To keep chasing our solicitor and estate agent for updates every couple of days?

[Rain2122]

Hi all,

The situation is that we're in a chain waiting to exchange. We've been ready to exchange on the purchase side for weeks but our buyer's solicitor is not ready to exchange. We do not fully understand the current status and how long things will take to resolve.

We do know our buyer's mortgage offer expires in less than 2 weeks (i.e. we have less than 2 weeks to exchange and complete). I am panicking because interest rates have gone up so much that if the chain falls apart, it will cost us an eye-watering sum (tens of thousands).

I've not heard from our estate agent since Monday (letting us know he couldn't get hold of anyone and was waiting for calls back) and we've had nothing from our solicitor for a couple of weeks (an email to her a few days ago has gone unanswered).

I don't want to be that unreasonable client who keeps chasing for updates too often, but there's a lot of money at stake and every day matters at the moment!

What do you think?

Friend of mine is a very busy solicitor and says that any people who ring constantly and make a nuisance of themselves get put to the bottom of the pile

Really? Clients are entitled to a proper and timely service last time I checked. And would not ring constantly if they were kept in the loop. Not their fault if their lawyers take on more work than they should. I've done conveyancing and I can assure you my clients never felt the need to badger me day in, day out.

I’m a commercial property solicitor although do some residential work as well. The phone chasing is very often more of a hindrance than a help; if I’m talking to 30 - 40 clients on the phone every day I’ve got no time to do the actual work! Sometimes yes the squeaky wheel does get the oil, but please do keep it polite - we are only human and are just trying to do the best for everyone. Clients who are rude and obnoxious will go to the back of queue! Also remember that it’s the job of the estate agents to chase - and are far better placed to chase than us as they have access to the whole chain. Not to mention better paid - on one matter I completed this week the agents fees were, literally, 10 times as much as what we charged……

Speak to your solicitor, daily if you have to. Some solicitors just ignore estate agents. I pestered everyone daily when the stamp duty holiday was coming to an end. We made it by a week.

@StillNotWarm thank you. I'll tell her.