Advice on speeding up purchase

leypt1

Hi everyone,

I'm interested in people's views on and experiences of trying to speed up a house purchase.

Some background:
We are in the process of buying a leasehold flat, with no chain on either side. Our solicitor is a partner in a well-respected local firm, recommended to us by family. We indicated to him that we were keen to exchange by mid-January. We offered in October, got our full mortgage offer in November, and had an independent homebuyer's report done in early December. At this point we also submitted some enquiries, following on from the report. Our solicitor let us know that he'd received our search results in mid-December.

Since then, we really haven't heard much more. We've tried to be fairly easygoing, mindful that we don't want to clog our solicitor's inbox, but at this point our friends and family are surprised that we haven't heard anything, so we've started to think about how to be more active.

Last week, we emailed the solicitor to ask how the sale was progressing. He let us know that there was one enquiry outstanding, which was waiting for a response from the freeholder. He also was in the process of typing up a report, and hadn't progressed our original enquiries (made in October) about our declaration of trust and wills.

In the meantime, our lives have been in flux. When our rental contract ended (a joint tenancy in a houseshare arrangement), we moved in with my in-laws in August because we anticipated that we wouldn't be able to get a short enough rental contract, then moved with them to Edinburgh when they changed jobs in November. We were there for so long that relationships eventually deteriorated and now we're in an AirBnB, where our booking runs out at the end of February. We don't want to have to move another 2-3 times. We don't want to keep paying for the costs of keeping our stuff in storage (almost £1000 to date). We really don't want to have to pay stamp duty at the end of March just because the sale took 6 months for no particular reason (other than a lack of urgency from everyone involved)! 

Potential next steps?
I'm thinking we could:
-Start to ask for updates from our solicitor more regularly (maybe every 5 days) to encourage him to pick up the elements which are in his control, i.e. the declaration of trust and the report
-Ask him whether he can write to the sellers to encourage them to place pressure on the freeholder
-Maybe liaise directly with the seller to this effect
-Appraise whether there's anything which we should personally be progressing ahead of exchange, e.g. we're unsure whether to arrange for life insurance before or after exchange since we don't technically have a mortgage at the moment.

I'm keen to know - what are everyone's experiences of trying to get things moving? Are there any points of leverage which we might have overlooked? What could we be getting on with? 

Thanks very much for all advice!

princeofpounds

I sympathise with you, but you could have been pro-active about this much earlier. Unfortunately many many people are getting bad results right now, because the system is pretty gummed up due to the stamp duty holiday ending. Plus conveyancing is a volume business and service and communications standards tend to be poor as a result.

The way solicitors often work is they will review a file, send off for a bunch of required searches, enquiries etc. That goes off to various third parties, so the solicitor doesn't have much control over the timeline. But they will probably not look at your file again until the very slowest report comes in AND they have prioritised any more urgent work over you. Then, they will review the file again, pursue any follow-up enquiries, and the whole process starts again, until the solicitor is satisfied.

Yes, to a certain extent the squeaky wheel gets the grease. So bug them periodically, and ask why things that are in their control are not being done.

However, bugging them further will not be particularly productive at this specific moment. That's because you currently are facing one of the other challenges, which is the freeholder response to enquiries. They are another third party who is not that incentivised to be useful (indeed they are not obligated to provide anything much, even though they really should be - normally they just do it so they can collect a fee).

Your solicitor cannot hurry them, apart from following up on the request, which you should ask them to do. You cannot hurry them. The only people with any possible influence (and realistically even that is limited) are the vendors. 

So in this instance, what you need to do is find out from your solicitor when this enquiry was raised. If it was a long time ago (6wks+) then you need to alert the vendor's EA. Tell them that this enquiry is not being answered, that it's holding up the sale, and that being held up indefinitely is not a sustainable situation. They will then hassle the vendors and the vendors' solicitor, who will then contact the freeholder and try to prompt a response.

Good luck.

teachfast

The way solicitors work is to ignore files until the very last minute or until you have hassled them. Email and/or call whenever it goes quiet and you have not had effective communication from them.

leypt1

princeofpounds said:

I sympathise with you, but you could have been pro-active about this much earlier. Unfortunately many many people are getting bad results right now, because the system is pretty gummed up due to the stamp duty holiday ending. Plus conveyancing is a volume business and service and communications standards tend to be poor as a result.

