Things with the first official Coorie Renovations purchase haven’t been easy. We have had problems with our solicitor, the sellers solicitor and a tenant. Pretty much everything that could have went wrong did go wrong! I’m staying positive and treating this a learning experience, it’s better for these mistakes to happen when we are dealing with smaller purchases so I am happy for it to happen now rather than in a couple of years time.

What was supposed to happen.

We viewed the flat on August 21st and after sleeping on the decision we decided to make an offer the next day. We called the sellers estate agent who then came back with a counter offer and we accepted. There were tenets in the property but we were told they would vacate within 8 weeks of the verbal offer. Our formal offer was accepted on September 6th and we got to work setting up the business, this blog and everything else we needed to make Coorie legit while we waited on the keys.

What Went Wrong

After initially agreeing 8 weeks with the seller we were unable to get an official date accepted by their solicitors. In Fact our lawyer couldn’t get a response from their team on multiple points. The seller used a “Low-Cost, Low-Stress” Solicitor who might be cheap but has caused lots of stress and lots of delays! They seem to work like a call centre and you can’t actually talk with anyone, you can only leave a message or send an email then wait for them to respond.

Our solicitor proposed a date of 28th October and we were under the impression that it was agreed on. When that date came our lawyer wouldn’t answer our calls or emails and we were left no knowing what was happening. Two days later we heard from her and she let us know she hadn’t heard from their team. This went on for another 2 weeks until we managed to get a message to the seller through the estate agent and let him know that we were planning to pull out of the sale if we didn’t receive a confirmed date.

Finally, the two teams were talking and they let us know that the tenant was still in the property. He was due to move out on Sunday 17th November and we were told we would receive the keys either Tuesday or Thursday that week (notice there is still no confirmed date!)

I am writing this on Wednesday 20th at 8:30am and we have been told we WILL keys today! FINALLY! I’m excited but also not entirely sure I trust it. Until we open the door I’m not sure I will believe it.

If you have had any similar experiences or have any recommendations for lawyers please leave a comment below. I’m not sure how common this experience is so I’d love to hear how some other sales have been managed.