WHAT goes on between accepted Offer and Exchange??

[faraday]

5 weeks today and only today did we get the first official bit of paperwork from the seller's solicitor, via ours! It was the Contents list (dated 11 days ago- where's it been since then??)

We were asked for another £42 from our solicitor a week ago to pay for a search that hadn't been carried out in the HIP (first indication that searches were actually being DONE at all!) but other than that I can only assume that SOMETHING'S been happening in the background! We harrass our solicitor every other day but we get 'Oh I got some paperwork from their solicitor and I raised 5 or 6 points with them..' AND??

As it is we were on the brink of threatening our withdrawal from the purchase 2 weeks ago (thought the sellers had changed their minds as we had heard nothing to indicate otherwise!) but the panicked EA called the seller's solicitor - also we didn't know he was 'allowed' to do that, actually!- who claimed they'd send some paperwork to our solicitor- whose secretary (Friday afternoon!) denied having yet seen. Obviously someone's not being completely honest..

BUT the big issue is can we at this point start getting a bit 'heavy'? I guess all parties will start blaming each other and there's no proof of who did what when. We DO know our sellers had an offer accepted last weekend (9 days ago) so we were HOPING this would speed things along as now they NEED our money. Legitimately, we have got a problem: renewal of rental lease. When we had our offer accepted, the lease was 4 months off finishing and we have allowed the buyers til Oct 1st to vacate. It's now less than 3 (we're also cross that the buyers have 'squandered' this generous time frame) and we HAVE to either renew (lord knows if we'll be 'allowed' a month or a min of 6 again!) or terminate (notice of) pretty soon! We're 'too late' to offer on another property within this 6 month lease.

Bear in mind this area is Good Catchment central. Suitable houses sell in 2 days flat so we can't really threaten to walk and not mean it as yes, they WILL sell again relatively easily though will it be to someone cashed up, chain free and, up til now, reasonably flexible time-wise? What price on THAT?

[LIZS]

Any paperwork should always go via your solicitor, not direct to you. They can filter out obvious oversights and queries. It does sound as if things are moving along now and should do so more quickly. You will receive the bulk of the paperwork , including the searches and a draft contract, in a batch once the queries are answered. It might be worth checking whether your solictor is due off on holiday or having another contact to cover if so, and also expected turn around times on searches. Getting heavy now will just irk and the vendor may remarket if they are so confident of attracting another buyer. Return your paperwork promptly so noone can accuse you of dragging your feet.

I'd suggest you reiterate the last date you can give notice and that you need ot have exchanged by then. Normally a lease can just roll ona monthly basis after the forst 6 months btw , with you having to give one month's notice.