In what order does a solicitor do things? [slow purchase!]

Strummer22

Hi, apologies this a bit long.

I have an ongoing purchase and despite being a complex purchase (a smallholding, with four purchasers) it's going even more slowly than expected. Our solicitor has been doing things in a very inflexible order and I just wondered if the way things have gone is unusual?

- Offer accepted at the end of May and Memorandum of Sale issued early in June.

- Searches ordered and our mortgage application submitted by 14th June.

Our solicitor then refused to send any enquiries to the seller's solicitor until we received our mortgage offer, in case the conditions of the mortgage threw up any additional or non-standard enquiries. However, our lender was swamped and underwriting didn't pick up the case for a month. Booking a mortgage valuation then took a while because of the specialist nature of the property, and it then took almost another 2 weeks to get the mortgage valuation report. We did ask a few more times whether initial enquiries could be sent and any additional ones resulting from mortgage conditions be sent later, but again our solicitor refused.

- Mortgage offer received 26th August.

- Enquiries sent to the seller's solicitor on 2nd September.

- Response to enquiries arrived on 28th September (seller's solicitor had covid in the interim, hence a bit slow). Our solicitor sought clarification on some of these, didn't get any more info from seller's solicitor, so decided to get indemnity insurance quotes to cover the gaps. No issue there.

- This week our solicitor said that by Wednesday he would be ready to provide us with the report on title and send the certificate of title and disclosures to our lender, with a view to exchange and complete ASAP.

- On Wednesday he emailed us to say that our lender requires a “highways search” and a ground stability report, although was not specific on the type of either. I asked why, if these requirements were issued with our mortgage offer at the end of August, they were only being dealt with now? The response was that they needed a full picture from the seller before they could properly consider the lender's requirements.

Now, doesn't that just seem ridiculous? Apparently our lender requires two searches (I've asked our lender and these are standard for them, not specific to our case) which we do not have, although we have of course got the standard local authority highways search. Had our conveyancer read the lender's requirements some time earlier than the exact day he intended to send disclosures to them, he could have ordered them weeks ago and everything would be fine.

Also frustrating is that on Wednesday he said he didn't know exactly what highways search and ground stability report our lender needs. I called our lender this morning and they said they'd had no correspondence from our solicitor, so he hasn't tried to find out. I've had to explicitly tell him to contact them for clarification.

In my view, things could have progressed vastly more quickly if
1) enquiries had been sent after receipt of initial searches, and any further enquiries could be made after receipt of mortgage offer if necessary; and

2) the lender's requirements had been reviewed as soon as we got our mortgage offer and any clarifications sought and additional searches ordered promptly.

Are my expectations reasonable? Is it standard to refuse to send enquiries until a mortgage offer is received, or not even look at a lender's requirements until the day you intend to submit the certificate of title?

Thrugelmir

The lender who also the solicitors client. (You are paying their costs) . Will wish to spend a minimal amount of time reviewing the file themselves. When the solicitor reports to them everything needs to be ready for their consideration. 

Strummer22

Thrugelmir said:

The lender who also the solicitors client. (You are paying their costs) . Will wish to spend a minimal amount of time reviewing the file themselves. When the solicitor reports to them everything needs to be ready for their consideration. 

I agree. Our solicitor seemed like he planned to guess what they require in his report, rather than read their requirements as per the legal pack they sent with the mortgage offer...

Strummer22

I assume, given the lack of replies to the same effect, that I’m not being an unreasonable idiot, but neither is my solicitor being rubbish. Or maybe the post was too long and no one read it.

 Here’s a tl;dr version:

1. Our solicitor waited almost 2 months to send any enquiries to our vendor, saying he needed our mortgage offer first to take into account anything the lender specifically needed. Is this normal? Our broker said it isn’t. (Our mortgage offer was slow in arriving, but that’s another story.)

