House Purchase Chain Frustration

Luke40885

Hi All!

Looking for a little advice as i’m pulling my hair out. So we are selling and buying and are in a small chain as follows:

Our Sale - Purchased by people currently renting.

Purchase - Seller going onwards into leasehold flat.

The purchase and sales are done and ready, our solicitor was actually trying to complete end of July but that didn't happen as the other solicitor on the sellers purchase is ‘still waiting for the management pack’ which as of today is exactly the same, 4 weeks on. 

The estate agent keeps saying they cant do anything as they arent acting on the follow on purchase and my solicitor is getting ignored.

We are 3 months on from instruction and i’m getting fed up with the lack of movement. ‘We dont have the management pack yet’ is becoming a little boring and no one seems to be chasing.

We are thinking of calling bluff and threatening to pull out but not sure on peoples general experiences when doing this? And if we did how best to go about it.

We completed on the house we are selling during covid quicker than this one is happening! 

How do I get this moving, what can i do?

thanks! 

hazyjo

Would've expected it all to take around 4 months, especially with leasehold involved.

Is there actually a reason to rush or are you you just keen to get in? I often say if people didn't force unnecessary deadlines, the whole process would be so much less stressful! I definitely wouldn't be threatening to pull out.

You can only go as fast as the slowest link. I'd sit tight, chase every 3 days, and see where you are in 2 or 3 weeks. Management companies can be notoriously slow in providing management packs.

Good luck.

Luke40885

hazyjo said:

Would've expected it all to take around 4 months, especially with leasehold involved.

Is there actually a reason to rush or are you you just keen to get in? I often say if people didn't force unnecessary deadlines, the whole process would be so much less stressful! I definitely wouldn't be threatening to pull out.

You can only go as fast as the slowest link. I'd sit tight, chase every 3 days, and see where you are in 2 or 3 weeks. Management companies can be notoriously slow in providing management packs.

Good luck.

I think its just more frustrating when I get the same generic response. To be honest, we do really want the house but the longer it goes on, and the more uncertainty there is with the cost of living etc I feel the higher risk there is in the chain breaking at some point, hence wanting to get in so urgently. 

Re the management pack though, the onward purchase was agreed around May time also, surely a management pack shouldnt take that long? 

I'm not sure how else I can put pressure on as my solicitor just tells me someone needs to be chasing the top of the chain, but thats not for them to do? And the agent also isnt being helpful to be honest as they arent the same agent for the onward purchase.

Flugelhorn

have you got an estate agent involved ? they are ones who can ankle bite the top of the chain solicitors and vendor

housebuyer143

Solicitors are painfully slow at the moment. 2.5 months into a chain free sale and we have hardly moved. The buyer is keen though so all we can do is wait. 

This is the second time as it fell though before and that solicitor was equally slow.

You should really expect 4 months at the moment and you won't be stressed out. Just ensure the other party is still interested and that's all you can do. Solicitors work as fast as they want to and nothing will make the go faster.

Tiglet2

Solicitors have to write/email management companies to ascertain the fees to purchase the leasehold pack initially.  Then when the management company eventually respond with details of what the fees are and how to pay, the solicitor has to contact their client (the seller) to either get funds from them so they can pay the management company, or get the seller to pay for it directly.  Then management companies take their own sweet time compiling the pack and forwarding it to the seller's solicitor who then forwards it to the purchaser's solicitor. 

Obviously this is all being handled by your seller's solicitor, so your solicitor would not be involved in the where's and what's of who's done what and when.  Frustrating as it is, you and your solicitor cannot do anything to speed it up. 

Many sellers actually delay paying for the pack because it can be a few hundred pounds and the packs are only valid for six months.  Some sellers are not even aware that they have to obtain these packs and will kick back about them, for example, not paying or ordering the pack until the purchaser's solicitor specifically asks for it, rather than obtaining it at the start of the transaction, or hoping that the buyers will pay for it instead, particularly where an executor is selling an empty property.

