is our solicitor letting us down?

[stretto]

The estate agent thinks the solicitor is messing around to earn more money.
He has been asking for copies of the full Repairing Lease and Freehold Copy Entries and the Estate Agent and other solicitors think it's unnecessary.
He is lodging queries about soundproofing and boiler and the ea says this should have been done weeks ago. We have been living in hotels and are desperate to get keys to new place.
It's a smart block of luxury flats and appears to be well-run so we don't know why it's taking so long. The vendor is apparently keen to set a date and his solicitors say or's good to go.
We don't know who to trust.

Are you not getting a fixed price for your conveyancing so you won't be paying your solicitor by the hour? That is the norm.

Speaking as an conveyancing ex-solicitor I would trust your solicitor. The estate agent will want their commision and obviously want exchange and completion to take place asap.

Your solicitor will only be raising things that are an issue from the paperwork - the things you mention don't seem unusual.

Also if you need a mortgage to buy the property then your solicitor is also acting for your lender and must act in their best interest. There may be issues that you personally would take a view on but if your lender doesn't then their requirements override yours. Have you spoken to your solicitor to see where things are up to? They should be happy to discuss the main outstanding points over the phone and then at least you can tell the estate agent for sure what is still outstanding from the sellers solicitor.

Also although things may appear to be well run the accounts still need to be checked. You wouldn't want to move in and be landed with a massive service charge bill for upcoming works that you knew nothing about.

Re the boiler there are requirements paperwork wise if this has been installed fairly recently to make sure it complies with regs.

Hth.

Also soundproofing may be a requirement if they have wooden floors as otherwise it would be a breach of the lease! Tell your solicitor what the estate agent has told you - I used to get this all the time and I would then call the estate agent so they would know where things were really up to!

OK, that's reassuring. I just looked back through our paperwork and yes, there is a fixed conveyancing fee.

We have spoken to our solicitor, and he keeps saying the other solicitor is very slow. However the EA says that our solicitor keeps expecting the other solicitor to do things that should be for our solicitor to do. Then the two solicitors seem to squabble for a week about who should do what, then one side backs down, then they seem to disagree again.

Maybe this time-scale is normal. We had our offer accepted in mid-October.
We had a previous purchase fall through due to leasehold issues, and had to complete on the sale of our flat so that's why we're homeless just now, and why we are getting so impatient.

Yes, it's wooden floors/laminate in all the flats, hence the soundproofing queries. So you think it all sounds reasonable enough?
The trouble is, we are amateurs who are trying to deal with professionals. Even the vendor is a pro as he is an arms-length property investor.

Sounds reasonable enough.

Hopefully your solicitor is doing everything they can to move things along considering your circs - if I was you though make sure you get updates at least a couple of times a week and then YOU can be putting pressure on the estate agent. And I presume your solicitor knows you are desperate to move!

Don't be intimidated - I know many of the terms can be a bit daunting but I would try and trust your solicitor.

Don't be afraid to really be be on your solicitors case as often those who shout the loudest do get dealt with the quickest!

Tell your solicitor that you want to exchange by xx date and that you want all paperwork to be in order by then. If on the day he says that he is waiting for such and such a form decide how important it is to you to have that and, if you're not too bothered, tell him that you'll "take a view on it" and would just like to go ahead.

you pay your solicitor, so get stroppy. You want to know what is happening and when.

OK, thank you all for the advice and support. We are going to call the solicitor tomorrow, but it's good to know that there's nothing out of the ordinary. We will get pushy with him but will bear in mind that it takes a while to get to exchange of contracts. Thank you.

I would not take the word of the estate agent or "the other solicitor" as they are not working for you!

Your solicitor sounds like he is being thorough in wanting all the documents. If the other party is not providing them and is hassling you to exchange without them then I would be smelling something very fishy...

I agree, your solicitor is being thorough. It's better to have one who has looked at the documents properly and is checking on things. When you come to sell, it will be much better if everything has been queried now.

We sent our solicitor an email to say our mortgage offerwilllapse in early Jan and given that xmas and new year is coming, we need to get cracking.

And guess what- we're now going to exchange in the middle of next week. It looks as if our solicitors needed to be motivated.