I met with my soliciter yesterday evening and got some bad news.

There are three remaining issues.

1. The wall that was removed 2 and a half years ago has now been given retrospective permission, but it's on the assumption that all planning and building regulation applications that had to be made were successful. Building Reg's weren't and they should have been. Basically, to check whether the wall was structural or not and if it was safe to be removed. There have been no obvious problems in those 2 and a half years, but if any come up when the flat is mine, I have to foot the bill to fix them.
   
   
2. The sellers soliciters haven't agreed to a retainer. When I buy the property, I will be getting it mid-financial year. I will pay service charges from the day of completion; Up to that day, the seller pays. However, the amount for the year is unknown until April next year and so their portion can only be based on a guesstimate. Basically a retainer is a sum of money (usually £500) which the soliciter keeps. At the end of the Service Charge year (April), when the actual amount of charges is known any shortfall in the predicted amount paid by the seller is taken out of this kitty.
   
   This retainer will also be used to pay any shortfall on the roof repair which I mentioned some time in the past. This is predicted to be just under £3000. But the work has been completed, so the freeholder's estimate should be pretty damn accurate.
   
   If the seller refuses to keep a retainer (which is unusual) then any shortfall has to be picked up by me. So, hopefully, we'll get their agreement.
   
   
3. And this is the big one.... The block of flats used to be owned by the council. When it was first purchased a discounted mortgage was offered to the buyer. If, during the first three years of this mortgage, the property was sold on, a charge had to be paid. The sellers I'm buying from purchased the flat with 5 months left of the 3 year period. For some reason, the charge was not paid.
   
   Ideally, it should have been sorted at the time my sellers purchased the flat, but through some administrative cockup it wasn't. I've been strongly advised not to continue with the flat with the charge still standing as it could be anything. £1000, £5000, noone knows. In the best case scenario, we get the sellers soliciters to sort it. We get their written confirmation that it is/was their issue and they will sort it out. With that letter, I'm not liable to pay the charge and we can just forget about it.
   
   But they haven't given us that word, despite having asked for it.

My soliciter is calling the seller's today to try and sort out issues 2 and 3. I can cope with bad news on point 2, but if they aren't cooporative with point 3 then I'm really in the shit.

As for point 1, I was meant to bring with me to work the phone number of the people who carried out the work on the flat, but I forgot. I'll call them this evening and hopefully get some word from them on whether the wall was important or not.

So unless my soliciter has amazing luck in sorting things today, it looks like I could be delayed by ANOTHER week at the very best. Don't these people realise I just want to move in?!