When and how to apply pressure to seller

gazfocus

We made a successfull offer on a property that's currently empty on 14th April this year and instructed our solicitor within 3 days of the offer being accepted. Our mortgage offer didn't come through until the end of May, however, the solicitor had been working away with searches, etc, while we waiting for the mortgage offer.

It's now 6 weeks after we got the mortgage offer and 3 months after our offer was accepted and we still don't have a completion date.

The vendors solicitor passed the case on to another branch a few weeks ago and that branch has now passed it back to the original branch and nothing much has been done in between.

My solicitor asked the vendors solicitor to obtain some planning permission documents from the local council, which they failed to do in over 3 weeks which resulted in myself calling into the council and getting the document there and then (at a cost of £10). My solicitor has also asked on numerous occassions for a suggested completion date, to which the vendors solicitor continues to ignore and now the person at the estate agents we were dealing with has gone on holiday!

I am getting extremely frustrated with the lack of progress, as is my solicitor, to the point that I'm considering threatening to pull out.

What's the best way to move forward? As far as I'm aware, my solicitor is waiting to hear back from the vendors solicitor with answers to her queries, which includes a proposed completion date. Once this has happened, my solicitor can calculate our completion statement.

My main concern is that our mortgage offer expires at the end of August and at this rate we'll still be no further forward.

spadoosh

we put an offer end of march last year and moved in around 3rd july. Sometimes it takes time. Chances are theres been delaying tactics from both sets of solicitors and always seems to be a case of passing the buck.

The best you can do really is to get the estate agent to speak to vendors to see if there happy at how long its taking if theyre not you both need to agree to put pressure on solicitors close to ringing them everyday just to annoy them into doing something. The actual process is very quick and simple, the problem being theyre doing this for thousands of people and its normally the loudest ones that get heard.

Next problem might be the vendor isnt in a particular rush to sell they might be looking for houses and every week they get to spend in the house is a week they dont pay rent on.

Sorry cant really help, but they do take time. My friend is in the middle of buying a new build flat in london, offer made november with a move in dat of late feb, then moved back to april, then june and hes supposed to be moving in the next few weeks still hasnt signed contracts yet though.

gazfocus

Thanks. I appreciate that it takes time but it's the vendors solicitors ignoring requests that's winding me up. Our solicitor seems very efficient. She emails me a copy of every letter she sends to the vendors solicitor and is very on the ball so I don't believe she's been delaying at all.

The vendor has already vacated the property we're buying so she's having to pay mortgage on this property plus rent for her new property so surely she would want the sale to conclude sooner rather than later.

In the absense of the lady we were dealing with at the estate agents, I even tried emailing the vendors solicitor myself and got no responses.

rosyw

I wouldn't be messing around with the EA! When I bought my place there were numerous delays caused by the vendors solicitor, so I had a very pleasant chat with the vendor who had no idea what was going on as they had been told the delay was down to me, a quick call to their solicitor telling them to get it all sorted out that day or they would be collecting ALL the paperwork the following morning and placing the sale in other hands did the trick and we exchanged and completed within a week :rotfl:

DRP

gazfocus wrote: »

Thanks. I appreciate that it takes time but it's the vendors solicitors ignoring requests that's winding me up. Our solicitor seems very efficient. She emails me a copy of every letter she sends to the vendors solicitor and is very on the ball so I don't believe she's been delaying at all.

The vendor has already vacated the property we're buying so she's having to pay mortgage on this property plus rent for her new property so surely she would want the sale to conclude sooner rather than later.

In the absense of the lady we were dealing with at the estate agents, I even tried emailing the vendors solicitor myself and got no responses.

surely there must be someone else at the EA office to take over when 'your EA' is away?

gazfocus

DRP wrote: »

surely there must be someone else at the EA office to take over when 'your EA' is away?

you'd think so wouldn't you but when I phoned them on Monday morning, they didn't seem too interested in contacting the vendor.

DRP

gazfocus wrote: »

you'd think so wouldn't you but when I phoned them on Monday morning, they didn't seem too interested in contacting the vendor.

In that case you need to threaten you're going to do something rash, which will put their selling fee is at risk

ie. it is hardball time

BitterAndTwisted

Forget the EA. Get in contact with the vendor directly and ask them why there have been so many delays at their end. They are either committed to the sale, and should therefore give their solicitor a kick up the rear, or they're not. In which case you pull out.