What do you do if solicitors just don't respond?

[MickeyMoose1]

Offered on a house on the 2nd July, which was accepted. The mortgage offer applied for the week after and received at the end of July. Survey done around the same time.

However, the vendors solicitors just won't respond to us. It's been 7 weeks today since enquiries were raised and a request to amend a draft contract that had the wrong purchase price on. It's been radio silence ever since.

There was a problem with our vendor getting their mortgage offer but they have decided to go into rentals until they find somewhere.

Is this normal? I've been chasing the EA but don't get much out of them either.

I wrote a whole reply and then realised that you’re buying, not selling, so the EA will be working for the vendor… so you probably won’t get much out of them.

It could be the rental situation. We’ve had an issue in our chain where someone agreed to go into rental, but the solicitor wouldn’t progress anything until they had the rental agreed, so they didn’t leave themselves at risk of having nowhere to go on completion. That seems common looking at property forums at the moment - although so does people getting cold feet about going into rentals, and the news about fewer houses being available won’t help that for most people.

Short of threatening to pull out if things don’t get moving; which is a bad idea unless you’d actually do it, I think all you can do is push your solicitor. You might find that both solicitors have more time for this after the end of the month, when all the transactions reliant on the stamp duty extension are done…

But my personal experience of this, twice over the last 18 months; would have me preparing for the worst. I hope that’s not the case

@TakeYourFinalPosition thank you for replying. I am a FTB so trying so hard not to be so anxious about it all.

Our solicitor has been fantastic, she's done all our paperwork, searches and our mortgage deeds are done. We're literally just waiting for them to respond for 7 weeks now. The EA just feeds me a load of crap that this is normal, things are progressing, but it just doesn't feel as though they are.

The vendors didn't get their mortgage offer for their onward purchase (they agreed to go into a rental) so we don't even have there property to wait for searches etc!

I'd ask your sol to go above whoever is dealing and push for a response from a manager / supervising partner. I say this as a solicitor but I don't do conveyancing so unsure if those timeframes are reasonable or not.

@kirinm that's really helpful advice thank you - didn't even think of that. Is 7 weeks too long to be pushing for that? They sent a draft contract with numerous errors, wrong purchase price and a few enquiries raised. Literally not had a response since then...

@kirinm sorry just saw you didn't know if that timeframe is reasonable or not

@MickeyMoose1 Seven weeks feels like FOREVER, and I've done this twice now! I suspect, from what you've said, that they've asked their solicitor not reissue the draft contract until they've sorted out their onward position... We've had a seller do that to us before, sadly. There's little that your solicitor can do other than keep chasing for responses.

Do you know how much she has chased? It does sound like she's been on top of getting everything else ready for you, but sometimes chasing people falls to the bottom of someone's to-do list... if you can contact her, it might be worth asking for a breakdown of how much she's contacted, and what she'd advise from here. Or like @kirinm said, ask your solicitor to push to speak to someone more senior, if you can't get a reply.

I hope someone gets back to you with a positive update soon 🤞

@TakeYourFinalPosition I suspect that is the case, she's asked her solicitor not to respond whilst she sorts out her house moving forward. She's going into a rental so shouldn't really be anything to sort on her end?

My solicitors assistant chases 3 times a week every week. Honestly they've been worth their weight in gold and I get updated every week.

I'll be so angry if they pull out now our solicitors fees will be £2.5k for nothing

@TakeYourFinalPosition did it also take you 7 weeks to get enquiries sorted then? Is that about right?

It's been 11 weeks since we offered and we've acted really quickly with everything we needed to.

They are probably finding it impossible to find something to rent. There is nothing out there in most areas. They may be simultaneously be trying to buy to get things moving...and there's also very little stock to buy.

It's frustrating the conveyancers aren't being upfront with you. Maybe ask the EA the direct question - are they struggling to find something to rent, or have they changed their minds about renting? With the best will in the world, rentals in our area are at least 30% more expensive than they were pre-pandemic, due to the short supply. They may be finding it too expensive and the EA and conveyancers are buying them time.

Try and find a bit of space for compassion if you can. Moving into rented at the moment is an expensive, stressful and insecure option while so few houses are coming on the market, and prices are rising so fast.

People talk a lot here about horrible vendors leading them a merry dance or getting cold feet...in this climate going into rented to break the chain isn't necessarily a great idea, and no one could have predicted the situation a few months ago.

