From Milton Keynes to Downpatrick, Northern Ireland

Published: 09/09/2024 By Daryl Smith

From Milton Keynes to Downpatrick, Northern Ireland; a long, long, LONG journey!

As Estate Agents, we are all experiencing longer and more difficult transactions far too often nowadays, but this particular customer journey compelled us to share their story!

Mr & Mrs Doyle’s journey started in October 2023. They decided that they were going to retire from work and move back home, to Northern Ireland. From the outset, they were extremely hospitable and always wanted to cater for anyone in their home. This started with cups of tea and biscuits for Haig Property staff and continued with meticulously cleaning their home for multiple viewings (with the kettle boiled and biscuits set out on the dining table) for potential buyers! Needless to say, this went down brilliantly with buyers and they received lots of interest, including 3 offers within a few weeks! The sale was wrapped up by early November, to first time buyers, wanting to move asap! The target date was set for the middle of February 2024 for completion and the Doyle’s handed their notice to their respective employers for the end of January 2024! Exciting times! 

Fast forward to mid January 2024; Mortgage offer was out, conveyancing was all but done (just needed report and contracts signed), but the buyers became impossible to reach! A couple of weeks went by and the dreaded news emerged: the buyers got cold feet and decided to pull out; they gave very strange reasons, including “we wanted a 25 year mortgage and we could only get a 30 year mortgage” - Daryl tried to establish the actual reason, but just got a multitude of excuses and could tell Daryl was fighting a losing battle. This meant that he had to call our lovely vendors with the news none of us wanted (two weeks before they should’ve been completing). They were understandably devastated. All of their things had been boxed up, family members were moved into different rooms to accommodate for storage boxes, etc and now we’re talking about getting the house ready for viewings again!  

The house went back on the market and was just as popular as before! Most buyers were dependant on related sales, but led to another three offers. This became a race to sell the quickest, with two of the three potential buyers instructing Haig Property for their sales. First to sell, Mrs P; a lovely lady who is a full time carer for her husband and mother. She secured a sale in just under 4 weeks, towards the end of March and to a buyer that had sold their shared ownership home 5 weeks prior to that, through another estate agent. This normally puts everyone under pressure to catch up, so Daryl decided to knuckle down and concentrate on our two links in the chain! (This would later prove to be a huge mistake)* As the conceyancing got underway for a 2nd time for Mr & Mrs Doyle, things seemed to be going smoothly; this was until the structural survey came back with a number of concerning factors for their buyer (and, in turn, their buyers sale too!!)….. ….the adverse surveys resulted in multiple re-viewings on both properties, supervised contractor visits and re-negotiations of selling prices, over mediated meetings between buyers and sellers!

 The conveyancing was halted whilst the negotiations went on for about 3 weeks in total and then completed shortly after, by the end of May; putting the Doyle's and Mrs. P in a position to exchange. We could finally talk about dates for Mr & Mrs Doyle, so Daryl reached out to the solicitor at the bottom of the chain, acting on behalf of the first time buyer, purchasing the shared ownership home. Daryl was expecting that he would be ready (or very near, at least)  *back to our cardinal mistake at the start….. …..the solicitor explained that he had only just received the draft contract, but later explained that he was waiting for the lender to confirm that they will approve the mortgage, before continuing! Daryl asked if searches had been applied, or if initial enquiries raised; both NO! - for anyone not familiar with the industry, this meant that no work had been done on the transaction at the bottom for nearly 3 and a half months!! It was then established, that a Deed of Variation was required and we’ve seen these take months to agree (or in a lot of cases, denied)! To add insult to injury, after this information came to light; this particular conveyancer had nearly 2 weeks off sick, multiple family emergencies and other working from home days, with no one picking up the workload that was left by him! 

As we were at risk of multiple links in the chain failing (not forgetting that Mr & Mrs Doyle retired at the end of January, so had been living off savings for MONTHS!), Daryl called the legal representative for the housing association, who are normally reluctant to talk about such matters and will refer you to the housing association directly - to our surprise, they were completely happy to talk! They even confirmed that they will agree a Deed of Variation and would just need the suggested amendments! Daryl was so happy and told the conveyancer at the bottom of the chain. He confirmed that he would send the amendments request through, but advised that there were quite a few points, so would need a little bit of time; when pressed he said he would be emailing by close of play the following day…..after chasing (a lot!) the email was finally sent 8 days later! The legal representatives took 24 hours to review the contents, but explained that the request made very little sense: they copied Daryl into the response, which predominantly requested “please can you clarify what you require”! This went back and forth for weeks, to the point where the seller of the shared ownership home (Mrs. P’s buyer) decided to put an ultimatum of 5th August for a satisfied response to this dragged out part of the transaction! This was only just met, with the conveyancer at the bottom confirming he was satisfied after 3pm on the 5th August! 

The report was reviewed and sent to the first time buyer and contracts were confirmed all signed and received later that week. We could finally start talking about moving dates and all agreed on 22nd August! I cannot explain the joy Daryl and the rest of the team felt and the elation we could hear from everyone involved! The Doyle's booked their removals, the ferry to Northern Ireland and arranged family and friends to help them at the other end! Mrs. P’s removals company were no longer available, so our recommended removals company managed to sort something at very short notice and even agreed to match their previous quote from their original movers! After all this was confirmed, the conveyancer at the bottom of the chain explained that the lender was now requesting further information about the ground rent and service charge, before they would agree to draw down the funds  We had a small window of opportunity and we were on the 11th hour (literally), after waiting on underwriters for nearly a week (putting everyone through hell, whilst they awaited their fate), but was able to get everything in place to exchange with enough time to complete on the 22nd, as agreed! The Haig Property team are so happy for Mr & Mrs Doyle and wish them every happiness in their new home - Daryl truly feels strange not speaking to them all every day! 

We have attached a photo of the the house that our lovely and extremely patient vendors have moved into in Downpatrick after TEN MONTHS OF HELL and whilst this was a looooong story, we feel it has an extremely important moral: PICK YOUR CONVEYANCER VERY CAREFULLY!! 

The team at Haig Property Professionals are always on hand for advice and guidance, for anything property related, sales, lettings or even a home renovation project you are considering,  just pick up the phone 01908 419258:

Hope you enjoyed the read.