Is there anything else I can do here?

[cinnamonbiscuit]

Please help me, I’m at my wits end with solicitor/lender. We are first time buyers, offer accepted on a lovely house in Feb. From the start our vendors wanted to complete in early June which suited us perfectly as I’m pregnant with DC2 due mid August.

Everything has been fairly straightforward up to now, mortgage offer sorted, survey fine, the vendor’s onward purchase is end of chain. However about 6 weeks ago, we met our solicitor to sign some pre exchange documents, and she informed us that the law firm would be merging with another firm that coming week, and so she would need to request that our mortgage offer be reissued with the new law firm name on it. She assured us she’d be doing it as soon as the firms had merged, so a few days after we saw her.

After weeks of asking her where this updated paperwork is, it STILL hasn’t appeared. We’ve emailed/called her a couple of times a week for an update, and she just keeps saying it’s not been sent yet and that she’s chasing it. Last Friday was our last chance to give notice on our current lease for June, we tried to contact her to explain we’re about to have to pay a whole extra month of rent due to the delay, but she was on annual leave so didn’t respond until yesterday. She phoned to tell me the estate agents have been on to her asking if we can complete asap as the vendors are ready to go, and she basically said ‘I’ve let them know that won’t be possible’, with no reference to our own stress/extra rent expenses etc.

Obviously if this carries on being delayed, having to pay rent in July as well will become less of an issue, but for the sake of everyone else in the chain we still want to complete asap, which could mean us paying for two properties for 4-6 weeks rather than the 2/3 we had hoped for. Not ideal but we will do it as we’re scared of jeopardising the sale etc.

The agent then phoned me, I apologised and reiterated that we also want to complete asap, and that we’re very frustrated after 5 weeks or so of waiting for this mortgage paperwork to appear. I’ve got no idea at this point if it’s the lender being rubbish or the solicitor not chasing enough. The agent suggested I phone the lender, but as I thought, they can only speak to a solicitor or broker about this kind of thing. They seemed surprised on the phone that there would be a delay with something like this.

Sorry this has become very long, just trying not to leave anything out. My question is, what else can I do to sort this out other than pester our solicitor every day? She keeps just saying ‘sorry it’s not here yet but I am chasing it’ but she’s been saying that for over a month and I’m so stressed out now that our vendors are starting to push for completion. I’m so scared of them getting annoyed and pulling out, I don’t think we’re at that point yet, but I’m 30 weeks pregnant and if we lose this house I think it will actually break me 😅 our current rental is absolutely tiny and we have a toddler already.

Another complication is that I have money in a LISA, not loads but really wanted to withdraw it now as obviously this is one of the few things it can be used for and I’ll have to leave it there until retirement otherwise, but the solicitor is saying she can’t arrange for the withdrawal until this mortgage paperwork appears, and that it can take up to 10 days to obtain the funds. I can’t face having to tell the vendors that sorry, we actually need to have an extra up to 10 days after exchange because of my LISA, particularly after we’ve already kept everyone waiting.

Please anyone who has experience of dealing with solicitors, how do I approach this? Family/friends are telling me I need to be much more confrontational, which I’m awful at and I don’t see how it will help as honestly talking to her is like talking to a brick wall, she keeps giving me the same vague response. Also what do I do about the LISA? Has anyone withdrawn money for a house purchase from one? How long did it take?

Any help gratefully received, and please be gentle, I’m extremely stressed and also still quite clueless about all of this as a FTB!

Gosh what a mess, I’m so sorry OP.

On your engagement letter from the solicitor, there should be the name and contact details of a Supervising Partner and/or Managing Partner at the firm who has overall responsibility for your case. Phone them now.

@Caramelisedbiscuitbutter thank you- I’ve been thinking that at some point we will need to go above her head but wasn’t sure who this would be, will look for the supervising partner’s name! I’ve just looked back and it was the 1st May that they merged, so we’re actually into week 7 since she apparently requested the new paperwork from the lender!

I would definitely contact someone more senior at the solicitors.

Don't be pussyfooting around the solicitor not wanting to go above their head when she's the one that's messing you about!

Blimey that is awful. I can’t be certain but I’d hazard a guess that there’s no way that this is the Lender delaying things.

I think giving the solicitor a bit of leeway given they are merging is fine, as you did, but 6-7 weeks is shocking.

If you’re feeling brave you could ask for a discount from the solicitors fee to partially compensate for your loss. Not something I’ve done before but someone else might come along with more advice.

