We were due to exchange today and our solicitor left office early

[DRDG]

We are at the very end of a long process selling our house. Exchange was due to take place today. Things took a bit longer than expected today so by the time the buyer's solicitor rang our solicitor to exchange, they had left for the weekend!

I can't believe they would leave for the weekend without telling us or the other solicitor, knowing today was the day of exchange. There is no one else taking our calls so the exchange will have to wait until Monday.

I find this unacceptable. The solicitors website claims that they will always come in early and stay late if required, and how customer satisfaction is everything, they aim to take the stress out of conveyancing and so on. Not to be dramatic but I feel they are being very sloppy. Nice for them to take off for the weekend, while we are facing a long and nervous wait until Monday.

What time did the buyer's solicitor try to make contact? If it was after normal office hours I'd consider him/her the one in the wrong.

You move house a few times in a lifetime but they do conveyancing every day, so delayed exchange is probably not unusual and despite what the website says it's not realistic to expect them to stay late everytime it happens. Noone will die, it will be fine.

Are you top of the chain?

"today was the day of exchange" - this is a myth. There is no due day of exchange. It happens when all the solicitors can get in touch with each other and agree the deposit coming up the chain. Every solicitor in the chain would have to be available to effect the exchange. If the one at the bottom does not start early enough, then the one at the top may not get the call in time. Remember too that the majority of completions take place on Fridays and always in the morning. Since completions take a higher priority than exchanges, exchanges are left until later.

As Slightlyperturbed says, no-one will die. Your preferred completion date will probably not change, just the day exchange takes place.

It happens. It always happens. Exchange always takes longer than you're expecting. It'll happen Monday or Tuesday (if everyone is truly ready to go). Try and relax.

If it was completion it would be something to worry about!

That's pretty bad not to have spoken to you before leaving. We had a few days like this but our solicitor kept us well informed.

I used a local solicitor but I know the online conveyancers can be quite unreliable.

This happened to me on a Friday afternoon. Some solicitors were contactable but mine was not as had already gone home so had to wait until the Monday. Very frustrating so completely sympathise but at the same time that's just the way it goes unfortunately.

The buyers solicitor trued to reach ours before 5pm.

Spickle - I see what you mean but we were in close contact with our solicitor during the day so it was very much planned to go ahead this afternoon. Under these circumstances I find it unacceptable to leave for the weekend, before close of business, without letting us know.

I know it is a long and stressful process for everyone. In our case this is the fourth attempt to sell our house, we have nearly reached exchange in all four cases only to have things unravel at the last moment so to have come this close today only to have our solicitor make themselves unavailable before 5pm is just a bit much.

I hope you are all correct in saying that it will all be fine. Thanks and have nice weekend

Misread that for 'day of completion' and was about to get apoplectic. But it was day of EXCHANGE. no drama. It can wait until Monday!

Hope it goes through ok, good luck

"What time did the buyer's solicitor try to make contact? "

Before 5pm could be one minute to, or it could be noon.

It's not unusual for offices to close at, say, 4.30 on a Friday.

We don't know if there was previously an arrangement in place to exchange at some particular time in the day.

You're being unreasonable, solicitors have lives too and probably don't want to sit around on the off chance that a contract appears. It's not the end of the world, you're not their only client, and you have no idea whether the other solicitor tried to do anything or not. If there was a contract to send why didn't they sign it rather than trying to call?

The same thing happened to us, our sellers had been pushing for exchange by the Friday and then their solicitor left for the weekend at 3pm! We ended up exchanging on the Monday morning (my solicitor made it their first task!) and still completed on the planned date.

So no, it's not the end of the world, but it is incredibly frustrating! I hope you get to exchange on Monday.

You're being very unreasonable. As others have said there is no set date for exchange. How long did you expect your solicitor to wait in the office on the off chance the buyer's solicitor was ready? If it's true that your buyer's solicitor is now ready then they will still be ready Monday morning.

I feel your pain op , I kept being told 'we'll exchange today' and it didn't happen, it's nerve wracking and I know I was on edge until we did actually exchange . Once exchange has happened you feel you can breathe again.

I hope it happens for you on Monday and the move goes as smoothly as these things are able.

If it was before the advertised office closure time - then I wish I had had a job like that. No need to delegate, deputise or communicate to clients - just declare poets day and off they go.

On our completion day our buyers solicitor was off, the person filling in had no clue and was asking for paperwork they had weeks before and they left on a half day holiday. Our poor solicitor was getting the run around all day and we finally completed at 4.30pm.

My solicitor was sick on the day of completion. First I knew was when colleagues called to advise completion and told me.

How any basically competent organisation should work. BTW mid price, not conveyancing bodyshop and not high street dinosaur.

The OP is not being unreasonable. If it happened to anyone on this thread expecting to hear news of exchange, and instead finding out that the buyer's solicitor had rung yours and found they'd left the office you would be hacked off, especially if you've spoken with them recently and they haven't mentioned they won't be in.

Apart from first time buyers at the start of a chain, there is no deposit money to pass up the chain, it's a paper exercise for everyone else.

I think YABU. If your solicitor hadn't heard anything from the other side, then of course they packed it up at the end of the day. What if they had to pick up their child(ren) from childcare/nursery/school? What if they had a plane to catch? The business day provides plenty of time to sort out an exchange. If the other side wasn't ready, YABU to expect them sit around twiddling their thumbs after hours when it can be completed first thing Monday morning. Hopefully, the Buyers will actually be ready come Monday.

Advertised service not given. Is this solicitor the only one in the practice? Even if they are, they should have contacted the other solicitor, found out about delay and then called their paying client to say ' sorry, not today' rather than just running away.

As always, it is about communication. Ignoring paying customers gives an air of arrogance.

The actual point is - whatever the solicitor's plans were she could have sent a quick email letting the client know that there was now not enough time to exchange. And who would organise to exchange for a client on the day you had a half day booked without saying something to that effect? I.e. It's got to be done by x time then I am away. Honestly- it really isn't the greatest customer service.