The way solicitors often work is they will review a file, send off for a bunch of required searches, enquiries etc. That goes off to various third parties, so the solicitor doesn't have much control over the timeline. But they will probably not look at your file again until the very slowest report comes in AND they have prioritised any more urgent work over you. Then, they will review the file again, pursue any follow-up enquiries, and the whole process starts again, until the solicitor is satisfied.

Yes, to a certain extent the squeaky wheel gets the grease. So bug them periodically, and ask why things that are in their control are not being done.

However, bugging them further will not be particularly productive at this specific moment. That's because you currently are facing one of the other challenges, which is the freeholder response to enquiries. They are another third party who is not that incentivised to be useful (indeed they are not obligated to provide anything much, even though they really should be - normally they just do it so they can collect a fee).

Your solicitor cannot hurry them, apart from following up on the request, which you should ask them to do. You cannot hurry them. The only people with any possible influence (and realistically even that is limited) are the vendors. 

So in this instance, what you need to do is find out from your solicitor when this enquiry was raised. If it was a long time ago (6wks+) then you need to alert the vendor's EA. Tell them that this enquiry is not being answered, that it's holding up the sale, and that being held up indefinitely is not a sustainable situation. They will then hassle the vendors and the vendors' solicitor, who will then contact the freeholder and try to prompt a response.

Good luck.

Thanks for this advice. It's been difficult knowing what the right approach is, and I think I'd over-internalised some of the posts I'd seen on here about how the process can't be hurried, you just need to let the solicitor do their job, etc.

Anyway, we went ahead and chased and - success! We got the pre-exchange pack through, and have now returned signed copies of the contracts and deeds.

However:
-The information needed from the freeholder on service charges and insurance still isn't back. Even the LPE1 form was a complete shambles - half filled in, not signed, and loads of information stated as "forthcoming". We've also sent a chasing message about this to the estate agent, with the wording you suggested, but no response as yet.
-The lease forbids pets!! Or rather, it forbids "bird dogs or other animal which may cause annoyance" - we assume this means that any pets which can potentially make a sound or smell are out, but have asked for further clarification. If pets are forbidden, it's a big blow. We've been meaning to get a dog for some time but only recently decided that the right time had finally come, so we didn't think to ask about pets immediately. Feel foolish.
-It turns out that the freeholder lives upstairs! This is disturbing for a number of reasons (see 1 and 2 above). It also means we couldn't ever buy the freehold for the building (there are only 2 flats).

It does strike me that there's no reason why basic information about the lease, restrictive covenants etc. can't be shared at the very beginning of the process, rather than waiting until the very end. We'd even downloaded a copy from the land registry before our offer to check the amount of time remaining on the lease, but it didn't have these terms on it. So frustrating that the whole thing might be delayed again or even called off.

NameUnavailable

Tread carefully if there are signs of a difficult/uncooperative freeholder. Especially one that lives in the building.

On the one hand you might think it's a good thing because they should look after the building. OTOH you may find that they're only interested in maintenance issues that benefit themselves and/or have an attitude that it's 'their' property and you're just a lodger (obviously it is their property but you don't want someone telling you not to do this or that all the time).

princeofpounds

leypt1 said:

Thanks for this advice. It's been difficult knowing what the right approach is, and I think I'd over-internalised some of the posts I'd seen on here about how the process can't be hurried, you just need to let the solicitor do their job, etc.

I get that. A lot of the time it is true. But bear in mind that we often get people on here who are surprised things aren't moving after a month. 

Anyway, we went ahead and chased and - success! We got the pre-exchange pack through, and have now returned signed copies of the contracts and deeds.

That's great.

However:
-The information needed from the freeholder on service charges and insurance still isn't back. Even the LPE1 form was a complete shambles - half filled in, not signed, and loads of information stated as "forthcoming". We've also sent a chasing message about this to the estate agent, with the wording you suggested, but no response as yet.

A bit of a surprise that you haven't had more reaction. Perhaps they have no interest in sales progression (occasionally agents don't bother, but most do). Or perhaps they've been assured that everything has been sent through, unaware that it is patchy, or they are waiting on more information before replying to you.

-The lease forbids pets!! Or rather, it forbids "bird dogs or other animal which may cause annoyance" - we assume this means that any pets which can potentially make a sound or smell are out, but have asked for further clarification. If pets are forbidden, it's a big blow. We've been meaning to get a dog for some time but only recently decided that the right time had finally come, so we didn't think to ask about pets immediately. Feel foolish.

