Will chain fall through due to solicitors' incompetance?

[BeeePeee]

I am very scared.

We were supposed to exchange tomorrow, but it not going to happen. Our solicitors have been great, but two sets of solicitors in the chain have been very, very slow and quite frankly incompetent.

We've got just over 2 weeks before the completion date. It HAS to happen that day, as our mortgage expires that day, as does the mortgage of another party in our chain. In both our cases, reapplying for our mortgages is not an option. All solicitors are aware of the date.

Yes the exchange date is going to be missed. This is purely down to those two sets of solicitors being really bloody slow.

I am very scared it is not going to happen.

Do chains ever actually fall apart because solicitors just can't get it together? Or do they pull their shit together in the end?

You can exchange and complete the next day. You don’t need 2 weeks. You don’t even need one week. They will probably sort it out. What are the issues behind the hold up?

The current hold up is that our buyer's solicitors have just raised that there is a page missing in our lease. The page is definitely missing in the land registry copy. So it must have been missing when we bought the flat, but no one noticed.

I don't know why our buyer's solicitors didn't point this out months ago.

The other hold up is the freeholders solicitors need to ask the buyers solicitors to pay the first month service charge up front. But they haven't actually done that yet. They are just sitting on it.

But these are just the things I know about. every time I speak to my solicitors, they tell me they've found out yet another thing one of those solicitors haven't done. But they've had months.

The back story is there have been massive delays caused by both the freeholders' and our buyer's solicitors. They have been ignoring my solicitors for weeks, not taking action. This has meant we are now very short of time, when we started out with plenty of time.

You can apply for extensions to the mortgage offers it happens very commonly, I did it with a very precarious mortgage not that long ago.
You can exchange and complete on the same day it does mean you have have faith in the chain to book removals, solicitors don't like it but it can happen.
The critical point is that some mortgages you have to request draw down of funds 5 days before they are required and a few days before completion you need the final balance statement for the mortgage you are clearing.

As the seller, don't you have the original lease? If so, the missing page might be there. If not, an indemnity policy for defective lease/missing deed might suffice (you'd be asked to pay though). Doubtful the buyer's solicitor will agree to pay service charges up front, that seems very unusual. Have you been asked to agree a retention from the sale proceeds? Very much doubt it is incompetence by the solicitors, more likely that the buyer's solicitor isn't getting the right responses from your solicitor and therefore won't exchange until the responses are to his satisfaction.

@spickle the lease dates back to a previous owner. We were given a certified copy when we bought the flat, which has the same page missing as the land registry copy. It would be good if we could pay for insurance to solve the problem. The freeholder is a large housing association, and according to their solicitor, the service charge has to be paid upfront a month in advance. Retention has been mentioned but not finalised yet.

I really do think our buyer's solicitors are incompetent spickle. It is not that our solicitors are given wrong responses. The main problem is that our buyer's solicitors have been mainly ignoring our solicitors. They also have repeatedly claimed that they haven't received documents and correspondence from both our buyer's and the freeholder's solicitors. Several times my solicitor has told me that he has sent something, and our buyer's solicitors are saying they have not received it. This is by email. They have also sent repeated copies of the same information to our buyers, and sent emails to our solicitor saying "see attached" with nothing attached!

Lonecatwithkitten our mortgage broker says he can get us a short extension, e.g. for a week. But the problem is that another party in the chain's mortgage expires the same day, and they have been told that their lender very, very rarely gives extensions. So it is not good us getting an extension if another part of the chain can't.

It's such a pain in the arse process.

It would be good if we could pay for insurance to solve the problem. This needs to be your solicitor that is pushing this though. They should explain the paper is missing and offer indemnity insurance and ask how the other side wish to proceed.

I don’t know how our buyer’s solicitors didn’t point this out months ago Your solicitor should have pointed this out months ago too!

Maybe their solicitor is incompetent but tbh yours doesn’t sound great either. Don’t let them fool you into thinking it’s not them it’s someone else. I would ask for a meeting with your solicitor and get them to list all the things outstanding before you can complete.

There may be things they are waiting from from your vendor that you are happy to proceed without. If this is the case, inform in writing you wish to proceed without and for them not to chase further.

BeeePeee As you are selling, your solicitor has to provide any paperwork that the buyer's solicitor asks for. It is a leasehold transaction, so that means that the buyer's solicitor wants answers from you/your solicitor as to why there is a missing page in the lease. The fact that this was all you got when you purchased is irrelevant as far as they are concerned. An indemnity policy provided by you/your solicitor is probably the way forward, but you will be expected to pay.

It is entirely possible that the buyer's solicitor has asked for paperwork for something and although you/your solicitor has sent something, it may not be what they asked for. For example, you may have provided an invoice for the boiler service but what the buyer's solicitor needs is the service report for the boiler. Not the same thing.

The freeholder is a large housing association, and according to their solicitor, the service charge has to be paid upfront a month in advance. Retention has been mentioned but not finalised yet.

The buyer's solicitor will be looking to your solicitor to specify the terms. Buyer's solicitors are unlikely to agree without a retention in place - the retention monies will be held pending end of year final accounts and will be taken from the sale proceeds. Therefore, you have to agree the terms. Solicitors usually agree apportionments, i.e. the service charges/ground rent due from you and the service charges/ground rent to be charged to the new owner. It is your solicitor's responsibility to deal with this.

If the buyer's solicitor is sending emails without attachments, I would guess that these must be extracts from the searches or from the lease or lease plans. Obviously they would need to re-send the omitted documents, but again it is your solicitor's responsibility to answer these queries.

As an aside, I assume you are buying a freehold property? Selling a leasehold property is far more complicated and takes longer to do than freehold, which might be why your sale is lagging behind. Also if the freeholder is using a different solicitor, there will be delays in asking for information, it being provided and then being forwarded to your buyer's solicitor.