In Scotland - Exchange date passed and nothing happening... What now?

[KellyGarcia]

Me AGAIN with a new query... It has been 6 weeks since we accepted the offer on our house and the offer letter was sent to the buyers solicitor. They only just got their mortgage in place and the date of exchange has now passed.

What now? Does it all start again? Is there a chance to agree a new moving in date with the buyers?

Our solicitor seems to want to get things done asap and are advising us that we can not make a new move in date. We just have to sign everything as soon as it is ready to go even though we need to rearrange to have the movers out again.

Any advice?

"Date of exchange" is kind of meaningless. You had a target date to conclude missives and it passed. And I presume that will also mean the entry date that was provisionally agreed in the original offer/acceptance has also passed. Whether you still want to proceed with these buyers is up to you. I don't see why you couldn't agree a new entry date with them. It can be sorted with an exchange of letters quite quickly. If I was their lawyer I would want to just make sure the correct entry date was agreed formally because otherwise strictly speaking you could claim against them for not completing in time.

Thanks. I thought that was the case but it seems we are getting the run around. think we will be changing solicitors.

Thank you!!!! Great.

It sounds like maybe your solicitor is being a bit lazy. One thing to bear in mind is changing at this stage may mean more delay because your new solicitor will need to ensure they are happy with everything in the transaction. It might be easier to just keep the pressure on your current person. Start muttering about complaints to the Law Society if all else fails. Good luck, keep us posted!

Ok. I was asking about and it seems our solicitors are quite reputable round here and quite a few people have used them for this and that. I think we will just have to keep repeating ourselves until we are heard and not be roadrailed into anything.

Thanks very much for your words of wisdom on this. I have NO idea when it comes to this kind of thing and it is quite unnerving putting your faith in a solicitor who seems to be disinterested in their own client. Muttering advice duly noted!

It's normal for the missives date to be very fluid. I have never known the moving date to change however. TBH I have never been given a missives date either - it all just happens somehow.

Solicitors are fairly disinterested in conveyancing because it is 'relatively' underpaid compared to other legal work. There is so much competition that they keep their prices low.

BTW I am sure the last couple of times we signed the papers the day before we moved.