Seller won’t accept my offer unless I change solicitor

[Random100]

First time buyer

Had initial offer rejected. I offered more and this is still under consideration.

I’ve received an email from the estate agent today (who is good friends with the seller apparently) that they both won’t accept offer or work with me at all unless I change my solicitor. Apparently the firm I use has bad reviews. The estate agency has of course recommended I use one of their recommendations (!!)

I’ve been personally recommended my solicitor by two people I know well.

They seem rather pushy and I’ve already had two calls from the EA about it already this afternoon.

How much do you want the house? Sounds like BS. Would avoid!

You have the right to use whoever you wish to use, and as you said they come recommended. Just tell the EA who you use is confidential to you. Or you shall contact their branch manager and subsequently the Property Ombudsman for advice on proceeding.

www.tpos.co.uk/

No, don’t go for it. If they want to sell, they need to go with your solicitor, otherwise they’re free to look for another buyer.

Do you have this in writing?

It depends how much you want the property. It’s a reasonable request because a bad solicitor costs more money all round for everyone and can cause unnecessary delays.

Once when I was selling my potential buyers had a really slow and uncooperative solicitor and when I eventually pulled out and remarketed, I did say to the EA that I wouldn’t sell to anyone using that solicitor again.

When we put our offer in for our current house the estate agent was really put off by our solicitor and wanted us to use theirs. However was we had already started the ball rolling with them for a different house that fell through so we wanted to stick with them . He said our solicitor as had a terrible rep and he’d had problems with them before . He only caved when we said we were shit hot on admin and would chase them . Well, turned out he was right our solicitor was fucking useless and caused a lot of problems, they also lied about receiving documents and blamed our buyers . Tread carefully ! Have your friends actually ‘recommended ’ this solicitor or have they just said that is who they used ?

Has the ea declared a personal interest if they are friends with the buyer. The ea might be on commission if they are recommending a solicitor. I'd just pull out, say no, ask them not to contact you again. Anyone can write a review. Then I'd send your solicitor any emails you get.

When I next come to buy/sell, if I find out anyone in the chain is using the bunch of fucking cowboy conveyancers I used to sell my mum's house last year I would 100% pull the plug on my sale or purchase.

That said, your EA should not be disclosing your solicitor to your buyer. Please please tell me they emailed you this request?

Depends how much you want the house, but equally, I wouldn’t write off what they are saying and would definitely ask more questions about the conveyancer you’ve chosen (unless you have prior experience of them or WoM recommendations that mean more).
Out of principle I wouldn’t use the EA own one who is refusing to work with your conveyancer (it’s just not professional to make threats like that) but I’d look to move to another if I heard more negativity about your conveyancer.
Price is not the only factor when choosing a conveyancer. You want one who asks the right questions you wouldn’t necessarily know to ask.

Object strongly - what a cheek. The agent should not push you about solicitor.Can you complain to any association they belong to?

We had a nightmare because of dire solicitors used by our buyers, so we would absolutely insist anyone buying from us in future did not use these people. Seller isn't being unreasonable.

Yep, they even sent me a link to the Yelp website with a couple of bad reviews (amongst many good ones) and said they were basing it on that.

Sorry yes both friends have used this solicitor recently (within the last 18 months for both).

My buyer got told I wanted her to change to the EAs conveyancer. That could not have been further from the truth.

I would rather she used anyone, but theirs. When she knew that she switched to one of her own choosing. The EA bad mouthed the solicitors all the way through at each layer as none of us in the 2 house chain both with the same agent used their preferred conveyancing factory. The solicitors were all fine.

trust your friends and not a shonky EA who will be getting commission for you using their in house/ recommended solicitor or conveyancer. Tell them YOU choose your solicitor and it is entirely up to the vendor if they want to proceed.

If they are being awkward now, they will be worse later. Best to start as you mean to go in.

Plus I also thought it was now unlawful or against some sort of regulatory code to insist on particular solicitors to secure a sale?

Has the property been relisted? Did your solicitor convey for that house before and unearth loads of bad stuff?

They can't make you use their choice of solicitor.

They can refuse to sell to you for any damn reason they like and honestly some solicitors are a grade A pain to deal with.

Not a cheek, necessarily. Maybe the EA or seller or both have history with this solicitor. It's a bit weird if their objection really is founded on nothing but a couple of poor reviews, but it may be that they don't want to state their real reasons so's not to get into a legal dispute about defamation or slander. Which could mean their objections are well-founded, or not. What to do? It comes down to how much you want to proceed with this property. You might have to choose between it or your solicitor. I'd definitely resist using one the EA 'recommends', though, if I moved it would be to another solicitor independent of the EA.

Estate agent is on the make. I'd ignore them and approach the seller directly with your conveyancer's details. You don't actually need the EA.

I'm guessing that this is coming from the estate agent and not the seller. Besides, solicitors are not known for working on Sundays, so you could hardly appoint a different one today. Bit odd that the estate agent is being so pushy.

Also, how do you know their recommended conveyancer isn’t bent? Your solicitor should work for you and protect your interests. Crooked ‘conveyancers’ (not always actually legal professionals) may have a financial
interest in covering up or not investigating/ pursuing missing paperwork, slight queries about title, building regs etc etc etc.

There's a local solicitor that was involved when we tried to buy a house previously. We had such a bad experience I would refuse them having any involvement again. So I kind of understand their request.

However, you can so no and retract your offer. Otherwise you will have to work together

Hmm I wouldn’t take it from the agent but I have bought 3 times and sold twice, the the solicitor who acted for the seller on our first purchase also acted for the buyer when we came to sell the first house. We said if it ended up with her acting for our buyer when we sold our second house we would turn down the offer as she was useless and combative (I saw the correspondence so I saw how she spoke to my solicitor both times). On our first she told us the seller was ready to exchange and complete so we cashed in our LISA early (hadn’t had it a full year) lost the bonus and turns out she knew they weren’t ready and we lost our bonus. She was a nightmare and I’d have felt no qualms over rejecting any buyer who used her or asking them to reconsider.

Cheeky bas**rds! You can use whichever solicitor you want and they can be reported to the Ombudsman for this, as another poster said above. It sounds as if they want extra commission by persuading an inexperienced FTB to use their recommended solicitor. Perhaps they will share it with the seller if they are 'good friends'. Jolly pushy to call you twice on a Sunday to harass you too.

I would refuse if my friends had recently recommended the intended solicitor. Email them back saying this and see what they say. I wonder how many other offers they have had.