Withdrawing prior to exchange and commission to EA

Jowo_2

The other solicitors suspect that the first solicitor has little or no experience in conveyancing - they both have vast experience in the local area and have never encountered this outfit before, and find the reasons that are delaying exchange to be incredible at this stage.

To recap: the offer on the first property was accepted about 5 or 6 months ago and the conveyancing on the second property was completed 5 weeks ago but its the solicitor at the start of the chain who is repeatedly raising basic queries and conditions this far down the line.

If it stalls again for yet another last minute request for information or action, is it feasible to demand that the first buyer changes solicitor or is this an extraordinary demand that is unlikely to be accepted or virtually impossible to implement?

Apparently the EAs have been very understanding about the situation and have liaised with the second and third solicitor to apply some pressure to get the conveyancing moving again after stagnating for a month. Like the solicitors, they say they've never encountered such sloppiness and slowness.

Another exchange date has been cancelled by the first solicitor this week on the actual day itself, who has decided that the original property must have another fire risk assessment, as there has not been one taken place in the last few years (it did pass the previous one). Again, this is something that is felt to be something that could and should have been flagged up and dealt with in the five or six months before the exchange of contracts and completion dates were established.

Insist they sack the solicitor?! If so, how?!

azkaban420

I doubt you can insist on them changing solicitors and I very much doubt they will be willing to fork out more money for a new one...maybe they chose this one to keep costs down? You could try asking your (friend's) solicitors to place pressure on them, and to insist speaking to someone of a higher level/management within the solicitor branch and see if that gets attention?

It is a difficult situation when you have incompetent people versus efficient ones. As for fire risk assessment etc, it does seem odd that stuff like this is being asked for at such a late stage. Are there indemnity insurances that can be taken out (low cost one-off fee usually) to cover for anything they aren't completely satisfied with, to move the process along? That is if it applies of course - check with the solicitor acting on your friend's behalf.

Good luck,

Az