Just looking for advice from a legal POV.
We think my vendors solicitor has caused major issues by not either acting upon information or failing to check information. Not sure which, or if someone else responsible.
I'm friends with my vendor and want to help her. We are a short chain and my vendor is buying a property which is a probate sale. She was initially told that completion could be before Christmas if everyone in the chain was happy with this. This was mid October. I said no, and we all agreed to aim for 1st Feb completion date with exchange early-mid Jan.
This week just days before we hoped to exhange my solictor told me that she had learned there was an issue with the probate on my vendors purchase. After speaking to my vendor who was surprised and alarmed, she rang her solicitor to be told that probate hadn't been granted. She had been told by the EA on viewing that it had been. And at no point had her solicitor said there was an issue. How does one get 12 weeks down the line and days before exchange before this comes to light? Should this have been chased much earlier? Should my vendor have been told this much earlier? To make matters even worse probate was only applied for the day after all this came to light. The executor was a firm of solicitors and apparently the son and daughter who were beneficiaries of the will had contested something which is why it had taken so long. So why the hell has this not been communicated? A whole chain now faces collapse because of this.
Does my vendor have cause to complain to her solicitor? If not, where does responsibility lie?