Purchase due to complete on 7th August but have had NOTHING from solicitor

banwa

Hello all

We are in the fortunate position that we have sold, are staying rent and responsibility free at my parents house, waiting for our purchase to go through. We have no reason to suspect that anything might go wrong with the purchase, and that we won't complete on 7th August...but...

Our offer was accepted 13th May. Apart from a sales memorandum and the forms we signed to instruct our solicitor, and a phone call from the vendors EA saying we are aiming for 7th August, we have had quite literally no other correspondence. Our survey and mortgage offer is in place.

I hadn't really questioned it until yesterday when a woman I work with said she had gone into see her solicitor about her house purchase because she was uncomfortable signing 'all these forms' about boundaries and such that she didn't fully understand.

What forms? Boundaries? I have had nothing. When I ask my solicitor (who was brilliant during our house sale) she says she is waiting to get stuff back from the vendor's solicitors (building certs, mining searches). She has been waiting for weeks.

But what if when I see the forms I find they are trying to take the garden shed, or the decking, or I have questions about the boundaries? Is it normal to wait the solicitor has EVERYTHING answered before we are given ANYTHING? Is it normal for the vendor's solicitors to be so tardy in giving over the necessary information.

If anything is thrown up when we see the contract, we (everyone in the transaction) has v little time to react if we are due to complete 07/08.

So what is my question? I suppose it is, is this normal? What should I have received so far? How long do you (the buyer, not the buyer's solicitor) normally get to satisfy themselves that everything about the house sale is what they expected?

Sorry for being a windbag, thanks to anyone who has read and will answer.

G_M

Purchase due to complete on 7th August but have had NOTHING from solicitor

Until you Exchange contracts, you are not "due to Complete" on any date.

When did you last call your solicitor? Haveyou asked what stage he is at? What he is waiting on, if anything?

How do you expect US to know what delays there may be? WE are not doing the conveyancing.....?

How did you choose your solicitor/conveyancer?

notanewuser

So you haven't exchanged contracts then?

Has it been so long since you bought that you've forgotten how much communication there needs to be between solicitor and client? Get on the solicitor's ar5e and find out what the hell is happening!!

Wyndham

You need to exchange before you complete. Personally, I've never wanted less than a two week window between these events, so then you know, with fair warning, that all is well and that you will move on the day you think you will. In your postion, frankly, I'd be worried at this stage. As you say, there may be some reason why you don't want to proceed when you get the forms, and it may take time to sort out. Sorry to be a bearer of doom and gloom, but while a date of 7th August isn't impossible at this stage, I think it is ambitious.

I'd ring your solicitor on Monday, and check if she thinks the date is still feasable or not.

banwa

I am not sure I can read the tone of your reply so will focus on answering the questions you ask on the assumption you know more about buying houses that I do. As does probably the rest of the world seemingly.

G_M wrote: »

Until you Exchange contracts, you are not "due to Complete" on any date. The date I am told we are working towards is 7th August. My worry is that we are way off even exchange, which of course I know means completion is not guaranteed. It's the basis of my post really, can a sale complete in 11 days when it seems to be so far off even the exchange stage.

When did you last call your solicitor? Haveyou asked what stage he is at? What he is waiting on, if anything? I call every couple of weeks (and the EA). I called my solicitor on Thursday and she is waiting for building regs from vendor's solicitor. She has been saying this for a while

How do you expect US to know what delays there may be? WE are not doing the conveyancing.....? I am not expecting you to know what the delays are. I am asking what is normal.

How did you choose your solicitor/conveyancer? She was excellent during our house sale. Also my husband says she looks like the girl from the film Roadhouse and that was reason enough for him to use her again.

banwa

notanewuser wrote: »

So you haven't exchanged contracts then?

Has it been so long since you bought that you've forgotten how much communication there needs to be between solicitor and client? Get on the solicitor's ar5e and find out what the hell is happening!!

