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Buying a home and don't know how anything works

cybershot said:
One of my exs was one (we never talked about work much as it would cause arguments) but the actual person that comes out and does valuations and photos and writes up the ā€˜packā€™ is usually quite busy followed by the person that does all the chasing etc (yes they actually do do some work) if they do manage letā€™s then usually the person looking after the rents will be quite busy as will the person dealing with arranging for things to get fixed/complaints.

the rest are office monkeys to answer the phone and deal with enquiries which to be fair only the ā€˜nationalā€™ big agents tend to have. Smaller independent ones will be trying to save money where possible and tend to have part timers. Before pandemic independents were struggling (outside of London at least) which is why they would probably be doing more chasing because that sale is important to their forecasts. Many were barely making a profit once paying staff and doing rent. Itā€™s a competitive market. I would still say choose a local independent one over a national bigger one if you are selling as youā€™ll get that bit more care but your mileage may vary and during a stamp duty holiday I suspect a lot of it has gone out the window as they will too busy to go above and beyond and wonā€™t have employed extra help in order to maximise profit margins in anticipation of a slump after the stamp duty holiday. Although with house prices having gone up a fair whack. Those that charge 10% of sale price will be in better shape than the flat fee ones.

it annoys me that I know far more than Iā€™d like about a business model I hate.
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I did the payroll for a chain of estate agents for a month some years ago. It was fascinating to see how it worked from a remuneration aspect, although I did doubt it some of their payroll practices were compliant.

A lot of the junior office monkeys were on a salary which was beneath minimum wage (eg Ā£1000 salary / month). The expectation was that their commission would take them above minimum wage - they might get 1.4% of branch commission paid to them (so if they completed Ā£2 million of property one month at 1% commission, they would receive (2,000,000*1%*1.4%) which is Ā£280. Other targets paid out monthly as extra commission were number of new instructions, completions within X days of sale agreed, number of viewings arranged per property, etc

Higher ā€œpoints on the packageā€ the more senior you were etc. A bit like the wage structure of drug dealers I expect :D

Anyway the above is why you should call your friendly ;) estate agent, the solicitor is getting paid regardless of whether you complete or not, or if you complete next year. They donā€™t really care and get paid a nice big monthly salary either way. The estate agent isnā€™t getting anything at all if the sale doesnā€™t complete so is more motivated. If youā€™re lucky you can even get them to do the chasing of solicitors for you.

Estate agents arenā€™t ā€œexpertsā€ but letā€™s face they do deal with house sales all the time, more often than we do, so may have come across the problem before, and certainly part of their alleged ā€œskillsetā€ should be influencing others - if youā€™re lucky this might include influencing your solicitor to do some work if only to stop ā€œshiny suit Kevā€ calling up all the time!
 
miss direct said:
Actually getting responses today. Amazing.

"I will continue to chase them.
I will have a look at what we have and will in any event try and get the documents out to you tomorrow.
The nature of the remaining enquiries relate to charges that are registered against the property. The sellers solicitors await further information on these."

Anyone have an idea what the bold bit means in practical terms?
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Assuming you know the address (which Iā€™m guessing you do!) you can find out what the charges are for the princely sum of Ā£3 online. People here (including me) can help you interpret them if you like (I deal with this stuff on an almost daily basis).

Go here;
And fill out the form and follow the instructions. You want to download the title register for the leasehold for your flat (you donā€™t need the plan) - there will be a freehold too, you donā€™t need that for this (probably). Happy to help if you want - will even do it for you (on my companyā€™s HMLR account :-D) if you like - but I imagine you donā€™t want to give out what will be your new address!

This query (relating to charges) is something you do want your solicitor to follow up on unfortunately, it canā€™t really be ignored like eg radon searches. You (almost certainly) need to get undertakings from the other sideā€™s solicitor that they will be removed/dealt with.

Knowing what they are by looking them up may be able to give you some idea of how complex they are likely to be to sort out, which can help you set your expectations.
 
Well the sellers solicitors are obviously rubbish. I don't know which firm it is, expect it'll be on the contract (?) but I will definitely avoid them.
 
Elpenor said:
Their solicitor should have had that in hand some time ago!

Glad itā€™s nothing too major :)
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This. And they usually get an updated one several times before exchange/completion as it changes every month it drags on and then a final one once completion date known so exact figures are known. Ask estate agent to kick your sellers solicitors arse, and ask them to harass to seller to do the same. You can only move as fast as the slowest piece and if itā€™s not you, you need to start showing your frustration and kick their arses.
 
My solicitor today:
I have drafted the title report and just await an amended contract from the sellers solicitors. If this does not come by 4pm would you like me to send the other documents to you in any event? I can always forward the contract to you separately.

