Slow solicitors and anxious vendor 🙁

[Tigerlilly17]

We offered on a house towards end of September and it was accepted, then our house sold 2 days later. We then got to work with full mortgage application, survey and getting a solicitor and searches underway. This took about 4 weeks for searches, and survey results to come back etc. At first the solicitor seemed to be fairly active but then suddenly, it seemed quiet and I wasn’t getting replies to emails or messages etc

After 2 weeks of radio silence, I rang and got a little shirty to find the person handling my case had left with immediate effect. ( I assume they were flirted off as they were pretty rubbish and hadn’t done much other than order searches ).
We were assigned a new case handler and I expressed that we wanted to complete by 23rd November with exchange a week prior. This apparently sounded reasonable and doable to them.
Fast forward to now and the vendor and her EA are asking what’s taking so long as the sellers vendor is getting annoyed and anxious. ( I will add however that her offer was only accepted 2nd week in October ).
My buyer is a first time buyer and his survey and mortgage offer came through at exactly same time as ours. I can’t understand why it’s still dragging on so slowly as we are now having to hope for exchange this week to move next week instead. We didn’t want to start moving in December at all as it’s too close to Christmas and difficult with time from work etc.

I have been chasing this elusive report on my purchase I’ve apparently been “almost ready” to receive for a couple of weeks too.

I don’t know what else I can do, we have even signed contracts and deed forms ready for when exchange happens.

Anyone else pulled their hair out with a slow process from solicitors?

I’ve sent another email this morning stating I insist on exchange this week and asking them to chase the buyers solicitor rather than sit back and wait til they bother to get in touch with us. Is this too forward?

Unless there are outstanding queries from you and your solicitor to the solicitors of the vendor of the house you are buying, there is no reason why your solicitor cannot complete now, if everyone else is ready.

As well as frequent emails, I find repeat phonecalls also kick people into action. I treated my sale and purchase as if the solicitors did not exist, and push and chased for ever single step.
That way you know you are in control.

My tuppence would be for you to call everyday, and get the name of the handler. If after two days you do not have any movement, ask to speak with a senior person.

Good luck.

Thank you for your reply. Whether it is right or wrong, I am also in touch with my vendor via email purely for updates. It seems the solicitors sit back and wait for one side to contact the other rather than actively chase each other for progress.
I’m calling every other day and emailing daily for this flipping final report they keep promising.
I sent a further email this morning ( slightly blunt and demanding) hoping I’ll get somewhere at some point tomorrow.
If I haven’t heard by lunch time, I’ll be phoning again and can’t promise I won’t be a little snarky lol.
It’s just frustrating knowing I’ve done everything I can to quicken this up, including paying for searches etc prior to getting the formal mortgage offer and survey report back.
I’m usually all done and wrapped for Xmas at this time of year but feel I can’t do anything til I have this tied up.

You need to get on the phone and ask them to sort a completion date. Say, 'can we agree completion for X date?' If they say no, ask why not. Tell them you want to know exactly what they are waiting for.

Get them to be specific in exactly what is holding things up, are they waiting on anything from the buyers solicitors, if so, what exactly? Have they had everything they need from your sellers solicitors?
Do they need anything from you? Proof of deposit/fittings and fixtures forms for example? Are there any forms you need to sign? Ask them not to post them, you will go into office and do them there.

I would phone though, rather than email. If they say they will chase your buyers solicitor for example, ask them when. If they say in the afternoon then phone them back to chase. I've found with a solicitor who is not proactive, you have to keep chasing and pushing or it just drags on.

Good luck.

I’ve basically put down my expectations of dates in the email this morning and since we signed draft contracts/deeds about 9 days ago , I feel that they are now becoming slow in finalising everything. Every bit of paperwork relating to both sale and purchase was sent back straight away. I’m going to give it til 11:30 tomorrow then hog the phone lines for answers lol

Sounds like your purchase and your buyer's have progressed as much as you can. I would presume that enquiries on your purchase and on your house (for your buyers) are now ongoing.

However, the hold up (If you can call it that) is that your vendor only had an offer accepted in the second week of October - around 4/5 weeks ago so the progress on that transaction is significantly behind yours and I imagine you will all want to exchange/complete on the same day, therefore they have to catch up.

Do you realise your email to your solicitor will not be read today (Sunday) even if the case tracker is available 24/7?

Realistically, although you and your buyer are nearly ready, it is unlikely that the onward chain will be ready for a November completion, simply because your vendor offered on a house in October and you haven't said whether there is an onward purchase after this?

By the way, the report is a comprehensive letter detailing all the information they hold about the property you are about to purchase. It will contain various documents for you to read through and understand before committing to the purchase. It does take a while to collate all the paperwork to send to you and sometimes the report itself takes a while to prepare.

Our vendor is buying as a cash buyer and apparently, they both have all their ducks in a row between them at the top of the chain already. The sellers vendor is the very top of the chain. He was renting the house out til recently and has decided to sell up.
I know the email won’t get seen til tomorrow, but I sent it so that it will be seen first thing tomorrow hopefully.
I’m just hoping that tomorrow I actually get some information instead of the usual, “we are waiting to see if someone contacts us with regards to everything we have already sent out”. Just wish they would chase it up like my vendors solicitors are.

we are waiting to see if someone contacts us with regards to everything we have already sent out

So you need to ask, what have you sent and to who? When did you send it? When did you chase it? When will you chase it next? Can you phone them now while I hold please?

Don't wait until 11.30 tomorrow as this just means they will chase things in the afternoon then you'll be looking at Tuesday before you can chase them up again. Phone first thing tomorrow.

It's so frustrating that you pay them so much and end up doing all the chasing.

Get them to give you a list of everything that needs doing from all sides before you can complete.

You do realise the average timescale for a conveyancing transaction is 10/12 weeks from start to finish so you are doing pretty well. Phone them and ask if there is anything outstanding from your end. It’s a bit pointless demanding completion dates when all the legal paperwork isn’t completed.