Vendors solicitor not responding- mortgage offer due to expire

Rosieroo1312

Hi all,

Just looking a little advice. 

As of tomorrow we have 2 weeks until our mortgage offer expires and given the changes in mortgage products, we are unlikely to get an extension. 

I am wondering what your opinion is regarding the professionalism of this solicitor and if there’s anything we can do. We are on the last hurdle of a boundary issue. Naturally corona took 6-8 weeks away from us and that was no ones fault however, a boundary issue between the seller and neighbour was resolved after corona and a document needed to be created to send to land registry for correction.
it took the vendors solicitor 5 weeks to create this then 2 weeks ago my solicitor approved it but it was missing a coloured map. No one has heard from him since (in NI, mon and tues of last week were bank holidays). 

I feel at a loss. I’m chasing everyone to no avail. There’s still a possibility of it going through as we only need to land registry acknowledgment to proceed to signing. My own solicitor has no urgency and his communication has lacked throughout and the EA, who has tried to be helpful, struggles to get through to the vendors solicitor. 

Is there nothing I can do but wait and continue to chase who I can? Do I have a valid complaint if there was clear inadequacy with his work?

Thanks for your time. 

AdrianC

No, you can't complain about somebody else's solicitor. You aren't their client.

Do you know the delays are due to the solicitor, not the vendor being slow in providing information to them?

princeofpounds

This is really a problem for the vendor to solve with their own solicitor, even if it unfortunately impacts upon you. The EA should have made it clear to them the consequences of delay, as long as you made it clear to him/her in the first place. If you think you may have been a bit ambiguous, go back and tell them it is very likely the deal will collapse.

My guess - they will get around to it over the next two weeks, if they know it is an issue and assuming the vendors aren't secretly trying to back out (which is not actually that likely). Conveyancing solicitors can be terrible at communicating detail to clients. They often have an attitude that punters don't need to know the detail, as it will all be sorted out in the end, and they don't want to waste their time updating clients. It can be a bit of a sausage factory type of operation, as they just get paid for volume. It's not true of everyone of course, but it can be a tendency.

Rosieroo1312

AdrianC said:

No, you can't complain about somebody else's solicitor. You aren't their client.

Do you know the delays are due to the solicitor, not the vendor being slow in providing information to them?

Yes, I’ve been in contact with the EA who has been in contact with the vendor. He is equally as frustrated. He has agreed to the conditions and it is now with the solicitor to create the document and send to LR. 

Kyresa

Mortgage offers were being given an extension because of the Covid Delay.  Perhaps it's worth checking!

Rosieroo1312

princeofpounds said:

This is really a problem for the vendor to solve with their own solicitor, even if it unfortunately impacts upon you. The EA should have made it clear to them the consequences of delay, as long as you made it clear to him/her in the first place. If you think you may have been a bit ambiguous, go back and tell them it is very likely the deal will collapse.

My guess - they will get around to it over the next two weeks, if they know it is an issue and assuming the vendors aren't secretly trying to back out (which is not actually that likely). Conveyancing solicitors can be terrible at communicating detail to clients. They often have an attitude that punters don't need to know the detail, as it will all be sorted out in the end, and they don't want to waste their time updating clients. It can be a bit of a sausage factory type of operation, as they just get paid for volume. It's not true of everyone of course, but it can be a tendency.

Thanks for your comment. I did about 3/4 weeks ago say we would need to pull out and look for something else is this wasn’t going to work out but they convinced me it should be fine. At this late time, there’s not much point pulling out when when wouldn’t even have another house organised in this period anyway and we do want the house. 

I hope your right that they will pull it through but it’s very frustrating when anyone I can contact cannot get in contact with the one person that has control of the situation. 

Everyone is well aware of the upcoming deadline include the neighbour involved which is why I’m so shocked at the lack of urgency. Thank you for your insight.