Sellers solicitor painfully slow - how to chase?

EC3D

Hi,
FTB here trying to purchase a flat. I've got the point where I've had the valuation done, and then the solicitor has been having a lot of back and forth-ing about a legal issue and the whole process is going painfully slowly. My solicitor hasn't heard from them for a while and spoke to the estate agents to chase them up as she feels this is getting ridiculous, and I don't even know what's happening.
Should I just keep waiting for updates from my solicitor? Or can I also ask the estate agent to chase again? I'm not really sure what is considered an acceptable amount of "poking" people? It's so frustrating not being able to do anything!

Thrugelmir

The EA should be keeping you updated with events. As they are the ones best positioned to chivvy everybody along. 

Buying a property can indeed be a stressfull experience. My advice would be to take up yoga. As you never know what anybody elses agenda is. Does the vendor have an onward purchase? 

MBJUK

Personally, I'd just politely but firmly tell them that if you don't progress things to exchange by a certain date acceptable to you then your offer is off the table. That should focus the mind. If they're not serious about selling to you, then they may pull the sale if you do this, but at least you will know earlier rather than later not to expend any more time, money and energy on it.

izoomzoom

What kind of time frame are you looking at?
We've had an easy process, but it has still taken 9 weeks, with no chain.

KPyro

We're in the same boat. Our solicitor and EA have both been excellent, but the vendor's solicitor is a nightmare. Multiple times now we've had all the answers we've needed through the EA and then had to wait another week or more for the  vendors solicitor to send an email saying the exact same thing. Most frustratingly now we are facing the same problem over completion date. Everyone in the chain agreed to the date over a week ago (through phonecalls with the EA), and yet we are all sitting waiting on the vendor's solicitor to confirm the date. It's infuriating.

ETA: We haven't issued the threat of withdrawing from sale because realistically we would never follow through on that, however I have asked our solicitor to pass on the information that if we don't complete by the end of this month then we will have to push back completion until the end of September due to our rental agreement. I'm hoping the thought of delaying this for an additional month might be enough to get them shifting, but I could be wrong.

EC3D

In my case, my solicitor is being overly cautious about a legal issue she has noticed, the seller has offered to pay for Indemnity Insurance and my solicitor even said that I will be covered by it (plus Buildings Insurance, plus RTM company), but she also said herself she is overly cautious and I kind of get the feeling she's confused the process a bit with the back and forth that happened. I appreciate she is being protective on mine and the lender's behalf, but she's said that I will be covered with Indemnity and I just want things to move along at this point.

I also don't want to threaten withdrawing of the sale, as I get the impression the seller is keen to get rid of his property (no chain but he is paying for service charge etc) and he might even pull out of this if nothing moves forward!

It is indeed such a stressful process, I put an offer on this place at the beginning of June and it's hardly progressed! And I feel like at any moment this could all fall through :'( 

winterlover

Our no chain purchase took 2 months from offer to completion. Seller solicitor was slow and inept. I emailed the EA every day as well as my own solicitor. It got things moving faster

EC3D

My solicitor was recommended to me by a colleague, whose flat purchase ended up taking 9 months because there was so much back and forth-ing. I'm actually starting to wonder about this solicitor to be honest....!

Tiglet2

Can you be more precise about the legal issue?  It's difficult to advise without knowing what the problem is, regardless of whether an indemnity policy is suitable or not.

EC3D

So my solicitor said that in the leasehold contract, there are aspects of the building structure that are the responsibility of each tenant, such as the concrete joists and external wall, which is unusual as it should be the freeholder/management company that should take care of the structural repairs. The building is about 40 years old which is why it's a defective lease.
The property is maintained by a Right to Manage company as a block and the insurance is on a block policy, so in practice everything will be dealt with by the RTM company with funds from the service charge.  

It's not possible to get a Deed of Variation, and the seller is currently offering to pay for Indemnity Insurance. As far as the freeholder is concerned there's no problem as flats in that building have been selling successfully for years and no lender has had any issues before. My solicitor has written to the lender to ask for their instructions and that's my latest update.

Thrugelmir

EC3D said:

 My solicitor has written to the lender to ask for their instructions and that's my latest update.

Often gets forgotten that there's another silent party involved in the transaction. All of which eats up time.