Good luck with escalating and let us know how you get on.

Make sure you use money from LISA. If everyone has to wait 10 more days, then that can't be helped. Sorry you are sounding so distressed about things. I suppose you want to move in and nest.

Just a small update- the solicitor phoned me at lunchtime, still nothing received from the lender but she now suddenly wants to sort out the LISA as I reminded her about it by email this morning. I sent a fairly stressy email, outlining how ridiculous this is all getting and our concerns that it will affect the whole chain, and I asked in the email what the exact process for the LISA withdrawal is, and now suddenly in spite of the fact that she said she couldn’t do anything about it until the new amended mortgage offer came through, she is on it and is requesting that money. So that’s something, but still very annoying that she only did that after me prompting her to do it several times and because I kicked off a bit.

@Barrysmintybiscuits she also indicated that management at the law firm have now been in contact with the lender, so it seems that it has been at least somewhat taken above her head even though I haven’t gone down that route yet. It was my next step much as I wouldn’t want to do it!

@Caramelisedbiscuitbutter I also now really feel that it’s not the lender, I think our solicitor has just massively dropped the ball/didn’t realise completion was so imminent. We’ve been discussing whether or not to ask for a discount today given the extra rent we will potentially be paying- also the fact that she told me to freeze my LISA 7 weeks ago which I did, so I could in fact have been paying into it and claiming the bonus for nearly two months rather than it just sitting there! I honestly despair. Her tone on the phone was very casual and brief today, she really wanted rid of me. She didn’t acknowledge the lease situation at all or just the general stress, it was just another ‘I am chasing it’. I get the sense she doesn’t want to start apologising for anything in order to avoid us pursuing a complaint or whatever.

@caringcarer thank you- I’m feeling a bit calmer now that I know other people at the law firm are on it as well, and yes hopefully you’ve seen above that she is now sorting the LISA even though she said she couldn’t before.

I think some solicitors/conveyancing services take on more work than they can cope with and if anyone goes off sick or on holiday they fall further and further behind. That is happening to my son ATM. His solicitor is so slow. The other side have got all information across to her but then she went on leave and passed it over to another one who is hopeless. She doesn't answer an email to give him an appointment to go in to sign the contract. He's worried the seller will pull out because she dragged her heels so much.

Sorry to hear and I feel your pain, this sound very much like our solicitor when we moved last year, she was sooo slow unresponsive and I recall she was dragging waiting for some redemption statement from the lender (which they said had been faxed to them already) and the solicitor office denied it! It all came to a final crisis point when our buyer lost patience and threatened to pull out or reduce the offer as their mortgage offer were going to run out! I was put in a situation to move or everything collapses (this was when my husband was out of the country) within 5 days, at that point I started ringing vigorously to the solicitor office almost in a hysterical state and emailing them every 2 hrs to the point she told me off for bothering her so much! I rung natwest nonstop until they confirmed they send the statement again! We got them via moneysuper market and I complained to them as well trying to put more pressure on her, and suddenly she sprung into action and we exchange within 72 hours and competed 2 days later, did all the packing and moving myself on my own!
So you need to strat doing whatever it takes nagging, begging and beseeching, but I couldn't complain to her in case she got annoyed ND sabotaged the whole thing, it was a miracle we moved and still I can't believe we are in our new house!

@caringcarer I know exactly how your son must be feeling! It’s such an awful feeling when it’s completely out of your control and unfortunately in the hands of someone who isn’t competent! I hope his seller doesn’t pull out, I keep reminding myself that it’s really not in their interests at this point to do that!

@Malbab wow! So glad to hear you got into your house, that does sound v similar to our situation. I think if no movement by Thursday I will probably be on the phone shouting/ crying (got to use those pregnancy hormones for something) imminently! Thankfully I don’t think our vendor will kick off yet, we had literally heard nothing from them for weeks until yesterday, but obviously still don’t want to annoy them!

Request to speak with another person at her firm.

Most industries have a governing body. If no dice when you call on Thursday, let them know you will be calling their governing body to 'check how this process should work and how long it will take' because you have concerns about the chain breaking down and an extra two months of rent.

She SAYS someone senior is chasing them. But you have no proof of that, do you?

As someone else said, they often never say no and just fob people off by way of managing their workload.

Bit of an update for anyone still interested

Ive been chasing the solicitors all week, our actual conveyancer went on annual leave yesterday for two weeks ( obviously she is allowed to do this but terrible timing for us!) so I contacted her assistant yesterday for an update. I was told still nothing and that there is unfortunately ‘no timescale’ for getting the updated mortgage offer from the lender.

