Sellers conveyancer lied

housemovepanic

Need a little guidance here as I'm not quite sure what I'm dealing with or how to deal with it! Sorry this is long!

Our sellers Conveyancers have been a bit of a nightmare from the start, unresponsive to our conveyancer, not returning paperwork etc in fact they sat on the initial contract pack for 3 weeks until we got the EA to ask the seller to chase them. 

They have just done similar again with enquiries and other paperwork but this time for a month so after our Conveyancers 4th attempt to chase them they asked us to again ask EA to ask seller to chase. 

The email response that was sent to the seller and then forwarded to the EA was a pack of lies and basically accused me and my husband (buyers) of trying to cause distress to the buyers by spreading misinformation, claimed that they had already done everything, been in touch with our Conveyancers that morning and to ignore us at all costs as we didn't know what we were talking about and that they would be instructing our solicitor to tell us to keep away from the sellers!!! 

I forwarded to our conveyancer who obviously emailed them and corrected with all dates/times of non responses to communications and outstanding tasks and they then replied "tell your clients to stop threatening to pull out of the sale as it is causing distress!!! This was copied to the EA and seller and is something neither we or our conveyancer have EVER said!!! 

I'm sooo worried about what impact this is having on the seller and have no idea what to do??? 

I know they are trying to cover their asses over their poor time management but this can't be ok can it???

moneysavinghero

Do nothing. It will take as long as it takes. If you are worried about the impact it having on the seller pop round and reassure them that you are not going to pull out. Out of curiosity how long since your offer was accepted?

kayleighali

We had pretty much the exact same issues when we bought our house but it was our conveyancer that was the poor one (in hindsight we would have done more research but we were FTB). We ended up communicating with the sellers through the estate agent to continually apologise and let them know we were doing absolutely everything we could to speed things up.

In the end, a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman done the trick but we were fraught for weeks! I believe 9and happy to be corrected) that you can only complain about your own conveyancer so that wouldn't work in this case but perhaps your own conveyancer could suggest something?

housemovepanic

moneysavinghero said:

Do nothing. It will take as long as it takes. If you are worried about the impact it having on the seller pop round and reassure them that you are not going to pull out. Out of curiosity how long since your offer was accepted?

I'm not worried about time taken (we had our offer accepted 2nd April) just the fact that their conveyancer is bad mouthing us to them without cause and in fact straight up lying about things that have been said/done. It's not something I feel is ok and I certainly don't want the sellers thinking we're making threats to pull out when we haven't and have no need to!

housemovepanic

kayleighali said:

We had pretty much the exact same issues when we bought our house but it was our conveyancer that was the poor one (in hindsight we would have done more research but we were FTB). We ended up communicating with the sellers through the estate agent to continually apologise and let them know we were doing absolutely everything we could to speed things up.

In the end, a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman done the trick but we were fraught for weeks! I believe 9and happy to be corrected) that you can only complain about your own conveyancer so that wouldn't work in this case but perhaps your own conveyancer could suggest something?

It's just so frustrating thinking that someone can act in that way without consequence!

Irishpearce26

Make contact with or have the EA make contact with the vendor to reassure them. I always make sure i can get hold of the vendors phone number to create a good relationship to support the sale and help them with any minor questions.

Indigo_and_Violet

Given that you have written evidence of dishonesty you can report them to the Solicitors Regulation Authority even though they are not your firm: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/

princeofpounds

One thing to bear in mind - it is possible that the EA has been over-egging the pudding in order to drive some urgency on the side of the sellers. For example, they may have said there is a risk you will pull out if they don't get a move on.

I'm not saying that's the most likely scenario - the sellers' conveyancer has obviously been dishonest on a few points - but just keep it in mind.

I suspect your seller is a bit confused, but probably now understands that their own conveyancer is not to be trusted on every point.

All you can do is state the facts from your side, and the transaction should slowly rumble onwards. You may wish to consider a report to the SRA but sometimes it is better to wait until the contracts are exchanged to do it.

housemovepanic

princeofpounds said:

One thing to bear in mind - it is possible that the EA has been over-egging the pudding in order to drive some urgency on the side of the sellers. For example, they may have said there is a risk you will pull out if they don't get a move on.

I'm not saying that's the most likely scenario - the sellers' conveyancer has obviously been dishonest on a few points - but just keep it in mind.

I suspect your seller is a bit confused, but probably now understands that their own conveyancer is not to be trusted on every point.

All you can do is state the facts from your side, and the transaction should slowly rumble onwards. You may wish to consider a report to the SRA but sometimes it is better to wait until the contracts are exchanged to do it.

Something I hadn't considered (EA) but certainly possible! 

I think as has been mentioned above I will make sure that reassurance gets through to the seller and if matters continue then post contracts as you say I might consider going to the SRA but wouldn't want to jeopardise the process now. 

verytired11

Indigo_and_Violet said:

Given that you have written evidence of dishonesty you can report them to the Solicitors Regulation Authority even though they are not your firm: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/

I wouldn't do this.  It will escalate things and not help with the purchase.  No professional is going to be able to do a good job whilst undergoing investigation.

user1977

verytired11 said:

Indigo_and_Violet said:

Given that you have written evidence of dishonesty you can report them to the Solicitors Regulation Authority even though they are not your firm: https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/

I wouldn't do this.  It will escalate things and not help with the purchase.  No professional is going to be able to do a good job whilst undergoing investigation.

And it would take months for any outcome anyway.