6 months. WTF

[Murdochcat]

So our son completed on his first house today. It’s taken just over 6 months to go through and that was with him being a first timer buyer and a vacant property

What a stupid system we have

 

[Notch7]

So our son completed on his first house today. It’s taken just over 6 months to go through and that was with him being a first timer buyer and a vacant property

What a stupid system we have

totally agree

there has been talk of the legislation making the seller put together a pack of information needed.

there are reams of checks that take ages: land registry, planning, building control, neighbour disputes, leaseholder details, landlord details, ground rent, restrictive covenants etc etc etc And they could be done before the sale takes place

It bugs me that these days that buyers are putting in a high bid to secure a sale then wait until the survey then they start a round of negotiations

 

[Murdochcat]

I think a simple time limit would focus the minds . Scotland operates with 90 days, so why can’t we?

 

[accelerator]

I think a simple time limit would focus the minds . Scotland operates with 90 days, so why can’t we?

It's because it suits vested interests the way it is.

 

[motorbiking]

A lot of the checks aren't mandatory.

I actually think the EPC thing is a waste of time. I mean who can't look at a 1920s house and go, hmm that might be a tiny bit more expensive to heat that a new build. Or peak in the attic and see there isn't a foot of loft roll

 

[blup]

There’s no need for it to take 6 months, just do the local authority searches plus flood risk, and push your lawyer. Sadly conveyancing today seems to be a hard sell of useless or unnecessary searches.

 

[Diyisfun]

Solicitors aren't in any rush, they give most of the work to juniors & it just plods on

 

[securespark]

When we bought ours in 1999, we pestered the solicitor rotten. Almost every day. You have to. They got even sicker of hearing from us than we did of talking to them. But I kept reminding them, we are your clients and we are paying you for this service. And we need to complete by X date....

 

[johnny2007]

Same here.
Every property I bought or sold I went through a local solicitor that I was bothering very often in person.
Quickest purchase was my own house where I live now, 3 weeks from seller accepting the offer to use getting the keys.
Slowest was a flat on a tower block I was buying, no chain either ways.
Seller solicitors was one of them online firms with no face
I pulled out after third month went by with no movement.
2 months later seller called me and asked if I was still interested as he couldn't get another cash buyer.
Told him to get a local solicitor and I knocked £7k off the original price (£10k initially, then we negotiated).
All completed in 4 weeks.

 

[Old Salt]

Grand daughter had tge same problem, 1st time buyer, property vacant. Turns out the survey turned up some issues but her partner is gas heating engineer ( plumber to you and me) and was ripping the place out anyway.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

They got even sicker of hearing from us

Is that actually possibly considering your tech choice procrastinate?

 

[charliegolf]

So our son completed on his first house today. It’s taken just over 6 months to go through and that was with him being a first timer buyer and a vacant property

What a stupid system we have

Fully agree. Only owned 2 houses, and one was stretched by the land purchase. The other took six weeks. It's nonsense.

 

[morqthana]

There’s no need for it to take 6 months, just do the local authority searches plus flood risk,

The quickest way to do the latter is to get quotes for buildings insurance, and see what they say about flood cover. You're going to have to do that anyway at some point, unless you want to buy a house which you can't get insured for flood damage.

Sadly conveyancing today seems to be a hard sell of useless or unnecessary searches.

And the indemnity policies - don't forget them.

 

[Mottie]

I actually think the EPC thing is a waste of time.

I had to get one of those for our workshop that we sold and it was being sold to be demolished to be developed. Saying that, we will be selling our mums house in the new year so I suppose we will need to get one for that, won’t we?

 

[simplesteve]

Another difference “ up here” in Scotland is that the seller has to put together a Home report, with survey, efficiency ratings and valuation figure when he puts it on the market. The buyer can now read the survey before he even views the property.