RE-Mortgage - BTL - Delay

mb1986

Hi,

I bought a buy to let property in cash in 2015, since the start of Feb, I've been in the process of trying to get a mortgage on it (its classed as a remortgage).

So, I've had my mortgage company send a surveyor out and it passed the valuation and all other checks come back fine. I found a solicitor I used in 2015 whom it took 3-4 weeks to complete the sale of the house, so I was pretty pleased and decided to use them again (around the start of May).

Since May we had one solicitor who was working on it, who kept losing documents and we've had to give my business parters passport 3 times to him. I started to email to chase for emails and I wasn't receiving any response. I gave it another week, and after phoning and not getting a response to his direct line, I decided to go down to their office. They're one of the biggest solicitors in the area I live. They then informed me that the solicitor had left the company. I felt a bit annoyed that no on had informed me - I've worked in a corporate environment most of my working life and I know as soon as someone leaves, the work is then picked up by a team (at least informing any point of contacts ASAP).

I sent an mail complaining, which in fact turns out to be the owner of the company. Unfortunately he never replied, but after contacting their office again they mentioned they had put head of the team working on my case. I felt reassured at the time. 1-2 weeks went by and I asked for an update. He said they need us to take out some other type of insurance policy, I felt a bit confused to why the solicitor that was working with us initially never asked for this, but anyhow I got it sorted within a day.

I also found out that the initial solicitor which requested that I sent £791, was not needed - to which I haven't had the cash sent back, and are insisting they send it when the lender releases the funds. I find it hard to believe how a paid professional can make this mistake?

They got me and my business partner in to sign the contracts, and are now insisting that they lenders solicitors want another copy of the passports because quality is bad - my business partners passport has now expired due to it taking so long, ironically. I said thats fine, we'll get a fast track (to which we have) and are now stating that its probably not needed now.

They're also insisting that its the other solicitors who are not communicating. So, I phoned my lender up who then in turn rang their solicitors and they're insisting the same thing - that my solicitors are not dealing with their requests. My lender is ready to pay me out and its frustrating.

I sent an email to my solicitor regarding the lack of communication, and that I'm having to do an awful lot of chasing whilst I'm on paternity leave. He rang me up and is insisting he has sent me an email and left me a voicemail. I can confirm I had a missed call from an unknown number (which I don't pick up), but he's insisting that he also left a voicemail which I have not received. He is also saying he's sent me and my business partner an email - we both haven't received. I am receiving auto responses when I send him emails, so I know the domain isn't blocked. I also work in IT, so I understand how to check blocked email, filters, spam etc... But I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt - maybe a firewall or an IT problem their side.

Another week went by, so I sent the CEO who deals with complaints an email again stating the problems, and he never got back to me. So I decided to give him a call, who came across passive aggressive and condescending - although, said he would get a report drawn up about the case. I thought this was overkill and a complete waste of time, and feel the time it takes him to do that - he could of sorted out the actual outstanding issues... although, I never said this to him, but wish I did.

My question is, where do I stand? who do I believe and what can I do as we're so close? all bridges have broken with my solicitors, and I'm 100% they're fed up with me now but a simple re-mortgage is taking up to 5 months now...

Any advice would be appreciated.