Solicitors not respecting their Terms and Conditions- what can we do?

laurapurple

Hi everybody, my partner and I are currently in the process of purchasing a shared ownership house and are FTB so please be kind .
This is our story: We have been privately renting for the last 1 1/2 years but the landlord had to sell the house and gave us the 2 months notice to vacate on the 28th of March, so our last day in the property should be the 28th of May(tomorrow). On being told this, we looked at our options and determined that for us the best option available at the moment is to buy a shared ownership new built house as it would give us the space we need, and we would spend less money than we do on rent at the moment, on the mortgage and rent for the new place.
So far so good, all was fine and we were accepted to pick a property (because we moved fast and had all paperwork done in time). As soon as the HA person dealing with these properties informed us that we can purchase the house we wanted (50% share), on the 24th of April we have informed our mortgage advisor. He is an IFA working in the EA dealing with our rental property, same EA who sold the house for our land lord, had arranged the viewings and had contact with the new couple who bought the house we live in. We trusted him as he was always very nice and responded quickly if we ever had any problems during the rental period, etc. We said we were looking to find a solicitor to act on our behalf and since the time frame to complete was quite short he recomended the solicitors they use at the EA, Premier Property Lawyers. I have now read a lot of reviews about them now, but at the time, because he, and all the other EAs in there said they move very quickly and this year alone completed 3 shared ownership purchases within 28 days we thought it would be perfect. I am aware that each case is different, this is why the estate agent spoke to our landlord and he agreed that if needs be, we can be in the property for an extra 1-2 weeks after the 28th May. We instructed the solicitors the same day (24th April), received a starter pack, all T&C, conveyancing quote and we have sent the initial payment of £355 required in order to start the searches on the same day, thinking that it would get things moving.
Here is where the problem is: in the T&C sent to us, it said:
"SEARCHES PACK
Please note that upon receipt of the requested payment to enable us to carry out the necessary searches, the searches will be requested immediately. We will not wait for documents to be received from other lawyers, results of your survey or mortgage offer. In general we find that it is more efficient to proceed in this way."

Our mortgage application is going fine, still waiting for the offer which should be in on Tuesday (due to my partner being employed by an agency, it took longer than usual and several letters needed to be sent to the Mortgage Company). However, the solicitors kept fobbing us of by saying that they can`t request the searches until they have a draft contract from the other solicitors, and on our case status it shows that we had the Memo of sale on the 29th April, but they only requested the contract to be sent to them on the 10th May, and it was received on the 15th. The searches have only been requested supposedly on the 21st MAY- almost a month since we have sent the payment and instructed that they should act on our behalf. My question is, where do we stand? We have managed to extend our stay here until the 3rd June (coincidentally the date on the Memo of sale for deadline of completion). However, it is unlikely that we can complete and exchange by then and we will be homeless with nowhere to go with a 1 year old little one, we will have to put our things in storage and find temporary accomodation. We will probably be able to go to my mother in law`s but will still have to pay for it.
I find the T&C to be misleading and they have lied to us about waiting for documents, where do we stand? If they had started the searches when they said they would according to the T&C they would have been back by now (I phoned the Local Authority and the person dealing with Land Charges and Searches said that all searches have been returned within 10 working days, most within 5-6 days). Do you guys think we have any hope of completing by the 3rd, what can I do to speed them up? I am getting really stressed by all this, please help

Laura

mrginge

What makes you think you have to move out of your rental property? Have you been given a court order?

laurapurple

Thanks for your reply, we had no court order, just the notice to vacate given 2 months ago, but I thought that it would impact us negatively if we get served a court order. The landlords have been nice to us, so we don`t want to cost them the sale (as the EA said that if we stay longer the buyers will pull out). Apparently it was sold as vacant posession. Could we ask the solicitors to pay us for accomodation as they didn`t respect the T&C?

mrginge

No. You don't have to move out.
A court order will have no impact on you, and without your agreement is a requirement, not a last resort
You don't need a reference and even if you did the ll couldn't state you had done anything outside the law.
The ll selling the house is nothing to do with you or your contract or the lls obligations.
The ea is being paid commission on the sale so will tell you any old garbage to get you out.
Unfortunatly you have been too accommodating to your ll and when you say they have been nice to you, what you actually mean is they are trying to BS and pressure you into moving out.

Personally I would tell the ll you were going nowhere without a large wad of cash in your pocket to cover all your expenses.

G_M

laurapurple wrote: »

.....We have been privately renting for the last 1 1/2 years but the landlord had to sell the house and gave us the 2 months notice to vacate on the 28th of March, so our last day in the property should be the 28th of May(tomorrow).

Presumably you were served a S21 Notice. Yes?
This is NOT 'notice to vacate', and so the 28th of May should NOT be your last day.

The 28th May is simply the earliest day that the LLcan apply to courts for possession. This will
a) take severalweeks and
b) NOT affect your credit history or any other history

Assuming the S21 is valid (they often are not)

As for the solicitor - have you written and asked for an explanation? Used their complaints process?

kingstreet

However, the solicitors kept fobbing us of by saying that they can`t request the searches until they have a draft contract from the other solicitors, and on our case status it shows that we had the Memo of sale on the 29th April, but they only requested the contract to be sent to them on the 10th May, and it was received on the 15th.

Your solicitor does not request the draft contract. It should be sent to them by the vendor's solicitor immediately the sales memo is received. Was the HA's solicitor in a position to do that?

In some local authority areas a local search cannot be requested without a plan and a plan is only sent out with the draft contract. See where this is heading?

This is also further complicated by this being a newbuild and shared ownership and in my opinion, completion in such a short timescale was probably not possible.

As a matter of interest, on the solicitor's welcome letter/quote, how much are they paying in introductory fee to this estate agency "IFA" and/or his firm?

FWIW my firm does a lot of work in the shared ownership sector and we get nothing from the solicitors we use. They are all local, charge in the region of £450 + VAT + disbursements and get the job done quickly, which is what's needed.

Is this a national chain of estate agents and is this "IFA" in reality, a limited-panel adviser charging you a fee and getting commission from lenders to whom the agency submits all its survey business?

laurapurple

Thank you everybody, as a reply to some questions, I have seen in the solicitors T&C that they pay the person who makes the refferal (in our case the EA`s boss who owns the local firm, it is not a national chain) and the payment is £200. The estate agent never mentioned this. The IFA is a whole of market advisor. The S21 we received I thought meant that we had to be out by then, and if not, would just cause trouble (make the EA angry and not acting in our interest when it comes to pushing the solicitors to move faster). I still do not understand how the solicitors can claim not to need any documentation from the other party`s solicitors when they can not ask for the searches before? What can we do now to make them move faster?

mrginge

You cant do anything.
Just dont move out.
Simple.