Conveyancing solicitor expectations

makeusvisible

We are in the process of buying a new home, and around 5 weeks away from the prospected completion date.

I have had some concerns about access to our property, which were alliviated when asking the seller during our second viewing.  However, I did alert our solicitor to the concerns from the off.

Today I decided to read through the deed documents which had been shared with me a month ago. We knew that access to the property was via a right of way on a neighbors land, however Upon reading the document I found that the right of way clearly states 'on foot only'.  This effectively means we cant access the driveway, garage or ev charging point.

My question....before I go back to our solicitor.... is this somthing our solictor should be picking up on, or are we as buyers expected to spot all these things. I'm not legally qualified or even skilled, so Im very worried that if they miss a detail like this, what other details go missed.  We could potentially have gone ahead with a purchase we done have access to drive to our own driveway.

user1977

But you haven't. 

I would suggest you discuss it with your solicitor first, it's possible you've misinterpreted (or missed) something in what you've read.

makeusvisible

user1977 said:

But you haven't. 

I would suggest you discuss it with your solicitor first, it's possible you've misinterpreted (or missed) something in what you've read.

Hopefully that is the case, but my question was really about the process than the right of access..... and if solictors should be picking up things like access issues.

user1977

makeusvisible said:

user1977 said:

But you haven't. 

I would suggest you discuss it with your solicitor first, it's possible you've misinterpreted (or missed) something in what you've read.

Hopefully that is the case, but my question was really about the process than the right of access..... and if solictors should be picking up things like access issues.

Yes, access issues are a fairly fundamental point, it's not up to you to try to do a crash course in conveyancing and do all the work yourself - that's what you're paying £££s to somebody else to do for you.

Emily_Joy

makeusvisible said:

user1977 said:

But you haven't. 

I would suggest you discuss it with your solicitor first, it's possible you've misinterpreted (or missed) something in what you've read.

Hopefully that is the case, but my question was really about the process than the right of access..... and if solictors should be picking up things like access issues.

It is up to you, as a buyer, to read every sentence in every document carefully with great attention to detail and ask your solicitor questions about anything which you don't understand entirely/which is not clear to you.

lika_86

Your solicitor may have picked up on it and may be in correspondence with your seller's solicitors about it, you don't know. Ring them and ask them to check your understanding is correct about the right of way and ask what their advice is.

MikeJXE

Your solicitor sends you documents to read and approved not just for the hell of it. Read them as soon as you get them.m

If you don't say what's bothering you then maybe they think alls ok when it's not

user1977

MikeJXE said:

Your solicitor sends you documents to read and approved not just for the hell of it. Read them as soon as you get them.m

The OP hasn't said they've read their solicitor's report on title, just that they've read one of the title documents and seem to be trying to make sense of it by themselves.

Hoenir

Remember your conveyancing solicitor has not visited the property. Raise your concerns though them. Completion dates won't be set until all the ducks are are in a row. As you've found out, vendors themselves can be less than forthcoming about matters. That's what the whole process is about. Not simply ticking boxes. 

35har1old

Hoenir said:

Remember your conveyancing solicitor has not visited the property. Raise your concerns though them. Completion dates won't be set until all the ducks are are in a row. As you've found out, vendors themselves can be less than forthcoming about matters. That's what the whole process is about. Not simply ticking boxes. 

Had agreed sale within a week of placing on the market but it took a further 18 weeks to complete I was asked questions I thought my solicitor should be answering only got the completion date a few days before actual completion

[Deleted User]

35har1old said:

Hoenir said:

Remember your conveyancing solicitor has not visited the property. Raise your concerns though them. Completion dates won't be set until all the ducks are are in a row. As you've found out, vendors themselves can be less than forthcoming about matters. That's what the whole process is about. Not simply ticking boxes. 

Had agreed sale within a week of placing on the market but it took a further 18 weeks to complete I was asked questions I thought my solicitor should be answering only got the completion date a few days before actual completion

All quite normal, nothing at all unusual there.
It's hard to take the emotion out of it when it's the first few house moves you make but try and let the process play out, the professionals can only be as fast as the slowest participant.