The nervous wait to exchange....

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Solicitors continue to amaze me with how slow they love to work. I don't think there's another industry I've had interaction with that appears to actively work as slowly as they can. It was frustrating when we bought our house a few years ago and it's frustrating again now.

I'm not going to question the complexity of what they have to do for a job but we have had basically a month delay added to our move because they just don't respond to emails.
 
t2na said:
Solicitors continue to amaze me with how slow they love to work. I don't think there's another industry I've had interaction with that appears to actively work as slowly as they can. It was frustrating when we bought our house a few years ago and it's frustrating again now.

I'm not going to question the complexity of what they have to do for a job but we have had basically a month delay added to our move because they just don't respond to emails.
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Very typical
 
As soon as we agreed all the searches (except they missed an important one), we then went to exchange and completion in a week. This included the missing brine search. However the whole process took eight weeks and both sides were heavily leaning on the solicitors at the end to get it done by Christmas. There was no mortgage either.

In my opinion it should have taken a month. No chain, no mortgage, relatively simple searches.
 
Hagar said:
As soon as we agreed all the searches (except they missed an important one), we then went to exchange and completion in a week. This included the missing brine search. However the whole process took eight weeks and both sides were heavily leaning on the solicitors at the end to get it done by Christmas. There was no mortgage either.

In my opinion it should have taken a month. No chain, no mortgage, relatively simple searches.
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This is our frustration with it all.

There is no chain with us, we're moving to rented and our buyers are moving from rented. Nothing too complex on the searches, the survey was all straightforward and the questions that were asked were relatively easy to come back with a response.

It's just felt that we're constantly having to push them along and encourage them to actually do the work we're paying them for.

Finally feels like we're getting there though, completion date agreed for next week! I can then forget it all happened for 12 months whilst we rent before we decide to buy again and go through it all once more.
 
ChrisD. said:
Even if you get the best solicitor in the world, the common denominator is always the worst solicitor in the chain.
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Ain't this true.

We were buying an empty house, chain-free ourselves, and the process took 6 bleedin' months because of the seller's solicitor. They ended up getting replaced mid-case and the new one managed to whip things in order a lot faster.
 
Me and my girlfriend finally exchanged on a new build a couple of weeks ago. I cannot recommend the experience to anyone. Being told on a Tuesday afternoon following the Easter weekend that you need to exchange by the end of that week else they would take the property away from us was not enjoyable. I think developers just expect you to roll over for them, but we and our solicitor team held firm and got the riders we wanted into the contract. In the end the developer was so desperate for our money that they exchanged on not even the full deposit.

kIj52ib.jpg


The house should be good, but the customer service when you are spending a significant amount of money is lacking to say the least.
 
roadie said:
Me and my girlfriend finally exchanged on a new build a couple of weeks ago. I cannot recommend the experience to anyone. Being told on a Tuesday afternoon following the Easter weekend that you need to exchange by the end of that week else they would take the property away from us was not enjoyable. I think developers just expect you to roll over for them, but we and our solicitor team held firm and got the riders we wanted into the contract. In the end the developer was so desperate for our money that they exchanged on not even the full deposit.

kIj52ib.jpg


The house should be good, but the customer service when you are spending a significant amount of money is lacking to say the least.
Click to expand...

Congrats...that looks like a lovely property. Wish you all the best in your new home..
 
roadie said:
Me and my girlfriend finally exchanged on a new build a couple of weeks ago. I cannot recommend the experience to anyone. Being told on a Tuesday afternoon following the Easter weekend that you need to exchange by the end of that week else they would take the property away from us was not enjoyable. I think developers just expect you to roll over for them, but we and our solicitor team held firm and got the riders we wanted into the contract. In the end the developer was so desperate for our money that they exchanged on not even the full deposit.

kIj52ib.jpg


The house should be good, but the customer service when you are spending a significant amount of money is lacking to say the least.
Click to expand...

Congrats. Looks like a nice plot. Our current home is detached and would hate to go back to anything else now.

Like you were were also threatened by the developer to have exchanged by a certain date or else we'd lose the property. Not fair after we'd done all we had been asked to do but the solicitor on both sides were dragging their heels despite knowing we'd been given a deadline. I did a post in here at the time it was going on and was told that legally the developer can do that as you as the buyer can do nothing about it.

Thankfully it all worked out in the end.
 
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t2na said:
Solicitors continue to amaze me with how slow they love to work. I don't think there's another industry I've had interaction with that appears to actively work as slowly as they can. It was frustrating when we bought our house a few years ago and it's frustrating again now.

I'm not going to question the complexity of what they have to do for a job but we have had basically a month delay added to our move because they just don't respond to emails.
Click to expand...

Makes you wonder if you could do it quicker yourself.
 
radderfire said:
Makes you wonder if you could do it quicker yourself.
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The thing is that I totally understand that it's a complicated job with some really archaic laws that require years of studying etc. and I don't want to discredit that. My biggest annoyances is how rubbish they seemingly all are when it comes to communication, timelines and deadlines.

I don't think I'd be as annoyed if they said up front "yeah, from the moment you accept an offer and we receive that through it's going to be a 3 week turn around on our side - then another week to two for the survey question responses".

Instead, it's just empty silence for weeks until we chase/call and you suddenly out of the blue get everything at once!
 
I found that with every purchase or sale done over the years i have had to constantly keep on top of the solicitors. Constantly getting them to communicate and to not drag their feet too. Plus, the mistakes they would make!! Gee!
 
So doesn't appear the market has slowed down at all. Missed out on 3 properties last year but just had a whirlwind of a couple of days. Went to see a lovely house yesterday (but needs a huge amount of work), 40 viewings at a open house day, 5 or 6 cash offers all placed by 2pm. Vendors not even entertaining other offers that need mortgages. Crazy for Stoke/Newcastle-Under-Lyme!
 
Had estate agent round the other day and he said market has slowed due to interest rates. He's valued us at lower than a similar, but smaller, plot house from down the street that sold 2 years ago.

He said interest nearing 6% has put people off moving right now.
 
gazref said:
Had estate agent round the other day and he said market has slowed due to interest rates. He's valued us at lower than a similar, but smaller, plot house from down the street that sold 2 years ago.

He said interest nearing 6% has put people off moving right now.
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Depends where you are I think.

In some places houses are getting snapped up a day or two after being listed.
 
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