No response from Vendor's solicitor

Smerph

I made an offer on a first-home in November. It was accepted, and things seemed to progress quite quickly. The vendor has no onward chain, so it seemed promising. I managed to sort out my mortgage and paid for a survey and the usual fees for my solicitors.

Things have now stalled. My solicitors have been awaiting documents from the vendors' solicitors since the thirrd week of December. They have sent three chasing emails since then (I have been cc-ed) and not received a response.

It's starting to look like the vendor is backing out of the sale, but since their solicitor is not responding to the emails to indicate this either way, it's hard to judge.

My current tenancy is up in about 7 weeks, so this has become pretty urgent. I don't know if this is ever going to be finalized, or whether I need to sign up to another rental agreement.

I have emailed my solicitors, stressing the urgency and their response seems to be to simply copy+paste their previous email and resend it.

The Estate Agent is also cc-ed on these emails.

I'm wondering how to proceed? i don't want to tell my solicitors how to do their job (this is all very new for me), but I'm a little concerned that no one can pick up a phone and get a straight answer from the solicitors/vendor on whether there is actually a sale here.

Has anyone had similar experiences?

hazyjo

Take back control - tell them you're pulling out unless you get answers by X day. You'll have to mean it though!


I did have something similar where the chain fell apart in a couple of places. Some of us hung on - but then I heard from the EA that someone they knew heard (on a golf course!) that the vendors weren't selling any more (nice of them to tell us/the EA!). Anyway, it obviously completely collapsed.


When you say your tenancy is up, do you mean you've been served notice, or have you given notice? If it's just the end of the year or whatever, just stay on a rolling contract.


Jx

davidmcn

Smerph wrote: »

My current tenancy is up in about 7 weeks...I don't know...whether I need to sign up to another rental agreement.

Depends what sort of tenancy you have (and what country you're in), but you don't necessarily have to "sign up" to anything in order to stay where you are for the meantime.

The Estate Agent is also cc-ed on these emails.

Have you spoken to the agent? Ask them to find out what's going on.

Smerph

Just for clarification; I'm renting in London and reaching the end of a 12 month contract. My rent goes up (by a hefty amount) at the beginning of March, so I'd rather not be on a rolling contract under those terms.

I was considering chasing the EA. Just wondered if it's OK to go through them, rather than the solicitors.

hazyjo

Smerph wrote: »

Just for clarification; I'm renting in London and reaching the end of a 12 month contract. My rent goes up (by a hefty amount) at the beginning of March, so I'd rather not be on a rolling contract under those terms.

I was considering chasing the EA. Just wondered if it's OK to go through them, rather than the solicitors.

Definitely okay to go through EAs. Some (4 or 5) I've used have been useless, but 2 have kept sales together and been very helpful.


Jx

AnotherJoe

EAs are used to chasing this stuff up, its part of their job.

nodtomc

I'm in the same situation. Everything OK from my side, just waiting on a response from the vendor's solicitor but neither the estate agent or my solicitor can get a response. They've been trying since last Monday, I believe. Very frustrating isn't it?

lewishardwick

Definitely chase the EA.

The few weeks running up to completing on my purchase I was onto the EA and Solicitor almost daily.

Too many little bits of information. I think I did more work than my solicitor!

eddddy

Solicitors don't really do chasing.

It's the EA's job to progress the sale - so contact them. They should then get on the phone to the vendor.

Assuming the EA is paid on completion, it's in their interest to chase their client. But if they were paid a flat fee at the outset (like some online agents), they may be less interested.

Looking again at your post, has your solicitor ever had any contact from the vendor's solicitor? If not, it's possible that the vendor hasn't even instructed the solicitor.

Richard_Webster

As well the EA doing so, contact the seller direct if you can.

ThePants999

It's up to the vendor themselves, as the folks paying their solicitor's fees, to provide the kick up the !!!! - so you'll need to push them, either directly or via the EA, to do that.