Am I the estate agent in this scenario?

benreed

Hi all, first time poster here! I'll dive straight in...

We are in the middle of selling our shared ownership property which is unsurprisingly proving difficult but not for the reasons I expected! Sovereign Housing Association have been a little frustrating but have done what is required so far, but our buyers solicitor has been a nightmare.

1 month ago I sent an email cc'ing our solicitor, our buyer and our buyers solicitor venting my frustration at the fact that our buyers solicitor hadn't communicated anything with our solicitors for 9 weeks. He said then he was waiting on the searches to come back. 1 month on and he is still waiting apparently which seems an abnormally long time for this kind of thing to me.

Anyway, he got aggressive with me and told me that we should only be communicating via solicitors and that he is not allowed to respond to me directly, so my question is: in this case is this true? We are selling the flat but not via an estate agent. Sovereign Housing advertised the property on their site but I'm not sure they are acting as the agent here as we had to take all the photos, organise a valuation survey, arrange the viewings etc.

If I am acting as the agent here then do I have the right to contact the buyers solicitor and find out whats going on?

Thanks all!

tizerbelle

No you aren't the agent - you are the vendor.

You have a legal representative as does your buyer. Your buyer's solicitor won't talk to you as it is against "the rules". Not to mention who does s/he charge for the time spent dealing with you. They can't charge their client, they can't charge your solicitor.

If you want to chase - you do so through your solicitor or the buyers themselves but not the buyer's solicitor. For all you know, the buyers may be using delaying tactics and have told their solicitor not to do the searches yet but s/he can't tell you that.

TBagpuss

Yes, they are correct, they cannot communicate directly with you as you have your own representative. If you contact them, then the only response you should get is one saying they can't communicate with you direct.

Given that this was an e-mail and not a phone call, it might have been better and more usual had they simply forwarded your e-mail to your own solicitor, and asked them to explain this to you, but they have not done anything wrong.

It's irrelevent whether you have an estate agent or not, as you do have a solicitor,

G_M

In what way are you the estate agent???

You are, so far as I understand it, the seller. No?

Where buyers and sellers are employing solicitors, those solicitors are bound by a code of conduct, which includes communicating with each other, not direct to the other party (you).

This is to protect the legal ignoramuses from being bamboozled by the other side's solicitor (who has the best interests of his client, not the other party, at heart).

By communicating only via your solicitor, any legal shennanigans will be spotted by your legal adviser before you agree to/sign something not in your interests.