Solicitor going on holiday

[Coffeeees]

My solicitor has just emailed me with an update and I've noticed that there is an advance notice on the bottom of her email saying that she will be on annual leave for 2 weeks at the end of this month/beginning of October.

This has been such a stressful process and has already taken much longer than expected due to the seller dragging their feet and just basically being a pain in the arse. The estate agent and I have had to do so much chasing.

I was hoping to complete by the 1st or 2nd week of October but I'm guessing this won't happen now and will likely be November?

Of course people are entitled to a break (before anyone jumps on me) but is it the norm that we just have to wait until the solicitor returns? It's already such a long and frustrating process, so losing 2 weeks isn't great.

Is it a firm, if so one of her colleagues would likely progress in her absence. You are best to ask them directly though.

Just ask who is providing cover in her absence.

She won't (certainly shouldn't be) just be going off and not leaving cover for a live matter, there should be someone at the firm that can action things while she's gone including progression to completion.

Yes it's a local firm, they have around 3-4 offices I think.

She won’t be the only resi solicitor there if it’s a multi office firm. Just ask her who is covering 🤷‍♀️

@NeverHadHaveHas thanks, I will check. I didn't know cases are normally covered, first time buyer here so no experience with the process.

Whilst this is true, it doesn't mean someone will cover.
My house purchase stalled at the beginning because the vendors solicitor went on holiday and didn't advise anyone of the purchase.

OP ask the question.

That’s why I have told her to ‘ask who is covering’.

We completed when our solicitor was on holiday. No issues. One of the team handled it!

Don’t worry. Your solicitor will be able to ask a colleague to Exchange contracts or Complete on the transaction if that happens to fall while they are on leave.

You need to let them know NOW that you are expecting things to progress throughout their holiday. Don’t take it for granted that they will just get cover.