Solicitor going on holiday week before completion, leaving us waiting!

weenock

I was on the phone to mine and my brothers solicitor about the house purchase that we're going through. We've been working all along to a scheduled date of 28th October as the completion date. The story so far goes a little like this;

Me, my brother, and a family friend are going to buy a house and start looking for place during the very early part of September. We end up finding out that because the friend is a French national and has only been in the UK since January that we will have to put myself and my brother on the self certified mortgage, and then get a Deed of Trust between the three of us. We are all going in with a 25% deposit split three ways, will be covering 1/3 of the fees each, and will be liable for 1/3 of the mortgage every month.

As it turns out, apart from the usual delays and paperwork issues the mortgage is less of a headache than we thought and our broker sorts this all out for us ok. 2year fixed @ 5.19%, 25year term, 157,500 mortgage.

We sorted out the mortgage specifically for a house that we liked and made an offer on.

Tuesday 12th - Vendor accepts our offer based upon a completion date of the 28th October.

Wednesday 13th - Numerous phone calls with solicitors, costs discussed

Thursday 14th - email confirmation of fees from chosen solicitor, including approximate costs of all disbursements though they may be different to quoted figures but not by a lot. At this point the completion date of 28th has been agreed with the seller and everyone involved is aware of this, and that it's a factor in the sellers decision to go with us.

Friday 15th - confirmation with solicitor that he is to act for us in the purchase of the house.

At all stages on a regular basis (though not irritatingly often or every other day) i have been in contact with the estate agent, mortgage broker, solicitor, seller - all to check that there isn't anything that either myself my brother or out friend needs to do which would be holding up the purchase. At every step of the way things have gone smoothly - nothing more could be done to keep things running and no holdups have surfaced.

Fast forward to today. On Monday of this week i emailed over the details of the three parties involved in the Deed of Trust to the solicitor, then phoned up to let him know i had sent it and to ask a few questions about who/where the deposit money and feeds need to be transfered to, and the usual "is there anything i need to do/sign/pay for". I caught him leaving to catch the last post but he said he had dictated something for him secretary to post the following day and had to go - so i told him i would email over my queries about the money transfer. No problem, they'll get back to me.

Now today i left an answerphone message for the solicitor to call me back so i could confirm the money transfer details as we wanted to get cracking on monday - as based upon a completion date of Saturday 28th October for cleared funds to be in the solicitors account - again because i wouldn't want us to be the reason for there to be a delay.

At 3pm i got a call back from the solicitor and we went through some of the details of the house purchase, and i ended up learning that he is going on holiday tomorrow for a week, getting back on the 28th

Now this is the first time i had heard anything about it in the 6/7 weeks since we started the purchase. I was all nice about it and wanted to get some idea of the likely dates for exchange of contracts and completion - not definite decisions from him that i could hold him to, but just info i could pass onto the seller as i will be ringing her tonight just to update her.

He pointed out that after the exchange it will take 5 working days to draw down the money from the solicitor, and that this process would not start happening until at the earliest Monday the 30th as he wouldn't be back in the office until then. Amazing to me the guy even pointed out on the phone that had he not been going on holiday that we would be making the 28th completion date - i didn't ask him that specifically or suggest it, he just came out with it. He even mentioned "we all have to go on holiday sometime" but note that i wasn't pressuring him and moaning about him going on holiday - but i think that we should have been made aware of it.

Since draft contracts were received by our solicitor on the 10th, and he knew he would be going away i don't understand why we can't be in a position to get the ball moving on the drawing down of the money and the completion today. Maybe not all the searches are in, maybe there is more that needs to be done - but he suggested that when he gets back all that we'll need to do is sign some forms, he'll sign them and we'll post them off on the monday he comes back to work.

Am i being unfair in thinking that he should have made us aware of this holiday - especially given that he has volunteered the fact that were it not for his holiday we would be completing on the originally planned date. I mean for gods sake he knew the planned date of completion and the date of his holiday 6 weeks ago.

