Where do we stand with this sale?

Lbuk

Hi.

We “sold” our house at the end of April, so nearly 4 months ago.

Over several weeks there were some enquires that we couldn’t answer very fully and most recently a fleeting comment about indemnity insurance.

For the last 4 weeks we have had no direct communication from our conveyancer despite me attempting to make contact a number of times.

I realise that there were delays but the people that I have spoken to who have sold houses recently suggested that if the buyers wanted to complete it would have happened already.

I don’t have the confidence or understanding of the process to want to assert myself.

Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks

Thrugelmir

Have you spoken to the EA recently? 

tacpot12

I would write a letter of complaint to the conveyancer; for some reason conveyancers (and solicitors who do conveyancing) don't realise how opaque they make the sale/purchase process. Neither do they seem to appreciate the extent to which their customers are reliant on them to drive the process. So often the thing that seems to drive the process forward is either the buyer or the seller shouting at their solicitor. I don't know why solicitors make this necessary.

Your complaint is that you have asked for an update on more than one occasion, but these requests have been ignored. Ask to be contacted within 24 hours with an update AND an explanation of what they are going to do to ensure you are not ignored in future - don't let them off by blaming a office junior. If clients are being ignored, you would expect a partner in the firm to be aware of this and have sanctioned it. If not, the firm is not functioning as it should.

I would confirm in your letter that your complaint will be escalated if you don't hear from them within 24 hours.

If it helps, imagine what they would be like if you hadn't paid their bill and you ignored their attempts to contact you  about it.

GDB2222

You can do as Tacpot says, but also don’t shop around for the cheapest conveyancing deal. (Next time!) It’s a service industry, and service costs money to do well. 

Tiglet2

Lbuk said:

Hi.

We “sold” our house at the end of April, so nearly 4 months ago.

Over several weeks there were some enquires that we couldn’t answer very fully and most recently a fleeting comment about indemnity insurance.

For the last 4 weeks we have had no direct communication from our conveyancer despite me attempting to make contact a number of times.

I realise that there were delays but the people that I have spoken to who have sold houses recently suggested that if the buyers wanted to complete it would have happened already.

I don’t have the confidence or understanding of the process to want to assert myself.

Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks

You should expect the conveyancer to update you from time to time and it's poor of them that they have not done this.  It could also be that there is no change to report.  You could also involve your EA - ask them to contact the buyers and/or their solicitor to find out what they are waiting for.

However, be aware that your transaction (i.e. a sale), will mainly be driven by the buyer's solicitor.  It is them who need to do the due diligence by raising enquiries, carrying out searches and obtaining paperwork.  You state that you couldn't answer fully to enquiries, so I would imagine that the buyer's solicitor has reviewed your responses and gone back to your solicitor for further information and/or clarification.  Enquiries do take a considerable amount of time going backwards and forwards, particularly when the answers to enquiries are not satisfactory.  

When the buyer's solicitor is happy with the paperwork and responses to enquiries, they will then be able to proceed to reporting to the buyer with all the documentation for signature.  You may already have signed your documentation.  Once the buyers have signed all the paperwork and returned it to their solicitor, the solicitor will be ready to proceed to discussing completion dates.