Cry me a river

It is said that the three most stressful things that you can experience are divorce, a court case and buying (or selling) a house. Unless you are an habitual criminal or love splitting your ill-gotten gains with an ex, the chances are that you will do the latter many times. If you involve me in the process, I should be able to reduce your anxiety by walking you through the process.

In England this is torturous as there are no written contracts until the end. There is a huge onus placed on the buyer. And the only ones who always win are the solicitors. Grand. Not.

Many other countries do it differently. Scotland, for example. There, once a price has been agreed, contracts are drawn up and money exchanged. This has the effect of weeding out the time wasters and making things happen much quicker than in England, currently 14-16 weeks, by which time much of the initial euphoria has worn off.

Another effect of having binding contracts at the start is that it prevents gazumping and gazundering, a good thing.

It has to be said that the government are seeking to change this, not before time!