Solicitor holding me to ransom

davidmcn

Helptobuypurchase said:

the PM has said house moves can go ahead

Meaning "it isn't a criminal offence for you to leave your house in order to physically move to another one", not that it's a government-recommended good idea to complete a house purchase just now.

Thrugelmir

That's a hefty fee. Do you have a breakdown.
Search costs are a disbursement not a fee. These are charged to you at cost. You would pay these who ever the conveyancer is. 

Tiglet2

Leaving aside your disagreement over the fees your solicitor wants to charge you, I really cannot see how a new solicitor will be able to exchange and complete in a week unless they are expecting you to sign some sort of waiver for them not doing any investigative work on your purchase.  I cannot imagine any solicitor prepared to give this guarantee.

It seems that you're getting a mortgage, therefore the mortgage offer will need to be amended to the new solicitor and you are purchasing with a help to buy equity loan, requiring more paperwork to be completed and sent off.  I understand that you're short on time, but you really shouldn't have given notice before exchange.

Beck1987

"Mortgage lenders agreed last night to extend all house purchase loan ­offers by three months to give borrowers more time to complete transactions."
From an article in today's Telegraph.
If you are willing to wait, I think you'll be OK with your old solicitor, as all mortgage lenders have agreed to extend by 3 months the current house purchase loans

Helptobuypurchase

Thrugelmir said:

That's a hefty fee. Do you have a breakdown.
Search costs are a disbursement not a fee. These are charged to you at cost. You would pay these who ever the conveyancer is. 

They have just said that I owe them for £1950 + vat for the work they have completed up until now, not including disbursements  which have already been paid. 

They have said this amount includes their fees, help to buy supplement, new build supplement, gifted deposit and mortgage supplement, I’d checks and TT charge to send the money back to ourselves. 

Tiglet2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6120426/government-advice-on-moving#latest
Have a read 

Helptobuypurchase

Tiglet2 said:

Leaving aside your disagreement over the fees your solicitor wants to charge you, I really cannot see how a new solicitor will be able to exchange and complete in a week unless they are expecting you to sign some sort of waiver for them not doing any investigative work on your purchase.  I cannot imagine any solicitor prepared to give this guarantee.

It seems that you're getting a mortgage, therefore the mortgage offer will need to be amended to the new solicitor and you are purchasing with a help to buy equity loan, requiring more paperwork to be completed and sent off.  I understand that you're short on time, but you really shouldn't have given notice before exchange.

Mortgage offer and help to buy was amended on Tuesday for the new solicitor, he also started work on our file as the developer has sent over their legal pack.  

The reason for handing in notice was we was doing exchange and completion on the same day, which was meant to be on Tuesday. 

bigmortgage

Beck1987 said:

"Mortgage lenders agreed last night to extend all house purchase loan ­offers by three months to give borrowers more time to complete transactions."
From an article in today's Telegraph.
If you are willing to wait, I think you'll be OK with your old solicitor, as all mortgage lenders have agreed to extend by 3 months the current house purchase loans

If this is the case with your lender, I'd be pretty tempted to delay as per government guidance. Don't forget also the other thread regarding new builds where people are already getting steep discounts due to COVID.

Tiglet2

Helptobuypurchase said:

greatcrested said:

Have you asked the new solicitor for their legal opinion on this....?

Yes, they have said not to agree to the fee. Which I won’t but I am frustrated that they have been promising to give me my deposit back and send my files over since Tuesday. Then today receive an email saying actually they won’t release anything until I pay them. They are trying to charge me for mortgage, help to buy even though they haven’t sent of the forms, new build supplement etc.. when they have not completed in any, how can they justify that. 

How could a simultaneous exchange and completion take place on Tuesday if there were outstanding matters?  You confirm above that they hadn't sent off forms/new build supplement etc, therefore the transaction wasn't ready. 

Because you gave notice to your landlord prematurely, you are now expecting all third parties involved to treat your case as a priority above all others and not adhere to the government's advice that if you've not exchanged, to delay the process until the stay-at-home and social distancing guidelines are lifted.

davidmcn

Also bear in mind that evictions by landlords are currently suspended (and take a fair bit of time anyway), so the fact you've given notice doesn't necessarily there's a great need for urgency, you can sit tight where you are.