I'm sure my husband would love an excuse to go and see her. I'll send him in.:D

Wyndham wrote: »

You need to exchange before you complete. Personally, I've never wanted less than a two week window between these events, so then you know, with fair warning, that all is well and that you will move on the day you think you will. In your postion, frankly, I'd be worried at this stage. As you say, there may be some reason why you don't want to proceed when you get the forms, and it may take time to sort out. Sorry to be a bearer of doom and gloom, but while a date of 7th August isn't impossible at this stage, I think it is ambitious.

I'd ring your solicitor on Monday, and check if she thinks the date is still feasable or not.

Thank you SO much for confirming my worst fears.:rotfl:

No seriously, thank you, it is what I am worrying about but you have phrased it so much more succinctly than I could!

I will ring the solicitor on Monday and get the parents used the idea that they might not be getting rid of us as soon as they hoped.

Is it reasonable to ask the solicitor to just send us what she has so far, and send on the rest when she has it? The fixtures and fittings, copies of title deeds etc. They are the main things I want time to look at properly.

Battleaxe44

Why does conveyancing take so long over here/ We sold a house and exchanged contracts in under three weeks, simply because I was on to the conveyancing solicitor every day, then they came up with a beauty, Chancery Insurance, we were supposed to have it for the buyers protection. Yeah right..no everything has been agreed, we allowed the buyer to come in several times in the three weeks, she was completely satisfied with everything. it was the solicitors who tried to hold things up. They forget, you are paying them, not the other way around. if the seller is reasonable, everything regarding the purchase should have been discussed between both parties, the agent wasn't happy with the way we did things, but it certainly speeded the process.

I have bought and sold several houses overseas and this country is the worst as far as tardiness goes.

we nearly lost this house because of the seller's solicitor, In the end I said we would pay market rate rental and could we have the keys to the house, (the house had been empty for nearly 18 months), so we moved in. Everyday i was onto our solicitor. I made a thorough nuisance of myself, but by golly we got completion in short time.

My advice get on to your solicitor and ask very nicely what the hold up is, if possible contact the seller and ask if there are any problems at their end, if there are none, suggest they contact their solicitor to extract the digit. If both parties start making noises, you should get action.

BTW I had never heard the expression CHAIN before coming to England. When we sell this house there will be no chain. The other thing we used have is a non refundable deposit, 10% down on agreeing to buy...

Thrugelmir

Sounds as if the vendors are intentionally stalling the transaction to suit their own circumstances.

hcb42

ring your solicitor more! you should know what is going on, far more than we do!

G_M

Until you Exchange contracts, you are not "due to Complete" on any date. The date I am told we are working towards is 7th August. A hoped-for date like this is pretty meaningless - there are so many unknowns at the start of the process that target dates are just a dream
My worry is that we are way off even exchange, Sounds like it!
which of course I know means completion is not guaranteed.
until you exchange it is never guaranteed
It's the basis of my post really, can a sale complete in 11 days when it seems to be so far off even the exchange stage. Yes.
Will it? probobly not.

When did you last call your solicitor? Haveyou asked what stage he is at? What he is waiting on, if anything? I call every couple of weeks (and the EA). I called my solicitor on Thursday and she is waiting for building regs from vendor's solicitor. She has been saying this for a while
Ah! Not quite the same as "NOTHING from solicitor". Have you asked the vendor, or the EA, about the BRs? Perhaps there IS no BRs. Find out, then deal with it! It's (hopefully) your house. Take some responsibility and find out!

How do you expect US to know what delays there may be? WE are not doing the conveyancing.....? I am not expecting you to know what the delays are. I am asking what is normal.
It is normal for a buyer to check the house meets their needs (eg Building Regs if relevant) and to check what their employees (surveyor, conveyancer etc) are doing.

How did you choose your solicitor/conveyancer? She was excellent during our house sale. Also my husband says she looks like the girl from the film Roadhouse and that was reason enough for him to use her again.
Ah. OK. You'll be fine then. Ignore all my advice above!

jimbog

G_M wrote: »

How did you choose your solicitor/conveyancer? She was excellent during our house sale. Also my husband says she looks like the girl from the film Roadhouse and that was reason enough for him to use her again.

In case you were all wondering: