I don't want to jinx it. I don't want to dare say it out loud but, perhaps, we could be almost there?
It's not the buying of houses in England that's particularly difficult, it's the selling. It's being at the mercy of buyers in an apparently buyers market who screw you down on the price then get a surveyor telling them about all the defects and then screw you down on the price again, knowing that you're at risk of losing your new life if you don't agree.
Surveyors are, I'm told by the estate agents, the bane of their lives at the moment. Taken at face value (and only the copied extracts we've been allowed sight of), my house is all but falling down. Which is why they can stand, hands on hips and stamping their feet, and demand further a reduction from the agreed price.
That and the nonsense we've had to resolve because the previous solicitors were not, as it happens, working in my best interest.
How do you know? How do you know that they didn't do their job properly, lied on official paperwork and faked signatures until, some five years later, you come to sell and it all comes out in the wash?
You don't. You suffer the delays, the stress, hassle and irritation of dealing with bureaucracy which has had all of the common sense sucked out of it and you're left with more delays, paperwork and, the best bit, cost.
There is, at least, some redress through the Legal Ombudsman but, to be honest, all they're going to be able to do is offer a slap on the wrist and maybe return my costs. What I should do is stamp my feet harder than the buyers, shout louder and demand what is reasonable. But then, in the real world, I just want out of the place, to be at least one firm, concrete step closer to our new life.
We live in hope.
Fingers crossed.
