Stuck in this place for a bit longer!!!

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Stuck in this place for a bit longer!!!
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twoscoops

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 1924
Location: Warwickshire

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 05 9:02 am Post subject: Stuck in this place for a bit longer!!!

We put the nail in the coffin of my second attempt to buy a shop yesterday. It will be two years in October that I heard that the shoe shop in our town was going to become vacant. For some reason, and I have absolutely no idea why, they decided to ignore my correspondence and sell it to a vet.

Last December I began negotiations with the owner of the fruit & veg shop. Heï¿½s in his early sixties, wants to retire and doesnï¿½t fancy having to compete with the proposed Tesco. We agreed a price in excess of market value for the place. I must say Iï¿½ve never dealt with anybody who whinges and demands as much as this guy. At the slightest delay he was phoning and asking me if ï¿½I was backing out or what?ï¿½ even though all the delays were down to his solicitor (Dolittle & Dally Ltd, I think). We did some investigation recently and it transpires that he has no listed building consent for some alterations which were carried out. The council are going to investigate, which could take months.

If I was in Scotland any discrepancies like this one would have had to be ironed out, by the vendor, before it goes on the market. Iï¿½ve been working on opening this business for over two years, and Iï¿½ve just spent seven months and about a thousand quid on a fools errand.

Last night he told me that his solicitor never flagged the fact that there was no listed building consent for the alterations (which took place before he bought it) which didnï¿½t surprise me, as they appear totally incompetent. He also said that he had another buyer who has offered more money and is prepared to take responsibility for the alterations. He is either incredibly lucky or lying.

Whatever he does heï¿½d better do it soon. Tesco opened this week, a small town-centre one. He was running a business, which he had on the market for two years, which could not survive against one of the big supermarkets. I was prepared to offer something completely different to them, as I believe that if you are faced with the inevitability of Tesco opening in your neighbourhood then there is no point in trying to fight them ï¿½ you will lose. Unless another shop comes onto the market before the end of this year then it looks like we shall be using the money to add value to our house and in a couple of years looking to move to the Cotswolds.

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28239
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 05 9:04 am Post subject:
It is always said that moving home is one of the most stressful things, but I would have thought buying property for business is worse

twoscoops

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 1924
Location: Warwickshire

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 05 9:09 am Post subject:

Not really, well not in this case anyway. At no point have I had the prospect of losing the roof over my head. There was no chain, no estate agents to deal with, in fact the most difficult aspect of the whole affair was the vendorï¿½s inability to see that it was his responsibility, as the current owner, to have listed building consent for alterations which have been carried out. Iï¿½m prepared to go through the process for a third time if another property becomes vacant. It is just so frustrating when it goes wrong, as you feel that you have wasted so much time

RoryD

Joined: 02 Jun 2005
Posts: 692
Location: West Yorkshire

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 05 9:09 am Post subject:
Stick in there. Its a pain in the bum, but something will come up.

Mrs Fiddlesticks

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 10460

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 05 9:10 am Post subject:

Bad luck Two Scoops! But in a way sounds like you've had a lucky escape with the listed building stuff, beaurocractic nightmare that one I think!

Have you thought of looking in a different direction? Our village is starting very tentative and early discussions about having a community shop. I gather that this sort of thing is gathering momentum. Someone with your experience, could offer some much needed advice to communities trying to set this up! ( or bring back the travelling shop - remember them? )Despite the work of Tesco's etc most small communties do actually want a local place for a paper, loaf of bread and a gossip!

Nothing wrong with the Cotswolds of course! Born in Cheltenham!

Behemoth

Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 05 9:15 am Post subject:

From my limited experience of the property market I've found that solicitors have no incentive to do things quickly or actually do a good job.

Excessive delays in selling my OH's house was putting our house purchase in jeopardy. After several days of cajoling the solicitor to forward details to the buyer they eventually said they'd "put it in the post to go out tonight". The two offices are 100 yards apart. I suggested it would be quicker if I drove down to Cardiff hand delivered it myself and drove back to Leeds, or they could send their errand monkey to walk the 100 yards and do it themselves, which they did, and recomend a similar course of action for the buyers solicitor. Result was an action was completed in two working days rather than a week. On another occasion they described Tuesday as being near the end of the week and it was unlikely that anything could be doen until after the weekend!

