Problems Closing Sale!

Need some help on a sticky situation!
We received completion notice for our new apartment only to then find out that the builders had not yet agreed the provision for social housing (this was a stipulation of planning permission). They submitted the proposal last November but the county council have yet to agree it. Meanwhile our solicitor is refusing to allow us to sign. He feels we may have a problem selling on if this is not rectified. However, we have no intentions of moving for 3 years at least and I'm sure this will be rectified by then! Anyway, numerous other people we know have signed without a hitch and heard nothing of this problem. I've tried putting pressue on my solicitor to let us sign but now he has threatened to tell the building society that the planning isn't complete and he says they won't lend us the money if they knew! No idea what to do next as the builders solicitors is saying its not a big deal and its already dragged on a month! Any Suggestions????

The builders solicitors works for the builders not you, don't listen to a word they say! In fact you shouldn't even be talking to them.

You're paying your own solicitor good money to act on your behalf and with your best interests in mind. He also has a duty to do his job correctly which involves satisfying the mortgage lenders conditions.

Complying with planning is a major issue. You have no way of knowing that it will be resolved within 3 years, but it might only take 3 weeks.

However as far as I recall the solicitor can't actually stop you signing anything, you can insist on signing the documents but the solicitor will almost certainly ask you to sign a disclaimer saying he advised you not to. He would also have to inform the mortage lender if any mortgage conditions have not been complied with i.e. planning. They may or may not withdraw the mortgage offer, but if they do then you can't complete the sale and may lose your deposit and leave youself open to the possibility of being sued by the builders for completion of the sale.

Buying property is always stressful, especially when all the strings seem to be pulled by other people, so sit back, relax and let YOUR solicitor do their job. Easier said than done though ;-)

Thanks for the advice! Its just very hard to relax when you've moved back in with your mother and your solicitor only calls you once a week!! Oh the joys of it all!

Count yourself lucky your solicitor calls you at all, most people, including myself, rarely get a call from their solicitor when buying houses. To us its the most important thing going on in our life at the moment but to the solicitors its just another routine paperwork job, probably one of many he has on the go.

If it turns out that the planning issue can't be resolved then you should be grateful that your solicitor spotted it, however most of these things get sorted, just not as quickly as we mere mortals would like.

I'm due to close on Monday, and I have to give kudos to my solicitor actually - she (and her assistant) have called me several times this week to alert me to potential problems and discuss the process. Maybe I'm just blessed??

Loodles - I hope it works out for you!

Thanks Guys! I guess these things are never as smooth as we'd hope!

I spoke to my solicitor today, The builders have agreed with the council that they will provide affordable housing and give money instead of Social Housing - the only outstanding issue now is the actual amount they will give. My solicitor has informed me that this will not be resolved in weeks and will more likely be months and we have two options A) get our money back (which we don't want - we have bought everything for it) or B) he tells the building society. As he is not happy with the idea of going ahead, he will not put his head on the block for the building society and thinks they will not lend us the money as a result! Does anybody have any suggestions as to what I should do! We are the only people who haven't moved into our block and I have friends in other blocks and nobody seems to have had the problems we are having! I'm at the end of my thether now and don't know what to do!

Heres the problem. Its not your money that you're spending - its the Building Society's. So if you want to go ahead now and spend their money, the solicitor has to tell them. He has given them an undertaking to furnish them with a clean Certificate of Title and he can't do that currently. So - what do you do?

1. Change solicitors - find one of the guys who either did not notice the problem or does not care. Do you really want someone like that acting for you?
or
2. Wait for problem to be fixed - push and lobby the council and the builder.

or
3. Work out what Building Society will do - if the problem will be fixed, will they go ahead now or will they expect you to wait?

"We are the only people who haven't moved into our block and I have friends in other blocks and nobody seems to have had the problems we are having! "

Why is this? Did they not have the same problems? or did they ignore them? or did solicitor not tell them?

mf

I know two people who are in a couple of months and neither heard of this at all! I know another in my block and he hasn't been informed as yet, he is due to sign next week. My own solicitor has closed a sale for somebody else - this came up at the last minute and he continued with it but now that he has prior knowledge in our case he feels he cannot go ahead with it.
I do understand where he's coming from but its a bit frustrating that he went ahead for someone else but refuses to for us!