The wait is killing me!!

Corruptedmorals

Sale closed today! 8 and a half months later. We drew down a month ago but it wouldn't be this sale without some last minute hiccups and delays. Very glad we stuck with it as the house is the kind that won't come up again within our budget but wow I do not advise sticking with a house with a boundary problem. That was...intense.

We've been sale agreed for a while now. I'm a bit frustrated with the process because I don't really know anyone who's bought a house, and all the online guidance is very high level and mortgage-focused.

We had some issues that came out of the structural survey that we wanted to query with the seller. We thought we would have to send queries through our solicitor so we thought we'd wait until we got to meet her.

Then the bank sent us our letter of offer and told us to arrange to meet our solicitor to sign it. When I contacted her she said that she'd meet us when the contracts were ready to sign. I don't know how she's supposed to organise the contract for us if she's never met us and has no awareness of any issues with the house?

So anyway, then we forwarded our queries to the seller through the estate agent, hoping we could get a response that way. No response and it's been 3 weeks.

Meanwhile, our solicitor has now sent us a letter letting us know that she has actually sent queries of her own to the seller. Some of these are very similar to the queries we had, e.g. architectural certs, but it doesn't show any awareness of our biggest issue (a wooden-framed extension that would have been exempt from planning permission that we want to get some comfort on).

It just seems so nonsensical. Someone wants to sell their house, and we want to buy it. Surely it's in everyone's interest to speak to each other? If the solicitor and the seller would just communicate with us I feel like this could have been sorted in a week.

Has anyone on this thread had similar issues and can anyone give me advice? I'll settle for sympathy.

awec

It's normal to only meet the solicitor face-to-face once during the whole process, when you're actually signing contracts. Everything else is done via email / phone / post.

awec

awec wrote: »

It's normal to only meet the solicitor face-to-face once during the whole process, when you're actually signing contracts. Everything else is done via email / phone / post.

What is the 'everything else' though?

She basically gave us a PFO til contracts are signed, so we started trying to sort out our issues ourselves, but then it turns out that she's pursuing the same lines of inquiry that we are.

I suppose my question is, what can I reasonably expect from her?

awec

true-or-false wrote: »

What is the 'everything else' though?

She basically gave us a PFO til contracts are signed, so we started trying to sort out our issues ourselves, but then it turns out that she's pursuing the same lines of inquiry that we are.

I suppose my question is, what can I reasonably expect from her?

In my experience, solicitors will do their thing and will contact you when they need something from you. They don't need to meet you to figure out what to do. You need to sit tight and let them do their job, it's what you're paying them for.

If she hasn't already asked for it before then you can bring up your survey concerns before you sign the contract.

Like you asked how can she organise your contract if she's never met you? Your contract will be organised the exact same way she organises contracts for all of her other clients. Conveyancing is not really a personalised service, in the majority of cases the process is exactly the same.

The queries she has sent are likely to be the standard legal queries that solicitors make on every single sale they manage. This is what you pay them for.

awec

awec wrote: »

You need to sit tight

Agh, my greatest weakness.

Uglysoik1

true-or-false wrote: »

Agh, my greatest weakness.

Patience is key here!

Mitch Connor

Signed to buy our new build in September, was told we'd be in around the end of October, finally did second snag on Tuesday and hopefully closing next week. Maybe.

Been a long and annoying process.

But so looking forward to moving in to my own house at last.

Wildly Boaring

true-or-false wrote: »

What is the 'everything else' though?

She basically gave us a PFO til contracts are signed, so we started trying to sort out our issues ourselves, but then it turns out that she's pursuing the same lines of inquiry that we are.

I suppose my question is, what can I reasonably expect from her?

You can reasonable expect that she is working for you.

You got a survey done. She should forward that, together with her own queries on the contract, to their solicitor.
This is normal. If she hasn't then she should if you ask her.

