The nervous wait to exchange....

[jonneymendoza]

Seems like lots of blaming each other when it comes to exchanging contracts and doing all the other admin work to get the deal done?

 

[grudas]

Seems like lots of blaming each other when it comes to exchanging contracts and doing all the other admin work to get the deal done?

I don't think they're doing anything tbf. They sat on contracts for a month before we hammered them hard and told them to get it sorted, now they're sitting on the enquiries.. literally useless! I wish sellers went with any independent solicitors like us. They went with EA's one's and they're up in Birmingham! we're buying down in west sussex.

 

[squerble]

My solicitor got the contract pack just under 3 weeks after our offer was accepted, and the vendor got the memo of sale 7 days after offer, and her transfer and contracts the day after that. We signed our contracts 3 months after the offer was accepted, but we're now 5 weeks later and still waiting for a deed of variation to be signed by the management company.

Our solicitor has assured us that as soon as it's in she'll just set the date and expects the mortgage company to only need 5-ish working days to release the funds so it should be quick. That said, by the time all that goes through we'll be nearly 5 months after initial offer, which is insane considering we're chain-free (with parents) and the house is empty.

 

[Itchytrigg]

That’s pretty awful, guess I’ve not got it so bad after all and be thankful there’s no management companies involved for us.

 

[LuckyBenski]

That said, by the time all that goes through we'll be nearly 5 months after initial offer, which is insane considering we're chain-free (with parents) and the house is empty.

We were in this position, house empty for a year and us chain-free. Our solicitors (turned out to be bad...) estimated 3 months average and ours should be a simple case. In the end it was 4 months and 1 week, but the last couple of weeks we were chasing very hard to the point of holding them on the phone while they called the vendor's solicitors.

 

[mattyfez]

Mine will work out about 5.5 months, would have been abou 4-4.5 but the sellers needed another month due to accomodation issues.

 

[squerble]

We were in this position, house empty for a year and us chain-free. Our solicitors (turned out to be bad...) estimated 3 months average and ours should be a simple case. In the end it was 4 months and 1 week, but the last couple of weeks we were chasing very hard to the point of holding them on the phone while they called the vendor's solicitors.

Yea. Unfortunately for us there's very little chasing we can do thanks to this third-party management company (and their independent lawyers), so even the vendor's solicitor doesn't really get anywhere. They won't speak to our solicitor at all, they fob off the vendor's solicitor, and the vendor pesters them each day by email and online web chat but usually also gets fobbed off in both methods.

 

[mattyfez]

Yea. Unfortunately for us there's very little chasing we can do thanks to this third-party management company (and their independent lawyers), so even the vendor's solicitor doesn't really get anywhere. They won't speak to our solicitor at all, they fob off the vendor's solicitor, and the vendor pesters them each day by email and online web chat but usually also gets fobbed off in both methods.

I don't really understand teh need for 3rd party involvement, once the offer is accepted, the estate agent essentially becomes redundant and it's just a case of both parties conveyance solicitors getting on with it? or am I missing something?

 

[squerble]

I don't really understand teh need for 3rd party involvement, once the offer is accepted, the estate agent essentially becomes redundant and it's just a case of both parties conveyance solicitors getting on with it? or am I missing something?

Yea. There's a management company over the estate (not the estate agent, not our solicitors, a third party), and thanks to title covenants they have a lot of control over the houses.

The following is a reply from another website (MSE - linky) where someone asks why they need a "Deed of Variation" from RMG, which is the exactly property management company that has a "stake" in the house we're trying to purchase (and indeed all the other houses on this same estate).

What you have is an estate rentcharge. That is basically a covenant on a freehold house that allows someone to collect money to pay for management of the communal parts of the estate.

It is analogous, but not the same as, service charges on a leasehold property. Confusingly it is NOT the same as a 'regular' rentcharge, which is just a fixed sum of money payable to a rentcharge owner and the legal implications are very different.

Estate rentcharges have been used for many years as a mechanism to pay for this kind of communal management. In practice they mostly worked ok, although they had one problem in that there was no effective regulatory/judicial oversight of how they functioned. In the case of a service charge for leasehold properties, you can always appeal to a Tribunal if you think you are being charged inappropriately. Many estate rentcharges are actually owned by a Residents Association, so there was little incentive to mismanage in those cases, but some were owned by third party corporations, not all of whom were above-board.

However a bigger problem then arose as a result of a legal case - Roberts v Lawton (2016) aka 'the Morgoed case'. Morgoed bought a bunch of estate rentcharges and looked for instances of non-payment. They then took someone who had not paid and then attempted to take legal possession of a title to their home on the basis of some clauses in the Law of Property Act 1925 (Section 121 specifically). For decades no-one really thought the courts would allow this, but it turns out they decided it was the law, even though they described this as 'draconian'.

So, over the following years, mortgage lenders started to realise this issue and increasingly they now refuse to lend on properties unless those Section 121 powers are modified/removed. The specific problem is that the mortgage lender has no opportunity to be notified of any non-payment. In a leasehold property, they must be told - to protect their security, they would then pay the service charge or ground rent themselves, add it to the mortgage, and hit the borrower with penalties or even take possession themselves. They don't get to do that with an estate rentcharge, so they could end up with a mortgage that isn't being paid and no opportunity to repossess the property.

That is why the DoV in your situation is critically important for your buyers.

