We are Complete!

T Minus 24

The house buying / selling process in England is more complex than in some other countries, we are led to believe. It is certainly a long winded process as we have found. We put our house on the market on April 2nd. This involved engaging an Estate Agent to market the property. After several weeks and lots of viewings without success we finally found out about the solar panels. Then out of the blue a buyer who was prepared to buy out the solar panels. Seemingly job done; on May 3rd we sold subject to completion.
We thought this was the end game, but we had not counted on the solicitors!. In England , you engage solicitors to undertake the legal aspects of the sale and to arrange the transfer of monies. In the over two months since we ‘sold’ the solicitors have had a plethora of questions and have taken an age to process our responses. Given there is no chain (i.e. one house being bought/ sold) and that we are selling to people we know, this has been a drawn out process. The has first involved signing of a contract by both parties (we signed on the 27th June), but further questions delayed and delayed this section of the sale. The second stage is completion when the house sale is finalised – and with a sense of relief this has happened today 🙂 we are no longer home owners which is scary but the way is fully open for our departure.