Is there anything i can do or should i complain? THere's no point going anywhere else as it would only cost more and take longer overall - but i feel like this is a major cockup on his part. Worst case scenario is that the seller isn't happy and the other person interested in buying the house is nearly ready themselves

Really feel pretty at the moment - i feel like he has avoided coming back to me since Tuesday, and since i'm fairly laid back and don't keep ringing back as i would consider than unneccessary he's sneaked in at the end of the last day before he does on holiday to say "i'm off now, we'll deal with it when i get back ok?" like i have any choice.

I need to read through all of the documentation that we have had from the solicitor, but can anybody suggest what i could do at this point. As far as i know i won't be able to get hold of the solicitor before he goes away for a week, but i'm just fuming more and more when i think about it.

Part of me thinks i'm being silly, as this is a nice quick and easy house purchase in the scheme of things and all is moving quickly; we first went to look at houses to buy about a week into September, but there's another part of me that thinks it's not the point.

I simply think that it's not unreasonable that i expected the solicitor to make me aware 6-7weeks ago if he knew that he would be away at the time of completion - therefore making the completion date that we agreed with the seller as impossible :rolleyes:

silvercar

To be honest I've not heard of people completing on a Saturday as the banks won't be able to transfer the money.

I also thought solicitor's leave someone else in charge when they are away - mine certainly did.

dccarm

I think it's a rule that solicitors go on holiday just around the time you need them most. If not them, then the other party's.

PoorDave

Solicitors work on many cases in parallel, so their holidays are always going to inconvenience someone! If not you, the people trying to complete the week after or before had the solicitor taken a different week.

Obviously nobody said anything at the start as they didn't want to lose your business.

Having said that, it would have helped if they'd at least mentioned it earlier.

Silvercar is right to say people don't generally complete on a Saturday anyway.

weenock

I can understand the no completing on a saturday - but the first available day after the 28th would be Monday 30th, but because of the solicitors holiday that isn't an option either.

7 weeks notice, the dates being discussed when making enquiries with solicitors - i think it's ridiculous that the solicitor didn't mention his holiday then - but there is !!!!!! all i could do about it now anyway. It's a shame as it has spoilt an otherwise smooth house purchase. No handshake and bottle of bubbly for the solicitor! lol

shykins

when i worked for a solicitor even if he went on holiday any house buying still went ahead as planned, in fact i would often handled the actual completion myself, he would deal with all the post exchange queries before he went then i would instruct the banks etc on the day

someone else should be able to cover for him, i would go back and ask him why he hasnt got cover and cannot everything be sorted out before he goes so his secretary can handle it on the day

hope u get it sorted, good luck
x

Mrs_pbradley936

Solicitors like doctors have to make sure that someone can cover for them when they are away. It may well be that this is not an emergency situation in that nobody will die if you complete a few days later, in which case he has decided it can wait til he gets back rather than burden his cover with the details. Also I agree with the earlier poster who said that you will not be able to complete on a Saturday because the banks are closed. If I were you I would put it all down to experience and relax - it will be sorted but you should not keep worrying about the date. I doubt you are in a chain (where everyone has to complete on the same day) else the Saturday issue would have been raised ages ago.

weenock

I'm working at the moment, but when i'm home again later i must read through the documentation to say who covers when he is away, or if anyone is meant to cover.

I decided not to hound him this week to find out about the money transfer details -but would ring him on friday (as i did) since on monday morning we were intending to sortout sending over the ~£60k funds to cover the deposit and the remainder of the fees (i've already paid £350 cash to cover the searches etc.

Any advice as to what i should ask them on monday? he won't be there but somebody will be - he has a secretary and another assistant that i know of.

Debt_Free_Chick

Just another "I agree with" comment ....

I've had my solicitor go on holiday during the buying/selling process and any work that needed to be done was done by his Secretary or, if necessary, an assistant - who might be a trainee solicitor.

Not usually a problem. Call on Monday and just ask who is dealing with work in his absence.

goldbyron

Should be no stress - as everyone says there is usually always cover especially if exchange/completion is looming. Just get a name on Monday. I forget myself that solicitors need a holiday - they are only human after all despite their slow pace and adversion to modern technology (e-mails)....

A_Nice_Englishman

I suspect that most of the work is done by office staff rather than the solicitor himself/herself anyway. I agree with the other posters.