Are solicitors delaying because of COVID19 or because of another reason?

jumperabv3

Sncjw said:

You do realise they have other work too, if they are a solicitor. They have cases and meetings before this lockdown and also cases that are non house elated too 

Yup, that's why I like asking questions first, I see no harm in asking before taking any action, you guys were very helpful. Thank you.

AdrianC

jumperabv3 said:

After lots of thoughts I'd like to proceed, the current owners/sellers have agreed to pay rent on the property after completion until they move out.

Woah! You know that takes you into regulated territory? Sale-and-Rent-Back.

From my end I'm ready as a cash buyer (well, remortgaged my 1st BTL but still I'm the one paying the cash for the property) - from their end I understood they are ready too

What do you mean by "ready"?

...so the only thing left is for the solicitors to exchange/complete (we agreed exchange+completion would be done same day).

The last update I had from my solicitor was exactly a week ago (02 April) where she told me:

We are still at the very beginning stages of the transaction.

I am awaiting replies from the seller’s solicitor

So you aren't ready. What queries are outstanding?

but this may take a week or so for them to come back to me on – possibly longer in the current climate.

I've asked if it's because of the COVID19 issue (which then would be reasonable), and she said:

No; it usually takes a week or so as it takes time for them to review and respond to enquiries but they also may have urgent matters that crop up here or there which will take priority – that is the same for us and the majority of firms. At the moment, it is still business as usual for us but it may slow down in the coming weeks. We still have completions and exchanges going through.

So basically she told me the delay has nothing to do with COVID19... now if there are both buyers and sellers who are happy to proceed then is it normal for solicitors to treat this with no priority?

Sounds like you're reading far too much into it.
Your solicitor has told you there are still outstanding queries. They normally take a week, but may take longer. Surely this isn't coming as a surprise?
You're turning that into some kind of rampant conspiracy theory.

Your solicitor says you aren't ready to exchange. They are waiting on the vendor's solicitor. So what is still outstanding?

jumperabv3 said:
Just to let you know they've been working a month on this, not just 1 week, but I assume it's still more or less the same, correct?

A month? Is that all? No wonder you aren't ready to exchange yet...

[Deleted User]

What ever the solicitor says “business as normal” its not necessarily the case for everyone else. She also caveats that by saying things may slow up. This is unprecedented times so no one on here can give you anything than a best guess. 

I pulled out of my BTL purchase. Dont want to be paying over the odds and then getting a non evictable tenant too. I’ll revisit things again. 

jumperabv3

Densol said:

What ever the solicitor says “business as normal” its not necessarily the case for everyone else. She also caveats that by saying things may slow up. This is unprecedented times so no one on here can give you anything than a best guess. 

I pulled out of my BTL purchase. Dont want to be paying over the odds and then getting a non evictable tenant too. I’ll revisit things again. 

Were you mainly concerned about getting a non evictable tenant or paying over the odds? I see Australia and NZ having less than 60 death cases and I have no doubt the summer can slow things down, the rest is up to the govt. so I don't believe the country will be closed for too long, that's one of my main reasons proceeding with this - now if I will be wrong with this guess/assessment then of course I might be taking a wrong decision but for now that's how I see it, so I don't see housing prices falling by too much if life would go back to "a different normal" pretty soon (it won't be the same "normal" we were used to in 2019 but it would be a new reality for sure).

jumperabv3

AdrianC said:

So you aren't ready. What queries are outstanding?

I am not sure what queries are outstanding, the sellers wish to move forward with this, no one has any objection ... I have no idea what queries are outstanding - is that what I need to ask my solicitor now then "what queries are outstanding?"

- this is the main reason why I've started this thread, so thanks for touching into my topic to the detail, I appreciate that. Would appreciate your further comments if it's not too much to ask, thanks.

bob_the_dinosaur

jumperabv3 said:

AdrianC said:

So you aren't ready. What queries are outstanding?

I am not sure what queries are outstanding, the sellers wish to move forward with this, no one has any objection ... I have no idea what queries are outstanding - is that what I need to ask my solicitor now then "what queries are outstanding?"

- this is the main reason why I've started this thread, so thanks for touching into my topic to the detail, I appreciate that. Would appreciate your further comments if it's not too much to ask, thanks.

irrespective of the queries, the sellers will want to move forward.  
The best thing you can do is hang around and wait for the search results.  
Even if its ready to move into, its going to be impossible to get a letting agent in to value it for example.  Going to it for any work is likely going to be deemed as not an essential journey, so you would be paying for an empty house that you can't visit or earn any money from.

jumperabv3

bob_the_dinosaur said:

irrespective of the queries, the sellers will want to move forward.  
The best thing you can do is hang around and wait for the search results.  
Even if its ready to move into, its going to be impossible to get a letting agent in to value it for example.  Going to it for any work is likely going to be deemed as not an essential journey, so you would be paying for an empty house that you can't visit or earn any money from.

Hi Bob,
I mentioned in this thread the sellers need to move to a new place (likely it would be in the late summer, with the current conditions it could be even longer) so they will stay in the property after the completion of the sale and start paying rent, so from my perspective it's worth completing asap (excluding the possibility of "paying over the odds" i.e. speculation of housing prices due to all this COVID19 issue), I assume for them it's worth taking as long as possible but I'm really not looking to accuse/blame anyone here, the current situation is terrible, a friend of mine lost his wife, it's devastating... I know we all as one large community are dealing with something terrible.

Just have to mention, I am not an expert in buying/selling houses and it's not something I do every day so I'm relying on your experience asking questions about the process, but just wanted to mention the above because you assumed the flat would be empty and no rent will be paid and that's not the case here.

AdrianC

jumperabv3 said:

AdrianC said:

So you aren't ready. What queries are outstanding?

I am not sure what queries are outstanding, the sellers wish to move forward with this, no one has any objection ... I have no idea what queries are outstanding - is that what I need to ask my solicitor now then "what queries are outstanding?"

Well, yes...

Remember, your solicitor's job is to make sure you're buying what you think you're buying.

[Deleted User]

If things are at the very early stages its possible that your solicitor doesnt even have the draft contracts from the sellers solicitor.  Even the most dedicated purchase solicitor in the world cant move forward without initial contract paperwork coming from the sellers.  Maybe they are having issues getting paperwork that is in the office sent over to someone who is working from home,  maybe they are having issues doing ID checks on their clients since they arent able to meet them face to face (not all are set up for non face to face business), maybe they are doing a bit of back and forth with the sellers trying to fill in blanks on the initial paperwork. 

I have been involved in countless transactions where everyone on the buyers side is chomping at the bit to get going but the sellers side is being a bit slow so no one can get started.   Its usually sorted out by estate agents getting involved but at the moment most of them are furloughed or dealing with more urgent stuff.   

Sounds like its just a waiting game unfortunately, not a lot you can do to hurry the sellers solicitors up

Thrugelmir

jumperabv3 said:

Densol said:

What ever the solicitor says “business as normal” its not necessarily the case for everyone else. She also caveats that by saying things may slow up. This is unprecedented times so no one on here can give you anything than a best guess. 

I pulled out of my BTL purchase. Dont want to be paying over the odds and then getting a non evictable tenant too. I’ll revisit things again. 

 I see Australia and NZ having less than 60 death cases and I have no doubt the summer can slow things down, the rest is up to the govt. so I don't believe the country will be closed for too long,

Unfortunately neither Australia or New Zealand are close neighbours. Unlikely to have much influence on events elsewhere in the world either. With pandemics it's people that hold all the answers not the Government.