Am I right to be cautious or am I being paranoid?

RandomGuy87

I am a FTB purchasing a new build. So far it has been pretty slow and dealing with the solicitors has been a nightmare.

After chasing them up again today due to no response, it appears that my case file has been moved to another team. This team have contacted me today by phone and followed up with an email and this contact is already more than I had from the previous team.

The last of the searches (water and environmental) came back yesterday. I emailed the new team to ask what stage we are at and how long we are looking to exchange. They have emailed back to say they have looked at the file and it looks ok and if we are happy to exchange, to send our deposit money and they will get this done for me.

I have rung the office to confirm that this email was legit and I am waiting for a call back to discuss.

I feel a bit dubious/paranoid, am I right to be?

I'm confused how the previous team were unable to give me any updates and this new team has done more for me in 3 hours than the other team has done in the past month.

theartfullodger

Who or what is your contract with?  That is the entity you should be checking with.

RandomGuy87

theartfullodger said:

Who or what is your contract with?  That is the entity you should be checking with.

My solicitors? It is PCS Legal. I am waiting for a call back to check that the email request is legit.

It just seems strange that we've gone from being told it will be weeks/months to yeah we can do that this week.

Kyrae

Have they showed you the environmental search and local search result documents, the paperwork from land registry with any covenants, etc? Usually after everything comes back the solicitors seem to ask the sellers solicitors any questions they have, but i guess with it being a new build there might be less concerns to raise. Then they get you to sign things, and then exchange. That's been my experiences in the past anyway If you're signing in person they might show you through all the paperwork then though.

RandomGuy87

Kyrae said:

Have they showed you the environmental search and local search result documents, the paperwork from land registry with any covenants, etc? Usually after everything comes back the solicitors seem to ask the sellers solicitors any questions they have, but i guess with it being a new build there might be less concerns to raise. Then they get you to sign things, and then exchange. That's been my experiences in the past anyway If you're signing in person they might show you through all the paperwork then though.

They have sent me the copies of the search results, I can't recall land registry documents but I'm sure there is something.

He has advised he will get it done this week once we have sent the fund so I am assuming that we would have paperwork to sign as part of this? 

Waiting for a call back is the worst.

canaldumidi

Well there have been scams where criminals get buyers to send money destined for their solicitor to th scammers account. So

* how did you find out "my case file has been moved to another team."

* who/how told you to transfer the money?

* how did you get the bank details for the transfer?

* Have you received a TP1?

* what date have the developers given /estimated for Completion?

Chances are it's all legit, but double checking is always wise.

You could send £1.00, check it arrives (using a known contact) and then send the rest of th deposit.

BV88

Be very cautious. I was the target of an attempted scam in early 2021. 

Went to view a property where the sale had recently fallen through. Made an offer which was accepted on the weekend. Monday I receive a phone call from the EA asking for certain details, from the EA’s email
address and the person I had just spoken to.

I was in an all day meeting so communicating with the EA via email. In the legitimate exchange the EA then said to me the seller was very nervous because of failed transaction and wanted a £50,000 deposit to keep the house off the market. 

Naturally I very dubious and thought it was a case of an unrealistic or uniformed seller that the EA was simply passing the messages on. When I called the EA they had no idea of this request despite it coming from their email address inside a legitimate exchange. 

Turns out they were the target of a ‘watering hole’ attack where the scammers know to try and get into system where communication is taking place about large scale transactions. There was a scammer acting as the man in middle between our communication and knew when to strike based on my confirmation of deposit value. 

I called the police who took it very seriously and investigated it more extensively than expected. The EA on the other hand, who are a small family run office that all share the same hotmail address for all communication did not take it seriously at all. They had no issues that one of their possible buyers was a potential victim of a £50,000 fraud. The case officer investigating was astonished at their attitude and lack of even basic cyber security hygiene. 

Be very cautious and don’t transfer any money until you are 100% sure and ideally only to your solicitor…

MovingForwards

I was emailed a letter with the bank details and it also said to call the office using the number on their website to double check them before sending the money. No link was provided.

I'd exchanged several emails with the solicitor, even had his mobile number on the run up to exchange / completion, had one postal letter and had popped into the office to drop ID off. 

You're right to be cautious, it's not like losing £10 when sending funds as it's generally life savings.

AFF8879

BV88 said:

Be very cautious. I was the target of an attempted scam in early 2021. 

Went to view a property where the sale had recently fallen through. Made an offer which was accepted on the weekend. Monday I receive a phone call from the EA asking for certain details, from the EA’s email
address and the person I had just spoken to.

I was in an all day meeting so communicating with the EA via email. In the legitimate exchange the EA then said to me the seller was very nervous because of failed transaction and wanted a £50,000 deposit to keep the house off the market. 

Naturally I very dubious and thought it was a case of an unrealistic or uniformed seller that the EA was simply passing the messages on. When I called the EA they had no idea of this request despite it coming from their email address inside a legitimate exchange. 

Turns out they were the target of a ‘watering hole’ attack where the scammers know to try and get into system where communication is taking place about large scale transactions. There was a scammer acting as the man in middle between our communication and knew when to strike based on my confirmation of deposit value. 

I called the police who took it very seriously and investigated it more extensively than expected. The EA on the other hand, who are a small family run office that all share the same hotmail address for all communication did not take it seriously at all. They had no issues that one of their possible buyers was a potential victim of a £50,000 fraud. The case officer investigating was astonished at their attitude and lack of even basic cyber security hygiene. 

Be very cautious and don’t transfer any money until you are 100% sure and ideally only to your solicitor…

An estate agent using a hotmail address to communicate would have probably scared me off from the start!