Totally stuck house sale

mat1964

We are selling our house and buying another.  No chain either side.  We are ready to exchange on our purchase but the sale is totally stuck.  The buyers solicitors have said they have not had satisfactory responses to questions but refuse to clarify which responses they are not happy with.  Our solicitors say they have answered all their questions and emails to clarify what else they want go unanswered.  The estate agent has spoken to the buyer who just refers him back to his solicitor and won’t get involved.  We will lose our new house if this goes on too much longer but every time we chase both our solicitor and the estate agents we get the same response “we can’t do anything until the buyer’s solicitor comes back to us.  Pretty much out of ideas now!

Bigphil1474

The buyer needs to get involved or the deal is gonna collapse. Give them a deadline to decide what they are doing - end of this month? When we bought our house last year, it was our solicitor who was the hold up. They asked for electrical paperwork at least 3 times, and 2 sets of planning docs at least twice. I emailed them and told them to stop asking for the same stuff over and over. Surprisingly, we exchanged the following week and completed a week after that.

Chief_of_Staffy

Sounds like the buyer's solicitor has messed something up and is trying to blame you for the delay, either by claiming they are waiting for information when they're not, or by claiming they're waiting for information that actually has not been provided but which they don't want to receive yet because they are not ready proceed. Either way they're incompetent, so expect more of the same.

How long has it been going on?

GDB2222

The people with most to lose are the estate agents. They get nothing at all if the chain collapses, so I’m surprised that they are so unconcerned. 

Are you in direct contact with the buyers? If so, explain your concerns to them and ask them to gee up their solicitors. 

Of course, this may all be a smokescreen. Perhaps, the buyer is temporarily unable to proceed for some reason, and their solicitor is helping them string you along in the hope that whatever the problem is (redundancy, say) will be resolved. 

DE_612183

Tell the EA's to tell the buyers if there is no progress in 48 hours house will be re-listed.

The buyer doesn't seem interested is a big red flag to me - either they know whats going on ( mortgage issues ? ) or can't be bothered - either way a threat gets you back in a position you need to be in.

GDB2222

DE_612183 said:

Tell the EA's to tell the buyers if there is no progress in 48 hours house will be re-listed.

The buyer doesn't seem interested is a big red flag to me - either they know whats going on ( mortgage issues ? ) or can't be bothered - either way a threat gets you back in a position you need to be in.

If the OP does this, I assume the OP's sellers will, likewise, re-list their property. However, I agree with you that it sounds a bit like the OP's buyer has cooled off, but doesn't want to say so outright.

mat1964

So to update, the estate agent said the buyers solicitor has just sent an email to my solicitors with a list of questions and previous emails which they say went unanswered.  I am now waiting to hear back from my solicitor about why this is and what they are doing about it.  Not great.

RAS

Have you asked your solicitor why these queries are outstanding (if they are?)

mat1964

Spoke to the ‘trainee’ solicitor working on my case today after asking to speak to the main solicitor. He basically said it wasn’t his problem as emails were sent to his colleague who was out of the office and that is why they had not replied.  He also said that the questions from the solicitors were stupid so not worth answering anyway.  I was shocked at how rude he was.  I am making a formal complaint not that it will help getting things sorted.

ExEstateAgent

!!!!!!!! 

I'd put a formal complaint in and escalate, and if you can, go into their offices and demand to speak to somebody competent, or find a new solicitors and dispute this one's bill when it comes. 

GDB2222

mat1964 said:

Spoke to the ‘trainee’ solicitor working on my case today after asking to speak to the main solicitor. He basically said it wasn’t his problem as emails were sent to his colleague who was out of the office and that is why they had not replied.  He also said that the questions from the solicitors were stupid so not worth answering anyway.  I was shocked at how rude he was.  I am making a formal complaint not that it will help getting things sorted.

This is bad, isn't it. You need to speak to whoever's in charge, so your case gets properly dealt with.