FTB's - contacting vendor's solicitor

road2recovery

Hi,

We are in the process of buying our first house. We have had our mortgage agreed, paid and had the Home Buyer Survey conducted, and have also paid our solicitors for the relevant Searches.

We want to complete on or before the 30th March and my question is:

Is it acceptable to contact the sellers solicitor with regards arranging a completion date, or do I have to leave it to my solicitor to sort, or do I contact the estate agent and let them speak to sellers solicitor?

We have been sent a Memorandum of Agreed sale, which has on it our names, our solicitors details, the sellers name and sellers solicitor.

I just dont know what the correct protocol is! Please help!!!

sirmosh

I hope you're not expecting to miss stamp duty because you'd need to complete by March 23rd. Ask your solicitor to speak to their solicitor, that's how it normally works.

road2recovery

Stamp duty is irrelevant for us, as purchase price is below the £125k threshold.

I will contact my solicitors and see what they say.

jamesd

You're expected to communicate via your own solicitor. There's a potential breach of solicitor's ethics to communicate directly with the opposing party. It can happen but don't be surprised if their solicitor asks your solicitor to ask you not to communicate directly.

ruggedtoast

Your vendor will have enough trouble getting their solicitor to communicate with them about a completion date. People who aren't even employing them, have no chance.

Richard_Webster

You're expected to communicate via your own solicitor. There's a potential breach of solicitor's ethics to communicate directly with the opposing party. It can happen but don't be surprised if their solicitor asks your solicitor to ask you not to communicate directly.

You can't talk to the other person's solicitor but you can talk to your own solicitor, the estate agents and the person selling to you.

Whilst it is worthwhile talking direct as they may tell you of their own constraints - e.g. can't manage particular days because of work commitments, do not assume that some date they suggest/say they agree will actually be the date.

Far too many people agree things with other side and neither the buyer nor the seller bother to check with their solicitors that the dates are feasible. You must also do that.

Also solicitors may say that provided X and Y happen then such and such a date is feasible. If so must check whether X and Y have happened and not just assume that the date that was merely feasible has been set in concrete.

road2recovery

I've spoken to the estate agents, who advised me to speak to my solicitor.

So I phoned my solicitor, who says he has received a copy of our mortgage offer and has written to us. He went on to say that he is still waiting for the Contract to come from the Vendor's solicitor and there is not much he can do until he has this? How long does this usually take? I understand that the Vendor solicitor will send some documentation out to the vendor for them to complete, before a contract is raised and sent? Am I understanding this right?

It all seems like a complicated process to me!

jamesd

How long it takes varies. In my case the mortgage company got a correct offer letter to my solicitor on their fifth try at sending one. Be sure that you check the terms of your mortgage offer to verify that they match the terms that you agreed to.

If the seller's solicitor is on holiday it may take a few weeks. If there's any urgency ask your solicitor to check on it after a week.

Yes, the vendor will have some forms to complete that describe certain aspects of the property and what is and isn't being sold. That is an attempt to block some of the room for disagreements by getting people to agree to them early on.

Richard_Webster

So I phoned my solicitor, who says he has received a copy of our mortgage offer and has written to us. He went on to say that he is still waiting for the Contract to come from the Vendor's solicitor and there is not much he can do until he has this? How long does this usually take? I understand that the Vendor solicitor will send some documentation out to the vendor for them to complete, before a contract is raised and sent? Am I understanding this right?

Yes, so there could be a delay before your solicitor gets the draft contract and it only then that searches are normally sent out - they can take anything from 2-28 days depending on the Council in question. Your solicitor will go through the papers and ask questions to clarify any inconsistencies or to ask for documents and consents that may not have been supplied. It is then how the seller takes to deal with those queries.

Don't rely on 30th March happening - still not impossible - but don't assume it will happen.

dawyldthing

i contacted my sellers solicitor as i nor my solicitors was getting answers from anyone so i ended up e-mailing them to try and get the ball moving. In the end he phoned me as its been going on for 3 months. Being a probate is taking longer, but it might be worth dropping an e-mail with what you would both like just in case