this is the ridiculous reason we were given for why we're not yet in our house

we found it in october, had our offered accepted in november & finished our end of the paperwork by christmas. since then, we've been waiting for exchange & completion dates. we've already had three proposed, none of which actually came through.

we've had to move out of our flat & have been staying with DH's parents for the past three weeks, all the time waiting.

i call the solicitor--nothing but bad attitude, like i'm wasting his precious time. i call the contract chaser at the estate agent--nothing substantial, he just says it could be a matter of days. that tells me nothing--we need a damn date!

finally last night, i got a call from the contract chaser telling me that the reason we're waiting is because the people at the top of the chain have moved to a place with no phone, and they need to pay an £80 indemnity policy fee.

are you $*£@!&* kidding me?!?!?! i'll pay the farking fee--JUST LET US MOVE IN TO OUR HOUSE!!!!!!

That is ridiculous!  I've heard that it's such a hassle to buy a place in the UK.  We just bought a place back home in the states and although there was a lot of paperwork, it was a relatively smooth and easy process.  I hope you get to move out of the in-laws and in to your own place soon!

Will they let you pay the fee?  Or are you stuck waiting around for the seller's to figure out what's happening?

Will they let you pay the fee?  Or are you stuck waiting around for the seller's to figure out what's happening?

we're still waiting! i seriously did offer to pay the £80 if it will move things along & we can have the house next week. no reply yet. grrrrrr.

Wow, sorry to hear that.  My wife and I have been debating whether to buy a small flat here in London. But I keep hearing all these nightmare stories like this. We've already spoken to a mortgage lender and the amount we qualify to borrow is very low for London. Even if we find a place in our price range, they told us the process will take 3-6 MONTHS to move in. 

When we bought our house in Virginia, it took us THREE WEEKS from the time we found the place to the day we moved in!  Why do Brits have to make everything so complicated??

Horses for courses!

From the moment I had my offer accepted and confirmed by the agent - to having the front door key in my hand ready to put into the lock - was 3.5 weeks!

Although this was unusually quick, it can and does happen, a relative of mine got his place within about 5 weeks.

APStyle, 3-6 months does 'sound' a little far fetched to me, maybe they say that becuase they're locked into a contract with a crap solicitor or something!

Shop around matey!

DtM! West London & Slough UK!

the time between putting in offer to moving in was about 4 weeks for me...i pushed & i pushed & i pushed.

i am so totally sending boxes of poop to all the solicitors involved in our purchase. and they won't be anonymous. 

hahaha said boxes of poop should have fake £80 notes in! hahahha oh the cynicism!

hahaha said boxes of poop should have fake £80 notes in! hahahha oh the cynicism!

hahahahaha

This is ridiculous! Is there really nothing that can be done when something like this happens? i can't believe in this day and age that things can be delayed because someone doesn't have a phone...? HELLO?! It's call a car/bike/train/bus/FEET! Go to that person directly and contact them for cripes sakes! Isn't that the solicitor's job??

 

That's an outrageous amount of time to wait for completion. You must be crazy with frustration by now!  It's especially hard when you're camping at someone's house and you don't have an exact date to focus on. I hope you get those keys within a week.

We moved in less than eight weeks after we put in our offer, so it can be a trouble-free process (though I know plenty of otherwise stories).

What DO those solicitors do all day?

i sometimes think that the soliscitors themselves dont' know how to be pushy.  or another thing i noticed is that if there's one snap, they don't think "creatively" enough to know how to overcome it... they just stop in their tracks and wait...

I'd call the solicitor everyday, twice a day if you need to.

Push them into getting things done.  Sometimes that's the only way.

We had a problem like this to and I basically told the solicitor that I'd come down to his office and wait until he found out what was going on. 

I'm so sorry!  That's really horrible!  Nothing like feeling there's no end to the wait!  Hope you can move soon!  *hugs*