Why is buying a house so convoluted?

I have just bought a house in Poland, and while it is hardly smooth sailing trying to buy a house with a British passport, it seems so much easier than the farcical (AFAIK) system we have here.

Basically, both parties share the same notary, and agree on a price, and deposit. The deposit is given to the buyer via the notary. If the seller pulls out, they must give the (former) buyer the depositx2 (so if you put a £10k deposit on as a buyer, and the seller pulls out, you get £20k back). If the buyer pulls out, they lose their deposit. The notary makes sure that the paper work is correct from both side, and handles all of the legal bits and pieces. When everything is ready, the buyer "hands over" the rest of the money and gets his keys.

I have never been involved in a chain, so don't know if that is why we have such a messy system here in the UK (or England). Does anyone know why we have the (seemingly) problematic system that we do, and why it hasn't changed to something a little better?

Reply to
cqmman
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In message , cqmman writes

Problems:

1) Surveys and Mortgages

2) Separate solicitors acting for each party in a fairly adversarial process.

3) Chains
Reply to
Richard Faulkner

Because it allows more people to make more money out of you.

Oh wait - it gets better too - next, the new requirement for a home buyer's report that is supposed to come into effect soon is just another shallow ploy to enable the tax man to get that little bit extra out of the lucrative housing market. Greed in the name of efficiency. Don't you just love these modern spin taxation policies?

Reply to
<nospam

Isn't this what the OP is complaining about, it's silly to have this 'adversarial' system for house purchase. Most continental European countries seem to do it the more sensible way of having a single lawyer dealing with the transfer.

Reply to
usenet

Bearing in mind that the ostensible function of the buyers solicitor is to find legal defects in the title, using one solicitor / conveyancer opens up the possibility of conflicts of interest; a problem that I believe has been known to occur on the continent. Although solicitors have great potential to delay property transactions I don't think that they contribute nearly as much to the problem as chains, and purchasers or vendors vacillating.

Reply to
Bill Taylor

My brother was buying a house in France where the notaire said everything was OK. However, someone mentioned that the fact that the seller was divorced meant that his wife may have claim to the house at some time in the future, even though he had received it in the settlement. As a result he employed a separate notaire who agreed and, as no one could disprove this, he didnt buy it. Might have come to nothing, but it is the type of bombshell which our system aims to avoid.

Reply to
Richard Faulkner

It also fosters competition.

I think you will find that even paying two solicitors (or three if the BS have a different one) is still cheaper than the one that you might pay in other countries.

tim

Reply to
tim (in Sweden)

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