As the top of the chain (I assume haven't been linked in the chain for as long as you) is a purchase of a leasehold flat, expect this transaction to take longer than any freehold transactions.  There will be more enquiries, including enquiries relating to the information provided in the management pack, which are not always straight forward.  The purchaser's solicitors will review the management pack in great detail as they will need to know whether there are any arrears in service charges, any major works in the pipeline, if the purchaser's need to have a share certificate and become shareholder's.  They will check the fire safety certificate and asbestos report.  They will want to see the final accounts for the previous 3 years.  They will also need to apportion any service charges for the periods where payments have been paid up front by the current owner, but will need repaying when the new owner completes.

Obviously you don't need to know about all the background stuff in connection with the leasehold purchase, but it is as well to try and be patient by understanding a little of the work which needs to be done before exchange can take place and a completion date set.  If your transaction takes less than 6 months at the current time, you've done ok.

secla

I’m 5 months plus into a chain free sale being caused mostly by the sellers lack of motivation to reply to anything promptly, there’s no actual massive problems to overcome 

3 months isn’t that bad at the moment and as you said you can’t instruct it contact someone else’s solicitor 

threatening to pull out is kind of a last move and only to be used if you really intend to follow through 

Luke40885

Flugelhorn said:

have you got an estate agent involved ? they are ones who can ankle bite the top of the chain solicitors and vendor

Yeah and they dont seem to be getting anywhere either, asking the solicitor who just says they are waiting

Luke40885

Tiglet2 said:

Solicitors have to write/email management companies to ascertain the fees to purchase the leasehold pack initially.  Then when the management company eventually respond with details of what the fees are and how to pay, the solicitor has to contact their client (the seller) to either get funds from them so they can pay the management company, or get the seller to pay for it directly.  Then management companies take their own sweet time compiling the pack and forwarding it to the seller's solicitor who then forwards it to the purchaser's solicitor. 

Obviously this is all being handled by your seller's solicitor, so your solicitor would not be involved in the where's and what's of who's done what and when.  Frustrating as it is, you and your solicitor cannot do anything to speed it up. 

Many sellers actually delay paying for the pack because it can be a few hundred pounds and the packs are only valid for six months.  Some sellers are not even aware that they have to obtain these packs and will kick back about them, for example, not paying or ordering the pack until the purchaser's solicitor specifically asks for it, rather than obtaining it at the start of the transaction, or hoping that the buyers will pay for it instead, particularly where an executor is selling an empty property.

As the top of the chain (I assume haven't been linked in the chain for as long as you) is a purchase of a leasehold flat, expect this transaction to take longer than any freehold transactions.  There will be more enquiries, including enquiries relating to the information provided in the management pack, which are not always straight forward.  The purchaser's solicitors will review the management pack in great detail as they will need to know whether there are any arrears in service charges, any major works in the pipeline, if the purchaser's need to have a share certificate and become shareholder's.  They will check the fire safety certificate and asbestos report.  They will want to see the final accounts for the previous 3 years.  They will also need to apportion any service charges for the periods where payments have been paid up front by the current owner, but will need repaying when the new owner completes.

Obviously you don't need to know about all the background stuff in connection with the leasehold purchase, but it is as well to try and be patient by understanding a little of the work which needs to be done before exchange can take place and a completion date set.  If your transaction takes less than 6 months at the current time, you've done ok.

Thanks for the info! Obviously if there is that much involved with a leasehold, im disappointed we only appear to be at the stage of requesting the management pack, 3 or so month in. 

And with that, obviously any enquiries etc back and forth will only add a time delay.

I know im being impatient but it doesnt stop my frustration 😂

Brie

When we were selling MiL's flat it took over 2 months minimum to get a management pack completed.  Freeholders refused to do it as when they had purchased the previous year they hadn't been provided with one so had no historical information.  So as we were familiar with the property we offered to fill it in and get them to sign it.  Which they refused to do.  Eventually we provided all the filled in forms to the freeholder's solicitor who signed it on their behalf and charged us £600.  So completely useless bit of paper really but required by the purchaser so it ticked a box for them.  

If we could have sat down and had a discussion that would have been fine and would have taken maybe an hour.  But because each query had to wait someone to pick up an email, think about it for 3 days, refer it to someone else who thought about it for a week and then went on holiday before replying.....it took forever.  We did get there in the end though.

RelievedSheff

If you are this frustrated 3 months in you will only be worse 6 or 9 months down the line.

House purchases are currently running very slowly.

You will just need to be patient if you really want this property.