Can I complain about my solicitor?

Xxsamxx146

Hi this is my first post so please be nice so my story is:

We found our first home (we currently rent) back in Feb - and made an offer 15th Feb which was accepted. Great, the people in that house also in the same week had their offer accepted on a empty house. So we thought this would move quite quick. Then after THEYRE searching taking till about July time, the owner of the empty house died, then they had to wait on probate etc which took until end of JULY/Aug all of which time our house is sitting there ready. Just as a side not I get married sept. This sept... they turned around last week and said they're ready to talk dates.. ok well I think they'll have to bloody wait now as I'm getting married in less than a month and that's enough money and stress. So now we're 7 months in... then 2 days ago the estate agent says the sellers mortgage offer runs out on the 10th sept and they can't get an extension, but we can exchange before 10t and complete whenever. Ok great (sarcasm) then yesterday I a call of the solicitor who says no the estate agents wrong and you need to COMPLETE BY 10th sept. !!!!!! so we've waited 8 months and they are forcing us to do this in one week.. and the solicitor tells me this yesterday!! And then gets hissy and stressed when I need time to close our ISA we have, and then me and my partner have to take time of work to organise this. I'm so stressed and feel we've done everything correct and right but done everything on the sellers terms and the solicitor hasn't informed up properly at all

RuthnJasper

Xxsamxx146 wrote: »

Hi this is my first post so please be nice so my story is:

We found our first home (we currently rent) back in Feb - and made an offer 15th Feb which was accepted. Great, the people in that house also in the same week had their offer accepted on a empty house. So we thought this would move quite quick. Then after THEYRE searching taking till about July time, the owner of the empty house died, then they had to wait on probate etc which took until end of JULY/Aug all of which time our house is sitting there ready. Just as a side not I get married sept. This sept... they turned around last week and said they're ready to talk dates.. ok well I think they'll have to bloody wait now as I'm getting married in less than a month and that's enough money and stress. So now we're 7 months in... then 2 days ago the estate agent says the sellers mortgage offer runs out on the 10th sept and they can't get an extension, but we can exchange before 10t and complete whenever. Ok great (sarcasm) then yesterday I a call of the solicitor who says no the estate agents wrong and you need to COMPLETE BY 10th sept. !!!!!! so we've waited 8 months and they are forcing us to do this in one week.. and the solicitor tells me this yesterday!! And then gets hissy and stressed when I need time to close our ISA we have, and then me and my partner have to take time of work to organise this. I'm so stressed and feel we've done everything correct and right but done everything on the sellers terms and the solicitor hasn't informed up properly at all

Hi, welcome to MSE! If you have a complaint you can report it to the Solicitors Regulation Authority: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page


They should be able to investigate your concerns, but do make sure that you have followed your solicitor's firm's complaints procedure in full first (e.g. complaining formally to the partner, etc.), as the firm should be given an opportunity to put right what has happened. If they don't do this, then you can take it further with the SRA.

Marvel1

To me it sounds like not the solicitors fault, as only last week sellers wanted to talk dates.

VintageHistorian

I'm a bit confused by your post but - what is it specifically that you think your solicitor has done wrong here? It sounds like you've been the victim of some bad timing with regards to part of your chain turning in to a probate sale, but there's not a lot that your solicitor can do about that. Likewise your estate agent making a mistake about when the vendors need to complete by. Your solicitor will be getting a lot of information from the vendor's solicitor, the estate agent, and yourself, so if one side is keeping things hidden (such as the date their mortgage offer expires) then there's not a great deal they can do about it.

You've done everything on the sellers terms, but your solicitor gets their instructions from you. You could have pushed your vendors a bit more, or made it clear a few months ago that exchanging and completing in September wouldn't be an option, which your solicitor should have then fed back to your vendors solicitor, and you yourself could have told the vendor about.

It's certainly very stressful, and I do sympathise as I was also buying a house and planning a wedding simultaneously. But it sounds a bit like your solicitor hasn't done anything worse than correct the estate agent's assumption, and possibly not pushed the vendors as much as you would have liked.

steampowered

This is an annoying and stressful situation. But I am not sure what you think your solicitor has actually done wrong here?

Your solicitor would not normally be responsible for dealing with the seller's mortgage offer. That is a job for the seller's solicitor. It isn't your solicitor's fault that the seller can't get an extension on their mortgage offer or that it runs out on 10th September.

Has the buyer explained why they can't get an extension or arrange a different mortgage offer? Unless there has been a change in circumstances surely they can just get a new offer from a different bank.

Don't be pushed around on dates - start looking for another property if you need to.

RuthnJasper wrote: »

Hi, welcome to MSE! If you have a complaint you can report it to the Solicitors Regulation Authority: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page

Hi - just for your information, the SRA does not deal with consumer complaints. This type of complaint needs to be directed to the Legal Ombudsman.

Rambosmum

Another who isn't exactly sure what it is you think your solicitor has/ hasn't done - can you list EXACTLY why you think your solicitor is at fault? (not saying they aren't just it isn't clear from your post).

- searches are at the mercy of the LA for time scales. Did the solicitor take a while to order them? If so, why? If so, then that's your sellers solicitor bad work.
- probate takes months, again, not your solicitors fault.
- sellers mortgage offer, again not your solicitors fault - your solicitor probably didn't know when it expired, the sellers solicitor did and should have been a bit more proactive.
- completion in 10 days time, that's fine, we're doing it in 14 days, not much difference, especially as you've been waiting so long.

If I've got this wrong (as in what your issue is with your solicitor) then please do say.

Flat_Eric

The reason your solicitor indicates completion needs to be before the mortgage offer expiry is because if exchange has taken place but completion is after the mortgage expiry date then the lender could refuse to loan the funds. Mortgage lenders are strict about stuff and solicitors obviously want to avoid any hiccups. I.e committing their client to an exchange and then finding they can't get mortgage funds because the mortgage offer has expired.

I'd be speaking to the estate agent to see if your seller's mortgage broker (if they have one) can urgently speak to the lender about getting an extension if it's difficult for you to meet this sudden imposed deadline.

As an aside the probate registry were inundated earlier this year with applications as probate fees were set to rise astronomically. It got canned (for now) but meant some applications with the probate registry were held up.