Technically not in a chain as it's just us and the seller but need to have a massive rant about how useless our solicitor is so here's hoping you'll have me.
Long story as short as possible: It's now been about 14 weeks since our offer. About 4 weeks ago, it transpired our solicitor had been sat on contract packs for about a month and done literally next to nothing with them. All the while, they'd been telling us everything was going 'fine' and progress would all depend on when the seller's solicitor got back to queries - which, by the way, we then found out they hadn't even raised. We only found out because EA called us in a panic to say nothing had been raised - we thought he must be mistaken at first because our solicitor was swearing up and down that timelines all depended on what they came back with.
So needless to say we're not impressed but give them a stern talking to and tell them we want to exchange by the end of the month so please, pretty please, work to that deadline. Wednesday before last, EA emails to say all queries have been answered, can we get on with exchanging now? We call our solicitor on the Friday who tells us that's complete rubbish, they are still waiting for more answers. Then call them on the Monday of last week when, oh, actually, answers have miraculously appeared out of nowhere but there might be some followups and will let me know by the end of the day. End of the day rolls around and answer comes there none.
So on Tuesday, we call the case manager, stress that we need to be exchanging before the end of the month and ask him to find out what's going on. He'll give me a call back first thing on Wednesday morning. He doesn't. Nor does he return DH's two calls on Wednesday afternoon. But what the cowards do do is drop us a PDF of a letter they are sending us in the post essentially saying 'Yeah, no, we still have a ton of queries outstanding but, look, here's some random papers we did get off the seller with no explanation to what they are! Enjoy reading those!! K! Bye!'
By Thursday, we're pretty livid so call our broker to find out what the heck is going on. Broker speaks to our solicitor, since they don't seem to want to speak to us, and finds out that 11 out of their 13 original queries still need fuller answers. Then we call the EA to ask what the heck is going on because didn't you tell us the seller's solicitor has answered all of these - to which he says, they have but he'll get them to send over the answers again. Then get our broker to find out what's going on....to which our solicitor says, 'Oh, yeah, looks like they've answered three more of our queries! Yay!' Either our broker or our EA then convinces them they might want to pick up the phone to the seller's solicitor because clearly something is going very wrong here.
So come Friday and there's hope on the horizon because the two teams of solicitors actually talk to each other that morning. Seller's solicitor sends over answers, our solicitor confirms they have received answers and will review them shortly.
Today rolls around. Give broker a call midday-ish to find out what's going on. Solicitor leading the case is away from her desk but her junior says she's aware there is something she needs to review. Broker asks for a call back. They don't so he chases late afternoon - only to be told they've pretty much not touched the file since midday on Friday but they super pinky promise they'll do it tomorrow for suresies. EA is also now informing us the seller is at the end of their tether, has no faith in our solicitor to get this done and wants to put the house back on the market. We obviously don't want them to but, by this point, I can hardly blame them.
Oh, did I forget to mention that a) just about every review I read for our solicitor is glowing so we're supposedly using the best-of-the-best rather than some fly-by-night cowboy and b) we've done EVERYTHING at our end, as in contracts signed and sent back via guaranteed delivery, deposit and stamp duty sat in the solicitor's account, buildings insurance all paid up etc. so the holdup isn't with us and yet we have to sit here constantly apologising for behaviour going on at our end of the deal.
....We're not exchanging by the end of the month, are we?
:: screams into pillow ::