Exchange today stil awaiting a reply to a query raised

hyposmurf

I'm looking to exchange today.Everything is in place except a reply to an enquiry on my purchase.How is best to get things moving on this?The EA contacted the vendor's solicitor to request the reply to the enquiry and so has my solicitor at the end of the day last Friday.My solicitor is incredibly slow to do anything,seems to do everything via post and no sense of urgency,they have already said this morning that exchange might be tomorrow now as they won't open the post until later in the day.Quite unbelievable!:rotfl:
Im wondering should I try to find the vendor's contact details and contact them directly?They are a develpers,I have a contact name but no number.What other methods are there to speed things up?As you can possibly imagine I have this buffer between myself and the people actually carrying out the work I need to proceed, so not sure when the replies to the enquiries are done, being done or even been requested?

gordonbennet

Very typical of solicitors I'm afraid. I've found you have to be reasonably assertive with them. Speak to you solicitor and say "Right - what do we have to do to ensure exchange happens tomorrow? What is outstanding?" Then get a time frame on anything they say. If necessary phone back an hour or two later and ask what progress there is.

You could indeed try to contact the vendor, though you may find it difficult to track them down. You could also put the pressure on their solicitors by contacting them yourself and say "Just wondering what the hold up is in responding to our enquiry about X" You could make out you are concerned that there is some kind of problem. Again, say something like "Is there any reason you won't be able to come up with an answer to that by 2pm this afternoon?"

They will pay attention to whoever is bugging them. So if it's not you it will be another client instead.

good luck
GB

poppysarah

Do they not open the post because they don't get it until late afternoon?

(if they get it in the morning and don't open it then they are TOO annoying for words)

Richard_Webster

What exactly is the point that they are waiting for?

hyposmurf

I've short cutted the chain of people invloved and gone to the company direct,should get the reply over today,fingers crossed.

Bloody solicitors are being as helpful as usual.Now I've been told even if the replies come back today it will probably be tomorrow when exchange takes place due to their current workload!Apparently the solicitor has to check through all the paperwork,just prior to exchange?Surely this shouldve already been done?

I've already notified them that the developer has given me a date of today that they want to exchange on this property,as its taken so long!This could be the EA getting pushy,but I just can't afford to take that risk.

nomoneytoday

It would be a strange developer pulling out with an expected exchange within a couple of days...

hyposmurf

Yes it would,but still not worth testing out.

The solictors have the answer,sent to them.So its now up to them to exchange.Is it usual that exchange could take them longer than 3hours?

Richard_Webster

1. The answer the solicitor have been given may not be satisfactory. You have not told us the nature of the point at issue so we can't comment on how quickly the solicitor could proceed.

2. It can often take 3 hours to get hold of the other solicitor if he is busy. Developers' solicitors often have to do a final check with their builder client before actually exchanging.

hyposmurf

The question was related to any oustanding fees.It was a simple yes or no answer required,that shouldn't have raised any further questions.The solicitors have now noified the EA that it won't happen today as the solicitor isnt in today.Didn't mention this at all to me, the whole day.Chocolate teapot comes to mind, but it would probably be too complementary.

G_M

hyposmurf wrote: »

The question was related to any oustanding fees.It was a simple yes or no answer required,that shouldn't have raised any further questions.The solicitors have now noified the EA that it won't happen today as the solicitor isnt in today.Didn't mention this at all to me, the whole day.Chocolate teapot comes to mind, but it would probably be too complementary.

Surely it makes a difference whether the answer was yes or no?

If you wanted a yes to the fee-related question, but got a no, what then?

and if the answer made no difference, why ask the question and why delay Exchange waiting?

I'm afraid there is really nothing very unusual about this. Exchange is never a fixed date, and can only ever be a hoped-for date. No one should ever assume it will happen on a given date until that date has come and gone.

Th developers will know this - and certainly won't give up on a hundred thousand pound customer for the sake of a day or two!

AFK_Matrix

I was hoping to exchange on Wednesday last week and unfortunately there was a !!!! up at the bank so the solicitor didn't get the deposit in time. All I did was go in on the Wednesday and sign the contract (so at least the other vendors had a bit of confidence I was willing to go ahead as I had the EA jumping up and down trying to push the exchange). So I sorted out the money !!!! up and it was all done and dusted on the next day. So all sorts of things can happen to delay the exchange and hopefully it will all be sorted soon.