Property Market

[Explosive Newt]

We had an offer accepted on a house 6 months ago and the owners show as much sign of moving as a Frenchman living next to a brothel, so we went hunting for no upward chain / new build properties*. Apparently this is happening all over though, it's a seller's market with anything nice being snapped up rapidly but chains then failing to move.

* https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/ ... el=RES_NEW if you're interested / have opinions about building materials.

[duncs500]

One of my friends is trying to buy a house, they've got a very decent budget and deposit, are very flexible on what they are willing to live with and location, have no chain, and they are really struggling. Getting fucked about by sellers, estate agents that are rude and dismissive one minute, desperate and pushy the next.

It just seems like the wild west out there at the moment. Thank fuck I'm not involved in it.

[Carlos]

I've come across lots of properties being down valued the last 12 months which cocks up the chain and then the Agent relists the property at the same price resulting in the same issues 3 months later !

[Simon]

We had an offer accepted on a house 6 months ago and the owners show as much sign of moving as a Frenchman living next to a brothel, so we went hunting for no upward chain / new build properties*. Apparently this is happening all over though, it's a seller's market with anything nice being snapped up rapidly but chains then failing to move.

* https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/ ... el=RES_NEW if you're interested / have opinions about building materials.

I've a 1990 timer frame house and I wouldn't buy one again. Why? It gets unbearably hot. Even today we're running the aircon in the main bedroom as it's just too warm up there despite it not being hot outside.

How similar the timer construction of our place is to the modern SIPS panels in the home you've linked I don't know, but on my next house I'll be looking for a standard brick/breeze block construction or if I'm lucky to build my own then that's what I'll be specifying.

[16vCento]

We had an offer accepted on a house 6 months ago and the owners show as much sign of moving as a Frenchman living next to a brothel, so we went hunting for no upward chain / new build properties*. Apparently this is happening all over though, it's a seller's market with anything nice being snapped up rapidly but chains then failing to move.

* https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/ ... el=RES_NEW if you're interested / have opinions about building materials.

As an aside, this place does a surprisingly good curry, https://www.ely-lespice.co.uk/ .

I go to Ely quite a lot, there's some proper rough pubs which are great fun on a night out, I like it.

[dinny_g]

That’s a nice house Newt.

I realise how lucky I was with our recent purchase. Bought the first place We looked at (which is perfect for us). Our seller was patient when our sale fell through. She didn’t re-list when she could have when prices continued to rise which meant it was worth £25 more than our purchase price the day we moved in. Appreciated £60k in year 1 etc

So bloody lucky

Edit - our Estate Agent was an absolute diamond, even offering free advice to our seller to help with her side in order to help with our sale.

Matthew Nicholas in Wolloston. The most un-Estate Agents in the history of Estate Agents. Cannot recommend them heighly enough

[Explosive Newt]

We had an offer accepted on a house 6 months ago and the owners show as much sign of moving as a Frenchman living next to a brothel, so we went hunting for no upward chain / new build properties*. Apparently this is happening all over though, it's a seller's market with anything nice being snapped up rapidly but chains then failing to move.

* https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/ ... el=RES_NEW if you're interested / have opinions about building materials.

I've a 1990 timer frame house and I wouldn't buy one again. Why? It gets unbearably hot. Even today we're running the aircon in the main bedroom as it's just too warm up there despite it not being hot outside.

How similar the timer construction of our place is to the modern SIPS panels in the home you've linked I don't know, but on my next house I'll be looking for a standard brick/breeze block construction or if I'm lucky to build my own then that's what I'll be specifying.

We initially viewed it on Monday in 35 degree heat and it was bloody hot - but so was everywhere else. It gets a B energy rating so I figured that it’s a side effect of being incredibly well insulated, which is a tempter given fuel bills. Viewed again yesterday and it was fine.

I do not think it is perfect but we’re willing to settle right now as we really need to get on.

[Explosive Newt]

That’s a nice house Newt.

I realises how lucky I was with our recent purchase. Bought the first place We looked at (which is perfect for us). Our seller was patient when our sale fell through. She didn’t re-list when she could have when prices continued to rise which meant it was worth £25 more than our purchase price the day we moved in. Appreciated £60k in year 1 etc

So bloody lucky

Edit - our Estate Agent was an absolute diamond, even offering free advice to our seller to help with her side in order to help with our sale.

Matthew Nicholas in Wolloston. The most un-Estate Agents in the history of Estate Agents. Cannot recommend them heighly enough

We went with a nice local EA that unbeknownst to us was being taken over by a national conglomerate. Now pressure to use their (rubbish) conveyancing firm etc.

[Explosive Newt]

As an aside, this place does a surprisingly good curry, https://www.ely-lespice.co.uk/ .

I go to Ely quite a lot, there's some proper rough pubs which are great fun on a night out, I like it.

Sylhet isn’t bad as a curry house either. The rough pubs remain but are being joined by things like a wine bar down Fore Hill, it’s gentrifying I think over time. Drayman’s the top pub for me. Drop a line if you are over some time.

[Sundayjumper]

Now pressure to use their (rubbish) conveyancing firm etc.

When I sold my flats I was semi-forced to use Premier Property Lawyers and they were *fcuking awful*. Do not, on any account, use them. Both times I ended up making formal complaints about their service. I was always having to check their work. They sent me docs to sign that I'd already signed, my signature was on them ! Really basic admin failures.

