Buying a leasehold flat has been the single worst experience of my life

Section62

penners324 said:

...
The whole government drive to get houses built quicker, would be better off resolving Conveyancing first before throwing away the planning laws

The government drive to speed up housebuilding is about increasing the total number of dwellings.  The belief is we can build our way out of 'homelessness'.

Changing the way we do conveyancing won't increase the total number of dwellings, nor increase the rate new-builds are constructed.

theartfullodger

If this is really your worst you should consider yourself very privileged.  I've (probably like many others) have had immediate  family deaths (4) plus deaths of other relatives, health issues for myself (back, diet etc) or close relatives, cousin under house arrest (Sadd\m Hussein), financial issues, divorce (twice)  relatives in jail, getting fired (twice) eyesight declining  etc etc etc.  But no complaints, 78, still active, unlikely ever to starve. 

Lucky lucky you.  Some, not me obvs, might put it much much stronger. 

somerandomusername

theartfullodger said:

If this is really your worst you should consider yourself very privileged.  I've (probably like many others) have had immediate  family deaths (4) plus deaths of other relatives, health issues for myself (back, diet etc) or close relatives, cousin under house arrest (Sadd\m Hussein), financial issues, divorce (twice)  relatives in jail, getting fired (twice) eyesight declining  etc etc etc.  But no complaints, 78, still active, unlikely ever to starve. 

Lucky lucky you.  Some, not me obvs, might put it much much stronger. 

Well you are considerably older than I am so I'm sure tragedy will strike me at some point, but yes, this is honestly the worst experience of my life. My anxiety and stress is through the roof because I am engaging in something that is totally out of my control, with no fixed time line and I feel like I'm just twiddling my thumbs hoping for the best.

RelievedSheff

somerandomusername said:

theartfullodger said:

If this is really your worst you should consider yourself very privileged.  I've (probably like many others) have had immediate  family deaths (4) plus deaths of other relatives, health issues for myself (back, diet etc) or close relatives, cousin under house arrest (Sadd\m Hussein), financial issues, divorce (twice)  relatives in jail, getting fired (twice) eyesight declining  etc etc etc.  But no complaints, 78, still active, unlikely ever to starve. 

Lucky lucky you.  Some, not me obvs, might put it much much stronger. 

Well you are considerably older than I am so I'm sure tragedy will strike me at some point, but yes, this is honestly the worst experience of my life. My anxiety and stress is through the roof because I am engaging in something that is totally out of my control, with no fixed time line and I feel like I'm just twiddling my thumbs hoping for the best.

No point getting stressed about something you have no control over.

You are employing conveyancers, let them do their job.

BungalowBel

We sold a leasehold flat in 2024.  Just us and a first-time buyer involved, so no chain.  No problems with cladding or anything else.  It took just over six months to complete.

I know it is a pain, but you will just have to be patient.  If you come to terms with how long it is going to take, then it will be less stressful.

theartfullodger

somerandomusername said:

theartfullodger said:

If this is really your worst you should consider yourself very privileged.  I've (probably like many others) have had immediate  family deaths (4) plus deaths of other relatives, health issues for myself (back, diet etc) or close relatives, cousin under house arrest (Sadd\m Hussein), financial issues, divorce (twice)  relatives in jail, getting fired (twice) eyesight declining  etc etc etc.  But no complaints, 78, still active, unlikely ever to starve. 

Lucky lucky you.  Some, not me obvs, might put it much much stronger. 

 My anxiety and stress is through the roof because I am engaging in something that is totally out of my control, with no fixed time line and I feel like I'm just twiddling my thumbs hoping for the best.

Maybe some stress management training might pay dividends (both private life & work),  Seriously, no offence. 

Oh I forgot, cladding cert required when I was selling a house in scottish highlands just as cladding & certificates blew up,  Nobody for over a hundred miles, not interested in going that far,  House had external insulation put on (free to me) but no lender or purchaser interested without cert.  Ended up getting someone from Edinburgh, £1440 in advance, spent 5 mins, cert within a week.. took 6 weeks to arrange,,, 

Views of sea lochs and munros from it..

Best regards & good luck!

somerandomusername

BungalowBel said:

We sold a leasehold flat in 2024.  Just us and a first-time buyer involved, so no chain.  No problems with cladding or anything else.  It took just over six months to complete.

I know it is a pain, but you will just have to be patient.  If you come to terms with how long it is going to take, then it will be less stressful.

Yeah I'm trying to be but in the back of my mind I'm thinking the longer it goes on, the more likely it will be to fall through. I've already paid search fees twice and don't want to be paying a third time because it's just wasted money. 

Lucky for me though the seller actually knows the sales negotiator from high school haha and she said he's a really decent guy so hopefully no games.

somerandomusername

It's the most horrendous time consuming process ever. You'll spend a month filling out forms, providing your proof of income etc and then spend 6+ months waiting for your solicitor to ask literally 50+ questions. Your mortgage offer will likely expire so you'll have to renew it which means doing a lot of of the forms again.

