Should I personally contact my seller's solicitor?

beachbeth

We have recently sold our house and are lucky enough to be in a small chain. The people buying ours don't have one to sell and are going to rent our house and the man whose house we are buying is buying an empty property with no chain above that.

However, three weeks have passed and no searches have been done yet. Ive filled in all my paperwork and paid my solicitor for the searches but they can't do it until they receive the contract pack from our seller's solicitors. I keep ringing my estate agent to chase this up and they have said our seller did have a bit of a delay but the pack should be sent now. However, I am ringing my solicitor up daily and they keep saying they haven't received it.

I have also rang the council this morning and the searches haven't been requested on our property either. Whats going on?

Should I ring the other solicitor and ask them what the hold up is and even threaten to pull out or is it not the done thing to contact the other solicitor? Im getting really worried now that this is just going to drag on and we wanted to complete by the end of July so that it didn't clash with our holiday.

AndrewSmith

You can try to contact their solicitor but you are likely to find that they will not take your call and refer you to your own legal representative.

Your solicitor is working for you, get them to chase it. Dont allow your solicitor to simply send a letter and wait for a response, make them earn your money by instructing them to call the other side's solicitor putting forward your concerns.

Also why not go into the Estate Agency and have them call the other side solicitors to establish what the hold up is, whilst you are sat there.

Running_Horse

You could ring their estate agents. They are going to want their commission, and not to have to resell the property. They will also be able to speak directly to the seller.

Nicki

Solicitors are not allowed to speak to "the other side" if they are represented by a solicitor themselves. Therefore your seller's solicitor would refuse to speak to you and ask you to get your solicitor to phone him instead. This rule is intended for your own protection, so that for example in a litigious matter a party doesn't make damaging admissions without proper advice, though I appreciate in situations like this it is frustrating!

Nicki

Solicitors are not allowed to speak to "the other side" if they are represented by a solicitor themselves. Therefore your seller's solicitor would refuse to speak to you and ask you to get your solicitor to phone him instead. This rule is intended for your own protection, so that for example in a litigious matter a party doesn't make damaging admissions without proper advice, though I appreciate in situations like this it is frustrating!

I agree with the other posters that the only realistic routes are to chivvy your own solicitor or the estate agent, or to contact the seller direct if you have contact details for them (presumably you have at least the address!)

CB1979_2

i got in contact with my sellers solicitors just to see what the delay was in getting information

just try it, they may talk to you