Aggressive estate agent, solicitors in a battle

Keira_B

Hi all

I've posted elsewhere on the forum, but someone suggested I post here too to get your thoughts. Our story in short, goes like this.

We had an offer accepted on 4th September and since then have chased our solicitors and estate agents regularly to make sure everything is being done. Very often they are unobtainable, ignore emails and voice messages and generally leave us wondering what's going on.

Skip forward to yesterday (bearing in mind this is a chain-free purchase and we're only waiting on enquiries now) and our estate agent starts sending intimidating and aggressive emails suggesting that if we don't speed up, we'll lose the property. As it is, we've been having to hand hold our solicitors through the process and now it seems we're expected to do the same with the vendor's solicitor, who is refusing to answer queries submitted by ours saying they're irrelevant and we should've gone with a local law firm.

In this situation, other than chasing every day and keeping everyone as informed as we can, we're not sure what else we can do. We are as keen to complete as they are but the solicitors seem to be stuck in a stalemate and the estate agent is antagonising the situation.

Help!?

moneyistooshorttomention

Is there any way to bypass them and contact the vendor direct?

Keira_B

Yes, we could put a letter through their door but others on this forum have suggested now isn't quite the time to do it?

princeofpounds

You need to give more details to give us a chance of interpreting what might be going on here.

Normally the advice would be to stick with your own solicitor and tell the EA to back off.

But it would be helpful to know what these supposedly useless questions are. If they are just pointless then it raises the question of why the vendor's solicitor doesn't answer them to humour your solicitor (even 'don't know' is an answer).

What does your solicitor say about the questions?

Remember that if you have a mortgage your solicitor will also represent your lender, who may not be willing to overlook the answers to questions you might be tempted to brush aside to avoid confrontation.

It is very likely a bluff because ditching the sale and re-marketing would delay things far far more than answering a few questions, especially over Christmas. Only if a cash buyer is already lined up could it conceivably make any sense.

Thrugelmir

EA is the vendors mouthpiece.

Likewise the vendors solicitor is dependent on the vendors as well.

What's the points at issue?

Yorkie1

Here's the OP's original thread, on the M&E board where it was suggested she should re-post over here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4787125=

ValHaller

Yorkie1 wrote: »

Here's the OP's original thread, on the M&E board where it was suggested she should re-post over here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4787125=

And the post where I suggested posting here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/64026700#Comment_64026700

Kiera, the important element of my suggestion was that you get copies of the correspondence from your solicitor and you came here to discuss that. Have you requested the corresondence? I think this is key to getting to the bottom of what is going on. Otherwise, pinning down the solicitors and the Agent can turn into spearing goldfish in a pond with a cocktail stick.

anselld

Presumably the aggressive emails are from the vendors EA, hence they are not 'your agent', they work for the vendor. However, they will be useful to you *if* you can explain what exactly is missing from the vendors responses which is preventing you from proceeding.

Your solicitor works for you and probably your mortgage company. You need to ask them precisely what is stopping exchange. If it is something that matters to you or is needed by the mortgage Co then explain it to the EA and point out it is a showstopper. If it doesnt matter to you then *instruct* your solicitor to proceed without it.

PS. It sounds like you gave gone with a cheap online conveyancing firm; unfortunately you get what you pay for and not being able to walk in and sort it out face-to-face makes things more difficult!

pjread

[QUOTE=anselld;[URL="tel:64040012"]64040012[/URL]]
PS. It sounds like you gave gone with a cheap online conveyancing firm; unfortunately you get what you pay for and not being able to walk in and sort it out face-to-face makes things more difficult![/QUOTE]

I didn't want to say it, but this sounds likely... Sadly I expect you're too far in to switch. Alternatively the vendors might be using a conveyancer so inept they can frustrate the efforts of yours.

I think that's all anyone can say without knowing the questions involved. (building regs, planning permissions, indemnities?)

Leo2020

When we tried to sell our house our buyer's solicitor asked for planning permission and permission from the landlord for the following:

-Loft conversion into a bedroom
-Porch addition
-Kitchen extension
-Dropped kerb
-Block paving to the rear of the property

We have none of those. So the questions may well be irrelevant.

pjread

They might be from yours or the buyer's perspective, but did you have to provide an indemnity against the missing planning permissions? Mortgage co might be insistent on things like this.