A frustrated seller mounted a one-man demonstration at his local council, with a placard demanding to know why it takes over three weeks to do a search.
Ibriham Conteh vented his anger against Worthing Council, which has said that staff illness has led to a backlog which it is working to clear.
He said that 15 working days to issue searches was a realistic target.
Conteh was eventually told that the search information relating to his own transaction had been sent.
One local agent said that slow searches have become an issue and said that one stage the snow had been blamed – although it had been almost non-existent in the town.
Comments (2)
I particularly like the piece in the story where the client vents his frustration that his estate agent has not heard back yet about the searches. If in doubt, blame the agent!
It’s no wonder that this whole process is so stressful when consumers are not informed properly by their lawyers as to how the process actually works.
It’s been horrendous in West Dorset. Our record length has been 26 weeks!!!
Its got better in recent months but still takes anything from 10 – 16 weeks. Whilst some can take out indemnity insurance, some can’t and some won’t.
Keeping chains together for that long has been a nightmare! People get fed up & pull out, especially if they’re in chains with others outside the area.
Trying to run a business when it literally takes months to see the income has been very hard work. It’s been stressful for everyone involved in the transaction and we’ve suffered this for the past few years!