Obviously I wasn’t keen to relay that info to the agent/vendors, so in desperation I emailed our broker who I haven’t contacted in months. She immediately contacted the lender and they divulged that they were in fact missing a key document from the solicitors that they needed to reissue the offer 😅 after a bit of flapping this document was sent to the lender, who have now confirmed that the new mortgage offer will be emailed to the solicitor within three working days. At which point we can exchange!!!

I then phoned the agents to make sure the good news reached the vendors before the weekend. I finally feel I can relax slightly (not fully because we still don’t have the updated offer). I’ve also been assured that exchange can still happen even with our solicitor on leave. Fingers tightly crossed!!!

Fingers crossed indeed! Get tough!
When I bought my house and my solicitors seemed to be fobbing me off with excuse after excuse - that they were 'waiting for search results' or 'waiting for the other side's solicitors' or ' we're waiting for the paperwork to come through' I got so annoyed that I rang them and said that, as their client I was instructing them that everything needed to be completed by such and such a date.
They did it! 🙂

I hope you will be having words with her manager about her being the problem.

But yay!

I would be much tougher with the solicitor - clearly she’s absolutely incompetent if she didn’t know a key piece of information was missing and she was meant to supply it. Ours was so shit my DH went into the office in person and refused to leave until our crap solicitor actually did the stuff he was meant to do. I spent a lot of time ringing other firms and companies myself because he just lied to our faces about the reasons for the delays.

you could also consider switching solicitors - we threatened ours that we would do that and that seemed to motivate him too

So pleased to see your update OP. How frustrating for you though but well done for getting it sorted.

Even if the lender hadn’t told them there was a missing document, she should have known she’d not sent it or at least chased just once and presumably they’d have told her exactly what they told your broker. How frustrating for you!

If you ever need a conveyancer again I guess you’ll know who NOT to use!

Contact your mortgage company/broker direct to chase the mortgage offer and make sure it is issued.

I would be making a complaint about this. Basically it took her not being there for progress to occur - driven by you!

Well done you, yes I chased my mortgage brokers too who were fantastic and helpful, you have to leave no stone unturned in these situations
Similar to a pp my conveyancer also was dragging her feet about some sewer not connected to mains (our house has soak ways) and kept asking for proof that didn't exist, we had to say enough is enough we will take the risk and exchange at whcih point she budged, it is tricky some issues we can't do that as to satisfy the lender some checks need to happen... Fingers crossed you will complete soon

Another update and a question! We are possibly 🤞🤞🤞 exchanging tomorrow! The long awaited amended offer arrived from the lender today.

We now need to transfer the deposit funds to the solicitor. We would have done it sooner but they didn’t send us the statement until 4pm today, so I will run to the bank after work tomorrow to hopefully transfer it before the cut off (330) to get it moved over on the same day.

DH and I have a joint account but I’ve moved the full amount from that to my own personal account (same bank) just for ease of transferring it because initially we thought I would be going in to do it on my own. DH is now going to come to the bank tomorrow, but my question is- will they question the fact that I’ve moved that money out of the joint account? The reason I’m worrying is that we have no idea where our bank cards are for that joint account, they’re in the house somewhere but we never use them, we only use that account for direct debits etc.

Ive googled but can’t see that there’s any rule against moving money from your own joint account to your single account. Are they going to question it?! He’ll be there with his passport but I’m concerned they’ll want his bank card as ID and I don’t have a clue where it is 😫

Don't think it will be an issue as proof of funds will have been confirmed by solicitor already anyways
When I did this I had to do it over the phone as it was over the limit for online transfers, but pretty straightforward as the lady at hsbc I spoke to took me through step by step

Gosh this sounds very stressful, OP.

Make sure you raise a complaint with your solicitor. You're paying for a service that they're not providing in a timely fashion despite your repeated requests to move it along.

Good luck for tomorrow - there won't be an issue with the money, as pp has said, the proof of funds has been already verified.

Thank you all for your helpful posts. We transferred deposit funds today successfully and completion set for next Thursday! 🥳

You couldn’t make it up though- we walked all the way to town from the free car park (not fun in this heat at 31 weeks pregnant) only to find that the street the bank is on was being shut down/cordoned off by police due to a suspicious package and the bank was closed. I was ready to murder someone but thankfully there was another branch open with availability to get it done 🙂

Oh my goodness. Please will you update when you complete and confirm murder free status?