A COUPLE set to get married this weekend have seen the sale of their house collapse twice due to an ongoing “shambles” with planning searches in West Dorset.

Paul Molyneux and Kate Gibbs live in Tolpuddle and have been trying to sell their house since April 2015.

However due to the length of time that land survey searches are taking at West Dorset District Council, the sale has collapsed.

The couple have a seven-year-old daughter and are getting married this weekend.

Due to the sale collapsing, they have had to reduce the price of their house by £15,000 to get the sale through.

The couple are currently living with stacks of boxes in the garage as they wait to see if they can finally move.

The Echo reported last year that there was a “crisis” in the department due to the delays with the searches.

Now one estate agent has described the waiting times in West Dorset as the “worst in the country”.

There also continues to be issues at Weymouth and Portland Borough Council.

Mr Molyneux said: “It’s just constantly not knowing what they are doing. It’s all going wrong. The bad thing is it’s a paid-for service, you’re paying for something and they’re not doing it.”

Searches were first submitted for the couple’s house in January 2016 and weren’t returned until May, it took from December 2015 until May 2016 to get searches back on their first potential house.

Due to the delays in the various searches, the sale of their house collapsed twice.

The uncertainly over the move is also having an impact on Miss Gibb’s work as a self-employed beautician and she has been forced to turn down clients as they might potentially be moving. When the couple thought a move was going to go through at one point they bought new furniture, only to be forced to sell it again.

In August, they put an offer in on a house in West Dorset with searches from a previous attempted sale by another buyer requested months before.

They were told there was only four weeks remaining on these but on September 12 they were told it has been extended by another four weeks.

The couple then contacted West Dorset MP Oliver Letwin to ask for assistance and the searches were returned on September 22.

The couple are now finally hoping to move sometime next month.

Mr Molyneux said: “We’ve got a gift list but we don’t know where the stuff should go to. We want it to go to our new house.”

He added that it is also difficult for their daughter, who is confused by the situation.

Mark Meyers, director at Meyers Estate Agents, told the Echo how this still isn’t an isolated case.

He said: “The last I heard it was 17 weeks, which is clearly putting people off buying a house here.

“It’s a shambles. I think we’re the worst in the country.”

He added that staff at the council have his sympathy but called for more resources to be invested to solve the issue.

Mr Letwin said it is a big issue for constituents and he is glad see efforts being made to clear the backlog and hopes even more effort will be made to bring the delays down to more acceptable levels.

Councils 'taking steps to tackle problem' 

WEST Dorset District Council and Weymouth and Portland Borough Council have said that they have taken steps to tackle the problem and continue to do so.

Cllr Peter Barrowcliff, corporate portfolio holder for West Dorset District Council and Cllr Kevin Brookes, corporate affairs and continuous improvement briefholder for Weymouth & Portland Borough Council, said: “We continue to be aware of the challenges relating to the land charges service. However, a number of improvement actions have now been implemented and we continue to introduce more measures.

“It was always recognised that it would take time to address the full extent of issues being faced by both councils and for the benefits of change to be properly felt.

“We have always sought to identify quick wins where possible. As a result, numbers of searches and turnaround times for both councils have reduced. Whilst there are now some signs of overall improvement, the councils recognise the pressures associated with buying and selling a house and that there remains a lot of scope for further service improvement. We therefore remain committed to delivering an enhanced service and to improve the situation further as quickly as possible.”