Six weeks waiting for contract documents from Seller's Solicitor

Mildreds_Earrings

Hello, it is six weeks today since our offer has been accepted on a house and our Solicitor still hasn't received the contract documents from the Seller's Solicitor.  I should explain that the Seller died early in the year in 2020 and it is the beneficiaries who are selling the house.  We still cannot understand the reasons for the lengthy delays because the Seller's Solicitor has stated within the last fortnight that the documents will be provided in 'a few days' to 'imminently' yet we are still waiting!  I should add that the property is unregistered but my Solicitor has assured me that this is not a problem as we will simply register the property, after we have purchased the property.  We keep chasing our Solicitor and our Estate Agent but both seem satisfied with the Seller's Solicitors lackadaisical responses.   Any advice given would be appreciated, thank you.

davidmcn

Has Probate been granted?

Mildreds_Earrings

We assumed so David because he died in March and the property didn't go on the market until November. This hasn't actually been confirmed though. 

Tiglet2

I can see a couple of reasons here why there has been a delay.

First, the property is being sold by the beneficiaries (more than 1 person?), who I assume didn't live in the property and/or may not know it very well. 
 
Secondly, the property is unregistered.

The beneficiaries have to find all the old deeds/paperwork relating to the property.  This could mean searching the house for the deeds/paperwork, or requesting them from the solicitor/bank etc who are holding them in safe keeping.  The papers could be a large bundle of old deeds which need to be sent by post to the seller's solicitor.  The seller's solicitor will need to photocopy or scan in all these documents to send over to your solicitor.  As you can imagine, this takes a lot longer than just downloading the title deeds immediately from the Land Registry and they might also be working from home or with reduced staff.

The sellers will also have to complete, sign and return the protocol forms (Fixtures & Fittings, Property Information Form) to their solicitor.  If one beneficiary is acting on behalf of the other beneficiaries, then it's possible only that beneficiary will need to sign the documents, but if they are doing this jointly, they will all need to sign the forms, so the forms may have to be sent to each seller for their agreement and signature.

No, it is not a problem for your solicitor to register you as the new owner after completion, but that has nothing to do with the seller's delay now in providing the paperwork, so that your solicitor can start the work.

youth_leader

I'm sorry you are having this wait.  My solicitor wrote to me after five weeks to say he'd heard nothing at all from my vendor's solicitor.  I asked the EA to chase, and two weeks later the vendor discovered her solicitor had tested positive and her file lay unopened.  Seven weeks without anything being done from her instruction of 28 October.  She was assigned a new solicitor on 3 December.

Mildreds_Earrings

Tiglet2 said:

I can see a couple of reasons here why there has been a delay.

First, the property is being sold by the beneficiaries (more than 1 person?), who I assume didn't live in the property and/or may not know it very well. 
 
Secondly, the property is unregistered.

The beneficiaries have to find all the old deeds/paperwork relating to the property.  This could mean searching the house for the deeds/paperwork, or requesting them from the solicitor/bank etc who are holding them in safe keeping.  The papers could be a large bundle of old deeds which need to be sent by post to the seller's solicitor.  The seller's solicitor will need to photocopy or scan in all these documents to send over to your solicitor.  As you can imagine, this takes a lot longer than just downloading the title deeds immediately from the Land Registry and they might also be working from home or with reduced staff.

The sellers will also have to complete, sign and return the protocol forms (Fixtures & Fittings, Property Information Form) to their solicitor.  If one beneficiary is acting on behalf of the other beneficiaries, then it's possible only that beneficiary will need to sign the documents, but if they are doing this jointly, they will all need to sign the forms, so the forms may have to be sent to each seller for their agreement and signature.

No, it is not a problem for your solicitor to register you as the new owner after completion, but that has nothing to do with the seller's delay now in providing the paperwork, so that your solicitor can start the work.

Thanks for your response. What you have said makes sense but I don't understand why the Seller's Solicitor would say they would send the documents, when they clearly aren't in a position to do so. It would have been far easier and much less stressful to explain there would be a delay and the reasons for the delay, rather than say the contract documents would be sent imminently, a fortnight ago... 

To answer your question, from what we can gather, there are two beneficiaries - his cousins and we don't know whether they're siblings or cousins. They did not live at the property and his neighbours said he rarely had visitors, so it has to be assumed that the cousins will know very little about the property.

Thank you for your advice.

Mildreds_Earrings

youth_leader said:

I'm sorry you are having this wait.  My solicitor wrote to me after five weeks to say he'd heard nothing at all from my vendor's solicitor.  I asked the EA to chase, and two weeks later the vendor discovered her solicitor had tested positive and her file lay unopened.  Seven weeks without anything being done from her instruction of 28 October.  She was assigned a new solicitor on 3 December.

Thanks for your response Youth Leader.  That is so frustrating that you had to wait seven weeks.  From the sounds of it, if you hadn't asked the EA to chase the matter, you might still be waiting.  Blimey!  

In this case, we are chasing both our Solicitor and the EA but the above response from Tiglet2 has reassured us somewhat.  We just wish this information had come from the Seller's Solicitor.  Instead, they keep stating that the contract documents are on their way.  So frustrating.