I said yes, please send. I don't know what they mean by "amended contract". Am I nearly there?
 
miss direct said:
My solicitor today:
I have drafted the title report and just await an amended contract from the sellers solicitors. If this does not come by 4pm would you like me to send the other documents to you in any event? I can always forward the contract to you separately.

I said yes, please send. I don't know what they mean by "amended contract". Am I nearly there?
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Your solicitor (or theirs) wanted to change some wording probably. I think i ended up doing it 3 times for my sale, which was kinda annoying (thankfully my solicitor provided pre paid postage envelopes to return) but at least I knew it was done and not another potential holdup when it came too it. I guess some solicitors just like to always have it sorted, while others will wait until they are absolutely happy that every i is dotted and t crossed before sending one out. They are usually pretty generic so someone is being pedantic or using it as a slow down tactic to sort their own shit out. Solicitors being solicitors basically.
 
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I couldn't tell whether this reply meant that they had all the responses to the enquiries. The "just" threw me. Tired of being expected to know all this. I want to talk dates now.
 
You're not far off. It would be nice to try and agree some suggested completion dates, as others have said you can exchange and complete on the same day if it comes to it, so saying 2-4 weeks from now shouldn't exactly be impossible to aim at in my opinion. You know where you stand then, and everyone knows they need to sort their shit out.

I see my sweepstake was June 25th, Im kinda gutted you still don't have dates, reminding me of mine dragging on when a completion date had already been agreed by everyone and we still hadn't exchanged, that was stressful. At least you don't have the worry of movers etc. But yeah, I'd have thought you'd have had a date sorted by now. :( It's been 3 weeks since we started the sweepstake! If feels like they are taking the piss, but maybe underestimated how busy they are with the stamp duty holiday ending, but still shit.
 
Are either sets of solicitors doing the conveyancing on a fixed fee basis? I found out with my last house move that they did the least amount of work on the fixed fee contract. Like you I had to push, push and push to get updates and move to the sale completion.
 
Yes, quiet guy mine is fixed fee. Had no idea there was any other option!

Hoping to get something in the post today or tomorrow. Someone in my house seems to like throwing my post away/stealing it, so won't be impressed if it turns up after I've gone away on Sunday.
 
Big pack arrived in the post from solicitors.

First issues is that major works are to be undertaken to the roof. Could be up to five years away.

The sellers also didn't bother to get the boiler serviced even though they said they would previously. I can ask for this to be done.
 
There's no estimate on the price. Some complicated documents about tendering and their preferred supplier and some multimillion pound figure but I assume that's for the entire council stock, or at least that particular area. Does anyone know how I can find out an approximate cost? I don't want to pull out at this stage but will if I will end up with a massive fee to pay in a year or two. FFS.
 
miss direct said:
There's no estimate on the price. Some complicated documents about tendering and their preferred supplier and some multimillion pound figure but I assume that's for the entire council stock, or at least that particular area. Does anyone know how I can find out an approximate cost? I don't want to pull out at this stage but will if I will end up with a massive fee to pay in a year or two. FFS.
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Someone might be along with a better answer in a minute but the solicitor should be able to explain it to you. They won't want to because they're fixed fee they'll want to do bare minimum work to increase their profit margin, but translating this sort of thing into an answer their client (you) can understand is supposed to be part of their job and what you've paid them for
 
miss direct said:
There's no estimate on the price. Some complicated documents about tendering and their preferred supplier and some multimillion pound figure but I assume that's for the entire council stock, or at least that particular area. Does anyone know how I can find out an approximate cost? I don't want to pull out at this stage but will if I will end up with a massive fee to pay in a year or two. FFS.
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There's a guide here on this:


Frankly this is something your solicitor should be pushing for. Problem maybe that the council honestly don't know yet so it could be a bit of a finger in the wind. Unfortunately this is one of the risks with buying a property where the council is the leaseholder. Ultimately all you can do is get an approximate cost and make a decision. It's a bit shit that they didn't forewarn you on this though. I think you may have to be prepared to walk away depending on what you can find out.
 
Argh. I've got back to back lessons starting soon till late evening. There's also a long waffly bit in the letter about the value of property and covid and do I want to have a valuation done before exchange. Can I assume that this is on every letter to every buyer at the moment?

I should point out that I am buying this place pretty cheaply, even for this area.
 
The covid thing is standard at the moment. The valuation thing is probably because thereā€™s no mortgage involved in your part so no bank has gone in to check its worth what itā€™s being sold for. Although your home buyers survey should have something on it to say they believe the house is worth the purchase price. Mine did.

And for everything else I agree with everyone else in that your solicitor should be explaining this all to you over the phone.
 
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