HELP Vendor Pulling Out After Exchange of Contract and Our Own solicitor Quit

lavandergirl_2

http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/solicitor-closed-down.page

Contact the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

pinkteapot

If you are going to pursue this, you need a GOOD solicitor. Do NOT try and pursue it based on advice on this forum alone. Use the links provided to find a good solicitor with experience in this who can take the case. Phone solicitors and speak to them and try and find someone.

The vendor's story makes no sense as everyone who owned the house would have been listed on the deeds and would have had to sign the contract prior to exchange. If they legally owned the house, they would have known about the sale prior to completion. If they didn't legally own it, they can't stop the sale. Ignore your vendor's story and seek legal advice.

Do not have any further direct communication with any of the vendors or members of their family. Communication should strictly be between your solicitor and theirs. If you wish to sue them, very careful language must be used in all communications and you could easily say something that would completely jeopardise your case.

BornAtTheRightTime

1) Do not delay any further in taking your case and paperwork to a new firm of solicitors.
If you post your general area on this thread I'm sure there will be several recommendations for local solicitors quite quickly.

2) Stop talking to the vendors. You don;t want your words twisted in court, which is where this is going.

3) Regardless of how you feel about this house, you can either force the sale if it is considered unique, or if there is a similar property available, buy that and will be awarded all your addiitonal costs. Eg if it now costs £20k more, your slippery vendors will be forced to cover the cost of that.

4) Don't fall for their sob stories. When you are awarded costs they will have to find the money and they have assets (a house!) which can be sold down the line.

I suspect you may also have some comeback against your old solicitor but your new one will tell you. That is something for the future though - right now you need to concentrate on your house purchase.

ValHaller

BornAtTheRightTime wrote: »

1) Do not delay any further in taking your case and paperwork to a new firm of solicitors.
If you post your general area on this thread I'm sure there will be several recommendations for local solicitors quite quickly.

2) Stop talking to the vendors. You don;t want your words twisted in court, which is where this is going.

3) Regardless of how you feel about this house, you can either force the sale if it is considered unique, or if there is a similar property available, buy that and will be awarded all your addiitonal costs. Eg if it now costs £20k more, your slippery vendors will be forced to cover the cost of that.

4) Don't fall for their sob stories. When you are awarded costs they will have to find the money and they have assets (a house!) which can be sold down the line.

I suspect you may also have some comeback against your old solicitor but your new one will tell you. That is something for the future though - right now you need to concentrate on your house purchase.

Repeated and emphasized.

You are now renting, so the immediate problem is sorted. The rest is going to take some time to sort out, but you will win on this in the long term - but you

• need to engage a solicitor - because you don't know enough to sort this out yourself
• you must not enter into discussions with the vendor directly - because you risk undermining your new solicitor

lord_tyrannus

To the OP


you need to immediately contact the SRA and seek advice from them. I'm pretty sure the firm cannot just say it's shutting down and then give you the paperwork without referring you to another solicitor


Have you checked your current solicitor is actually a real solicitor? There was a previous thread were the OP's solicitor was scammed by a fake solicitor


I would contact the CAB and also get in contact with a solicitor who deals in property disputes


This all sounds extremely fishy

[Deleted User]

I suspect the OP employed a solicitor who wasn't used to conveyancing, and who messed up (perhaps trying to save some money?) or possibly isn't even a properly qualified solicitor. No properly qualified professional solicitor would just fold up in a week and refuse to forward the case onto another solicitor. Either that or they know they have messed up big time and are hoping to avoid action. But even so, its not likely they'd fold in a week over one case if they have a professional solicitors practice.

Same goes for the people you are trying to buy from. The OP mentions they were trying to buy the property without an estate agent being involved. It looks like the family concerned were doing all this a bit 'off the cuff' and now pressure is being applied within the family to not sell and possibly because they are not used to the law and regulations in this country, think they can just 'wing' their way out of it.

I also suspect from the comments made about the cost of the house, buying one that needed complete renovation that they may have been trying to buy a bargain and prepared to wing it themselves to save money but obviously in the long run, its going to end up costing them a lot more.

This may mean affording a proper solicitor to help them get this case resolved in a proper manner could be beyond them.

But this is all supposition and any or all of my suppositions could be wrong. I hope that you are able to afford to engage a properly qualified solicitor that can progress your case. If you can, I'd fully endorse comments made here about finding one that can do so.

It sounds like the OP is in the middle of a nightmare situation. but am glad they have managed to find somewhere to live temporarily while this is sorted out. My comments aren't meant to be judgmental, and I do hope a resolution can be reached.

LannieDuck

Agreeing with the others - stop negotiating directly with the vendors. Most of what they're telling you is irrelevant, and it sounds like a load of codswallop. The fact that they're desperate to avoid court tells you everything you need to know - you're the one with all the cards. You should be dictating terms, not them.

Find a good solicitor for yourself, asap. You don't need to wait for a referral that may or may not come. Would you trust a referral from your old legal firm anyway? After the way they've treated you, I'd be very suspicious of anyone they tried to refer me onto.

Get the new solicitor to deal with the vendor (I reckon you might be able to claim the new solicitor's expenses back from the vendor - this is all money you shouldn't be having to spend). Your new solicitor should also be able to advise on whether your old solicitor has been dodgy. They certainly sound it.

ValHaller

lord_tyrannus wrote: »

Have you checked your current solicitor is actually a real solicitor? There was a previous thread were the OP's solicitor was scammed by a fake solicitor

OP, on this thought, how did you come to choose this solicitor?

sacha28

OP I would like to see how this pans out but PLEASE......type properly!!! You keep dropping words and leaving out letters and it makes for very difficult reading.

I understand this is not an English lesson but I keep finding myself have to re-read so I can get the jist of what you are trying to say.

Sorry, having a bad day!!

neas

sacha28 wrote: »

OP I would like to see how this pans out but PLEASE......type properly!!! You keep dropping words and leaving out letters and it makes for very difficult reading.

I understand this is not an English lesson but I keep finding myself have to re-read so I can get the jist of what you are trying to say.

Sorry, having a bad day!!

I think this is a tad unfair. Yes the posts are sometimes difficult to read but I certainly can understand them.

Certainly it is probably beyond their ability to do any better, so why get on your high horse and belittle them? Seriously...

Also you haven't contributed to the thread at all, so why did you feel the need to moan? If you can't read it switch to another thread?