Two weeks ago the sellers asked their lawyer, R, for the remainder of the paperwork - meaning the two things I mentioned in the last post. They finally got one of the papers from her at 10:30 at night on Monday. The Bitul Mishkun was still MIA. R said that it would be picked up by a messenger yesterday. Today came and still no paper. The sellers were keeping on top of her, but she wasn't answering phones or e-mails. Eventually, I called my lawyer who suggested first that we try and get the form ourselves online. I wound up paying 50 NIS to get a form that didn't tell me what I needed anyway. Then, he suggested that S who works around the area where the office is anyway go in there and get the paper himself. I called the seller with this info and she agreed. 5 minutes later she calls me back and tells me that R now has the Bitul on her computer and will forward it along and to stop S from leaving his office.
Cool.
An hour after that, I still don't have the file. The seller tells me that R is having trouble opening it on her computer? so she hasn't sent it yet and that it might be a good idea if S tries to get it himself from the office. I send S out and 10 minutes after that the seller calls me again to tell me that she's sending me the file. I stopped S about halfway there and sent him back to work and forwarded the file on to the e-mail address the bank had provided.
I then called the bank to let them know the files had been sent, but no answer. I called the main Mizrahi line - in Jerusalem - and they couldn't help me. One of the phone people sent an e-mail to the banker I was trying to reach, but I had no way of knowing if they were even in the office. I checked the hours, and the branch I was dealing with was open until 3. After about an hour and a half of this - which put it at 1:30, I turned S loose on them. He used to work in phone support for FedEx Israel so he knows the system and is the last person you want calling. He raked the phone people over the coals to the point that they sent an e-mail out to every single banker in the branch telling them that we needed to reach them. He also gave S the direct line for the branch which we called, but no answer.
At 3PM I finally get a call from the head of the branch asking if we were trying to reach her. I told her that I had sent in the information several hours ago. She then told me that their entire e-mail server was down, so I would have to fax the information ASAP so that it would get to the right people in time. S jumped through three hoops in order to find a working fax - the office that his office rents space from has one, apparently - and sent the files. Oh - and the bank manager told me that she would let me know when she got the files because faxes aren't the most reliable things out there.
4:00 - still haven't heard anything. I tried calling the two numbers I had for the branch and neither one answered. I went on the Mizrahi Facebook page and posted that because no one was answering the phone I wouldn't be able to get the keys to my house. Within 8 minutes I got a response back asking me to e-mail in my details and the whole story. I e-mailed it to the address provided and within 3 minutes got a call back - from the banker I had been dealing with.
She starts yelling at me that I don't have to complain like this and they are busy. I merely pointed out to her that if someone had answered the phone the first time I called at 12 or any time in the three hours after that, this wouldn't have happened. I explained to her that I understand it's not entirely their fault and I reminded her that I had called previously to ask what to do because the lawyer was dragging her heals.
Anyway, she said she'd get the paperwork started and gave me a direct line to reach her.
I'll call her in a few hours to find out what the story is.
In other news, the sellers move out today!!
