Buying a home and don't know how anything works

[miss direct]

Not heard anything. Estate agent called me the other day but I was in a lesson and they didn't call back. Paid for searches.

Walked by the flat today and the sold sign has gone. Saw the owner through the window

 

[miss direct]

Hoping the removal of the sign doesn't mean anything..

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Hoping the removal of the sign doesn't mean anything..

if anything, it's a good sign (if you'll pardon the expression) - at the early stages, it's usually 'sold subject to contract' and the estate agents will welcome enquiries from people who might be interested if the sale doesn't happen

 

[WouldBe]

Hoping the removal of the sign doesn't mean anything..

It might have been nicked. It happens round here.

 

[miss direct]

Ok hope so. In my tired post cocktail state last night I was imagining that the sellers had decided not to sell at all and that's why the sold sign has gone and the EA was calling me. I'll get some phone credit and call the estate agent tomorrow for an update.

 

[Boudicca]

Also possible that the sellers don't want the sign there now the place is sold.

It certainly won't have been the estate agent. Normal practice after you move in is to phone them at least three times to take it away, and then end up uprooting it youself and dumping it outside their office.

 

[bimble]

It might have been nicked. It happens round here.

Really? What for for the wooden pole? Or to annoy yr disliked neighbour by sticking it on their house.

 

[miss direct]

The pole is still there, just the sign has gone. Hopefully the owners were fed up of it, or it blew off or something.

I've looked on the council website, which says searches are done within 8 working days. So why did the solicitor say there were long delays and it could take weeks? I'm really getting desperate to move out. Sharing is not fun. One housemate tried to start an argument with me over his own dirty washing up at 8am yesterday. The other one has the loft room above mine. He snores so loud that my room vibrates and seems to sleep day and night. And the final one smokes "in the kitchen doorway" but it makes the whole house smell of cigarettes.

I came back to the UK on the 6th of June and have been bouncing from room to room since then and haven't even bothered to unpack properly.

What do you think, will I be in my place by the 6th June this year?

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I've looked on the council website, which says searches are done within 8 working days. So why did the solicitor say there were long delays and it could take weeks?

website may reflect normal times and there may be delays if some of the staff involved in the process are self isolating / working from home / have been shifted on to covid related work. and (from what i gather) there's a peak of transactions at the moment with the government's stamp duty holiday to keep the property bubble inflating...

 

[WouldBe]

Really? What for for the wooden pole? Or to annoy yr disliked neighbour by sticking it on their house.

No idea. They don't appear on neighbouring properties they just disappear.

 

[iamwithnail]

Yeah it's normal times. Ours took a month to come back from the local authority. (Southwark)

 

[Leafster]

It might have been nicked. It happens round here.

Really? What for for the wooden pole? Or to annoy yr disliked neighbour by sticking it on their house.

No idea. They don't appear on neighbouring properties they just disappear.

If it snows around here they get nicked to use as a makeshift tea tray toboggan.

Not sure what happens to them during the rest of the year.

 

[hash tag]

"will I be in by June 6th 2021". It is possible, but you won't find anyone who will commit to a date until you have exchanged contracts.

 

[Boudicca]

Tell your solicitor & the estate agent you want to be in in 4 weeks time. Then try to get them to agree a date when it would be feasible. Probably not 4 weeks, but hopefully before 6th June!

Then make a nuisance of yourself phoning your solicitor every other day. If they say they are waiting for 'x' from the vendor, ring the estate agent and ask them to ask the vendor to hurry up providing 'x'. And keep mentioning how important it is that you are in by the target date.

(In other news, my lodgers purchase has fallen through as she thought it would be a good idea to let her solicitor negotiate a reduced price based on the survey, despite me saying that it was the estate agents job. The solicitor just sent a copy of the highlights of the survey, time passed and now the vendor has put the property back on the market with another agent.)

 

[miss direct]

Tell your solicitor & the estate agent you want to be in in 4 weeks time. Then try to get them to agree a date when it would be feasible. Probably not 4 weeks, but hopefully before 6th June!

Then make a nuisance of yourself phoning your solicitor every other day. If they say they are waiting for 'x' from the vendor, ring the estate agent and ask them to ask the vendor to hurry up providing 'x'. And keep mentioning how important it is that you are in by the target date.

(In other news, my lodgers purchase has fallen through as she thought it would be a good idea to let her solicitor negotiate a reduced price based on the survey, despite me saying that it was the estate agents job. The solicitor just sent a copy of the highlights of the survey, time passed and now the vendor has put the property back on the market with another agent.)

Is there any point in telling them that when I have to wait for the searches to be back? I am really bad at being pushy and also have a sort of phobia of the phone (I'm all about emailing...) so this approach will be hard.

Oh I wonder if the EA was ringing me about the results of my survey. Will find out tomorrow.

 

[Boudicca]

Being a little pushy will get you the earliest move in date, but failing that a polite 'any news?' email is a good thing to do. Solicitors are not very proactive and rarely chase stuff unless they themselves are chased.

Have you had the 'enquiries' back from the vendor yet miss direct? That's the list of things they will leave, energy suppliers etc. Also there will be questions sent to the freeholder about service charges and possible works.

Have you been for a second viewing yet? Definitely a very normal thing to do now the survey is done.

 

[miss direct]

I haven't had the enquiries. Will that come via my solicitors? Keen to know what they're planning to leave, will be useful for my own planning.

I'd like to have a second viewing. Something to organise this week. Will take lots of photos this time and pay attention to curtain poles and flush the toilet!

 

[Elpenor]

Also possible that the sellers don't want the sign there now the place is sold.

