Finally nearing completion but something else irritates me

Dannydee333

The fee is listed on minutes meeting notes from summer 2023 where it clearly states £120. So, it was £120 when the sale was agreed. Of course, maybe they didn't know about the price since they had been avoiding paying it and it could have been £100 before they decided to stop paying their bills. I guess that could be the case.

6 Months being "standard" to buy an empty apartment is ridiculous. Yes, I keep using that word because despite this being my first purchase, I'm amazed that no one seems to have done anything to make the process quicker. Like, WHY does it take 6 months? Couldn't it be done in 2 or 3? If not, why not?

From my perspective, it appears there is a lot of slacking in this business, with relevant parties dragging their feet. I was sick of receiving "updates" telling me that someone has been "chased" for an "update" and if they don't hear back in 2 weeks they'll chase them again for the "update" and then when they do get the "update" there is no progress at all so they will "follow up" again in another few weeks for an "update" of nothing.

It's such an infuriatingly and stupidly long process. I appreciate there are absolutes that need to happen to protect you such as surveys and stuff, but why can't the timeline be more solidified, rather than a completely random waiting game filled with pointless "updates"?

penners324

Email your MP and Minister for Housing advising them how infuriating the whole process is....

eddddy

Dannydee333 said:

From my perspective, it appears there is a lot of slacking in this business, with relevant parties dragging their feet. I was sick of receiving "updates" telling me that someone has been "chased" for an "update" and if they don't hear back in 2 weeks they'll chase them again for the "update" and then when they do get the "update" there is no progress at all so they will "follow up" again in another few weeks for an "update" of nothing.

Presumably you mean your solicitor. 

You probably had a fixed price deal with your solicitor (rather than paying them by the hour).

I think online conveyancing quoting and price comparison websites is causing a bit of a race to the bottom. Conveyancers are under pressure to keep their fees low to compete, and the result is that they offer a poorer client experience.


To achieve a fixed price, your solicitor might have had 50+ conveyances ongoing at the same time - with limited time available for each. So they cycle through them, maybe checking the status of yours once a week.

The fixed price does not include an allowance for the solicitor to check your file every day, reading incoming emails every day, sending chasing emails every day, or make chasing phone-calls every day.

Realistically, if you want that level of service, you'd probably have to find a solicitor who does conveyancing work for an hourly rate - and you'd end up paying them a lot more.

Plus you'd have to make sure your seller had a solicitor working in a similar way.


 

Dannydee333

eddddy said:

Presumably you mean your solicitor. 

You probably had a fixed price deal with your solicitor (rather than paying them by the hour).

I think online conveyancing quoting and price comparison websites is causing a bit of a race to the bottom. Conveyancers are under pressure to keep their fees low to compete, and the result is that they offer a poorer client experience.


To achieve a fixed price, your solicitor might have had 50+ conveyances ongoing at the same time - with limited time available for each. So they cycle through them, maybe checking the status of yours once a week.

The fixed price does not include an allowance for the solicitor to check your file every day, reading incoming emails every day, sending chasing emails every day, or make chasing phone-calls every day.

Realistically, if you want that level of service, you'd probably have to find a solicitor who does conveyancing work for an hourly rate - and you'd end up paying them a lot more.

Plus you'd have to make sure your seller had a solicitor working in a similar way.

Appreciate you telling me how it probably looks in the background.

However, in this, there is more than my solicitor. So I have my solicitor, the estate agent, the vendor, the vendor's solicitor, the management company, and my moneybox case manager. The only ones I can't really accuse of dragging their feet are the estate agent and my case manager (perhaps there's more, I don't know).

And I'm sure everyone involved would deny dragging their feet, and arguably they are right because they would say their progress was dependent on the other guy doing XYZ, who in turn is waiting on the management company to do the extremely difficult task of sending some documents, etc, etc.

All the moving parts appear to make it a disorganised and unnecessarily long process where the buyer is just left in limbo waiting. There really must be a better way to solidify the timeline.

user1977

As above unfortunately this is largely the inevitable result of "money-saving". I wonder who to blame for that...

Dannydee333

user1977 said:

As above unfortunately this is largely the inevitable result of "money-saving". I wonder who to blame for that...

If this is implying it's my fault well, as a first-time buyer I knew no better. I thought you hired a solicitor for conveyancing and that's that. When I called for quotes, I was only ever offered fixed prices.

user1977

Dannydee333 said:

user1977 said:

As above unfortunately this is largely the inevitable result of "money-saving". I wonder who to blame for that...

If this is implying it's my fault 

No, it isn't. 

Dannydee333

user1977 said:

Dannydee333 said:

user1977 said:

As above unfortunately this is largely the inevitable result of "money-saving". I wonder who to blame for that...

If this is implying it's my fault 

No, it isn't. 

Cool... it seems to be implying something, though, but sounds rather cryptic. Who were you talking about?

Stubod

...yes, house/flat buying is crap...as are most service industries these days, the NHS, builders, plumbers, electricians, banks, garages, retail shops etc. etc. Nobody seems to care about customer service these days. In fact about the only service I am happy, ( / less miserable) with is Amazon, who seem to consistantly manage to provide a good (next day) delivery service.......(and to be fair, Teco home delivery have been pretty good as well....).

...and I am available for parties...(but never seem to get invited to any...??)

Martico

It's a complex web of humans and institutions, and the whole process moves as quickly as the slowest. I would think that any imposition of time controls would see costs escalate pretty rapidly.
As with many things in life, pick any two of good, cheap and fast. You can't have all three.