Buying a Flat

James and I are in the process of buying a flat near our house. This is now the third property purchase we are going through and it still amazes me how inefficient the process is.

Having been through an apartment purchase in Houston, I am now extremely appreciative of the efficient process achieved in the States due to the youth of the country. What seems so efficient and logical to me is countered by years and years of history and evolution of English Law.

It starts with looking for a flat. In the States you engage a real estate agent to whom you will give your property requirements. The agent goes through all available properties in the area(s) in which you are looking and then takes you to view a select few that meet most of, if not all of, your requirements. Once you find a place you like and an offer is made and accepted, you fork over some Earnest Money. The only way you could get the Earnest Money back is if there is something materially wrong with the property that was previously undisclosed, that causes you to pull out of the purchase. You obtain a mortgage, the mortgage company does a survey, you hire a title company to handle the closing and the closing is typically 3-4 weeks later. Simple.

Here, it's all up to the you as the buyer to trawl through websites and contact any number of local estate agents to find suitable properties for viewing. The buyer then makes appointments with each agent for the properties he/she would like to view (I am seeing a market opportunity here). Assuming you find a property you would like to purchase, you then make an offer. Once the offer is accepted, both parties hire solicitors and the buyer gets the mortgage company to do a survey. So far a little more complicated but not so much to scare you. The next part is what I find so weird.

Although you have made an offer and it has been accepted, no deposit or earnest money is given. This means that either side can back out at any time, with no costs other than the solicitors' costs up to that point. The "Exchange" where a deposit is given by the buyer only happens once the buyer and his/her solicitors are happy with all the details of the purchase. "Completion" then can occur, once all the loose ends are tied up. When we bought our house, exchange and completion were on the same day, which seems to defeat the purpose of giving a deposit in the first place, but what do I know. It is also a common occurrence here for people to 'gazump' you - i.e. make a higher offer to the vendor, who then pulls out (and they can, because the exchange hasn't happened yet) - you have no recourse and you also have a load of solicitors' fees to pay (not to mention the survey and other fees already down the drain).

So far with this flat it has been over two months since we made the offer and it was accepted. There are still tons of outstanding points that need to be covered, including our solicitor's going through the annals of property history to be able to opine that the property is truly owned by the vendor and can be sold to us. What I find baffling is that it doesn't matter how many times the property is bought and sold - the buyer's solicitor has to start from scratch each time the property is sold. And let me tell you, solicitors here are so not proactive. I have had to chase up after the vendor, the estate agent, the vendor's solicitors....our own solicitors....(I am sensing another market opportunity here....)

So here we are, with no end date in sight. My brother-in-law, who will be our tenant once we complete, has now moved into our house (more specifically, into Kate's room - with Kate). While Kate loves having him there (it is really sweet - we can hear them 'chatting' in the mornings before I go downstairs to get her ready for breakfast) it isn't fair on either of them. At this point I would love to just cancel the whole thing and start again, but I know that we would only encounter the same problems so it makes more sense to just see it through, no matter how painful it is.