Property purchase timeline in the UK ridiculously log winded.

cooltt

Here me out here folks my head is about to explode.

Does anyone else just want to scream  at the length of time it takes to purchase a property in the UK?
Every time i purchase a property i promise myself that i will lobby my MP to radically overhaul the legal process involved which simply seems to be designed to line the pockets of the legal profession. Now don't get me wrong, i fully appreciate the due diligence involved but now that email and almost all necessary documents are in electric format, why does the process still take forever!

I often feel that the legal profession needs to maintain the air of complexity around the process just to continue to charge their exorbitant fees. But come on, lots of us work in very complex industries with lots of queries and docs flying around. In the 21st century does it really need to take as long as it did back in the 19th century! 

"Can i have an update please?" Hello stupid pheasant, rest assured we're doing everything we can to push your purchase along and we've even sent a couple of emails today, despite the fact you instructed us 4 weeks ago.
Obviously we'll need to wait a minimum of 2 weeks for a reply before we even consider sending a chaser, but rest assured we'll contact you as soon as we can be bothered too. 

Buying property in almost every other EU country is an absolute breeze in comparison and that's saying something about the bureaucratic French!
Seriously we should all just stay put until the government get their a*s in gear and simplify the whole process. Annoyed as hell i am.

Have a nice weekend.  

RelievedSheff

It isn't always the case. With our purchase last year we were in within three and a half weeks of reserving the plot. We part exchanged our previous property against the new one.

The process was super quick. Almost too quick. We didn't have time to get stressed about it.

cooltt

RelievedSheff said:

It isn't always the case. With our purchase last year we were in within three and a half weeks of reserving the plot. We part exchanged our previous property against the new one.

The process was super quick. Almost too quick. We didn't have time to get stressed about it.

Yes but that's the exception not the rule though isn't it.

steampowered

You are completely correct of course. There was a full consultation done about exactly that recently: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn06980/.

It all got put on the backburner. The legislature and the government simply do not have any bandwidth to deal with this sort of thing. Even before Covid, parliament and the government were (as they need to be) entirely focussed on Brexit and all of the legislation that needs to be put in place to deal with that. After Covid you've got no chance.

Did you vote for Brexit? If you did, you really can't complain about things like house buying reform not moving forward.

davidmcn

OP, you do realise we have different jurisdictions (and house-buying processes) within the UK? Or do you think they're all equally rubbish?

cooltt

davidmcn said:

OP, you do realise we have different jurisdictions (and house-buying processes) within the UK? Or do you think they're all equally rubbish?

Please don't embarrass yourself by claiming the process is radically different in any part of the UK, the process is broadly similar in all, as you well know.
Additionally i didn't say the process is rubbish, i said it was unnecessarily long winded and complex. 

cooltt

steampowered said:

You are completely correct of course. There was a full consultation done about exactly that recently: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn06980/.

Did you vote for Brexit? If you did, you really can't complain about things like house buying reform not moving forward.

Yes i did read something about the review.
Did i vote for Brexit? Don't even get me started on that disaster! 

Thrugelmir

cooltt said:

davidmcn said:

OP, you do realise we have different jurisdictions (and house-buying processes) within the UK? Or do you think they're all equally rubbish?

Additionally i didn't say the process is rubbish, i said it was unnecessarily long winded and complex. 

Thorough not complex. After all there are thousands of pounds of lenders money at stake in the majority of transactions. 

Comms69

cooltt said:

Here me out here folks my head is about to explode.

Does anyone else just want to scream  at the length of time it takes to purchase a property in the UK?
Every time i purchase a property i promise myself that i will lobby my MP to radically overhaul the legal process involved which simply seems to be designed to line the pockets of the legal profession. Now don't get me wrong, i fully appreciate the due diligence involved but now that email and almost all necessary documents are in electric format, why does the process still take forever!

I often feel that the legal profession needs to maintain the air of complexity around the process just to continue to charge their exorbitant fees. But come on, lots of us work in very complex industries with lots of queries and docs flying around. In the 21st century does it really need to take as long as it did back in the 19th century! 

"Can i have an update please?" Hello stupid pheasant, rest assured we're doing everything we can to push your purchase along and we've even sent a couple of emails today, despite the fact you instructed us 4 weeks ago.
Obviously we'll need to wait a minimum of 2 weeks for a reply before we even consider sending a chaser, but rest assured we'll contact you as soon as we can be bothered too. 

Buying property in almost every other EU country is an absolute breeze in comparison and that's saying something about the bureaucratic French!
Seriously we should all just stay put until the government get their a*s in gear and simplify the whole process. Annoyed as hell i am.

Have a nice weekend.  

Are you buying in cash? If not, then you have no say on it.

If you are buying in cash, it's simple.

[Deleted User]

cooltt said:

davidmcn said:

OP, you do realise we have different jurisdictions (and house-buying processes) within the UK? Or do you think they're all equally rubbish?

Please don't embarrass yourself by claiming the process is radically different in any part of the UK, the process is broadly similar in all, as you well know.
Additionally i didn't say the process is rubbish, i said it was unnecessarily long winded and complex. 

It’s really not the same in every legal jurisdiction within the UK. 

Toastie2018

cooltt said:

Here me out here folks my head is about to explode.

Does anyone else just want to scream  at the length of time it takes to purchase a property in the UK?
Every time i purchase a property i promise myself that i will lobby my MP to radically overhaul the legal process involved which simply seems to be designed to line the pockets of the legal profession. Now don't get me wrong, i fully appreciate the due diligence involved but now that email and almost all necessary documents are in electric format, why does the process still take forever!

I often feel that the legal profession needs to maintain the air of complexity around the process just to continue to charge their exorbitant fees. But come on, lots of us work in very complex industries with lots of queries and docs flying around. In the 21st century does it really need to take as long as it did back in the 19th century! 

"Can i have an update please?" Hello stupid pheasant, rest assured we're doing everything we can to push your purchase along and we've even sent a couple of emails today, despite the fact you instructed us 4 weeks ago.
Obviously we'll need to wait a minimum of 2 weeks for a reply before we even consider sending a chaser, but rest assured we'll contact you as soon as we can be bothered too. 

Buying property in almost every other EU country is an absolute breeze in comparison and that's saying something about the bureaucratic French!
Seriously we should all just stay put until the government get their a*s in gear and simplify the whole process. Annoyed as hell i am.

Have a nice weekend.  

Agreed. I was just thinking the same thing this morning. If solicitors know they have a lot of work on, why take on more clients? Some don't even reply to emails and you would think they are volunteering their time.