Tiglet2

Mildreds_Earrings said:

Tiglet2 said:

I can see a couple of reasons here why there has been a delay.

First, the property is being sold by the beneficiaries (more than 1 person?), who I assume didn't live in the property and/or may not know it very well. 
 
Secondly, the property is unregistered.

The beneficiaries have to find all the old deeds/paperwork relating to the property.  This could mean searching the house for the deeds/paperwork, or requesting them from the solicitor/bank etc who are holding them in safe keeping.  The papers could be a large bundle of old deeds which need to be sent by post to the seller's solicitor.  The seller's solicitor will need to photocopy or scan in all these documents to send over to your solicitor.  As you can imagine, this takes a lot longer than just downloading the title deeds immediately from the Land Registry and they might also be working from home or with reduced staff.

The sellers will also have to complete, sign and return the protocol forms (Fixtures & Fittings, Property Information Form) to their solicitor.  If one beneficiary is acting on behalf of the other beneficiaries, then it's possible only that beneficiary will need to sign the documents, but if they are doing this jointly, they will all need to sign the forms, so the forms may have to be sent to each seller for their agreement and signature.

No, it is not a problem for your solicitor to register you as the new owner after completion, but that has nothing to do with the seller's delay now in providing the paperwork, so that your solicitor can start the work.

Thanks for your response. What you have said makes sense but I don't understand why the Seller's Solicitor would say they would send the documents, when they clearly aren't in a position to do so. It would have been far easier and much less stressful to explain there would be a delay and the reasons for the delay, rather than say the contract documents would be sent imminently, a fortnight ago... 

To answer your question, from what we can gather, there are two beneficiaries - his cousins and we don't know whether they're siblings or cousins. They did not live at the property and his neighbours said he rarely had visitors, so it has to be assumed that the cousins will know very little about the property.

Thank you for your advice.

The seller's solicitor is relying on the sellers sending all the documents to him.  He can ask them to oblige as soon as possible, but of course he has no real control over when the documents do reach him.  I agree that saying the draft contracts would be sent imminently is perhaps not the best response, but I guess they say that to every single case they are dealing with, precisely because they have no control.  I think your solicitor would know what "imminently" meant in solicitor speak, in real terms it just means it will be sent when it can be sent, could be tomorrow or next week or next month or however long it takes for the sellers to respond.

Do you know if probate has been granted?  The sellers will also need to provide a copy of the Probate Certificate before exchange.

Mildreds_Earrings

Thanks for your response Tiglet2.  After reading your first response, I contacted the EA to find out whether probate has been granted and I am awaiting their response.  

Mildreds_Earrings

Tiglet2 said:

Mildreds_Earrings said:

Tiglet2 said:

I can see a couple of reasons here why there has been a delay.

First, the property is being sold by the beneficiaries (more than 1 person?), who I assume didn't live in the property and/or may not know it very well. 
 
Secondly, the property is unregistered.

The beneficiaries have to find all the old deeds/paperwork relating to the property.  This could mean searching the house for the deeds/paperwork, or requesting them from the solicitor/bank etc who are holding them in safe keeping.  The papers could be a large bundle of old deeds which need to be sent by post to the seller's solicitor.  The seller's solicitor will need to photocopy or scan in all these documents to send over to your solicitor.  As you can imagine, this takes a lot longer than just downloading the title deeds immediately from the Land Registry and they might also be working from home or with reduced staff.

The sellers will also have to complete, sign and return the protocol forms (Fixtures & Fittings, Property Information Form) to their solicitor.  If one beneficiary is acting on behalf of the other beneficiaries, then it's possible only that beneficiary will need to sign the documents, but if they are doing this jointly, they will all need to sign the forms, so the forms may have to be sent to each seller for their agreement and signature.

No, it is not a problem for your solicitor to register you as the new owner after completion, but that has nothing to do with the seller's delay now in providing the paperwork, so that your solicitor can start the work.

Thanks for your response. What you have said makes sense but I don't understand why the Seller's Solicitor would say they would send the documents, when they clearly aren't in a position to do so. It would have been far easier and much less stressful to explain there would be a delay and the reasons for the delay, rather than say the contract documents would be sent imminently, a fortnight ago... 

To answer your question, from what we can gather, there are two beneficiaries - his cousins and we don't know whether they're siblings or cousins. They did not live at the property and his neighbours said he rarely had visitors, so it has to be assumed that the cousins will know very little about the property.

Thank you for your advice.

The seller's solicitor is relying on the sellers sending all the documents to him.  He can ask them to oblige as soon as possible, but of course he has no real control over when the documents do reach him.  I agree that saying the draft contracts would be sent imminently is perhaps not the best response, but I guess they say that to every single case they are dealing with, precisely because they have no control.  I think your solicitor would know what "imminently" meant in solicitor speak, in real terms it just means it will be sent when it can be sent, could be tomorrow or next week or next month or however long it takes for the sellers to respond.

Do you know if probate has been granted?  The sellers will also need to provide a copy of the Probate Certificate before exchange.

And I agree with your comments regarding what the term imminently means to Solicitors!

teachfast

Standard solicitor incompetence and fobbing off strategy. Ring them every day and keep a list of the excuses- they will start repeating themselves.