2. our solicitor waited until the day before he was to send disclosures and certificate of title to our lender to read the legal pack from our lender, and realised extra searches were needed. Surely, surely, that’s NOT normal practice?

user1977

Have you verified that your lender does in fact require these unusual searches done? It sounds a bit odd - generally all lenders follow the same basic requirements for this sort of thing. Or are these actually further investigations triggered by whatever the initial batch of search results were?

fimacdoodle

They are all mega busy right now. I chose a huge firm that just does conveyancing, hoping they would be better and quicker to sell our holiday rental home -  it still took too long and the app they used was rubbish. It was the tax relief thing that made it go crazy - just like the 1989 double tax relief !

Thrugelmir

Strummer22 said:

Thrugelmir said:

The lender who also the solicitors client. (You are paying their costs) . Will wish to spend a minimal amount of time reviewing the file themselves. When the solicitor reports to them everything needs to be ready for their consideration. 

Our solicitor seemed like he planned to guess what they require in his report, rather than read their requirements as per the legal pack they sent with the mortgage offer...

Each lender has a standard form that's completed. There's no guessing. There's also a  comprehensive handbook that provides guidance. 

GoogleMeNow

Solicitors are very busy, so they do tend to do the various processes in a methodical way.  It is a waste of their time actioning something the minute it comes in when they are also waiting for something else that is outstanding.  They are often juggling hundreds of cases, all at different stages, so it is easier for solicitors to move things on to the next stage, which the current stage has been completed.

In simple terms, this is the Purchase progress order:

Purchase

1. Welcome pack -  sending you all the documents that you need to fill in and return, together with monies on account
2. Receipt of draft Contract - The Sellers’ Solicitors have to send the Purchase Solicitor a draft contract pack, which would generally include the draft contract, a copy of the legal title to the property and questionnaires completed by the Seller with Law Society approved questions answered. Until the Purchase Solicitor gets this Contract pack, there is generally very little that they can do on your behalf.
3. Applying for searches - The Purchase Solicitor applies for searches once they have received the draft contract papers and received from their client the fees for the search pack and Solicitors' own administration fee before applying for the above. 
4. Receiving your Mortgage Offer - This is a key stage of the transaction (if taking a mortgage), but your solicitor will have no control over when the Offer is received, so you should liaise entirely with your Mortgage Company or Broker in this respect. They would normally expect to receive the offer within four to six weeks of instruction.
5. Raising Enquiries - Once the Purchase Solicitor has received the draft contracts, the results of your searches and your mortgage offer, Purchase Solicitor will raise with the Sellers’ Solicitors any legal title enquiries that they might have in relation to the property. Once the Seller's Solicitor has these they will deal with them although it is impossible to say how long this will take as it varies on a case by case basis depending on how many enquiries are raised, whether there are issues which can be immediately answered or whether the Sellers’ Solicitors have to relay them to their client or to third parties such as the Land Registry, a Landlord/Management Company, the Lender, another Solicitor etc.
6. Receiving Replies to Enquiries - it is impossible to put a timescale on when the Purchase solicitor will hear back with replies to enquiries, as it will depend on when they raise these and how complicated the issues are which have to be raised. However, a Purchase Solicitor would expect a Sellers’ Solicitor to have fully replied within two to four weeks of the enquiries being raised.
7. Signing the Contract - Once all aspects of the enquiries have been dealt with, your Purchase Solicitor will send you a Report with the Contract to sign and this will explain the terms of the same, any issues of the title that you need to be aware of, the results of the searches and the terms of your mortgage offer.
8. Exchange of Contracts - Exchange of Contracts takes place once the Purchase Solicitor holds your signed Contract and your Sellers’ Solicitors hold their signed Contract, all enquiries have been satisfactorily answered and a completion date is agreed in principle. If you are also selling or if there is otherwise any chain of transactions involved then exchange can only happen when all parties in the chain are ready to do so.
9. Complete - The completion date is set at the time of exchange. It is entirely up to the parties in the chain as to when completion occurs but it is generally between one and two weeks after the date of exchange. Completion must take place on a working day, i.e. not on a weekend nor a Bank Holiday.
10. Stamp Duty Land Tax - The Purchase Solicitor will submit a Land Transaction Return to HM Revenue and Customs, in most cases on the day of completion.
11. Registration - The Purchase Solicitor will apply for registration of the property in your name(s) and of any mortgage over the property. Submission of the application usually takes place within one month of completion. The time taken to complete this is entirely in the hands of the Land Registry but it will typically take several months after completion before they are able to confirm registration.