You'll wait weeks for the management company to send the management pack, but they'll likely forget to include something and make you wait another 2 weeks before they send it out. Then your solicitor will have 15 questions, 9 of which require another form or document from 20 years ago. These documents will take another 2 weeks to arrive. And the kicker is these documents themselves will likely prompt your solicitor to ask another 20 questions. 

Since I've started this process I've counted how many enquires my solicitor has asked and so far we're up to 32 questions. She's just asked another 4 questions today.   

If you insist on buying a flat thinking it's going to be the "12 - 16 weeks" that google says, forget about it. You're looking at an absolute minimum of 24 weeks in my opinion.

I'm pretty sure I could hire a company to literally build a house from scratch faster than it takes to buy a leasehold flat. 

Just don't do it. Save more for a house deposit, even if you have to save for another 5 years. I'm already months into the process so I'm just going to see it through, hopefully I get to exchange contracts before summer. 

But yeah, don't put yourself through what I'm going through it's not worth it. 

Oh and I just want to say my solicitor is not "bad", in fact she's actually too good and is trying to "protect my interests" to the absolute best that is humanly possible, cutting absolutely no corners. Which I do appreciate, but it's also incredibly frustrating at how long it's taking.

Emmia

somerandomusername said:

It's the most horrendous time consuming process ever. You'll spend a month filling out forms, providing your proof of income etc and then spend 6+ months waiting for your solicitor to ask literally 50+ questions. Your mortgage offer will likely expire so you'll have to renew it which means doing a lot of of the forms again.

You'll wait weeks for the management company to send the management pack, but they'll likely forget to include something and make you wait another 2 weeks before they send it out. Then your solicitor will have 15 questions, 9 of which require another form or document from 20 years ago. These documents will take another 2 weeks to arrive. And the kicker is these documents themselves will likely prompt your solicitor to ask another 20 questions. 

Since I've started this process I've counted how many enquires my solicitor has asked and so far we're up to 32 questions. She's just asked another 4 questions today.   

If you insist on buying a flat thinking it's going to be the "12 - 16 weeks" that google says, forget about it. You're looking at an absolute minimum of 24 weeks in my opinion.

I'm pretty sure I could hire a company to literally build a house from scratch faster than it takes to buy a leasehold flat. 

Just don't do it. Save more for a house deposit, even if you have to save for another 5 years. I'm already months into the process so I'm just going to see it through, hopefully I get to exchange contracts before summer. 

But yeah, don't put yourself through what I'm going through it's not worth it. 

Oh and I just want to say my solicitor is not "bad", in fact she's actually too good and is trying to "protect my interests" to the absolute best that is humanly possible, cutting absolutely no corners. Which I do appreciate, but it's also incredibly frustrating at how long it's taking.

So your complaint is at least partially about your solicitor? 

Purchases of any type of property can be long winded and complicated, not just flats 

somerandomusername

Emmia said:

somerandomusername said:

It's the most horrendous time consuming process ever. You'll spend a month filling out forms, providing your proof of income etc and then spend 6+ months waiting for your solicitor to ask literally 50+ questions. Your mortgage offer will likely expire so you'll have to renew it which means doing a lot of of the forms again.

You'll wait weeks for the management company to send the management pack, but they'll likely forget to include something and make you wait another 2 weeks before they send it out. Then your solicitor will have 15 questions, 9 of which require another form or document from 20 years ago. These documents will take another 2 weeks to arrive. And the kicker is these documents themselves will likely prompt your solicitor to ask another 20 questions. 

Since I've started this process I've counted how many enquires my solicitor has asked and so far we're up to 32 questions. She's just asked another 4 questions today.   

If you insist on buying a flat thinking it's going to be the "12 - 16 weeks" that google says, forget about it. You're looking at an absolute minimum of 24 weeks in my opinion.

I'm pretty sure I could hire a company to literally build a house from scratch faster than it takes to buy a leasehold flat. 

Just don't do it. Save more for a house deposit, even if you have to save for another 5 years. I'm already months into the process so I'm just going to see it through, hopefully I get to exchange contracts before summer. 

But yeah, don't put yourself through what I'm going through it's not worth it. 

Oh and I just want to say my solicitor is not "bad", in fact she's actually too good and is trying to "protect my interests" to the absolute best that is humanly possible, cutting absolutely no corners. Which I do appreciate, but it's also incredibly frustrating at how long it's taking.

So your complaint is at least partially about your solicitor? 

Purchases of any type of property can be long winded and complicated, not just flats 

Partially yes, but it just means she is doing her job properly, which I said I appreciated. But this in turn causes the entire process to move at a snails pace. My issue is more with how long it takes just to buy a flat. 

Yes it's a lot of money but yachts also cost a lot of money, often a lot more than a leasehold flat and they take 1/4 the time to complete than buying a flat...