HOME buyers in Henley fear they will miss out on their dream move due to delays caused by an ongoing IT software upgrade.
They are being forced to wait weeks to exchange contracts after the move by South Oxfordshire District Council resulted in a delay to “searches” being completed.
Searches are carried out by a solicitor to help identify legal, environmental and planning issues that could affect the property’s value, usability, or future development.
From April to June the council’s software behind its land charges and planning services and mapping system had “downtime” while it was updated.
While the planning service came back online two weeks ago, land charges through which searches are processed are still being “tested”.
The council is warning that there will be a delay in processing when the system goes live.
Last week, the Henley Standard reported how estate agents have been trying to manage expectations of their clients with many left “deeply upset” by the delays.
Jason Bew, who is currently renting in Shiplake Cross is trying to buy a property in Badgemore and is worried that his mortgage application may be withdrawn if he has to wait any longer.
He said: “We sold up and have been renting for the last couple of years, waiting for something to come up which we loved.
“We found a property in Badgemore and because it hasn’t been sold for more than 40 years, a lot of things may have changed in that time.
“With the searches, we put in for all the regular stuff with the transfer but we get nothing back for land registry searches.
“Our solicitor dug into it and found that Bracknell and other councils have been doing massive platform upgrades and, to do it, they have frozen their existing ones.
“We have constantly tried to get hold of the district council to ask when its platform will be up and running as we can’t get the land searches through.
“We have a mortgage application which we applied for very early on so, if we’re not careful, that will expire because you only have so long on them.
“We thought we’d be exchanging in June, the upgrade is holding up the whole system.”
Mr Bew said the delay could cost him in extra rental payments. He said: “I have to give my landlord two months’ notice.
“I’ve now paid another month and so, if it goes through soon, I might end up paying mortgage and rent at the same time.
“My seller has been lovey but it does cause a lot of anxiety and stress.”
Tom Spencer sold his Henley home before the IT upgrade and has moved into what he hoped would be a short-term let with his wife, two children and two dogs.
They were expecting to move into a village just outside the town this month but had to walk away from the purchase.
Mr Spencer said: “We have been trying to buy and the delay in land searches has been one of the reasons we, very recently, had to walk away from a purchase.
“We just can’t get any updates on when the searches will come back and, as part of the purchase process, the sellers couldn’t provide some of the information we needed which could have been borne out of the searches.
“We were under pressure before the mortgage rates go back up because we managed to get a deal ahead of the Iran war so it was a good rate.
“Unfortunately, the search result has been one of the reasons we’ve had to walk away from the purchase.
“Our solicitor said we could potentially take out indemnity insurance but, because of the responses we had from the sellers, we were nervous to do that because there wasn’t some information which we expected.
“Every time I speak to the district council they just say ‘Oh sorry, we’ve got no further updates’. For a while they were giving us dates and then that seems to have stopped and they no longer give a date.”
Mr Spencer added: “It’s also the costs. We did a survey on the home we were going to buy. You incur some solicitor costs. It’s just one of those things which we could have ticked off but instead it has just been hopeless.”
Another buyer, who wished to remain anonymous, had been trying to sell and buy a property in the Wallingford area.
They said: “I put my house on the market in the new year, it sold in April and we’re still stuck. So, my buyers are waiting for their survey on my home and I’m waiting for my survey on the house I’m buying.
“My buyers were hoping to be in by the end of June. We sent the paperwork in May and we’re still waiting.
“The most frustrating thing is that the district council aren’t making things clear. It’s always ‘this technology is happening’ and ‘we’re in the final stages’.
“I don’t know another company in the world that would get away with shutting down an old system before the new system works. If I did that in my job, I would be fired.
“It’s just mad that they would close the old system before the new system was ready to take over. It’s pushed everything back by at least a couple of months but we still don’t have a date even now.”
They added: “I know my buyers are also keen to get in as they have a baby due and their mortgage runs out in September. It’s the unknown of it all. In my head we were moving in at the end of June to the middle of July and then you have the summer holidays to potter about and settle in. Now I don’t think I’ll move until September.”
A spokesman for the district council, said: “We are currently undertaking final testing on the land charges system to ensure it is working correctly and returning accurate searches.
“We aim to launch the system as soon as this is complete. Due to the downtime, there will be a period of catching up once we launch.
“We will outline timescales and the number of working days from acceptance once the system has launched.
“We hope to resume normal services as soon as possible once we have worked through the backlog from our downtime. We will keep all our users updated regularly on this progress on our website.
“We are very sorry for any issues the downtime is causing – and thank everyone for their continued patience.
“We really are doing everything in our power to get the system over the line. We will keep our website updated as and when things change.”