Buyers Solicitor Taking Forever (when they bother to respond!)

penino

We are waiting to exchange contracts with our buyer (FTB living at home with parents) and have everything ready on our end for the sale and also with the new build we are purchasing. Our buyers solictors are taking forever and a day to get things done but just in general are taking days to respond to our solictors, the estate agent and even the buyer (their client!!). We were due to complete a month ago but are still waiting to exchange with the delay purely on our buyers solicitor. Their solicitor knows the dates we were working to and keeps saying they are working to them but as of today our buyer is still waiting to receive his contract. Our solicitor has called for our money hoping to complete next Monday (21st) but as the days go by I'm getting more anxious that it won't happen until after Christmas.

At the moment they're not responding to their client, the estate agent, our solicitor etc.
Our home builder are on our case chasing the exchange but I just don't want to be in a position where they pull out because of us still not being able to exchange and then losing our house.  Is there anything we can do to push the solicitor along?

Thrugelmir

penino said:

  Is there anything we can do to push the solicitor along?

The buyers solicitor works for their clients, the buyer and the lender. No one else. Sounds as if there's an issue at that end. If there's total radio silence. The buyers solicitor isn't going to say what the real cause of the delay is. 

hema123456789

Our sellers solicitor is the same. They’ve explained their frustration at their solicitor a number of times and said they are very difficult to get in touch with and so I believe them. 

Buying a house is such a pain

Thrugelmir

hema123456789 said:

Buying a house is such a pain

Anything which involves people with different agendas unfortunately is. Never forget this is a business transaction. Those amenable buyers/sellers can soon show a diffferent side. 

penino

Thrugelmir said:

penino said:

  Is there anything we can do to push the solicitor along?

The buyers solicitor works for their clients, the buyer and the lender. No one else. Sounds as if there's an issue at that end. If there's total radio silence. The buyers solicitor isn't going to say what the real cause of the delay is. 

They’re not even responding to their client (our buyer) though? He’s calling, emailing and just getting no response. They have said they just need the buyer to sign the contract but he still hasn’t received it and can’t get any answer out of them. 

[Deleted User]

Sounds just like any house purchase/sale i've ever had, this is just the way it is !

AliceBanned

Definitely sounds like what I've been going through for months but with my own conveyancer, so at least I have a bit of leeway ie I've made a formal complaint and that has kicked them into action. Do you know whether it's an online large conveyancing firm, they are notorious for delays. I have communicated the problems with my estate agent and buyer throughout as I want them to know the cause of the delay and about my efforts to solve the issues.  It's so frustrating, for me it relieves the frustration if I keep emailing and pushing. But my buyer has waited since April. 

penino

The worst thing is his solicitor told ours they were ready to exchange last week. Ours responded and then silence ever since. Turns out he hasn’t even signed the contract so god knows how they could say they were ready last week😂😂

penino

After I put this post up, our buyer received his papers the following day and as of yesterday has returned everything and paid his deposit. Fingers crossed exchange all goes ahead today!