Sellers conveyancer lied

Tiglet2

housemovepanic said:

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. 

housemovepanic said:

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!

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???

OP, how many times have you/your solicitor "contacted/chased" the EA, the sellers' conveyancers and the sellers since your offer was accepted on 2nd April?

Reading between the lines:-

offer accepted 2nd April ;
3 weeks for the draft contract to reach your solicitor;
Your conveyancer chasing 4 times regarding enquiries;

Once your offer was accepted on 2nd April, the sellers would have to instruct a solicitor, provide their ID and supporting evidence, put funds in the solicitors account, the sellers solicitor would have to send the seller the protocol forms (Fixtures & Contents/Property Information Form/Leasehold Information Form (if leasehold) and the sellers would have to complete these forms, attach any relevant paperwork and send back to the solicitor, before the solicitor can send your solicitor the draft contract pack, along with title documents, EPC etc.  If they managed to do this in 3 weeks, then that is a good timescale.

It is up to your conveyancer to review all the paperwork sent to them in the draft contract pack and once reviewed, they will need to approve the draft contract and raise their enquiries.  4 weeks to review, approve and raise enquiries is a good timescale.  Then it is up to the seller's conveyancer to forward the enquiries to various third parties (including the seller, possibly others i.e. the Council, the Land Registry, the Management Company) and wait for the responses to come in before replying to your solicitor.

Conveyancing does take time.  It's early days.  If anything, I think your conveyancer needs to manage your expectations, as you sound impatient and stressed.  I hope you're not trying to micro manage this because of the stamp duty deadline.

housemovepanic

Tiglet2 said:

housemovepanic said:

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. 

housemovepanic said:

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!

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???

OP, how many times have you/your solicitor "contacted/chased" the EA, the sellers' conveyancers and the sellers since your offer was accepted on 2nd April?

Reading between the lines:-

offer accepted 2nd April ;
3 weeks for the draft contract to reach your solicitor;
Your conveyancer chasing 4 times regarding enquiries;

Once your offer was accepted on 2nd April, the sellers would have to instruct a solicitor, provide their ID and supporting evidence, put funds in the solicitors account, the sellers solicitor would have to send the seller the protocol forms (Fixtures & Contents/Property Information Form/Leasehold Information Form (if leasehold) and the sellers would have to complete these forms, attach any relevant paperwork and send back to the solicitor, before the solicitor can send your solicitor the draft contract pack, along with title documents, EPC etc.  If they managed to do this in 3 weeks, then that is a good timescale.

It is up to your conveyancer to review all the paperwork sent to them in the draft contract pack and once reviewed, they will need to approve the draft contract and raise their enquiries.  4 weeks to review, approve and raise enquiries is a good timescale.  Then it is up to the seller's conveyancer to forward the enquiries to various third parties (including the seller, possibly others i.e. the Council, the Land Registry, the Management Company) and wait for the responses to come in before replying to your solicitor.

Conveyancing does take time.  It's early days.  If anything, I think your conveyancer needs to manage your expectations, as you sound impatient and stressed.  I hope you're not trying to micro manage this because of the stamp duty deadline.

Tiglet there was never any expectation of meeting the stamp duty deadline when in a chain beginning April so no need to be 'managed'. 

We have contacted the EA twice - the second time being this occasion both at the request of our conveyancer as the sellers Conveyancers do not respond to them at all. 

And yes there is stress when a third party is bad mouthing and making untrue statements, which could leave the seller with a negative view of us. Its not something we've ever encountered in previous sales/purchases which have all gone relatively smoothly (or as smoothly as a house sale can).

prowla

You could always pull out of the purchase.