Don't envy you twosccops but maybe as one door shuts another opens?

twoscoops

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 1924
Location: Warwickshire

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 05 9:29 am Post subject:
Maybe. I was annoyed with my solicitor, but I found the best way to chivvy them along was to talk to them on the phone. It sounds silly but if you can build a rapport with the solicitor, rather than an assistant, they seem to take you more seriously!

Debbie

Joined: 04 Dec 2004
Posts: 160
Location: Exmoor Devon

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 05 11:20 am Post subject: stuck in this place for a bit longer
Please don't tar all solicitors with the same brush.....some actually do try to do their best......and the incentive to do that job as quickly as possible but hopefully without making mistakes and then getting sued is that those of them that work with a low basic salary plus commission, which is not unusual for conveyancers, don't get paid till you complete!!!

twoscoops

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 1924
Location: Warwickshire

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 05 11:24 am Post subject:
That may be true, but like Behemoth I can only comment from my experience. I've found solicitors to be frustratingly slow.

halloween

Joined: 27 Jun 2005
Posts: 61
Location: Co. Galway, Ireland

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 05 11:35 am Post subject:

Twoscoops wrote:

That may be true, but like Behemoth I can only comment from my experience. I've found solicitors to be frustratingly slow.

Seconded (or is that thirded?)

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28239
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 05 11:38 am Post subject:

Twoscoops wrote:

That may be true, but like Behemoth I can only comment from my experience. I've found solicitors to be frustratingly slow.

In my experience most property stuff involves a set of forms, which whilst complex, could really be done by the tea boy with a days training, and probably is

Thus they inflate the "worth" of the service by making out it all takes a lot of time and trouble.

Behemoth

Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 05 12:29 pm Post subject: Re: stuck in this place for a bit longer

Debbie wrote:

Please don't tar all solicitors with the same brush.....some actually do try to do their best......and the incentive to do that job as quickly as possible but hopefully without making mistakes and then getting sued is that those of them that work with a low basic salary plus commission, which is not unusual for conveyancers, don't get paid till you complete!!!

I'm sure - I'll hire a minibus and take them all for a day out

Having had my whinge I must ay that the professional Conveyancer (not Solicitor) we used at our end was very good, have recomended him several times without any complaints arising. I have his number if anybody in the Leeds area is interested, or look up Mark Archer in the yellow pages.

Debbie

Joined: 04 Dec 2004
Posts: 160
Location: Exmoor Devon

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 05 12:56 pm Post subject: stuck in this place for a bit longer
Thanks Jema and Behmoth......exactly the attitude that made me give up and move to Devon where I look after my animals and cook for a living earning ï¿½5 an hour to make ends meet..... Oh, I was a conveyancer not a solicitor but at the end of the day we do the same job as far as property is concerned just some of us are better at it than others same as every other profession

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45676
Location: Essex

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 05 1:03 pm Post subject: Re: stuck in this place for a bit longer

Debbie wrote:

Thanks Jema and Behmoth......exactly the attitude that made me give up and move to Devon where I look after my animals and cook for a living earning ï¿½5 an hour to make ends meet.....

Don't worry Debbie, unfortunately like Estate Agents you're involved in a trade where the punter is undergoing plenty of stress and it's very easy to pin blame even if it's inappropriate. I've never had any problems with solicitors but then I use the same ones that my work does.

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28239
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 05 1:06 pm Post subject: Re: stuck in this place for a bit longer

Debbie wrote:

Thanks Jema and Behmoth......exactly the attitude that made me give up and move to Devon where I look after my animals and cook for a living earning ï¿½5 an hour to make ends meet.....

Oh, I was a conveyancer not a solicitor but at the end of the day we do the same job as far as property is concerned just some of us are better at it than others same as every other profession

You should explain a bit more about it, I am sure you can understand the frustrations of people paying a lot of money for a service that seems a lot like an unneeded expense, and finding it has not even been done right.

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