Help! My seller's solicitors are useless

Dollhouse123

I'm in the process of buying a house, the offer was accepted mid July! I thought I'd be in by now but the seller's solicitors are just awful. They haven't replied to enquiries sent on 9th Oct. I've got the estate agent involved and they're chasing every day. I've got the seller's private number and she's told me she's chasing too and has even put in a formal complaint. 

The enquires were only forwarded on to the seller 2 weeks ago to which she replied same day. They still haven't got back to my solicitor with these answers. I just don't know what to do anymore. I'm pulling my hair out and just want to get on with my life.

Please advise 

lincroft1710

Advise what?


You can contact your solicitor and see if they can persuade the tardy solicitor to extract their digit.


You can pull out of the sale


Or you can just sit and wait.

ReadingTim

There is literally nothing you can do: your only leverage is to threaten to pull out of the sale, but that's only a threat if you're willing to back it up and walk away.  And if you do, you've lost 4+ months, and are unlikely to move into anywhere else any earlier than the current sale is likely to conclude.  

Suggest you chill out and concentrate on enjoying your last Christmas in your current property.  Have a mince pie!  

EssexHebridean

I feel for you - a problematic solicitor or conveyancer on the opposite side is exceptionally frustrating!  Unfortunately though Lincroft pretty much sums up your options. 

You could level a threat to pull out if things aren't progressed ASAP, but be willing to follow through if needed! 

FlorayG

I had a similar problem when buying and my solicitors were useless. In the end I actually sacked them and went to a local one who completed for me in 8 weeks.This is easier to do nowadays because all documents are online so you don't have the hassle of retrieving copies. I reported the bad solicitors and got my costs refunded and £250 compensation, not much but better than a kick in the teeth
My sellers solicitor and the EA told me for several weeks to dump these useless people, so it might be worth asking the seller if they would go elsewhere?

mark_cycling00

Is it a call centre style operation?

If so it might be difficult to get any improvement. They don't need to provide good service as they will have deals with those purple bricks style estate agencies and also might get work from reputable brands such as co-op who pass on all their conveyancing from a hefty referral fee 

Claddagh_Noir

Sorry you are going through this Dollhouse.

The worst thing with the whole process was our solicitors too.  It was like pulling teeth getting info out of them.  Even our sellers solicitors were useless where they went off on maternity leave and didn't handover the work. 

What topped it off was the seller's estate agent was henpecking us for updates from our solicitor.  I told the EA and gave authority to contact them directly because I was getting nowhere.  I was tempted to pull out as well but just had to begrudgingly sit and wait for updates.  

At the time / week we wanted to exchange and complete, our solicitor went off on holiday so I had to get a partner solicitor at the firm to do the exchange and completion. 

Dollhouse123

Thank you for your comments, I think I just have to wait. The frustration is all they have to do is pass along the answers from the sellers that were sent 2 weeks ago.

I don't want to pull out and the onward purchase of my seller has already threatened this which is why my vendor made the complaint.

It's terrible that there's nothing you can do, I do think the conveyancing process in England needs reform asap!

Dollhouse123

mark_cycling00 said:

Is it a call centre style operation?

If so it might be difficult to get any improvement. They don't need to provide good service as they will have deals with those purple bricks style estate agencies and also might get work from reputable brands such as co-op who pass on all their conveyancing from a hefty referral fee 

I think it's an 'online only' conveyancer where there a only a few qualified conveyancers hidden behind lots of admins. So nothing actually gets done and when you call up you never actually speak to the person working your case.

missy-

Dollhouse123 said:

I'm in the process of buying a house, the offer was accepted mid July! I thought I'd be in by now but the seller's solicitors are just awful. They haven't replied to enquiries sent on 9th Oct. I've got the estate agent involved and they're chasing every day. I've got the seller's private number and she's told me she's chasing too and has even put in a formal complaint. 

The enquires were only forwarded on to the seller 2 weeks ago to which she replied same day. They still haven't got back to my solicitor with these answers. I just don't know what to do anymore. I'm pulling my hair out and just want to get on with my life.

Please advise 

I feel your pain. I sold my property in April. It is complex, I am SO, leasehold. Buyer buying 100% and getting flying freehold. I have lost property I was going to buy so now going to move in with family. Everything is so slow, I have never know such poor service from an industry which seems to be by all in the know just how it is! The whole process has been a massive emotional rollercoaster, have had days where I was so depressed I could not function properly and definitely its taken a toll on my mental health. I feel that being firm or nagging them makes no difference to progress. I can't decide whether to put in a complaint, I have done before and not much happened. Such a hard situation, they seem to have no regard for how it is affecting peoples lives. If I had known what I was in for I would not have started the process.

Herzlos

Can you see the seller can change to a more competent solicitor? Ideally one with an office she can visit.  You'd go back to the start but that may not cause much of a delay.