FTB help... should I have heard from solicitor by now?

kellyt86

Dear all,

I am in the process of buying a shared ownership house.

I had the offer accepted 11 days ago, since then we have had the valuation survery come back satisfactory, and the mortgage lender is just waiting on the employers reference which has been sent via post so will be sorted in next few days.

But I haven't heard from solicitors since 'instructing them' and filling out all the forms and paying a £200 deposit.

Is this normal? Are they waiting for the formal mortgage agreement from the mortgage lenders? or should I call and ask whats happening?

Being a FTB I wasnt sure if this is normal or what should be happening at this moment? I know its only been 11 days, but I've only heard from mortgage broker at this stage.

Grateful for any advice?

Thanks!

R_P_W

Ring them?

kellyt86

Yes, Thanks. Obviously I thought about ringing them. Just didnt want to pester them unneccessarily?

Especially if this is a stupid first time buyer question!

MrsRobbo17

you will probably have to pester them to get things moving. Once they are moving you'll likely need to pester them to keep things moving. Hopefully they'll hurry things along so they can have a quiet life!!!

the feeling on the forum seems to be to get weekly updates.

kellyt86

Great thanks! :T

Will ring on Monday in that case!

BazzaDP

Solicitors need constant chasing all the way through the process IMHO. I really don't understand why they cannot be more helpful in terms of communications. For most people this will be one if the biggest transactions in their life and they will want to know what's going on every step of the way.

When selling my last house I had to chase constantly and, when they said buyers solicitor was holding things up, I chased estate agent who got things moving. Similarly when management company was causing delays. I honestly think I'd still be waiting if I'd left it to my solicitor. I also got a max of one e-mail a day. Even if I responded immediately to queries with answers and/or more questions those responses would not be acknowledged until the next day.

Saying all that I do think, for the amount of work they do (something always goes wrong!), the solicitors fees are very cheap (£1,000 typically ignoring other fees they pay for you) so maybe that's the problem. For several months work and several hours a week that's not actually that much. Can't expect gold plated service when they aren't going to get paid any more if they do. Given the choice next time I'd be less worried about the cost and research more to get a recommended solicitor.

demontfort

kellyt86 wrote: »

Yes, Thanks. Obviously I thought about ringing them. Just didnt want to pester them unneccessarily?

Especially if this is a stupid first time buyer question!

Chase up the lazy legal swine, remember they work for you, you pay their wages and for the duration of this deal they are effectively your employee!

grifferz

kellyt86 wrote: »

Yes, Thanks. Obviously I thought about ringing them. Just didnt want to pester them unneccessarily?

If they are anything like ours, they will have two modes of working: the default, "never bother to tell you anything unless they need a direct question answered or something signed, quite happy to ignore direct questions asked of them", and "copy you on every single trivial communication they receive from anyone, often in the form of letters scanned at a bizarre angle and then sent as a single image file".

Ours start off in the initial state - so far they have managed to stay in that state for as long as 3 weeks in a row - before we get extremely angry and send them a letter of complaint, after which they switch to the second state for a while.

It is immensely frustrating considering how much they are being paid. I'm self-employed; some of the services I sell are as cheap as £10/month but if those customers have an issue they will expect a response within 1 working day, not 3 weeks and only after a complaint!

So, er, yeah, rant over. Don't be concerned about calling them up!

kingstreet

Has your solicitor received the draft contract from the vendor's solicitor?

Until they do, there's not much they can do.

As this process is going to involve a housing association, I'd suggest you concentrate on getting your mortgage to offer stage, then start the legal work, so you limit potentially wasted expense if anything goes wrong with the mortgage.

mummyroysof3

I would suggest ringing to ask for an update and ask if there is anything you need to be doing just to give them a nudge. I was suprised you had your survey so quick though as I thought that didn't get done so soon