Never saw my solicitor at all during our sale or purchase. But I'd say he took 10 calls from me and had about 10 for me. (we signed in the office of another solicitor as witness)

Dolbhad

true-or-false wrote: »

We've been sale agreed for a while now. I'm a bit frustrated with the process because I don't really know anyone who's bought a house, and all the online guidance is very high level and mortgage-focused.

We had some issues that came out of the structural survey that we wanted to query with the seller. We thought we would have to send queries through our solicitor so we thought we'd wait until we got to meet her.

Then the bank sent us our letter of offer and told us to arrange to meet our solicitor to sign it. When I contacted her she said that she'd meet us when the contracts were ready to sign. I don't know how she's supposed to organise the contract for us if she's never met us and has no awareness of any issues with the house?

So anyway, then we forwarded our queries to the seller through the estate agent, hoping we could get a response that way. No response and it's been 3 weeks.

Meanwhile, our solicitor has now sent us a letter letting us know that she has actually sent queries of her own to the seller. Some of these are very similar to the queries we had, e.g. architectural certs, but it doesn't show any awareness of our biggest issue (a wooden-framed extension that would have been exempt from planning permission that we want to get some comfort on).

It just seems so nonsensical. Someone wants to sell their house, and we want to buy it. Surely it's in everyone's interest to speak to each other? If the solicitor and the seller would just communicate with us I feel like this could have been sorted in a week.

Has anyone on this thread had similar issues and can anyone give me advice? I'll settle for sympathy.

It’s usual to meet your solicitor once. You’ll sign the contacts and loan offer documents with her. Presumably you or your engineer sent the report to her. She is concerned with the legal side of things so for her in the engineer’s report, it’s the planning situation and the boundaries. Generally anything else in the report is for you, your engineer and auctioneer to sort out.

Surely your engineers report highlighted the timber structure and said it was exempt?

You have to remember conveyance is a fixed fee so you won’t be having appointments all the time. But a good solicitor will return calls or emails. But may also say I’ll contact you when I need to situation.

notcarlos

Hi. My partner and I are both first time buyers. We are both on our late 20's. Came here for more information.

We like a 2002 built property so it's not necessarily old. House is not occupied and went through two auctioneers already. First one failed to sell it only couple of month ago. Vendors keep rejecting offers lower than asking price. Here are our progress so far

Last week we had second viewing and put up a offer. Offer accepted and deposit paid, nominated solicitor and surveyor. Propert went SALE AGREED. Received sales advice notice from EA.

Hopefully this week we get the report from surveyor. Any suggestions and tips for first time buyers? Thanks.

SteelyDanJalapeno

SteelyDanJalapeno wrote: »

Clock starts for me today, offer accepted

Received contracts today, 4 weeks after offer accepted

Martin567

awec wrote: »

In my experience, solicitors will do their thing and will contact you when they need something from you. They don't need to meet you to figure out what to do. You need to sit tight and let them do their job, it's what you're paying them for.

If she hasn't already asked for it before then you can bring up your survey concerns before you sign the contract.

Like you asked how can she organise your contract if she's never met you? Your contract will be organised the exact same way she organises contracts for all of her other clients. Conveyancing is not really a personalised service, in the majority of cases the process is exactly the same.

The queries she has sent are likely to be the standard legal queries that solicitors make on every single sale they manage. This is what you pay them for.

I wish my experience was like that. There are some awful solicitors out there.

I've discovered that it isn't completed even after you receive the keys and move in. Our solicitor blundered her way through the buying process, telling us several blatant lies about having completed tasks when she hadn't.

Our purchase was only recently registered with the Property Registration Authority/Land Registry even though we have been living in the house since 2018! We've never been given any reason for the endless delays despite many phone calls and emails requesting same.

I feel as though I could almost give conveyancing a go now myself (only a slight exaggeration) as I've had to do so much checking up on her work. I contacted Revenue to check if the stamp duty had been paid over (it was, five months after we received the keys!), opened a Land Registry account to do searches and I've had several calls to the PRA to try to figure out what was going on.

