Owning your own home

And you believe that?

Shush you

Ohh... Harsh pagebreak.

Heh. Sorry! No Jinx!

Have you told us where it is yet?

We had that from the start of December through to the start of Jan (still 3 weeks to go) so I chased the shit out of everyone. Then we were told we'd just exchanged and would complete the following Friday.

Don't let up, this is when you need to kick the shizzle out of people to get the final questions sorted and everything signed.

.

Rode out to the new place last night to meet the dude about the concrete shed base only for him to call and cancel when I got there. Managed to get the old lock out easy enough and measured it. Ordered the replacement lock and also bought a new door handle set as the current one is scratched to fuck and the external one is about to fall off. Got a fairly sturdy looking brushed steel set from B&Q for £30 (said £38) on the rack.

I feel your pain @Fox. We're at an almost identical stage. Were supposed to be finishing around now, but I estimate (hope) end of September is more likely. Sharing one shower/toilet for family of 5 is sub-optimal. And when the kids come back from grandparents in a few days, we will probably be in one bedroom and/or tent in the garden.

On the other hand our builders are doing a cracking (if slow) job, and like you, it will be amazing once finished. We've already done this 3 times before so knew what we were getting into (though weren't living on site for most of the last one which is better). Hopefully at the lowest point now and with windows going in, plastering, 2nd fixes will start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

We had our offer on a place accepted on 27th March. Our competent solicitor discovered the boundary of the Title was fucked and when this house was built 40 years ago they borrowed a bit (half!) of the land. Today we finally had a call that the company who owned the disputed title were willing to sell it to the current owner for............ £1.

Tense months, we really wanted this place and now it looks a reality.

Try and haggle them down to 50p. You'll need all the money you can get. Marginal gains etc.

And @Tenderloin, have you bought that perfect house I linked you to yet?

Wa-hay!

I agree with @tommmmmmm though: they're playing you for fools. Go in there with a 50p bid.

Got my eye on a place on Byron road. Open day on Saturday, so will see.

Got 6 viewing in the next 3 days.meh

christ, that could have gone wrong.

Not really. If the house has been there for 40 years, the owners of the house would have acquired a possessory title by way of adverse possession in any event, so the holders of the paper title are really only accepting the inevitable with the £1 deal.

I have been waiting for a response from the vendor to queries I sent 3 weeks ago.

Like squatters?

Get onto the estate agent and the vendor directly (if you have their deets) and get them to hassle the solicitor on the vendor's side

Correct, the house opposite did that in the 90's - I downloaded their title from the Land Registry website. Our problem was getting the vendors solicitor to acknowledge the issue and then in approaching the title holder for fear of being held to ransom to expedite the transfer. We assured them we weren't going to pull out and common sense prevailed. They were lucky nothing better came on the market though.

Call the estate agent and get them to prod people with sticks.

Edit: stevos quicker

The vendors estate agents are hopeless children.
The vendors solicitors are some snide Conveyancing4U.com outfit in Leeds.

Conditions are far from optimal.

Our purchasers are pushing us for a completion date because this has rumbled on for too long, but trying to get some action out of the onward chain is like pushing a dead horse up a hill.

Same principles apply, yup.

Get your solicitor on the case then. Ask your solicitor to give your their complaints email address and then do the same with Conveyancing4u. Tell them you know you can't discuss the case directly but the lack of response is causing issues in the chain and it is unacceptable so you would like to complain and will be speaking to the law society.

Nice one! At this rate you'll be in before me.