Ghosted by Solicitors!!! Pissed off!!!

[Stressedandpissedoff]

In the process of selling my late parents home after my Father died early this year. We (my brother and I) sold the house quickly to FTB who had a mortgage offer in principal already sorted.

Sale has been bobbing along nicely with no issues. Few enquires from the searches which we answered fully. Survey done, no issues, all paperwork and contracts signed on both sides, so we are all set and ready to go.

Our solicitor messaged theirs to ask if we are done with enquiries and to request a completion date. That was 3 weeks ago!! Despite our solicitor messaging them every couple of days to ask again for this information, they still have not responded.

I have asked our Estate Agent to call our buyers, and call the solicitors herself to see if she can get some news and have heard nothing. No updates, not a thing.

My brother and I are desperate to put this sale behind us as we have had a horrible year losing our Dad and selling the home we grew up in but this is hanging over our heads and its hard to move on and get closure while we still have the house.

What do I do now? Do I just keep messaging, emailing and calling for news? It feels like nothing is happening and I am confused as to why their Solicitor is not answering. Is there anything else we can try?

Call the estate agents daily for a week - they should be chasing the buyers
Then put it back on the market

I'd keep phoning the estate agent, the one I used for my late parents house had a progress chaser in the office. Have a full and frank discussion with them. I'd probably instruct them to start viewings again. It took us 3 goes to actually sell, the first lot missed the exchange date having wanted to be in for Christmas then pulled out the first working day of the new year. Then another cash buyer who strung us along for about 6 weeks before pulling out. Then finally our dream buyer turned up, paid full asking price and the sale completed in 5 1/2 weeks from accepting the offer.

good luck!

@Roomgigi I think I will. I will call our EA first thing and get them to try and speak to our buyers. I don't understand why our buyers are not pushing to get in if we are all ready. Its difficult to understand what the hold up is, unless there is something we are not being told.

@CrotchetyQuaver thanks. I am beginning to think that the buyers are getting/have got cold feet and are going to pull out. If they are then we would rather know so we can get it back on the market. I think I need to start applying some pressure tomorrow.

I actually came on here to start a vaguely similar thread, do you mind if I share here OP and it might give you some more traffic too

We are trying to sell a property for a poorly elderly relative. It's a flat and it's in terrible condition. Really appallin We were lucky to find a private buyer.

It's empty. He says that he is ready to exchange right now

But he also says that he can't get hold of his solicitor

(He's quite a strange man and I do wonder if he changed his mind because the last time we spoke he was asking us questions about getting a skip and so on. So maybe this is the first time he's bought an investment property).

But he's literally claiming that he cannot get hold of his solicitor

our solicitor can't get hold of his solicitor

The situation is pretty desperate as my relative really needs the money for care

the next step is actually to go to one of those property buying companies. His lifespan is limit. And he would be much more comfortable if he had some money from the sale.

dowr believe something can be delayed so much by crap solicitors

No idea what to do now

We are handling the sale and trying to act in his best interest while paying money for the flat and paying money to him to make him more comfortable.

I don't have much experience but looked on here and it seems that solicitors do go slow

I was actually crying about it. I also had PMT. Because it took six weeks to go to getting any questions from the solicitors. We answered them really fast and haven't heard back since.

very sorry, you are having the same

It's not clear from this whether you have exchanged or not.

You say that "contracts are signed on both sides" and you are waiting for a completion date, but normally if exchange has happened then the house is effectively sold and you should already have a completion date.

I say "effectively sold" because it is normally still possible to withdraw from a sale after exchange. It's just pretty expensive.

Assuming this is England. I don't know what happens in Scotland.

@GasPanic no we have not exchanged yet. We have signed the contract, and so have they, and all other related paperwork, or so our agent had us believe they had. We have no idea now whether we are being told the truth or not. Our solicitor has asked them for dates to exchange and complete and been ghosted for 3 weeks.

@RoundandSad it is shit isn't it? We literally don't know what to do now and don't understand why the solicitor is not answering. I feel all I can do is keep calling and putting pressure on the EA to keep calling the Solicitors and keep trying to speak to our buyers and see what they are saying about the whole thing.

I am sorry you are experiencing something similar. It is so stressful. I have never known another profession where they can literally just ignore all calls and emails like this. Its so unprofessional not to even answer emails, even if you don't really have much to report right now. The stress has been unbelievable. We are tempted to put it back on the market and hope we sell quickly again.

until exchange it’s all up in the air

id talk to your estate agent and ask them to give the buyers a deadline for exchange else you’ll put it back on the market

@Stressedandpissedoff if you’ve been chasing for an exchange date for 3 weeks with no response, I’d tell your EA to put the house back on the market TOMORROW as well as chasing your supposed buyer. It won’t make them pull out if they are, for example, dealing with unforeseen illness or their solicitor is on holiday etc, but it might shift them into gear, plus you need to keep your options open.