One of the sales they sent the final account to the buyer's solicitor without running it past me first and when I saw it I immediately noticed they'd not included the ground rent & six months worth of service charge that needed to be billed to the buyer. Buyer's solicitor (quite rightly) said "not my problem, final account is final" and I had to fight for months to get Premier Property Lawyers to reimburse me for their fcuk-up.

Estate Agent was Purple Bricks and were actually very good, so credit where credit's due. They just have *fcuking awful* conveyancers: Premier Property Lawyers.

[240PP]

My parents also have a tale of woe regarding Premier Property Lawyers from a couple of years ago. I can’t remember the ins and outs but clearly recall my Dad’s rants on the subject. It was someone further down the chain that was using them and they had a shocker, nearly fucked up the whole thing on a number of occasions.

[Rich B]

To be honest, both times I've bought houses it's felt like it was the conveyancing teams first time, the way they bumbled through it and needed chasing and prompting was a little embarrassing. Hopefully that's just my bad luck, but it really seems like it's an industry full of absolute clowns!

[Gavster]

I reckon that conveyancing is the bane of solicitors' work lives. A process that's full of ever-so-proud new homeowners who are overwhelmingly precious about their need to complete on time and the minutiae of their particular purchase. Meanwhile, it's possibly the dullest piece of paper-pushing administrative work on the solicitors side, boring enough to make the ingredients list on a pack of wotsits look like sparkling prose.

[dinny_g]

We used a local Milton Keynes firm and they were OK. You had to check and double check everything but they were quick and communicated regularly so we knew where we were. That’s the most important thing really.

I re-read my earlier post about EA’s and it’s not clear. We were using Matthew Nicholas to sell our house. The women who was selling her house to us was using Purple Bricks… who were shocking.

7 hours after our offer was accepted, the Purple Bricks agent said was in the phone saying “their client was getting very nervous as we hadn’t sent Mortgage Approval” which was a blatant lie as we were with her at the time measuring up …

They get paid on Submission of Mortgage approval (I believe) so wanted paying so they could move on

[Sundayjumper]

I reckon that conveyancing is the bane of solicitors' work lives. A process that's full of ever-so-proud new homeowners who are overwhelmingly precious about their need to complete on time and the minutiae of their particular purchase. Meanwhile, it's possibly the dullest piece of paper-pushing administrative work on the solicitors side, boring enough to make the ingredients list on a pack of wotsits look like sparkling prose.

Did you ever use the conveyancer that M&D used to use ? I can't remember his name and my brain is trying to say "Ravenclaw" but that's obviously Harry Potter

Anyway, he was brilliant. Very old school. If you ever phoned him for an update, he knew every detail of your case, everything was already done and he'd sound insulted and a bit grumpy that you'd even asked. Met him in person when we went to sign contracts and he was far nicer than on the phone. He's long retired now I think.

Might have been Raven-Hill.

[MikeHunt]

I recently used Premier Property Lawyers for a sale and purchase, I would avoid.

On the up side, being able to see progress online and getting sms alerts is much better than chasing a local solicitor by phone.

On the negative, they did make mistakes, one relating to a water search delayed the sales by 6 weeks and was solved by me paying for an expedited search, which solved the issue despite their instance that it wouldn't. We also had an issue with the sellers post exchange, they were no help at all and literally ignored us, it felt very much that job was done and that's it.

[duncs500]

I would never use a big EA recommended conveyancer again (did for our first purchase, not for our second), I think some people must not realise how shite they are, because people continue to use them.

We used a local one for our last move and they were fantastic, our buyer had big one in Wales who didn't even answer the phone let alone emails. We were under pressure to move, and ours went over and above to get it done, all the time managing to not get annoyed with my constant harrying. Plus the level of thoroughness was on another level to our previous move.

I think we'd always go back to them if the same solicitor was there, it is about the individual than the company to some extent, but you've got a lot better chance with a local one (plus you can go and bang on the door if nothing is happening!).

[Explosive Newt]

We used a recommended local solicitor who managed to lose all my partner's original docs/certficates for her house (this was in 2020 where the solicitor was not on site and they had one clerk in the building handling physical paperwork). So we've reverted to a Cambridge firm I used when I sold my house.

[Jobbo]

One of the sales they sent the final account to the buyer's solicitor without running it past me first and when I saw it I immediately noticed they'd not included the ground rent & six months worth of service charge that needed to be billed to the buyer. Buyer's solicitor (quite rightly) said "not my problem, final account is final" and I had to fight for months to get Premier Property Lawyers to reimburse me for their fcuk-up.

I'm not defending Premier who I also wouldn't use personally, but the contract is what sets out liability for apportionments of ground rent, service charge etc and for conveyancing work it'll all be done using the Standard Conditions of Sale (5th edition, 2018 revision being the current one). That does oblige the buyer to pay for these things even if they're not set out on the completion statement, which has no contractual effect - if none is provided the buyer has to calculate itself how much needs to be paid and pay that over, so it's just a convenience thing.

Of course, the statement should be right and the buyer should comply with their contractual obligations and conveyancers should provide a decent service but they are at least cheap

[Sundayjumper]

To be fair, I didn't speak to the buyer's conveyancer in person, this was the story as presented to me by Premier Property Lawyers. I will add that to the list of professional incompetencies displayed by Premier Property Lawyers.

That's Premier Property Lawyers, premierpropertylawyers.com