Welcome To The House Of Fun (Buyers Guide: Houses)

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Product:	Buyers Guide: Houses
Date:	06/07/02 (119 review reads)
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Advantages: New home

Disadvantages: System weighted against buyer, Professionals demanding fees

"You're one thousand pounds short," said the solicitor's secretary. "No, we're not," countered Mrs Castlebinn. "I paid an extra thousand pounds into your firm's account a week ago." "Oh, yes, you're right. Sorry."

That was a call the day before we moved into our new house. It came a few days after our solicitor had phoned to say we couldn't move on our chosen date because our mortgage cash would not be ready in time.

The conversation went something like this - Me: "Can't you can move money overnight by telegraphic transfer for £15?" Legal Eagle: "Er, yes. It's actually a problem with the people you're buying from. Their solicitor has only seen the draft documents." Me: "What are the draft documents? Never mind. Please complete on the day we've chosen." Legal Eagle: "Well, I'll try my best but you could be in breach of contract." I'll ring to ask what she meant by that when she's sunning herself on a beach dreaming about her fees.

House buying in this country can be a costly nightmare. You are in the hands of professionals who are making a mint and have no incentive to see a deal go through. Whatever happens they get paid. Worse, once your offer is accepted you are at the mercy of seller. If they stall for time, perhaps by several months, your only option is to pull out of the deal - and lose several hundred pounds in legal fees and surveys. Plus house prices will have gone up so when you re-enter the market your cash will buy less.

Yes, I'm bitter. In fact, you could put me in a pub and call me John Smiths. We started our house search in January and were still living out of boxes seven months later. This was despite two successful offers on houses. We could do nothing to save the first deal or speed up the second. Not quite lambs to the slaughter but there was definitely a whiff of mint source.

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The seller of the first house told us she had put in a successful offer on a bigger house a few doors away from her own property. She didn't mention the owners (I'll call them the Smiths because they certainly depressed me) were having a house built and would not move until it was ready. Perhaps she didn't know.

We sorted out a mortgage, instructed our solicitor and had a basic valuation survey carried out on the house. There were no problems. And then we waited....and waited. One month down the line my wife tried to bring matters to a head by asking our solicitor to work towards a completion date a few weeks away. Our seller agreed and said the Smiths were comfortable with it too.

Then came the excuses as the date was pushed back three times. My favourite reason was Mr and Mrs Smith couldn't move on a certain day because their son was graduating from college. The other good one was Mrs Smith was taking an exam (in witchcraft no doubt). I forget the third reason but it was probably similar bullsh*t.

We became increasingly frantic but as we had not exchanged contracts there was nothing we could do. And the thought of going through the entire process again was too much to bear so we stayed in the deal.

Time was running out though. Every film has a good subplot and ours was homelessness. We had been staying at my mother-in-laws home after we sold our house but it went on the market when she returned to her native Ireland and we had to move out after a buyer arrived on the scene.

With two weeks to go before the house was sold we accepted we were not going to be in our new home as we had hoped and would have to rent a place. We had to fork our more cash we couldn't afford. Worse, our lives were on hold and we had several blazing rows. The mood spread to our three year old son whose behaviour went downhill.

Incidentally the woman buying my mother-in-law's house pulled out o
f the deal the
day before completion. And the next day she walked in to the estate agents and said she wanted to go ahead afterall. Such is the God-like power of the seller in English law.

Anyway, we decided to keep the deal going but to look for other houses too. We had nothing to lose. But the strain became too much and finally we gave our seller an ultimatum - exchange contracts or the deal is off. She chose the latter. Withing a few weeks of the chain collapsing the Smiths sold their house and the new owners moved in. So it goes.

We were about £400 poorer (solicitor's fees) but after a break to draw breath we plunged back into the slaughterhouse and put in an offer on another house. This time we grilled the unsuspecting owner on his plans. He and his wife were buying a flat and promised to move out by the end of June even if their deal had not been finalised.

I trusted them but because the house was more than 25 years old we asked our mortgage provider for an in-depth survey and paid them £400 for the privilege. They cashed our cheque but did a basic valuation so we had to ring round to organise a survey ourselves, further delaying the sale.

The seller then told us he couldn't move out by deadline because he couldn't find a removals company. We were so far gone by this time we told him we had been expecting his call.

And that's the story. We are now in our new house and have barred all doors and windows and barricaded ourselves in in case another problem leaps out of nowhere to bite us on the butt.

It is the system which is at fault but it will never change because too many people are making money out of it. The more deals that collapse the more they earn. Perhaps there is light at the end of the tunnel because the Government wants to speed up the buying process by making the seller have a valuation carried out, not the buyer. I'm not hopeful though because the buyer will still hav
e no effective lega
l remedy against the seller until contracts are exchanged.

In Scotland, as I understand it, the buyer and seller are committed once an offer is accepted. So why not in England and Wales?.

Tips for buying a house: 1)Get a solicitor who works fast. 2) Grill the seller on their plans and get their phone number and permission to use it. 3)Always look on the bright side.

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