to be furious at being so openly lied to by a solicitor and confront her about it

[darbylou]

Long time lurker first time poster here.

I'm a first time buyer and I've had an offer accepted on a new build property (small developer) the developer offered to pay for both my mortgage advisor and solicitors fee if I used his chosen ones, a solicitor and an advisor he'd been working with for years and who get things done quickly, I didn't like the idea of this but due to all the expense of moving couldn't really afford to look a gift horse in the mouth, the mortgage advisor is amazing and has everything in hand.

All was going well and I was set to complete tomorrow, I'd contacted the solicitors weeks ago to leave my contact number and introduce myself as the developer had already instructed them, they said they'd get back in touch when they needed anything from me. I received no contact until two days ago when they sent me a corrupted email with 3 files I couldn't open at 5pm. The day after I contacted them and they said they'd a lot of forms for me to complete. I went in filled in all the paperwork and was told completion may be delayed but only by a couple of days and work was well on the way with the case.

I received another call today. It was the solicitors wanting to confirm a few details on the form, when I asked how it was progressing she said 'oh it'll be a good few weeks until exchange then two after that until completion' when I questioned it she tried to deny that we had spoken the day before and then told me she'd received instruction on the 1st and then later on said it was on the 5th. I told her I'd already sorted a landscaper and a plumber and a moving firm and was just about to end my tenancy and she said 'do you really think these things happen overnight, I have a lot of work to do you know, I was only told about you today.'

I'll already have all the results from the search by the time the gardener starts now and have exchanged if not already completed. But he'll only let me postpone so long, it's a risk but I can't really lose the deposit.

You need to get your search and have a look at that for a start, it will tell you if they are planning to build a dirty great factory next to your house, that sort of thing.

Unfortunately it won't. Searches will be specifically on the property itself. The OP should request an additional planning search, which will cost extra, to show planning in the surrounding area. You should not just rely on your basic Local Search for this information.

But the results from the search may impact on your choice to go ahead with the purchase, op. You are so far ahead of yourself you're in danger of meeting yourself coming back.

You can hardly exchange without the search results. As pointed out above, what if the search finds your house is built on a toxic dump? The 'developer' sounds like a bullshitter and you sound a bit clueless, sorry.

I do see you you want to get cracking to get the garden sorted etc, OP. Unfortunately, until you exchange, there is no obligation on the seller to actually sell to you. Another buyer could come along tomorrow and offer a higher price and there would be nothing you could do about it. You would then lose your deposit with the gardener.

And as others have said, you might get unsatisfactory search results back or your mortgage company might withdraw the offer.

Fingers crossed this time, but for the future, don't do anything until exchange or better still, completion.

If you read my PP you'll see that I have postponed him. He'll now come in 6 weeks time, by this time I should have exchanged I'd rather wait to cancel him if not then cancel him outright now and lose my money. I'd rather wait to see if I need to cancel him then just cancel him outright.

First, I would ask the solicitor to confirm they have appropriate information barriers in place if they are acting both for you and for the seller. It is not completely uncommon on property sales for this to happen but they should be making you confident that they will be acting in your best interests and not those of the aeller/developer.
Secondly, you should definitely point out your annoyance to the solicitor. Suggest a written note setting out what's happened around the problem with timing in receiving their corrupted documents and what your understanding of timing for exchange/completion are. Keep this recording process up. If she appears to lie to you again note this by way of written response and ask for an explanation. You should say you intend to make a formal complaint if that's what you want to do. Depending if you're happy with the response you can then go to the law society to complain. Their website has information on how to do this.
At the end of the day, she is the professional. She works for you and should be courteous and professional (it's always nice if your client acts this way too of course a but I'm sure you have been). She should also take a reasonable amount of time to explain the process to you in a way that you understand. Don't feel that because someone else is paying you can be fobbed off. Also if they try to say you owe more for asking lots of questions you should challenge this unless they have set out their fees and when this may happen in a formal way first. Finally, definitely wide to wait until completion until you do book tradies. These things can sometimes just take a while.
Good luck OP - hope your sale goes through quickly for you.