Estate agent and buyer's solicitor not responding

MrsLewis2000

I'd appreciate some advice please. We're last in a chain of 4. We accepted an offer on our Welsh  house on 9th April initially without an onward purchase. We've signed our paperwork and so has the buyer but the exchange hasn't happened yet. Our solicitor is emailing and leaving voicemails for the buyer's solicitor but they are not responding. We and our solicitor are also emailing/leaving voicemail messages for our estate agent who is also not responding to either of us. We left the house empty at the end of June to take up employment in our new location. We were expecting the whole salute to be wrapped up but now. We've  found a property we want to buy in Scotland and really struggling with the silence from our estate agent and buyer's solicitor. We're contemplating contact the buyer on LinkedIn just to give our direct contact details and ask they know what the delay is. I know it's not usually done as the estate agent is supposed to be our go between but as they're not replying to us we say a loss as to what to do. In Scotland sellers are used to being able to complete much more quickly. They are aware of our situation so hopefully it won't result in us losing the house but they were hoping to complete first week in September so I'm at not sure how to move things forward.

Any advice gratefully appreciated 

propertyrental

Instruct the EA formally to start re-marketing your property. If they find someone, great, but either way it might incentivise them.

Is this a mainstream EA or an online one (eg Purple Bricks)?

MrsLewis2000

It's a local EA. Just heard finally today from them. Funnily enough after I posted on here. Buyer's solicitor also finally contacted ours this afternoon  Looks like there's o/s queries with one party's (1/2 of a divorcing couple) onward purchase of a leasehold property which must complete simultaneously. Frustrating that we are only finding this out now when we have been chasing a completion date for the past two months but have been advised all should be ready for exchange next week. Here's hoping!

Hoenir

MrsLewis2000 said:

Frustrating that we are only finding this out now when we have been chasing a completion date for the past two months

You only sold on the 9th April. Expecting to agree completion dates in mid June was somewhat optimistic. Leasehold property transactions taking a lot longer than freehold. In a chain of 4 there'll be lot of conflicting interests. 

MrsLewis2000

Perhaps. When we sold the property we were told end of summer, July was reasonable for exchange at least. There was no leasehold property involved at that point. I've no problem with the timescales although I would prefer sooner. My issue was with the fact the solicitor and later on my estate agent were just not replying to my solicitor. I find that really frustrating, rude and unprofessional. For the last two months, my solicitor has been trying to get information from the other side and got nothing at all. If I did that at my work I'd expect my clients to be extremely unhappy too.

Hoenir

People prefer to spend their time productively. Chasing rabbits down holes achieves nothing and simply expends time and money. Your solicitor likewise has been busy with other clients who are in a position to be progressed. 

MrsLewis2000

Hoenir said:

People prefer to spend their time productively. Chasing rabbits down holes achieves nothing and simply expends time and money. Your solicitor likewise has been busy with other clients who are in a position to be progressed. 

Sorry I don't think I explained myself clearly. My own solicitor has been AMAZING. She's kept us in the loop every step of the way, advised us beforehand if she was going to be on leave and had another colleague looking after us if we needed to contact her. We've not had to keep pestering her for updates as she's been proactive in keeping us informed. My issue is with the other party's solicitor. They just were not replying to questions from my solicitor, nor, we have just found out, to their own client (our buyer), nor to my estate agent. Surely it's a matter of professional courtesy for solicitors to reply to each others requests for information? They didn't even acknowledge them which as I said before I find very rude.

mlz1413

I feel your frustration.   We sold at beginning on May with a short chain of 2 below us.  I found a house to buy 2 weeks later but have not been able to do the sale and purchase simultaneously.  Sorry I correct myself, I chose to sell first as our buyers desperately wanted in before the school year started.
We had a good relationship with our buyers and spoke/messaged many times so we didn't have to use the EA at all.
The Solicitors for all the parties involved have been slow to answer and weeks seem to pass with no updates.   
But I think this is normal as every one I have spoken with has similar stories.

Hoenir

MrsLewis2000 said:

Hoenir said:

People prefer to spend their time productively. Chasing rabbits down holes achieves nothing and simply expends time and money. Your solicitor likewise has been busy with other clients who are in a position to be progressed. 

My own solicitor has been AMAZING. She's kept us in the loop every step of the way, advised us beforehand if she was going to be on leave and had another colleague looking after us if we needed to contact her.

And the other solicitors in the chain may well have served their clients equally as well. They don't work for you though. Nor are they accountable to you. Everybody in the chain will have their own agenda. Completion takes place when everybody is ready. No amount of pestering will speed matters up significantly. 

MrsLewis2000

MrsLewis2000 said:

Hoenir said:

People prefer to spend their time productively. Chasing rabbits down holes achieves nothing and simply expends time and money. Your solicitor likewise has been busy with other clients who are in a position to be progressed. 

My own solicitor has been AMAZING. She's kept us in the loop every step of the way, advised us beforehand if she was going to be on leave and had another colleague looking after us if we needed to contact her.

And the other solicitors in the chain may well have served their clients equally as well. They don't work for you though. Nor are they accountable to you. Everybody in the chain will have their own agenda. Completion takes place when everybody is ready. No amount of pestering will speed matters up significantly. 

I really don't think that we have been pestering. Our solicitor has only asked for reasonable information when she thought it was appropriate to do so and was quite rightly was concerned when the other solicitor did not reply for the best part of two months. The other solicitors in the chain have been helpful to their clients as far as I'm aware and they too have been frustrated at the lack of information from this particular one. It appears that it's only my buyer's solicitor that has not been forthcoming with replies to anyone, even him. Now that we have been able to get information from the buyer (legitimately via our estate agent; we didn't go through LinkedIn) we have found out that he is also very unhappy with his solicitor as they were not replying to him either. I've had a great experience with my solicitor and others in the past, but I guess there will always be some that don't match my (or my buyer's) expectations when it comes to good customer service. Just glad that we have some concrete answers now as to where we are in the process and hopefully all will be resolved soon.

MrsLewis2000

Update - exchanged today Monday 2nd September! Will complete on Thursday 😊