This too shall pass . It’s awful isn’t it.

@Newgirls yes, I could do that couldn't I? I think a deadline for exchange is a really good idea. We are prepared to go back on the market if need be but want to get on with it if that is where this sale seems to be going.

I knew it was all going too well. It has all seemed too good to be true and it has been a perfect sale from start to finish, up until this point 🙄😟

Im in the same position with my solicitor
Last time I gave a 48 hour deadline and they responded. Oh and immediately sent a bill!
It's now happened again so one call tomorrow and if no reply I'll employ a different firm.

I might be very out dated here, because the last time I bought and sold a place was in 1987.

I found a place I really wanted, we had a buyer, seller had a house they wanted. So far so good. Then our buyer contacted us to say they were having a problem getting a mortgage. I phoned the people we were hoping to buy from and told them about the potential delay. They had a relative who was a mortgage broker, my potential buyer and their relative got together. Voila. Sorted in a couple of days.

maybe it's not the done thing to talk directly to your buyer/seller, but it worked for me.

It may be that all the speculation around stamp duty has spooked them.

Are they paying a large amount ?

I am surprised that the EA is not all over them to push a deal through in order to get their commission.

We’ve just moved and had issues with the buyers solicitor. I asked our solicitor, our estate agent, our buyer and even the estate agent for the one we bought to contact them (on the grounds that it was holding up the chain). With everyone on their back things did move a little (but it was a painful process at times). I’d just keep asking. I’d also ask the direct question about whether they are considering pulling out, given the delays. We also suggested our own date for completion. Worth a try.

@GasPanic possibly? I hadn't thought of that.

@pinkbackground I think I will definitely be a little bit more direct when I call tomorrow asking more specific questions than the usual 'any news?' I would really like some answers now and am not prepared to wait much longer. We suggested our own date for completion weeks ago. It has been and gone and still no talk of exchange of contracts 🙄I am definitely getting a bad vibe about this now.

In that case call your estate agent and ask them to relist it. That should kick them into action and to find out if this is a genuine buyer

I am sorry if I'm stating the obvious, but have you got the Grant of Probate, which has been passed on to the buyer's solicitor?

That's what we threatened when our buyers were being difficult

@Nerdippy yes, they have already had that. Thanks for mentioning it though.

@Newgirls first up today I am going to speak to our EA and ask them to talk to our buyers. Then if it seems they are stalling it goes back on the market. I can't be doing with this anymore. Its just starting to get ridiculous. Thanks

I'm totally unsure of protocols, but is there any reason why you shouldn't ring their solicitors office and ask to speak to their solicitor and tell them to get a move on? I realise it's maybe not done, but in cases like this?

@sbplanet believe me, we have thought of doing that ourselves yes. But its not the done thing and I don't think anyone would speak to me if I tried. But its SO frustrating. Why do solicitors do this? They just don't reply and its so fricking annoying.

I realise it's not the 'done thing' but it's totally unlikely you'd get to speak to their solicitor. But a message would get through that you'd tried. Or maybe you would get a clue that the hold up was not what you thought.
I see no reason why a very polite, yet concerned (because of the difficult situation you are going through) phone call is really that extreme. But then I am not one for always following accepted behaviours, and if worse came to worst I'd profusely apologise. If it p^ssed anyone off that much then you could always start again, which is almost where you are now?
ps if you did get through and they were arsey, I'd just burst into tears and sob, that would disarm them! I don't know really but I'm somewhat impulsive so would probably have tried by now. Very good luck whatever you chose.

i was told by my solicitor to contact the buyer's solicitor myself, which I did. They even told me what to write in the email. And i got told off for doing it. So don't do that.

Please don't contact the buyer's solicitor as suggested above. They won't speak to you as you are not their client. People who try this are not helping the transaction and are more likely slowing it down.

When precisely were the draft contract papers received by the buyer's solicitor? Is there a leasehold element, or management company structure?

Usually when a solicitor doesn't respond to an 'update' enquiry it's because they have no further update for you and it would be a waste of their time responding with no further update.

Try to remember that it is very much the buyer's solicitor who drives progress, because it is they who have to do their due diligence. They can hold up the transaction for however long they want before they'll state they are ready to discuss exchange and completion dates. Your solicitor may well be ready, but if the buyer's solicitor is still querying things, then the transaction cannot move forward.

You really need to find out from the EA (who can contact the buyer's solicitors and the buyer), what the delay is and what it is they are waiting for, because without knowing why there is a delay, it is difficult to advise.