7th March 2012

So another tense afternoon yesterday. The Estate Agent was still waiting for the buyer to provide his solicitors details. Without them they could not post out letters to us, the buyer and the solicitors and as such the solicitors could not commence getting their paperwork together, contacting land registry mortgage companies etc.

The Agent rang me at lunchtime to advise that they were still waiting but would ring him. At around 1.30 they came back to me having spoken to him about the need to move a bit quicker and to explain our position of concern. He said he was speaking to some solicitiors during his lunchtime still getting quotes. He said he saw the sale sign had gone up and that gave him some reassurance. The Agent pointed out that us as sellers needed some reassurance as well, and he promoised to make a decision. I cannot believe how much he was expecting to save.

Anyhow lunchtime came and went. At 4.30pm the agent rung me and said they had good news and some not so good news. He had engaged an solicitor, but low and behold chosen the exact same one as we had. Legally you cannot have the same solicitor to buy and sell a property. The agent went back to him to tell him to change. In the meantime I rung them back and said if there was a problem with cost going to another agent I would pay the difference, after all it could not be much. I knew that you could have the same solicitor working for both parties as long as it was two different branches. So I was just holding for my solicitor to see if I could move to the Cheshunt branch, when the agent called back and said he had now selected another one, the original one recommneded by the Agent. Shame it took so long to get there.

Anyhow letters have now been posted to all parties and now there is nothing more we or the Agent can do. It is down to the solicitors and the buyer. The Agent advised it could take around 5 weeks to get the contracts exchanged but was confident that the solicitors being used are the best two in the area.

So now we go back to normal living hopefully, put the move to the back of our minds, there is nothing we can do to progress it anyway and wait for phone calls and letters.

We are putting our whole future in the hands of our buyer, should he pull out at the last minute before exchange we will be left with very little time to find a new buyer before Helen has to hand her notice in.