Your solicitor will also be acting for your lender, so if, during the course of their enquiries they find an issue, they have to report this to the lender and get confirmation from the lender that they are happy to proceed.  In your case, it would seem that the lender has asked for additional searches (on the recommendation of your Solicitor acting for them!).

Your mortgage offer was received on 26th August.  If your solicitor raised enquiries on 2nd September, it is highly likely that they also wrote to the lender at the same time to report that they considered it necessary to obtain further searches (i.e Highways Search and Ground Stability Report).  Or, alternatively it may not have been revealed at that time, but was revealed on 28th September when the Seller's Solicitor sent your Solicitor the replies to enquiries.  

Before any solicitor can Report to you prior to exchange of contracts, a review of the complete file has to take place to ensure that everything is as it should be.  This is often where extra bits of information are required, as so many responses to enquiries are still not satisfactory and they cannot proceed any further.

Please also note that the Report gives you all the information about the property, as well as the official documents for signature and return.

Solicitors submit the Certificate on Title after exchange, not before.

In summary, you are being unreasonable.  The whole transaction is a fact finding process, which always takes longer than you think.  Work is often done in the background which you would not see.  Issues can crop up during the middle part of the transaction that need further investigation.  When dealing with Third Parties, you cannot dictate how long they take to reply.  The lender doesn't care what searches/reports they have - they take the advice of their legal representative, i.e. your Solicitor. 

Your transaction is progressing, but to be fair, it is the middle of October - your mortgage offer received on 26th August, and replies to enquires on 28th September.  If you count the actual working days, it is not that much for so much work to be done.  Do you want to buy a good property with a good title, or do you want to buy it before all the due diligence has been done to your satisfaction?

Strummer22

Our lender verbally confirmed to me on Friday that the searches were standard rather than specific to our case, and they had not had any correspondence from our solicitor.

GoogleMeNow

On Wednesday he emailed us to say that our lender requires a “highways search” and a ground stability report, although was not specific on the type of either. I asked why, if these requirements were issued with our mortgage offer at the end of August, they were only being dealt with now? The response was that they needed a full picture from the seller before they could properly consider the lender's requirements.

Have you read your copy of the mortgage offer?  It wouldn't be there as it would not be a requirement of the offer at that stage.  More likely to have been advised within in the 'standard' searches, which were returned and reviewed when?  If the searches recommend further reports, then the solicitor advises the lender that further reports are necessary and the lender will agree that the offer is agreed, subject to the further reports.

Strummer22

GoogleMeNow said:

On Wednesday he emailed us to say that our lender requires a “highways search” and a ground stability report, although was not specific on the type of either. I asked why, if these requirements were issued with our mortgage offer at the end of August, they were only being dealt with now? The response was that they needed a full picture from the seller before they could properly consider the lender's requirements.

Have you read your copy of the mortgage offer?  It wouldn't be there as it would not be a requirement of the offer at that stage.  More likely to have been advised within in the 'standard' searches, which were returned and reviewed when?  If the searches recommend further reports, then the solicitor advises the lender that further reports are necessary and the lender will agree that the offer is agreed, subject to the further reports.

Our mortgage offer did not include this detail - but we were told by our broker that a separate legal pack was sent from our lender to our solicitor when the mortgage offer was issued. Presumably the requirements were in there, as I gave our solicitor an opportunity to explain whether the lender's requirements were received at some later date and he did not say so.

I'm not sure you're reading what I've posted. Our lender had had no correspondence at all from our solicitor until last Friday, when he sent initial disclosures and finally asked them for clarification as to what these searches specifically require. As I already said, our lender confirmed to me that these are standard for all their cases, so are not required because of anything thrown up by the initial local authority searches (returned and reviewed in July) or because of anything our solicitor had advised the lender, because he hadn't said two words to our lender!