Advice please - our solicitors don’t want to represent us anymore

Poppyka

Hi all
hope you’re doing ok. 

I was wondering if I could kindly have some advice. 

Our parents wanted to give us some money to help buy a house and wanted to secure their money by way of a second charge based on independent legal advice given to them. However our bank have spent 6 weeks deciding whether they can accept this so to prevent further delay our parents said they would rather gift us the money instead of it means we are able to get the house. 

We updated our solicitors  on this and explained that our parents understood the risk of not having the second charge and want to solely gift us the money without wanting it returned at any point. 

Our solicitors have since turned around and say they no longer wish to represent us because they don’t want to take on the risk of our parents gifting us the money as they’re under the impression they’ve been pressured to do this!
this really isn’t the case and they’re willing to sign all paperwork stating this. 

We’re really concerned this might impact us in trying to find another solicitor to help us complete and our bank would have concerns about why the solicitors no longer wish to work with us. 

We were able to secure a fixed rate mortgage offer before the rates went up so this will have a massive financial impact on us if the offer expires and we have to get a new one. 

Does anyone have kind words to offer on where we stand with this and can solicitors really just turn their back on you like this? Thanks in advance 

canaldumidi

There's very ;ittle you can do to pursuade your current solicitors to act for you.

Go in to several local solicitors offices, ask to see a conveyancing solcitor, explain the issue in full, and ask them to act for you.

Make sure they are on your mortgage lender's panel!

eddddy

If it was a problem of a potential 'conflict of interest' between you and your parents - it could be solved by your parents taking advice from another solicitor. i.e. You deal with your conveyancing solicitor and your parents deal with, and take advice from their own solicitor.

But I guess that suspected persuasion/coercion is different.

But it might still be worth double-checking with your conveyancing solicitor whether your parents instructing their own solicitor would help to solve the problem.

Thrugelmir

Poppyka said:

Does anyone have kind words to offer on where we stand with this and can solicitors really just turn their back on you like this? Thanks in advance 

The solicitors also work for the lender. Just happens you are paying the bill. The solicitors don't want to be struck off the lenders approved list. Simply not worth the bother to transact business with clients they are uneasy with and don't trust fully. 

Flugelhorn

suspect the solicitors will be querying whether the parents now really intend to give you the money without strings seeing as they  previously wanted to have a charge on the property - as others have mentioned it may affect the solicitors relationship with the lenders if it should turn out that it wasn't a genuine gift

Poppyka

Thanks for the replies @canaldumidi @eddddy @Thrugelmir @Flugelhorn  it’s appreciated. 

As you mentioned we feel the solicitors now don’t trust us because of the change from charge to solely a gift. However we queried with them whether this was a possibility before agreeing. They’ve offered to meet with us later in the week to discuss and allow us to reassure them. Our parents have said they sign all relevant paperwork saying they don’t want the gift returned and just want to help us on the property ladder. They’ve sought independent legal advise and still happy to go ahead with a gift. 

We can but try - I think as a back up I’ll make some initial enquiries with other solicitors just in case they aren’t fully reassured by us. 

SDLT_Geek

Poppyka said:

Hi all
hope you’re doing ok. 

I was wondering if I could kindly have some advice. 

Our parents wanted to give us some money to help buy a house and wanted to secure their money by way of a second charge based on independent legal advice given to them. However our bank have spent 6 weeks deciding whether they can accept this so to prevent further delay our parents said they would rather gift us the money instead of it means we are able to get the house. 

We updated our solicitors  on this and explained that our parents understood the risk of not having the second charge and want to solely gift us the money without wanting it returned at any point. 

Our solicitors have since turned around and say they no longer wish to represent us because they don’t want to take on the risk of our parents gifting us the money as they’re under the impression they’ve been pressured to do this!
this really isn’t the case and they’re willing to sign all paperwork stating this. 

We’re really concerned this might impact us in trying to find another solicitor to help us complete and our bank would have concerns about why the solicitors no longer wish to work with us. 

We were able to secure a fixed rate mortgage offer before the rates went up so this will have a massive financial impact on us if the offer expires and we have to get a new one. 

Does anyone have kind words to offer on where we stand with this and can solicitors really just turn their back on you like this? Thanks in advance 

Perhaps your solicitors are concerned that the same attitude could be taken here as by a couple of posters on this page https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6337766/accidentally-committing-mortgage-fraud/p2 who seem to think it is acceptable to say the advance is a gift but that the family can "sort it out later"!! 

Your solicitors are presumably also representing the commercial lender and so have to look after their interests as well.  They cannot act for both parties where there is a conflict of interest.

Poppyka

Thanks @SDLT_Geek I understand the solicitors concerns and anxieties but our parents have said they’ll sign any legal documents to say it’s solely a gift with no strings attached. Fingers crossed we have a positive chat with them in the week. They changed their decision on helping sort the gift paper etc to saying they don’t want to represent us anymore - all within the space of a day!

Flugelhorn

Poppyka said:

Thanks @SDLT_Geek I understand the solicitors concerns and anxieties but our parents have said they’ll sign any legal documents to say it’s solely a gift with no strings attached. Fingers crossed we have a positive chat with them in the week. They changed their decision on helping sort the gift paper etc to saying they don’t want to represent us anymore - all within the space of a day!

sounds like the case was reviewed by someone more senior and knowledgeable

Poppyka

@Flugelhorn the case was reviewed by the senior partner earlier in the week who said they were happy with the gift option. It was only yesterday after saying they wanted to send the gift paperwork across to our parents they changed their minds. 

LittleMax

Out of interest what percentage share of the house would your parents have wanted?  It's a big switch to go from wanting to secure a charge on the property to wanting to gift the money.  If the sums are large I can understand the Solicitors being concerned that the gift is not all that it seems.