Am I being too harsh?

Bossypants

billy2shots wrote: »

We accepted an offer on ours and our buyer got her side of things underway.
By the time we had an offer accepted on our new build our buyer was almost done. 22nd December.

Well that was foolish of her, she should have waited till the chain was complete before she started her conveyancing. She's lucky you found something at all, you could have given up after six months of looking and decided not to sell, then where would she be? Get your EA to calm her down and explain how these things work, hopefully she will understand that she has no choice but to be patient. Managing the buyer is one of the EA's aftersales jobs.

As for the developer, they'll be chasing their month end completions, but they know as well as anyone that if an offer was only accepted on 22 December, no way is it going to be ready to complete by end of January. Get your solicitor to reassure them that things are happening as fast as they reasonably can. Edit: And it's not that common for new builds to be wrapped up faster, especially if there's a chain involved, but it's common for builders to light a fire under buyers by 'demanding' a 28 day exchange. They typically calm down as long as they can see that things are happening, though.

Basically, both parties sound like they're being unreasonable, which sucks for you, but it's not your solicitor's fault. Okay, they could have instructed the searches sooner, but they were likely waiting on the contract pack, and with Christmas in the middle, the timeframe is really not unreasonable. Wasting your energy chasing them up for 'proof' when they've given you their word isn't really fair on them, not is it productive (plus, they are your paid representation, if you can't trust them you have a bigger problem!).

Tiglet2

You had an offer and paid for searches on Saturday 22nd December, is that right? Most solicitors shut down on Friday 21st December and didn't open until Wednesday 2nd January so your payment wouldn't have been actioned until then and the seller's solicitor wouldn't have been instructed to send the contract pack out, so therefore 8th January (Tuesday) is feasible and hardly a delay.

You've had an email confirmation of the date the searches were ordered. That is good enough. They don't have to account to your developers about how and when they do their job. The job of the EA is to keep the chain together, not jump up and down and they should be smoothing things with the developer by assuring them that progress is being made (a 28 day deadline to exchange is their desire but not legally binding).

The local search typically takes 4 weeks to come back. Your solicitor is not waiting with baited breath until it appears, they have other work to do. When the search is back, it is downloaded and printed off for the solicitor to review. It may takes a few days to do this, depending on other matters of priority. There may be many planning documents revealed or an unadopted road revealed, which may mean further enquiries need to be raised of the seller's solicitor. If you're lucky and the local search doesn't reveal anything onerous, then the solicitor may be ready to report to you with documents for your signature and return, request the deposit monies and discuss completion dates. If, however, the search results mean more enquiries need to be made, then your conveyancing will take a while longer.

By the way, a FTB and you buying a new build doesn't necessarily equal "a smooth process."

ThePants999

Nobody in their right mind doubts a solicitor when they say, in plain English, "I confirm I did X on Y date". The chances of that being a lie are one in a million - what kind of solicitor would risk their career over something like that?