How many additional queries are too many?

cattie

I received a list of additional queries from my solicitor at the weekend and was amazed to see they numbered 58!

Usually in the past it has averaged perhaps 15 or 16 at the most. Even my solicitor seems to feel this is way too many as a lot of the queries are things he has answered in one way or another elsewhere already.

Anyway, this got me wondering as to how many additional queries have been presented to others selling at the moment?

propertyman

I recall 73, but the office record is over 100.

It is common that some firms refuse to read and analyse documents, and in order to manage risk and save time require the "other side" to fill in the blanks.

I would separate the silly ones and the unnecessary ones, and have your solicitor seek their costs of dealing with those from the other side.

They often boil down to silly pernickety ones, or it's an all encompassing list of standard questions covering from tree houses to longboats to country houses to smelly former squats, and all the 3 bed semis in between..

DVardysShadow

Where the solicitor has answered previously, the previous answer should be referred to rather than duplicating.

I would not be phased by the number, but I would be pd off at trivia and blind repetition.

Eve4ever

This is my next concern, especially as I'm having to use a HSBC panel solicitor, hopefully I'm worrying about nothing. I hope it is resolved quickly for you.

PasturesNew

I got a bunch of about 10-12. They only had spaces for "YES" and "NO". None for "Dunno, it's not my house".

fimonkey

Well as a buyer, my solicitor was v unhappy with the vendors solicitor referring to 'previous answers' because one of the reasons he was asking again was because the 'previous answer' was insufficient! i.e the freeholder had written N/A over information such as whether there was permission granted to change the windows in the leasehold flat. That said - he didn't make that clear to the vendors solicitor so they went back and forth for weeks holding everyone up.

Once that had been sorted there was another hold up, because this time my mortgage companies panel of conveyencers (who were different to my solicitor) wanted to know about 10 more things like "why on the lease are shared parts hatched in purple, but in the text it says blue". .. I kid you not! Of course my and the vendors solicitor knew these were ridiculous but they had to be asked, and then answered - by which time both solicitors are tearing their hair out and blaming each other and I am out of pocket by another £100 for the freeholder's 'inconvenience' for answering the questionnaire a second time.

So how many can they ask? Its limitless I think but bear in mind they're probably not coming from your buyer, but either their solicitor or mortgage company.

I would recommend making a pest of yourself with your solicitor, and if possible get the name and contact details of the vendor/buyer (on the docs you have from your solicitor) and drop them a quick note to let them know if they have any questions they can contact you directly.

I wish I'd have done this sooner because my sol was having me believe it was the vendors fault, and the vendors sol vice versa - and when we met up we realised it was a big misunderstanding between sol's who were both doing their job correctly in teh strict sense of the word but infuriatingly holding things up in the process.

propertyman

The underlying issue is that the "old school"solicitor would have reviewed the lease before drafting the contract and highlighted any concerns to be addressed.

Far too often this, as is so many other walks of life its

"whack it our quick- deal with it if it comes up."

In the same, way the reply should say

" further to your letter of x and reply y, we need clarification of y in terms of z."

That is communicating purposefully, not exchanging lists and forms to check the box on the work flow chart.

Sausage machine conveyancing.