HouseSale: Am I allowed to contact the buyers solicitor

user1977

biscan25 said:

user1977 said:

comeandgo said:

Solicitors time costs a lot of money, who will he charge his time to?  You are not his client, he has no need to talk to you.

More to the point, they're not allowed to talk directly to another solicitor's client, even if they were being paid to.

This is interesting. What about the scenario where the other party is not represented by a solicitor? 

Then the other party wouldn't be another solicitor's client. That's a fairly common scenario. But the principle is that they can't go over the head of your own solicitor in case they e.g. try to hoodwink you into accepting their version of events.

eddddy

In simple terms, you deal with your solicitor and the buyer deals with their solicitor.

If one of the solicitors has 'dropped the ball' - it's for you to persue it with your solicitor, and/or the buyer to persue it with their solicitor.


Sellers sometimes complain that they think their buyer is incompetent and doesn't push their solicitor enough, etc.

If that's the case, it's unfortunate that you're stuck with an incompetent buyer. But you can't 'go around them' to their solicitor.

  

Tiglet2

The buyer's solicitor will not CC you in to their emails, but your solicitor might forward some emails to you which could include emails from the buyer's solicitor to their client or to your solicitor.  But if you feel compelled to reply, make sure it is to your solicitor and not ALL.

Zerforax

The estate agents will sometimes be copied on emails between the solicitors. I usually ask the estate agent if an email has been sent/received between solicitors.

TBG01

"Dropped the ball" how? If it's that significant surely you know who's at fault?

woodpeckerx

They won't speak to you have to go via your own or an EA. My sellers solicitor is so incompetent that I CCd them in an email, I'm sure they read it but replied to my solicitor saying I think your client emailed us, we will ignore it.

canaldumidi

confused_landlord said:

p00hsticks said:

kingstreet said:

What is your agent doing? Aren't they providing you with progress reports?

Agreed - that's what you are paying the estate agent to do.

I'd be asking (telling ?) them to follow up with the buyer and/or the buyers solicitor to ask where they believe they are in the process and what the next stage is / what they are waiting for.That should reveal where any logjam is.

I don't have an estate agent. So, they can liaise with the estate agent, but not me (because i am the client of another solicitor)?
I wonder if they would be willing to just CC me into any communications with my solicitor.

They will not communicate with you. So no.

Of course, if you were acting for yourself and had no solicitor, then yes, they would treat you as the selling conveyancer and communicate with you.

flashg67

My purchase was held up by my seller not having an EPC in place and the seller apparently not realising this was an issue (!). In frustration I contacted their solicitor who sorted it out (I suspect they were embarrassed they hadn't realised there wasn't one...) but just an example where this worked

confused_landlord

canaldumidi said:

They will not communicate with you. So no.

Of course, if you were acting for yourself and had no solicitor, then yes, they would treat you as the selling conveyancer and communicate with you.

Is this really a thing? You can act for yourself as the seller? I presume this is limited to sellers who are professional solicitors?

GrumpyDil

confused_landlord said:

canaldumidi said:

They will not communicate with you. So no.

Of course, if you were acting for yourself and had no solicitor, then yes, they would treat you as the selling conveyancer and communicate with you.

Is this really a thing? You can act for yourself as the seller? I presume this is limited to sellers who are professional solicitors?

Yes you can do your own conveyancing, although it's unusual and getting harder as it complicates money laundering and ID verification etc.

And I have a solicitor friend who spends most of her time conveyancing but uses another solicitor to do her conveyancing. Reason being if she makes a mistake no solicitors liability but if she pays another solicitor and a mistake us made there would be the possibility of claiming against the solicitor.