House sale / purchase not going to plan

GoogleMeNow

Ribosome said:

In the mean time we've found a no chain "doer-upper" in a desirable area. Unfortunately we've already authorised searches on the other house. Can we transfer the searches? Would have to pay twice? 

Unfortunately, the searches are for the particular property.  If you buy a different property, you will need new searches for that property, so yes you would have to pay again, unless you have a search insurance policy with your conveyancer.  Might be worth checking with your conveyancer if they have actually paid for the searches yet, as sometimes the money sits in their client account until they are ready to order them.

Ribosome

I'm getting very, very close now to the end of my limit.

Either my solicitor is incompetent, the management company or both. 

So, despite my solicitor having the direct contact details of the person that deals with LPE1 form since early March, they sent the request to the general company email, where it got lost, last week.

In the mean time the management company CC'd me into an email to another management company requesting the form. So, I rang this other company, they have our address listed except it's a different name, town and postcode.

So, now I've had to send an invoice to the management company to show them that, yes, you do have record of us.

It's been over a month to sort out a form. A simple little form. If I hadn't been making enquiries in the background nothing would be happening. 

I just can't believe it is possible to exist in a bubble of such ineptitude. 

seradane

AFF8879 said:

Ribosome said:

Hi edddy, I've literally just done all you suggested after making this post. 

The solicitors secretary told me they sent the request to the management company in early March. The management company have told me they only received the request last week, 31st March. They also told me the solicitor sent the request to the exact person I told them NOT to send it to due to a previous bad experience.

So someone is telling big fat fibs. I've got onto our estate agent, as they recommended the solicitor, to chase them up. It's not good enough. 

Generally it’s not advisable to use any solicitor recommended by EA/developer/etc… they earn their fees through EA recommendations hence in order to keep this relationship sweet are less likely to be fully/solely devoted to your best interests in the event of any conflicts etc.

Slightly off-topic, apologies OP, but I just wanted to touch on this a moment.

In theory, shouldn't a proactive/responsive conveyancer actually make the EA's job easier (less chasing, quicker to get the sale to completion), so the EA should want to recommend and work with "better" solicitors? 

I suppose a really dodgy solicitor could be willing to sweep any issues under the rug for the sake of maintaining the EA relationship but that seems like a lot of risk to their professional liability for minimal gain.

I completely agree about Developer-linked solicitors though - they are another matter entirely, as they very much have incentive to not work for your best interest.

eddddy

seradane said:

In theory, shouldn't a proactive/responsive conveyancer actually make the EA's job easier (less chasing, quicker to get the sale to completion), so the EA should want to recommend and work with "better" solicitors? 

Yes - but most EAs don't refer people a conveyancer because they're "better".

Often they refer them based on who pays the biggest referral fee. And often the conveyancers who pay the biggest referral fee are poor quality.


As an example, a flat seller I spoke to a few years ago...

• Got a quote for legal fees from a 'regular' solicitor for £600
• Got a quote for legal fees from the EA's 'recommended' solicitor for £600

But the small print said the EA's 'recommended' solicitor would pay the EA a referral fee of £450.

So either ....

• The seller was going to pay £600 for £150 worth of services - which would probably be very poor quality for that price, or
• There were going to be a lot of 'extras' added to the bill, to make the conveyancing business viable

And I suspect that the big conveyancing firms get the majority of their business from referrals - especially referrals from the large estate agency chains.

So the conveyancer is likely to worry more about upsetting the EA, than upsetting an individual buyer/seller. 

womble12345

Regarding your purchase, I think you are on to a good thing, the vendor accepted an offer 2 months ago at the price then, the house will be worth more now so I would just wait as you will get it under market value when they eventually find a place.

Ribosome

womble12345 said:

Regarding your purchase, I think you are on to a good thing, the vendor accepted an offer 2 months ago at the price then, the house will be worth more now so I would just wait as you will get it under market value when they eventually find a place.

Yes, hopefully. I just seem to be the only prepared person out of everyone I'm dealing with.

How did a conveyancer not know that they had to request an LPE1 directly? Why try to do it through me? It's just bizarre.

Why does a leasehold management company not know who I am even though they send me an invoice once a year? Crazy.