 

[grudas]

I don't really understand teh need for 3rd party involvement, once the offer is accepted, the estate agent essentially becomes redundant and it's just a case of both parties conveyance solicitors getting on with it? or am I missing something?

depends really.. in our case EA's solicitors are the ones dealing with it and it seems like the only way we can get a response from vendors solicitors is by chasing them through EA. They ignore our solicitor emails..

 

[mattyfez]

depends really.. in our case EA's solicitors are the ones dealing with it and it seems like the only way we can get a response from vendors solicitors is by chasing them through EA. They ignore our solicitor emails..

Ahh I see. I suppose that makes the case to use a local independant solicitor rather than one reccomended by the agent (they will be getting a kick back for the work), but it sounds like it's out of your hands if the people you are selling to, or buying from have crap solicitors. Hope it goes smoothly for you though, it's just extra stress for all involved when one cog in the machine isnt pulling it's weight.

 

[RockLobster]

@dLockers didn’t get the house. EA didn’t say how much it went for.

 

[grudas]

Ahh I see. I suppose that makes the case to use a local independant solicitor rather than one reccomended by the agent (they will be getting a kick back for the work), but it sounds like it's out of your hands if the people you are selling to, or buying from have crap solicitors. Hope it goes smoothly for you though, it's just extra stress for all involved when one cog in the machine isnt pulling it's weight.

I really wish the vendors went with a local/independent one. It's convenient from their POV but the whole process, even basic things have been taking weeks for no reason at all. Extremely frustrating.

 

[Itchytrigg]

If/when there’s a next time I’ll be doing just that.

I only just realised, their fee is about £1k which didn’t appear too abnormal. But now I consider they’re paying £450 as a referral to the EA, yeah……what did I expect!

Lessons learned and just need to push through it now. Least as a ftb I’m not causing my buyer pain!

 

[grudas]

If/when there’s a next time I’ll be doing just that.

I only just realised, their fee is about £1k which didn’t appear too abnormal. But now I consider they’re paying £450 as a referral to the EA, yeah……what did I expect!

Lessons learned and just need to push through it now. Least as a ftb I’m not causing my buyer pain!

ours isn't cheap at £1500 but their service has been on point. I don't minding paying 300-500 extra compared to others to receive a better service during this painful process. Anything to make it easier really.

 

[Itchytrigg]

Feel a little sick, EA replied about how our seller is doing but they have not received their contract pack from their seller yet...it turns out it was not a vacant purchase and there was another seller above who just had their purchase fall through so they are looking for a new property now....so I guess end of May, mid June is not even remotely possible and I doubt we'd even get this done before end of the school year now. I guess I can probably give my solicitor some slack then, no rush!

 

[grudas]

Feel a little sick, EA replied about how our seller is doing but they have not received their contract pack from their seller yet...it turns out it was not a vacant purchase and there was another seller above who just had their purchase fall through so they are looking for a new property now....so I guess end of May, mid June is not even remotely possible and I doubt we'd even get this done before end of the school year now. I guess I can probably give my solicitor some slack then, no rush!

At least you’ve got an idea. We still have no clue. Initially we were told that they’re happy renting as they’re moving away and want to look at properties locally as driving 5-6 hrs to view a house is too much. Makes sense. Vendors told us they’ve found a place, EA told us they haven’t and are looking at completely different area to what they said and solicitors do not respond honestly, it’s shocking how crap the whole process is.

My mortgage offer expires in September so I’ve got some time but I really don’t want to miss out on the deal we’ve got.

 

[Itchytrigg]

At least you’ve got an idea. We still have no clue. Initially we were told that they’re happy renting as they’re moving away and want to look at properties locally as driving 5-6 hrs to view a house is too much. Makes sense. Vendors told us they’ve found a place, EA told us they haven’t and are looking at completely different area to what they said and solicitors do not respond honestly, it’s shocking how crap the whole process is.

My mortgage offer expires in September so I’ve got some time but I really don’t want to miss out on the deal we’ve got.

Yeah true, just was a shock as was not expecting it.

I remember you saying the vendor and EA not being on the same page, so strange!

Our mortgage offer is good till October so same as you we’ve time, it’s just not as ideal as we though for trying to juggle the school moves.

Oh well, better chill and get ready for the long haul.

 

[grudas]

Yeah true, just was a shock as was not expecting it.

I remember you saying the vendor and EA not being on the same page, so strange!

Our mortgage offer is good till October so same as you we’ve time, it’s just not as ideal as we though for trying to juggle the school moves.

Oh well, better chill and get ready for the long haul.

I was hoping June or something but at this rate I’ll be lucky to have anything by August. If things are not moving by August I’ll have to push for it hard. The house is unique and perfect for us which is why we’re so patient with it.

 

[Martynt74]

Anyone had experience with Optima as a conveyancing firm?

We're in the process of a remortgage and Coventry use them. However they've been absolutely useless so far. They've made a point that the deed doesn't include my wifes middle name and apparently it should. They've said it'll need changing before the mortgage can be processed so it matches the full name.

That's fair enough, although for 2 months now they've asked for proof of her full name as evidence. I've sent it every time they've asked (around 6 times i've had a request to say they've not received it), i've also spent around an hour on hold to them a week ago to speak to someone who confirmed they had received everything fine, and then last night got another chaser!

It's starting to get very annoying!