Chasing Conveyancing solicitors

blackberry2

Hi,

Just a bit of advice required. We are FTB's and require a completion date for the beginning of September as we are moving out of our rental property and will effectively be homeless if we dont complete by middle of Septemeber at the latest. (we were given notice on our rental whilst in process of buying)

We are hoping that everything slots into place.

We instructed the solicitor on the 27/06 and were on holiday for 2 weeks until the middle of July. Since then I have been calling every few days for updates or progress reports.

It feels as though the solictor is getting annoyed with my persistance. I just wondered what other people experiences were, how often did they chase etc and what is a reasonable?

Thanks

sonastin

When you chase, make sure you ask them how long the current task is expected to take, what comes next and how long that usually takes. Then you can leave them alone until they should have finished the current task and probably until they should be nearly finished with the next one. Then when you call it can be along the lines of "I take it X has been done, how is Y coming along? What is still to be done after that?" That way, your calls are constructive rather than mithering. If your solicitor is doing something which takes 2 weeks and you call every 2 days, he won't have anything new to tell you, but unless you know that it will be 2 weeks until something changes, you need to keep calling to find out that there is no news...

Yorkie1

If you were given notice to leave by your LL then legally you do not have to leave on the expiry date of that notice. It is only a notice that the LL intends to seek possession. In order to get you out he will have to go to court, which will take another few weeks.

I am not sure of the position if you stay on beyond the notice expiry date - whether you have to give 1 month's notice to the LL of your intention to terminate the tenancy, ending at the end of a rental period. Hopefully others will clarify this.

hazyjo

Use the EA you're buying through too - if you think they can help! The ones we bought through were brilliant and got things moving far quicker than our solicitor! We had to chase the vendors, and their solicitor, for quite a lot. The EA was fab. Obviously you have to know what it is the solicitor's waiting for. You don't want to annoy the hell out of them. Sometimes though a gentle nudge helps as the EAs tend to be oblivious as to where things are at. If they think their client is sitting back delaying the sale, they might well give them a prod. They obviously want their commission, and they obviously don't want the sale to fall through.

Jx