is to confirm that the property is connected to the water mains - which it obviously is. And to be honest such searches are fairly pointless in urban areas where the water patently doesn't come from a private spring or something.

I don't really see what problem there could be other than potentially being on a commercial tariff until it gets transferred to a residential one. Have you asked your solicitor what risk they're actually concerned about?

The lack of a management pack is however a better excuse for delay.

The only difference is the commercial rate, the difference will be refunded when the property gets registered as residential.

Patsy89

Thanks for your answers everyone.
It looks like I’ve found my seller which should speed everything up  

Dee_FTB

Patsy89 said:

Thanks for your answers everyone.
It looks like I’ve found my seller which should speed everything up  

I sent you a message 

hazyjo

Small world lol. Hope you all get it sorted!