Help - Confused and Frustrated with purchasers solicitor!

prutter

Morning All,

Arrrgggh, I'm getting so annoyed with our purchasers solicitor at the moment that I thought I'd come on here to vent, and possibly get some advice.

My wife and I are in the process of buying a new house. Our vendors are chain free and have already moved out. We have a ftb buying our leasehold flat (ex LA).

Us and our vendors have been ready since 26th March. Our buyers solicitor has been promising dates for exchange now since before easter. Last week it was definitley Monday, then Tuesday, then 100% definite Thursday, then Friday - and still nothing.

I've found out from our purchaser (we're in email contact) that she spoke to him last Friday, and apparently the drainage report their drainage search was searched against is now out of date.
He's gone back to her lender for advice!?
He mentioned the possibilty of requiring our council to do a new drainage report which could take 'an indefinite period'.

He has a copy of our satisfactory drainage search we had when we bought the propert 2 years ago.

Now, I'm confused about a couple of points here.
1) Why would he be going back to her lenders for advice? I always thought that searches were for the benefit of the purchaser and not the lender. In fact, I understood that all searches were in fact optional?
I thought that if the purchaser was happy with the search results that the sale could progress. Or, would the lender need satisfactory searches as a condition of the mortgage offer?

2) Our flat is leasehold. The mortgage is for the purchase of the lease, not the building. The building is owned by the council. Presumably the drainage is their responsibility? (I know inside the property is the owners)

Anyone any ideas if the lender is likely to take issue with this?
Anyone had anything similar happen? I'm really worried we're going to need this new report by the council which could take months.

My wife is 6 months pregnant and the new house needs a lot of work, so we're really worried about more delays.....:eek:

I'm waiting for our solicitor to call us back with her opinion on this, but thought I'd try on here too.

Cheers....

olly300

You don't need a drainage search.

You are advised to have one but it's not necessary.

The only thing the solicitor needs to check is that you are connected to the mains water and sewage system. They can do this by looking at your water bill.

I would contact your EA and talk to them, as your EA doesn't get paid until your sale goes through, and they generally don't have a problem ringing up solicitors to find out what is the hold up.

The outside pipes i.e. sewage pipes and water supply pipes are the responsibility of the council if your lease makes that clear. Maybe the purchaser's solicitor has never dealt with council leasehold properties before.

prutter

Thanks for that mate - is useful info.
Our EA's have been pretty good in chasing - they tried to chase again today but the solicitor in question is on holiday but back tomorrow apparently.

I've since heard back from our solicitor who said water searches have nothing to do with the council, and the only stipulation from the lender is that they are no more than 3 months old at completion. She's implied there's nothing to worry about and is gonna chase 'em again today.

Part of the ongoing problem is that our buyer has used (as reccomended by our EA's) an online/phone conveyancers based miles away from where we are. Therefore, they're not familiar with our area, our council and our ex-LA properties. Our solicitor said if she'd used a local solicitor we'd have been done and dusted weeks ago......... shame

Richard_Webster

I've found out from our purchaser (we're in email contact) that she spoke to him last Friday, and apparently the drainage report their drainage search was searched against is now out of date.
He's gone back to her lender for advice!?
He mentioned the possibilty of requiring our council to do a new drainage report which could take 'an indefinite period'.

A local authority search could get out of date because something new could get registered in the Council's records about the property. A drainage search really isn't vital - a copy bill showing a charge for waste water disposal is really adequate. But the joke is the whole concept of it becoming out of date...The drainage authority might decide to rip out the mains drainage connection and dig a big cesspit for a block of flats!!!!???

The searches aren't just done for the buyer - sometimes a lender DOES want more checks than a buyer would be bothered with - but I can't see why a drainage search is so vital to a lender's security.

As a conveyancing solicitor I believe the information given in the post to be useful but I accept no liability except to fee-paying clients.

prutter

Thanks Richard - I hoped you'd reply to this.
Again, that's useful, reassuring information. Just what I wanted to hear

I guess the lender will tell him everythings fine, or our solicitor will tell him that he's worrying about nothing and tell him to pull his finger out.

Will hopefully know more today as the solicitor in question is back from holiday.

Cheers...

olly300

prutter wrote: »

Part of the ongoing problem is that our buyer has used (as reccomended by our EA's) an online/phone conveyancers based miles away from where we are. Therefore, they're not familiar with our area, our council and our ex-LA properties. Our solicitor said if she'd used a local solicitor we'd have been done and dusted weeks ago......... shame

So it's a conveyancing place who have staff who don't know what they are doing.

Unfortunately you can get really slow local solicitors who don't necessarily know what they are doing. I know two people who had the same local solicitor who held up the sale both times because he decided that certain documents where necessary to complete the sale. The documents didn't exist. He was nasty to all parties in the sale including the party that was paying him plus the EA's who recommended him. Luckily for him there are loads of EA's in the area. (This was the solicitor I was recommended not to use.)

Richard_Webster

prutter wrote: »

I guess the lender will tell him everythings fine, or our solicitor will tell him that he's worrying about nothing and tell him to pull his finger out.

Not necessarily, unfortunately, because the people in the lender's office who get the query probably won't really understand it, so the other solr could get a quite random reply and might have to wait some time for it! Really isn't a good idea to ask lenders this sort of question.

As a conveyancing solicitor I believe the information given in the post to be useful but I accept no liability except to fee-paying clients.

prutter

Richard_Webster wrote: »

Not necessarily, unfortunately, because the people in the lender's office who get the query probably won't really understand it, so the other solr could get a quite random reply and might have to wait some time for it! Really isn't a good idea to ask lenders this sort of question.

Eeeek. Its bonkers isn't it, and sooooo frustrating! :mad: I've expressed my displeasure and concern to our EA this morning who is chasing the solr today. Our solicitor is also on his case, so *hopefully* we might be close to some kind of resolution (probably wishful thinking).

That's the worry for me, that her lenders will sit on his query (or it'll go to someone who doesnt know how to deal with it), without knowing that this is the one thing we were waiting on.
We have been already delayed by them one week as he went back to them for advice on our road not being adopted (although it is maintained by our council). Again, our solicitor said that this wasn't a problem, and not normally something she'd bother the lender about.....

prutter

Latest news: Have heard from our solicitor who has just spoken to our buyers solicitor.

Apparently the issue is nothing to do with drainage!
His environmental search came back with an issue (over 4 weeks ago) - which he referred to our solcr. She responded with the clean environ search she did for us when we bought the property (May 2005). He chased it with the company he used for the environ search about the discrepency and they said, tough - this kind of thing happens.

So, he's now (4+ weeks later) - written to our buyers lender, enclosing the 2 environ searches, asking if they're ok with the discrepency!

So, we're at the mercy of her lender AGAIN!
Why he can't just pick up the phone, call them, speak to the necessary person, get them to OK it, then fax through the confirmation I don't know!
I guess that would be too quick and easy!

Plus, our solicitor can't understand why he's referred this to the lender. She said she's never had to refer searches back to lenders, and that he didn't really need to do this......

Arrrrrggggghhhhhh - stressed? Me? Just a little :mad:

Richard_Webster

Which lender is the buyer using? Not all want to know about Environmental searches.

As a conveyancing solicitor I believe the information given in the post to be useful but I accept no liability except to fee-paying clients

prutter

Richard_Webster wrote: »

Which lender is the buyer using? Not all want to know about Environmental searches.

Hi Richard, I believe it's nationwide.

Cheers