The Waiting Game

By mid January 2017 we had bought our plot, appointed an architect and started writing a brief for what we wanted to build. While this was good progress we had seen little movement on one critical aspect - purchasing the plot - our offer having been accepted on the 15th November 2016.

Being based near Perth, Scotland we entrusted the legal aspects of the purchase to a local solicitor we trusted, Anderson Beaton Lamond. Having previously dealt with Lizzie McFadzean, we relied on her to guide us through the process and with christmas a memory we hoped things would move quickly.

We were fortunate to have the money for the purchase and the seller was keen to see things progress so surely there shouldn't be too many hold ups? Perhaps in an ideal world, but by the start of March we were only marginally further forward.

It was frustrating (to put it mildly) but we wanted things done correctly with all the i's dotted and t's crossed, so we did what we could to keep things moving along and waited.

This was the first time either of us had purchased land as opposed to a property which meant the complexities involved were a little foreign to us. Rosie has a lot of experience in reading legal documents and the patience of a saint which helped immensely when reviewing titles dating back to the turn of the century! The advances in technology through the last 100 years were also evident in the different plans we reviewed and pored over carefully.

Throughout the discussions Lizzie kept us up to date and at every turn it was apparent she was working to protect our interests. This feeling that she was working hard to protect us (often from ourselves) certainly helped at the times when we wondered if the sale would ever complete. However, the legal profession moves at it's own pace and won't be hurried, so we tried hard to stay patient and waited.

And waited.

By the start of April 2017 things were getting closer. All the indications were that we would complete soon and tidying up the last few loose ends was the order of business. After several months of documents and emails flying back and forth we tried to collate everything together to have a final review. The volume of paper produced was impressive!

After some false starts, an email arrived from Lizzie on April 6th informing us we had completed the purchase. We now owned 17.6 acres of glorious perthshire!