I don't think we've put undue pressure on her in any way. We actually gave her far too much leeway due to being busy with other things. Twice threatening to report her to the Law Society was the only way to get any response but still no explanations for the delays. She really deserves to be reported but I just want to move on and not think of her again.

As an aside, I couldn't believe the lack of interest from the bank for the past year either. They asked us all the questions in the world when we were applying for the mortgage but they didn't even realise they didn't have the title documents back from from the solicitor until I asked the question.

Uglysoik1

Hooray! -- Finally the bank has released funds this morning. Hopefully will get the keys early next week. It's been a long journey single applicant, delay after delay but finally got to the end. I thank everyone on this thread and boards.ie in general.

beanyb

Congratulations! Enjoy the house!

notcarlos

Is everyone still excited buying a house. All has changed for me, at least. Although we have both secure permanent jobs but the uncertainty within the market is taking all the excitement and initial drive to 'get' the house down. I'm afraid the value of property maybe deemed less in couple of months but at the same time partner doesn't want to renegotiate or to cancel the sale. What are your thoughts guys?

intellectual dosser

notcarlos wrote: »

Is everyone still excited buying a house. All has changed for me, at least. Although we have both secure permanent jobs but the uncertainty with the market is taking all the excitement and initial drive to 'get' the house isn't there anymore. I'm afraid the value of property maybe deemed less in couple of months but at the same time partner doesn't want to renegotiate or to cancel the sale. What are your thoughts guys?

We're not long after moving into our home after spending 11 months getting it over the line.

I'm in for the long term, so dips and rises in the housing market don't worry me. If you were planning on changing in the next 5 years then maybe it could be a factor.

JohnnyChimpo

notcarlos wrote: »

Is everyone still excited buying a house. All has changed for me, at least. Although we have both secure permanent jobs but the uncertainty within the market is taking all the excitement and initial drive to 'get' the house down. I'm afraid the value of property maybe deemed less in couple of months but at the same time partner doesn't want to renegotiate or to cancel the sale. What are your thoughts guys?

Yeah I'm just about to get keys, 8 months after Sale Agreed. It's hard not to feel a bit disturbed by the impending price drops, but sure we'd be in the same position if we'd bought a year ago as well, and these losses are only crystallised if you try to sell at the bottom of the market.

My thoughts:
- it's my house, not a portfolio of Tesla stocks. i'm buying it to live in, not to exploit others by trying to flip it for a profit or renting it out at usurious rates
- even if 100k fell off the price (seriously doubtful in our case) and for some reason I was forced to sell at that price, it would be the equivalent of paying rent for another 5 years. If I held off on purchase, I'd be paying that rent money to some wanker regardless.
- depressed property market probably means it becomes possible to get contractors in to do renovations again, and their rates return to something approaching affordability.
- ultimately, though I don't think I'm going to take a financial hit, if I did it would be worth for the psychological benefit of actually owning my home, having been subject to the vagaries of tenancy for 17 years and been unable to make significant modifications or improvements to my gaff
- it's all good, there are much bigger things to worry about at the moment so I try to have a sense of perspective

Maitguel

Ya pretty much the same boat, was excited and surprised to go sale agreed on the property so quickly, then the lockdown happened... Obviously I would like to get the property cheaper but the wife loves it and doesn't care about price fluctuations. It is worth asking for a price reduction, but be clever about it, if you ask for 10-20 % it is more than likely an automatic no. If you ask for a few thousand you have a better chance. Its a very subjective, bargains might not have everything you want in terms of house type or location Can you buy a cheaper house in 6 months? probably most definitely, if you don't care where you live or the type of house it is. If you are gone sale agreed on a nice house, I have no doubts but the under bidder will proceed if you pull out because the vast majority are not motivated by price, they see houses nowadays as forever homes compared to my parents time when a house was a starter home, and then you move up.

We were supposed to sign on Tuesday just gone and it's just beyond disappointing. My partner doesn't want to go ahead while lockdown is on. That's totally fine, it's his choice, but I'm just not sure what the end point is. I don't want to put any pressure on him but it's so stressful to just put an indefinite pin in it when less than a week ago everything was ready to go.

