To sue my freeholder for a sale that fell through

[Hocuspoc]

And is it even possible?
Essentially, we had a sale in progress and our management company hasn't responded to our solicitors for two (2!!!) months with regards to management pack, part of it they were on holiday part of it just simply ignoring...
The buyer has now pulled his offer - literally zero progress made in over 2 months time.

I am also annoyed with our solicitor as I'd expect they are different routes to obtain the pack or pressure the management company to fulfil their obligations - I've literally never heard of this happening. This is undoubtedly causing us financial loss.
Yes - you can sue and you should
No - welcome to reality, there is nothing you can do.

There’s no legal obligation for a freeholder or their managing agent to provide an LPE1 form, which is the basis for a management pack. You’d therefore struggle to have a legal basis to sue them, particularly since any financial losses prior to exchange aren’t recoverable regardless of how they occurred. You need to get this sorted out with them now and get some written commitment from them that they’ll provide it for your next buyer, or you’ll really struggle selling.

ETA: the LAS should be able to give you advice on how to push this forward, or how to complain to an ombudsman if they’re regulated: https://www.lease-advice.org/faq/im-selling-my-property-is-my-landlord-obliged-to-respond-to-pre-sale-enquiries/

Don’t know but this is awful OP I feel for you

So essentially - they don't have to provide the pack at all? Does that mean we can never sell or what is our option?

This won't help your current situation, but please get in touch with your MP and explain the problem. The government is currently looking to revise the laws around leaseholds & this sounds like something they should look at.

There's no legal obligation so you wouldn't win a court case.

It's shit and I'd be fuming and would rip them a new one but practically speaking, there is nothing you can do.

We had the very same problem but luckily my buyer didn’t pull out - took me months to get the pack - so frustrating. Can you keep trying to get the packs so you have them for when you sell again? (Not sure if it works like that?

It took me five months to finally get the keys to my flat despite the fact it was empty and I had nothing to sell. Most of the wait was waiting for the utterly incompetent management company to get its arse in gear. Unfortunately they are all a bunch of useless idiots and the sooner they are properly regulated the better.

Unless they have form for being actively contrary and showing ill-will to leaseholders, it’s more likely to simply be incompetence on the part of the person responsible for doing the admin than them refusing to provide the pack. Try and negotiate with them first, and file a complaint if you still aren’t getting anywhere.

Ha! It took us nearly five months to get an LPE1 pack out of the local authority freeholder of flat Mr Monkey owned.

This is a mare. I recall getting ours really quickly, but I was a resident director of the management company - I could therefore go straight to the right person in the admin team really easily.

might be worth talking to one of those folks, and seeing if they can push it through with the agent for you?