Silence from vendor/vendor's solcitiors

AskAsk

proformance said:

Yeah, I naively listened to the EA's advice to step on the gas and get the searches done before waiting for contracts etc.
Probably money down the drain .

i think this is why some solicitors wait for the contract pack before they do the searches.  we told our solicitors not to issue the contract pack because they said that they would start charging when they send out the contract pack and that would mean a failed transaction charge if the buyer pulls out.  the buyer's solicitors did not do the searches until they had the contract pack, so the transaction was delayed.

gozaimasu

With all of these things, I think it's useful to record things and then make a complaint to the solicitors afterwards. That way the future legal profession can keep pace with clients' expectations. **cue comments on how clients' expectations are unreasonable**

proformance

AskAsk said:

proformance said:

Yeah, I naively listened to the EA's advice to step on the gas and get the searches done before waiting for contracts etc.
Probably money down the drain .

i think this is why some solicitors wait for the contract pack before they do the searches.  we told our solicitors not to issue the contract pack because they said that they would start charging when they send out the contract pack and that would mean a failed transaction charge if the buyer pulls out.  the buyer's solicitors did not do the searches until they had the contract pack, so the transaction was delayed.

Yeah, we were given this advice by all parties in involved, but given COVID and the race to exchange before the end of March, we decided not to heed it. Of course, it was the wrong decision in hindsight!

Still heard nothing back from EA. 

Shall I go to the EA office and ask to speak to the manager to get some clarity? Does this seem heavy-handed? (Remember the EA dealing with it is on AL)

Tiglet2

16 days (working days?) isn't that long when you consider the steps needed by the vendor and the solicitor to get set up.  If the vendor's solicitor has sent the draft contract, find out if they sent it by email or post.  Email addresses are sometimes copied incorrectly, or it ends up in the Junk/Spam folder, so the EA could check that the email address is correct.  Post is severely delayed in my area, perhaps it is in yours too, plus there is the Christmas post to consider.

Other than getting the EA to check the email address, there is little else they can do, other than chase up and down the chain.  They are largely out of the loop with regard to the legal work going on and they would not be copied in on correspondence going forward.

AskAsk

proformance said:

AskAsk said:

proformance said:

Yeah, I naively listened to the EA's advice to step on the gas and get the searches done before waiting for contracts etc.
Probably money down the drain .

i think this is why some solicitors wait for the contract pack before they do the searches.  we told our solicitors not to issue the contract pack because they said that they would start charging when they send out the contract pack and that would mean a failed transaction charge if the buyer pulls out.  the buyer's solicitors did not do the searches until they had the contract pack, so the transaction was delayed.

Yeah, we were given this advice by all parties in involved, but given COVID and the race to exchange before the end of March, we decided not to heed it. Of course, it was the wrong decision in hindsight!

Still heard nothing back from EA. 

Shall I go to the EA office and ask to speak to the manager to get some clarity? Does this seem heavy-handed? (Remember the EA dealing with it is on AL)

as said, 16 days is not that long a time.  we didn't instruct the solicitors until 2.5 weeks after the sale had been agreed and they didn't send out the contract pack until a week later, so by the time the buyer solicitors got the contract pack it was nearly a month.  so give them a couple more weeks and speak to them again in the new year.

solicitors are starting to wind down and they are extremely busy with the large amount of activity generated by the stamp duty holiday.  i am sure it will come sooner or later.