@EverydayCook I appreciate that but they could also be open and honest about their situation. When we offered, the EA said "oh they have a huge, huge budget now and not a lot comes up in the price bracket they are looking in" and that's fine, we'll wait, because I knew what I was dealing with.

We said we are flexible about completion dates, first it was 1st September looks unrealistic as it's holiday season, then they wanted to avoid W/c 6th September because of school, then it was radio silence. They didn't get their mortgage offer, they then tried a second lender and that got declined.

They made a big song & dance about us not holding things up, their EA called us and asked to review our original solicitors as the last transaction they had done went badly because of them. No problem, we changed and paid more without a fuss.

If they did pull out because they can't find anything then fine, but just be open & honest with us and we'll work with whatever. Don't just not respond for weeks on end, knowing we are going to end up spending £3k in total on solicitor/mortgage broker fees...

@MickeyMoose1 No, we've had a bit of an ordeal with buying and selling... First house we offered on took 12 weeks to find somewhere to move to, our buyer decided they didn't want to wait anymore and pulled out the day that they got an offer accepted. Second house, the vendor's vendor was struggling to find anything... they agreed to go into rented or move in with family, but then couldn't find a rental and got cold feet that they'd be priced out of the market.

This time, our vendor is fine, but the vendors above that are having second thoughts about moving... and our buyer is still waiting for their mortgage offer, seven weeks on. I think it'll all collapse again, if it's not over the line by the end of September.

Do they have the rental sorted? I'd read it as they'd offered to go into rented, but not that they'd found somewhere and sorted it out. It could be that rental costs have gone up, or that they can't find somewhere; or it might be that they're getting cold feet about coming off the property ladder if they've had two mortgages declined and therefore couldn't get back on it... But they really should be letting you know, it's horrible that they're not.

Did your solicitor offer any indemnity insurance against the chain failing? We've had that a few times, which helps... but our buyer lied about their mortgage offer, so we've paid out for the survey and searches etc, so we'll be down about £3k if it all falls apart again now. Irritating. I do feel for you

@TakeYourFinalPosition buying and selling is an utter nightmare. I'll cross my fingers tou get yours sorted for end of September

Good idea regarding indemnity, I didn't even realise that was a thing (can't you tell I'm a FTB) do I just ask my solicitor if they offer it?

Thanks for being so helpful

I suspect it is your vendor slowing things down until they find a rental or somewhere else to buy or decide if they even want to move. Unfortunately we had a similar experience to @TakeYourFinalPosition and found that most vendors will lie about their onward situation especially with regards to going into a rental. The rental market is as competitive as the buying and selling market currently plus it’s a lot of hassle and expense. I would keep on at the agent to pursue the truth of your vendors situation and intentions.

What about approaching the vendors directly? When we sold our house, our buyers got frustrated with not being given info from the agent or solicitors, asked us via the agent if they could come round to measure up but actually just wanted to see us to find out what was happening. We swapped numbers and communicated directly as well as via the solicitors in the end and it worked really well.

I suspect your vendor is having issues finding a suitable rental. We were having building works on the new house and these dragged on, loads of issues and we looked at agreeing a completion date on the old one and renting for a short while while new one was done but this proved to be a nonstarter as a) v few suitable properties near the kids’ schools b) nowhere would do a short term let, mostly 12 month tenancies c) cost was crazy d) we have a cat and lots said no to a pet.

Tbh, if you offered in July, I’d probably expect to complete late September at the very earliest and even that’s optimistic from my experience recently.

The EA is working for the vendor, but it is part of their role to progress the sale so they should be doing their best to keep you happy and inside with updates etc, and keeping things moving.

However it is a slow, slow process at the moment.

Lack of onward properties, and solicitors probably prioritising sales that will make the SDLT deadline.

the 'chain free' house I was buying progressed well (my solicitor doing everything) then as you suddenly radio silence from vendor. I'm blissful ignorance completed on my sale and moved into a holiday let fir the intervening time - supposedly three weeks. Then my solicitor told me she was not getting anything back and sure enough the EA finally told us that seller was ill and was pulling out.
Before this I was buying a house and again after starting well the sellers solicitor went quiet . Seller just couldn't find an info purchase. I too thought she could have been more honest (I had been told she'd go in to rental them as soon as I had the survey done that changed). Cost me thousands.
If I were you I'd start looking again.