Can I do anything about our buyers shit solicitor?

[kinell2]

I'm more than livid about this!
Our buyer solicitor is effectively awol and has been all the way through, our solicitor sent draft contracts out on the 10th June and still hasn't heard anything back even after 5 chasing up emails and 3 letters!
Our buyer came for another viewing last week to measure things up and said she hasn't even received fixtures and fittings! Our solicitor sent that before the contracts!! Our buyer had assumed it was because we hadn't sent them yet!
She said she's been constantly chasing her solicitor but getting nowhere, could I ring them or would they just ignore me anyway?
We was supposed to be working towards exchange second week in August WTF!?
Our buyers buyer has already moved out into a hotel ready for exchange, I just don't get what's going on.

Speak to the estate agent, explain the situation and ask them to put some gentle pressure on the buyer to change solicitors?

Ask them their opinion of the solicitor also - they deal with hundreds of them a year and will have a mental list of the good and bad ones.

I spoke to the EA of the house were buying yesterday and she couldn't tell me enough how bad they are! Doesn't fill me with hope at all!
The weirdest thing is our EA rang us a few weeks ago to put pressure on our solicitor to send contracts, when we spoke to them they had and she was ignoring them!
I can't get my head round it all something just doesn't add up.

She said she's been constantly chasing her solicitor but getting nowhere

Tell her to look at her Engagement Letter. It will have details of the complaints procedure: follow it.

We had this and it was a bloody nightmare. At the end of the day the only person who can put proper pressure on is their customer-so your buyer. I basically made a total (albeit very polite!) nuisance of myself to estate agent and spoke about chain falling apart etc. They don't want to lose their sale. If all the EAs and your buyer pester the solicitor it will hopefully become easier for them to just do the job than ignore you. I feel for you though it's incredibly frustrating!

I've just looked up their google reviews aswell they're all 1* and shocking!
I'll get on to our EA tomorrow and see if they will pester them I feel for our buyer as I know she's been constantly on at them we've been texting each other and she's always letting me know she's rang again etc.
I know she can't really afford to swap solicitors other wise she would've done by now, she's paid quite a bit upfront. On the other hand I'm raging, we have a lot of work to do on our new house and are moving back in with my dad to do it we needed to be in by Christmas and that's looking like a distant memory

First of all, I doubt your solicitor sent draft contracts out on 10th June. It was a Saturday. If the contracts went out on either Friday 9th June or Monday 12th June, let's assume the buyer's solicitor received them on Wednesday 14th June. The solicitor has to go through the paperwork and form enquiries based on these documents. If there were missing documents, it may be that they have been waiting for them to be provided. Once they have read the paperwork, they would send a letter to your solicitor with their enquiries. At the same time, they would write to your buyer enclosing a Plan, Fixtures & Fittings, EPC and a copy of the Lease (if leasehold). Counting working days from 14th June, there have been exactly 30 working days up to today's date. I agree that enquiries should probably have been sent by now, but I find it unbelievable that in those 30 days your solicitor would have sent 5 emails and 3 letters! Somewhere there have been Chinese whispers. Your solicitor can update you but you cannot approach the buyer's solicitor yourself, it is a breach of the terms of contract. The EA can try to find out information, but since they are not party to the legal part of conveyancing, they often make assumptions or simply make things up that they don't have knowledge of.

No it wasn't on the 10th I've got the wrong it was the 16th, the 10th is an anniversary I've mixed up.
Our buyers solicitor hasn't even send her fixtures and fittings, still. We sent these back to our solicitor in mid may.

I know our solicitor has done all they can do they send draft contracts out the same day they send us draft contracts for our purchase, 16th June.
Letters and emails have been done buyers solicitors PA said she's received them but she's working through a big pile and that comes from our buyer after chasing up.

I suggest your solicitor phoned them
Harder to ignore
In extreme cases I say I am not hanging up until someone speaks to me

We're waiting for her solicitor to raise enquiries, my point being there has been zero contract from buyers solicitor, not one letter or email.