Still definitely want to buy the house, and he says he does too, so fingers crossed the letter of offer and seller are still ready when we are.

Griselda

Awful feeling. The timing is shocking.

akesha

Went sale agreed 2 months ago, closing date is in less than two weeks... fingers crossed!

notcarlos

For those buying/bought a house a quick question. We received copy of contracts already and some additional documents. One document I'm interested in is the land registration. Question, what is the difference between Deed of Transfer and Deed of Charge, one figure is significantly higher than the other. I'm interested to know how much the previous owners paid for the house. Thanks for those who will answer.

akesha

Don't know about the difference, but you can check the property price register to know for how much it was sold previously.

Wildly Boaring

akesha wrote: »

Don't know about the difference, but you can check the property price register to know for how much it was sold previously.

https://www.propertypriceregister.ie/website/npsra/pprweb.nsf/PPR?OpenForm

Stick in address and county

notcarlos

Wildly Boaring wrote: »

https://www.propertypriceregister.ie/website/npsra/pprweb.nsf/PPR?OpenForm

Stick in address and county

thanks but only goes back 2010. House was purchased 2005

notcarlos

Hi everyone any news from those who are buying a property? My partner and I signed the contract 2 weeks ago! Outside the solicitors office in a car! Anyway we were expecting for further news last week regarding the progress only to receive an email from the solicitor at the end of the week asking us if we are happy enough for him to send the papers we signed, Monday of the previous week?! Are all solicitors this way? We have expressed countless times we are happy to proceed as soon as possible and are not looking for renegotiation as this will just delay everything. This week we haven't heard any news yet.

Emma237

I went sale agreed on a house at the end of November 2019. We were told by the estate agent that it would be a quick sale as there was no chain.

We waited for contracts and were told they would be issued after Christmas.

We waited in January and no contracts arrived. At the beginning of February, after many phone calls and emails, my solicitor informed me that the house needed to go through probate. The estate agent was adamant that they were unaware of this.

My solicitor said it could take 4-6 months for probate to be granted.

We now nearly 30 weeks since we have gone sale agreed. My solicitor has had very little communication from the vendor's solicitors!

I've had no update since the end of February when I was told the paperwork had been lodged.
I'm starting to lose hope and I'm unsure if I'm making the right decision by waiting for this house.

No contracts have been signed so technically I can walk away. Any advice or opinions would help?

Thanks,
E

Corruptedmorals

Sorry to hear that, probate is very difficult with lack of updates. Talk to your solicitor, what do they think about the timeline and has the house definitely entered probate and how long do they think covid might delay it? At this point you might get results if you threaten to pull out if you haven't got a positive update by July. Sure it takes time but there was no excuse to not be told until February! Certainly keep an eye out for houses.

My sale is further up the thread, we were 8 months in closing but it was a title issue was the problem. Vendor's solicitor was absolutely painful right to the end with the slowness of everything. Updates were few and far between and often took contacting the estate agent to put pressure on the vendor to get an update.

Emma237

Corruptedmorals wrote: »

Sorry to hear that, probate is very difficult with lack of updates. Talk to your solicitor, what do they think about the timeline and has the house definitely entered probate and how long do they think covid might delay it? At this point you might get results if you threaten to pull out if you haven't got a positive update by July. Sure it takes time but there was no excuse to not be told until February! Certainly keep an eye out for houses.

My sale is further up the thread, we were 8 months in closing but it was a title issue was the problem. Vendor's solicitor was absolutely painful right to the end with the slowness of everything. Updates were few and far between and often took contacting the estate agent to put pressure on the vendor to get an update.

Thanks for the reply! The estate agent has contacted the vendor's solicitors...all the paperwork is in order however the probate courts have only reopened so she said really I could be looking at another 3 months for it to be finalised!

It has been an awful long process and I'm keeping my eye out for similar properties in the area but can't see anything I like as much in my budget! I'm glad you are finally over all the stress! Best of luck in your new home, hopefully we will have the same outcome!