You can download leases from the land registry right at the start of the process, it's often worthwhile. The clause you cite does not ban all pets (believe it or not there are European court precedents around stick insects and other nonsense). But it could be used by the freeholder to remove a dog, especially if it barks. It's a very common clause and probably a majority of flats have something similar, not always enforced. To be honest, many flats are not suitable for dogs, but I'll let you be the judge of that.

-It turns out that the freeholder lives upstairs! This is disturbing for a number of reasons (see 1 and 2 above). It also means we couldn't ever buy the freehold for the building (there are only 2 flats).

It's good that you know this. I suggest you make contact in person and discuss how they work. Nameunavailable is right - you should be a little wary. The worst freeholder relationships tend to happen when blocks are huge (so organising a quorum of leaseholders is terribly hard) or tiny (so one cranky person can ruin it for everyone). Having two flats and a resident freeholder is a special case of tiny. Personally I wouldn't see it as a total dealbreaker, but I would want to have some proper conversations with the freeholder as you'll have to in future.

It does strike me that there's no reason why basic information about the lease, restrictive covenants etc. can't be shared at the very beginning of the process, rather than waiting until the very end. We'd even downloaded a copy from the land registry before our offer to check the amount of time remaining on the lease, but it didn't have these terms on it. So frustrating that the whole thing might be delayed again or even called off.

Didn't pick up previously that you had actually downloaded the lease. It's unusual for terms in the lease to not be registered. I'm not sure of their legal status if that is is the case. What is the difference between the registered lease and the unregistered portion, and what does your solicitor say about the discrepancy?

There was an attempt to have a single pack available with much of the information required to sell a house, a move slightly nearer to the Scottish system. It was called the home information pack (HIP) and was totally bungled. Lobbying from the surveyor and estate agent community sank it (probably other groups too). They got rid of all the useful parts and kept only the EPCs, which are of dubious usefulness in my opinion. And that was largely to comply with an EU directive. 

Answers in bold

leypt1

princeofpounds said:

leypt1 said:

Thanks for this advice. It's been difficult knowing what the right approach is, and I think I'd over-internalised some of the posts I'd seen on here about how the process can't be hurried, you just need to let the solicitor do their job, etc.

I get that. A lot of the time it is true. But bear in mind that we often get people on here who are surprised things aren't moving after a month. 

Anyway, we went ahead and chased and - success! We got the pre-exchange pack through, and have now returned signed copies of the contracts and deeds.

That's great.

However:
-The information needed from the freeholder on service charges and insurance still isn't back. Even the LPE1 form was a complete shambles - half filled in, not signed, and loads of information stated as "forthcoming". We've also sent a chasing message about this to the estate agent, with the wording you suggested, but no response as yet.

A bit of a surprise that you haven't had more reaction. Perhaps they have no interest in sales progression (occasionally agents don't bother, but most do). Or perhaps they've been assured that everything has been sent through, unaware that it is patchy, or they are waiting on more information before replying to you.

-The lease forbids pets!! Or rather, it forbids "bird dogs or other animal which may cause annoyance" - we assume this means that any pets which can potentially make a sound or smell are out, but have asked for further clarification. If pets are forbidden, it's a big blow. We've been meaning to get a dog for some time but only recently decided that the right time had finally come, so we didn't think to ask about pets immediately. Feel foolish.

You can download leases from the land registry right at the start of the process, it's often worthwhile. The clause you cite does not ban all pets (believe it or not there are European court precedents around stick insects and other nonsense). But it could be used by the freeholder to remove a dog, especially if it barks. It's a very common clause and probably a majority of flats have something similar, not always enforced. To be honest, many flats are not suitable for dogs, but I'll let you be the judge of that.

-It turns out that the freeholder lives upstairs! This is disturbing for a number of reasons (see 1 and 2 above). It also means we couldn't ever buy the freehold for the building (there are only 2 flats).

It's good that you know this. I suggest you make contact in person and discuss how they work. Nameunavailable is right - you should be a little wary. The worst freeholder relationships tend to happen when blocks are huge (so organising a quorum of leaseholders is terribly hard) or tiny (so one cranky person can ruin it for everyone). Having two flats and a resident freeholder is a special case of tiny. Personally I wouldn't see it as a total dealbreaker, but I would want to have some proper conversations with the freeholder as you'll have to in future.