@user1487194234 I've asked her to do that but she said it's better if everything is through writing

There are rubbish solicitors around unfortunately and she sounds like one.

The buyer needs to.make a nuisance of herself. She needs to pester the solicitor until she goes to the top of thr pile for being dealt with.

But also your solicitor should be calling her to see why the delay.

You sent your Fixtures and Fittings list to your solicitor in mid May, but your solicitor didn't send draft contracts until Friday 16th June (F&F forms part of the contract pack)? Did you have to pay for Land Registry documents? Because these need to be part of the draft contract pack. Assuming the buyer's solicitor received the contract pack on Wednesday 21st June (3 working days after posting), then that is 23 working days that they have had the pack. Perfectly reasonable amount of time to go through the file and then raise enquiries, though I would expect them to come through any day now.

I am afraid that clients do assume that things happen very quickly in this age of internet and email but in reality you are not their only client and most conveyancing solicitors are juggling a heavy workload.

Yeah we paid for land registry in mid may aswell as sending all documents forward, everything on our end is in place.

Where I'm struggling with it all is her solicitor rang our EA 5 days after us accepting her offer telling us to chase up and then she falls of the face of the earth! just very odd.

The buyers solicitors may have delayed putting the searches etc in hand until they received the full package from your solicitors, ie a week or so after 16 June. It's all collecting in information until the final piece comes through, at which point you review the papers in one go, raising any anomolies at hat point. Has the survey been done and mortgage offer been received? Estate agents should be able to clarify this.
Meanwhile, keep chasing the agents and the buyers every day. The buyers solicitors can't speak to you, but the buyers themselves could turn the pressure up. You could issue a deadline to exchange, instruct the agents and your solicitors to pass it on, after which time you will remarket.

If it's any consolation, being on the other side is as violently frustrating! Our developers solicitor has dragged out doing something for 4 weeks because "it could take ages to sort out". After constantly reiterating that it gets sorted or we won't exchange, they have done what need to be done. Except now we are 4 weeks later. I have no doubt it would have been resolved by now an we would be exchanged and serving notice on our rental.

I want to hurt his PITA solicitor, more than anything because it's his ineptitude that caused the problem in the first place and my poor new neighbours solicitor hasn't picked the fairly serious issue up. I hope they can resolve it post completion.

So I utterly get your pain! Good luck!

Conveyancing is just a shit job! end of story. The public are driven by email, and the general rush that they have allowed themselves to get into and want immediate responses. When a conveyancer has 70+ clients all behaving badly because they think they are more important than everyone else and listen to the arse wipes that are known as Estate Agents who sell the services of panel lawyers who cannot do the job properly they cannot possibly supply the unreasonable demands of impatient rude arrogant clients. It is amazing how many clients and Estate agents question their lawyer when they are doing the correct job. Here's something for you, a true revelation! Estate Agents are not qualified to comment on the legalities of any transaction, that my friends is why they are estate agents!! They are not bright enough to qualify at anything serious, sure one or two might have the odd A level, but it wont be in maths, chemistry or physics it will be in media or some other mickey mouse subject. When you use a qualified RECOMMENDED conveyancer you get what you pay for, don't be tight, after all you pay the Agent far more for diddley squat. Remember the only person in all of this that is acting in YOUR best interest is your LAWYER! Get it!?? So try and treat them with a bit of respect and appreciate how complex their job is and maybe show a bit of appreciation at the end, it is a bloody thankless task most of the time and no conveyancer who is honest and outside of the city is on huge money, even in their own set up.

Bloody typical, crank up the pressure!! Why not just show a bit of patience, you are not buying and selling an effing can of beans!

"They are not bright enough to qualify at anything serious, sure one or two might have the odd A level, but it wont be in maths, chemistry or physics it will be in media or some other mickey mouse subject"

Gosh, aren't your opinions charmingly stated?

Oh by the way, if you truly have a bad solicitor you can report them.
If you have used a panel solicitor recommended or forced on you by the agent you deserve everything you get!

Oh another by the way I am not a Lawyer, ight be obvious by the style of my post :)