It certainly won't have been the estate agent. Normal practice after you move in is to phone them at least three times to take it away, and then end up uprooting it youself and dumping it outside their office.

I took mine to the council tip

 

[miss direct]

Sellers are getting boiler service done.

Estate agent chasing solicitors and will let me know if there's anything I need to do.

Relief.

 

[hash tag]

No doubt solicitor or agents will get back to you.


In a few weeks time

 

[iamwithnail]

I started to write something similar yesterday, and then deleted as it sounded snarky, but i do think re:

will let me know if there's anything I need to do.

I honestly wouldn't rely on that, not even from your own solicitors, and especially not from the estate agent. We ended up phoning the other side's solicitors, making sure they were in the office, and getting the direct dial, and going back to our solicitors and saying PHONE THEM NOW, because he was phoning once a day and just shrugging if they were unavailable. No checking when they would be available, no asking who was dealing with the file in their absence, no followup phonecalls unless we asked. Absolute nightmare.

At one point I ended up saying something like "Phone them at 9 o'clock opening, and every hour after that if they're not available. If you can't reach the handling solicitor by 1pm, then immediately escalate to the supervising partner at their firm." because OUR OWN solicitors were being so shit. Reading that back, I think I will go ahead with the complaint I was contemplating, actually.

 

[miss direct]

I do get what you're saying, but really not sure what I am supposed to be doing at this stage. I'm waiting for the searches to be returned. It's actually only a month since my offer was accepted (although it feels a lot longer!)

 

[Looby]

I do get what you're saying, but really not sure what I am supposed to be doing at this stage. I'm waiting for the searches to be returned. It's actually only a month since my offer was accepted (although it feels a lot longer!)

Maybe right now but others are right, you will need to keep on at them to keep things moving and that’ll get more important the closer to get to exchange and completion.
I used to work in mortgages and most of my job was obnoxiously chasing everyone involved and especially solicitors. They’re a nightmare and so are agents but that wasn’t my job.

 

[miss direct]

ugh, really not looking forward to that. Hopefully the sellers will be proactive too.

Last night I dreamed that my Mum and I went round and met them and had tea together

 

[Boudicca]

I do get what you're saying, but really not sure what I am supposed to be doing at this stage. I'm waiting for the searches to be returned. It's actually only a month since my offer was accepted (although it feels a lot longer!)

You can ask your solicitor if they have sent the enquiries to the vendor's solicitor and if they have written to the council about service charges. If the searches are going to be the thing that takes the longest, then you need to make sure everything else has been done by the time they come back.

 

[miss direct]

You can ask your solicitor if they have sent the enquiries to the vendor's solicitor and if they have written to the council about service charges. If the searches are going to be the thing that takes the longest, then you need to make sure everything else has been done by the time they come back.

Sorry, what enquiries? Am I supposed to have enquiries, or are these solicitor things that don't involve me?

 

[Boudicca]

I started to write something similar yesterday, and then deleted as it sounded snarky, but i do think re:



I honestly wouldn't rely on that, not even from your own solicitors, and especially not from the estate agent. We ended up phoning the other side's solicitors, making sure they were in the office, and getting the direct dial, and going back to our solicitors and saying PHONE THEM NOW, because he was phoning once a day and just shrugging if they were unavailable. No checking when they would be available, no asking who was dealing with the file in their absence, no followup phonecalls unless we asked. Absolute nightmare.

At one point I ended up saying something like "Phone them at 9 o'clock opening, and every hour after that if they're not available. If you can't reach the handling solicitor by 1pm, then immediately escalate to the supervising partner at their firm." because OUR OWN solicitors were being so shit. Reading that back, I think I will go ahead with the complaint I was contemplating, actually.

If solicitors were operating in the business world, there would be a critical path whatnot on Google docs, complete with target dates, which all parties could access. Instead I visualise them sitting behind a mahogany desk with an intray on one corner and an out tray on the other. The idea of chasing something which should be in the in tray is completely alien to them.

 

[Boudicca]

Sorry, what enquiries? Am I supposed to have enquiries, or are these solicitor things that don't involve me?

Sorry, I was referring to the list of things of fixtures and fittings etc. It would be really helpful to have this before you go for a second viewing.

 

[hash tag]

I started to write something similar yesterday, and then deleted as it sounded snarky, but i do think re:



I honestly wouldn't rely on that, not even from your own solicitors, and especially not from the estate agent. We ended up phoning the other side's solicitors, making sure they were in the office, and getting the direct dial, and going back to our solicitors and saying PHONE THEM NOW, because he was phoning once a day and just shrugging if they were unavailable. No checking when they would be available, no asking who was dealing with the file in their absence, no followup phonecalls unless we asked. Absolute nightmare.

At one point I ended up saying something like "Phone them at 9 o'clock opening, and every hour after that if they're not available. If you can't reach the handling solicitor by 1pm, then immediately escalate to the supervising partner at their firm." because OUR OWN solicitors were being so shit. Reading that back, I think I will go ahead with the complaint I was contemplating, actually.

Solicitors open at 9AM; you are having a laugh.

I do get what you're saying, but really not sure what I am supposed to be doing at this stage. I'm waiting for the searches to be returned. It's actually only a month since my offer was accepted (although it feels a lot longer!)

Simply, why haven't I exchanged contracts yet and when will I exchange, is there anything I need to do or help with?

 

[miss direct]

Email from solicitor (reply to mine): Searches are currently taking around 4 weeks. Shortly after searches requests have been submitted, we usually receive a estimated date for the return of the local search which is always the last one to be received.

We still await the Contract however at the moment before we can submit searches.

FFS. So this is an issue from the sellers solicitors, right?