It does strike me that there's no reason why basic information about the lease, restrictive covenants etc. can't be shared at the very beginning of the process, rather than waiting until the very end. We'd even downloaded a copy from the land registry before our offer to check the amount of time remaining on the lease, but it didn't have these terms on it. So frustrating that the whole thing might be delayed again or even called off.

Didn't pick up previously that you had actually downloaded the lease. It's unusual for terms in the lease to not be registered. I'm not sure of their legal status if that is is the case. What is the difference between the registered lease and the unregistered portion, and what does your solicitor say about the discrepancy?

There was an attempt to have a single pack available with much of the information required to sell a house, a move slightly nearer to the Scottish system. It was called the home information pack (HIP) and was totally bungled. Lobbying from the surveyor and estate agent community sank it (probably other groups too). They got rid of all the useful parts and kept only the EPCs, which are of dubious usefulness in my opinion. And that was largely to comply with an EU directive. 

Answers in bold

Thanks for this - really helpful.

I went back and looked at the land registry documents - it looks like we'd only downloaded and read the title registry, which is all that's available online; we hadn't realised that we also should/could have ordered a hard copy of the lease. To be fair, the title registry does include some restrictive covenants, but only the original ones from 1875 - we read these and didn't see anything alarming.

The solicitor's report talks about 4 different variations of the lease. The one with the pet covenant dates from 1967, and it looks like it still stands.

We'll chase the estate agent again, and this time request to speak to the freeholder directly. When we did our second viewing, one of the neighbours said that the upstairs flat had only recently moved in, so maybe he's quite a new freeholder? Weirdly, the land registry also only holds a freehold title for the upstairs flat, not leasehold. Not sure what the implications of this are.

Very tiring. Moving to our second AirBnb on Saturday, due to move again on 20 March and we're thinking that we want to have the service charge information (or at least a firm deadline for when we'll get it), and clarity on the dog situation by then - otherwise we've put our lives on hold for long enough and will have to think about pulling out and just renting somewhere for a while.

leypt1

A small update:
- we've still not heard further from the freeholder
- we contacted the seller directly and he was able to tell us that the only service charge he paid was the building insurance. Our solicitor confirms that the lease doesn't include a provision for a service charge - we take care of the ceiling down, the upstairs leaseholder does the rest. Our solicitor has suggested getting indemnity insurance to ensure we can get the upstairs flat (i.e. the freeholder!) to do the works

We're not happy to proceed until we've heard directly from the freeholder, so that we can reconcile the conflicting information above and the v limited info he put in the property information form.

Any advice? This all feels irregular (no provision for a service charge??) and we're unsure whether to go ahead. Have started viewing some freehold houses.

AnotherJoe

Doesnt sound like its suited for you at all. No pets (there's a long thread in here with someone in trouble because they got  a cat) and the freehold owner doesn't seem as if they are on the ball, so what happens if repairs need doing or you just want to sell later? Or he kicks up a stink about the no dogs clause?

leypt1

AnotherJoe said:

Doesnt sound like its suited for you at all. No pets (there's a long thread in here with someone in trouble because they got  a cat) and the freehold owner doesn't seem as if they are on the ball, so what happens if repairs need doing or you just want to sell later? Or he kicks up a stink about the no dogs clause?

Thanks for your reply. Our solicitor has said that the "no pets" actually means no annoying pets, and that it would need to be enforced in court, so we're feeling a bit more relaxed about it. Obviously not as relaxed as if the clause wasn't there at all!

The freeholder is a big issue, especially because he lives upstairs. We've been told that the lease splits repair responsibilities between upstairs and downstairs, rather than having all leaseholder collectively responsible for all repairs. This means no service charge apart from what we pay for repairs to the downstairs, but:
- our solicitor doesn t seem to believe this arrangement can actually exist
- the freeholder is new, so might have a different interpretation to the previous freeholder
- we still want to actually hear directly from the freeholder, since we'll be forced to live with him for several years

Not really sure how this can be resolved. Would feel quite guilty about stringing along the sellers If we pulled out, but this feels like quite a fundamental issue?

Are we blowing it out of proportion?

Slithery

leypt1 said:
Thanks for your reply. Our solicitor has said that the "no pets" actually means no annoying pets, and that it would need to be enforced in court, so we're feeling a bit more relaxed about it. Obviously not as relaxed as if the clause wasn't there at all!

Please quote exactly the relevant clause in the lease.