Conveyancers enquiries

secla

Were at the enquiry's stage of a house purchase which seems to be dragging a bit.
Found out 3 of the enquiry's are for a water bill, planning for a garage and recent service for the boiler. Ive only found these out from the estate agent as our conveyancer never seems to want to tell us what the outstanding enquiry's are (There are 4 more i haven't found out what they are yet)

Is there a standard list of enquires they usually make ? The boiler is 15 years old and I have factored in having it replaced so dont really care if its serviced or not (the ea suggested i paid for a service to move the process on which i declined) Water connection was part of the search's so no idea why they want a water bill. does anyone even get a paper bill these days ? and the garage is just a metal prefab job that comes under permitted development so no need for planning.

It seems we are spending weeks asking questions that are not really relevant to anything. The vendor is quite elderly and seems to be struggling with some of the information which also doesnt help, The ea are helping her out but again its all adding extra time to the process

anselld

It is frustrating.  The conveyancer will say they are acting in your interest, but even if you say you are not bothered they are usually also acting for the mortgage company so you cannot win.
It might not be ideal for the EA to be "helping".  Enquiries should usually be solicitor to solicitor and the vendors solicitor will be best placed to answer in the politically correct way.
Usually the solicitors bat them back and forward for a while and use them as an excuse while they dither around on other things but eventually they get bored of that game and contracts are somehow exchanged.  It is rare that all enquiries get fully answered, some just seem to wither on the vine.
The bottom line is you just have to keep pestering you solicitor and the vendor does likewise until things cross the line.

Tiglet2

There is a list of standard enquiries, but there are always variations depending on the paperwork they receive and review.

The solicitor does not visit the property, so they have to base their enquiries on the paperwork in front of them.  The local search will show up any planning applications and building regulation certificates and so if anything is shown on the search, the solicitor will ask for copies.  Similarly, the sales particulars might show a garage that had been added since the property was built and the solicitor will raise enquiries about it.  If it does come under permitted development, then the owner needs to state this.

The solicitor does act for your lender, but if you confirm in writing to your solicitor that you intend to replace the boiler and therefore you are not concerned about a current service, then this enquiry can be dropped.  The solicitor is doing their due diligence though, so without confirmation from you that you do not need the boiler serviced, they will continue to raise it as an enquiry - suffice to say, the owner legally does not have to service it at all.  If she were to say that she is unwilling to service it, then your solicitor would ask you to take a view (i.e. are you still buying the property whether or not the boiler is serviced?).

Solicitors usually ask for a copy of the water bill.  This just confirms that the property is connected to the mains drainage/sewerage and not a private system.  If the owner is elderly, I imagine she would have paper bills.

Snookie12cat

My solicitor copies me into all her emails and replies - when I was buying this enabled me to read through them and say I didnt want a boiler service, I didnt need this and that etc. You should be able to do this as some of those are for you and wont bother the lender.
The water bill might be because the search showed it was not connected to mains drainage or water - an error no doubt. This happened on my sale, so the bill is simply to prove you do have mains supply. 

user1977

secla said:

It seems we are spending weeks asking questions that are not really relevant to anything. The vendor is quite elderly and seems to be struggling with some of the information which also doesnt help, The ea are helping her out but again its all adding extra time to the process

I agree those questions shouldn't be showstoppers, but on the other hand they should be able to be dealt with within seconds,. Even if someone is elderly it doesn't take them weeks to answer "when was the boiler last serviced?". And "don't know" is an acceptable answer (at least in the first instance).

secla

The water being connected was in the search’s hence my confusion about the need for a bill to be supplied.

I guess my main problem is lack of info from the conveyancer and whenever I chase I just get vague or open ended answers, I went with a highly recommended local solicitor but maybe I was expecting to much