Unreasonable with solicitor?

Fay · 12 May 2005 at 9:05AM

Do you think I am being unreasonable by expecting some information from my solicitor? We have been selling and buying a property since Feb 28th, our buyers have now moved into their parents house as their buyers needed to move in...this happened last friday. Our solicitor had said our sale and purchase would go through last week...but it didn't.

She then said she would have us in to sign the end of last week and we would move tomorrow...we haven't been in to sign. I have called her numerous times to ask about signing and she keeps saying 'I'll call you back and give you a date'...still nothing. So obviously we aren't moving tomorrow.

We are getting hastle from our buyers as we know them, their solicitors are chasing ours, we are chasing her, our estate agents are and still nothing. She keeps telling our buyers solicitor its because we don't have a mortgage offer-we do, its been signed and sent back and she has acknowledged to us that she has it. She has told us its because the solicitor on our purchase is being slow and unreasonable. Then she admited last week 'ok, I will start work on your purchase file now'.

Its really stressing me out now as we are getting hastle to move into rented accomodation which 1) we can't afford 2) we have a cat 3) its gonna be hard to arrange it at such short notice and not knowing how long we need it for 4) I am writing my phd thesis and 5) I start a new job in 2 weeks!

I feel like she (our solicitor) is holding up the process and I have no idea why and I can't get a straight answer from anyone. What does everyone think I should do, is there anything I can do?

tightgit_2 · 12 May 2005 at 9:27AM

I have had the experience of buying/selling 3 houses now and each time the solicitors have been just like yours and definately held up the sale.

The last time everyone in the chain was ready to exchange, but because our vendors solicitor was on holiday for two weeks nothing could move, it was ridiculous and made it very stressful for everyone.

On several occassions they have lied to us, I have had to phone them several times a day, because they never returned my calls they were just awful.

No you are not being unreasonable at all.

antoniomontana · 12 May 2005 at 9:52AM

on a side note, how much roughly do solicitors charge when you want to buy a house?

Fay · 12 May 2005 at 10:09AM

Well I tried calling her again just and couldn't get through-constant voice mail. So I called the estate agent who said the solicitor had just called her and was going to call me right away...she didn't. But she has just called.

The house we are buying has gone into probate as the one child of the woman who's house it was (she has passed away) is contesting the power of attorney granted to her sister and the sale of the house. The solicitor said once the dispute is solved, if it can be solved, it will be approx 10 days from then. So if its solved soon it will be the end of may, if not, who knows when.

So we are in a tricky position, our buyers are pushing for us to move out which is really not an option for us, so we risk loosing the sale of our house. If the probate isn't solved, we can't afford to buy another house as we have already paid out £1200 for the new house and don't have the money to go for another one. So I have no idea what will happen and the stress is mounting higher!

jazzyjustlaw · 12 May 2005 at 10:37AM

Fay wrote:

Do you think I am being unreasonable by expecting some information from my solicitor? We have been selling and buying a property since Feb 28th, our buyers have now moved into their parents house as their buyers needed to move in...this happened last friday. Our solicitor had said our sale and purchase would go through last week...but it didn't.

She then said she would have us in to sign the end of last week and we would move tomorrow...we haven't been in to sign. I have called her numerous times to ask about signing and she keeps saying 'I'll call you back and give you a date'...still nothing. So obviously we aren't moving tomorrow.

We are getting hastle from our buyers as we know them, their solicitors are chasing ours, we are chasing her, our estate agents are and still nothing. She keeps telling our buyers solicitor its because we don't have a mortgage offer-we do, its been signed and sent back and she has acknowledged to us that she has it. She has told us its because the solicitor on our purchase is being slow and unreasonable. Then she admited last week 'ok, I will start work on your purchase file now'.

Its really stressing me out now as we are getting hastle to move into rented accomodation which 1) we can't afford 2) we have a cat 3) its gonna be hard to arrange it at such short notice and not knowing how long we need it for 4) I am writing my phd thesis and 5) I start a new job in 2 weeks!

I feel like she (our solicitor) is holding up the process and I have no idea why and I can't get a straight answer from anyone. What does everyone think I should do, is there anything I can do?

Everyone blames the Solicitor although there are many other reasons. There are approximately 50 something steps on a sale and 70 something on a purchase. There is not just your Solicitor involved there are other Solicitors, lenders, searches, estate agents and your Solicitor is not responsble for their delays.

If you are sure it is your Solicitor holding it up you must write to the person who deals with complaints and that should be in your rule SPR15 client care letter in which your costs etc were detailed. Just write a polite complaint detailing the problem. I am sure that this would help. Good luck.

jazzyjustlaw · 12 May 2005 at 10:41AM

Fay wrote:

Well I tried calling her again just and couldn't get through-constant voice mail. So I called the estate agent who said the solicitor had just called her and was going to call me right away...she didn't. But she has just called.

The house we are buying has gone into probate as the one child of the woman who's house it was (she has passed away) is contesting the power of attorney granted to her sister and the sale of the house. The solicitor said once the dispute is solved, if it can be solved, it will be approx 10 days from then. So if its solved soon it will be the end of may, if not, who knows when.

So we are in a tricky position, our buyers are pushing for us to move out which is really not an option for us, so we risk loosing the sale of our house. If the probate isn't solved, we can't afford to buy another house as we have already paid out £1200 for the new house and don't have the money to go for another one. So I have no idea what will happen and the stress is mounting higher!

Didnt see this post. Was this house in dispute when you decided to buy it, if so your Solicitor should have given you suitable advice. I have heard of this kind of thing and I think it is one of the trickiest things to happen. I do not know a lot about probate unfortunately only snippets. What does your Solicitor suggest you do?

Fay · 12 May 2005 at 11:43AM

When we purchased the house the woman who owned it was still alive, although very ill. We were told her children were selling it to raise funds for her care and that there was no problem with the house as it had already been signed over to her one daughter...I assume this is the person with the power of attorney. As far as we knew there would be no problem with it.

My solicitor has kept telling me she is working on things, however, she admitted to me today that the solicitor on our purchase was running for the local elections so nothing had been done on our purchase for quite a while...and when the ball got rolling again this probate matter was realised.

However! I did speak to the solicitor and estate agent on tuesday and was informed 'oh a letter has had to be sent to probate but thats normal when its an estate sale, so nothing to worry about, you will still be moving next friday'.

As you can imagine we are very up in the air. As far as I know we just have to wait and see what happens. The solicitor said she will chase it every day, she just said wait for more news

Bossyboots · 12 May 2005 at 5:30PM

I'm a bit puzzled by the probate issue. If the son is contesting the distribution of the estate, I have a feeling you could be tied up in this for months, if not years. Without knowing the details it is difficult to suggest what to do. The son could get a Court order preventing dealings on the estate until whatever issues he has are settled.

You need to find out exactly what the problem is. I suspect it may not be settled within ten days unless the son and the sister can come to an arrangement.

It is disgraceful that your purchase has been held up by someone else standing for the local elections and you should have been given this information. I would suggest that that firm should have employed a locum to cover this period.

Your solicitor has failed to keep you informed so must bear some responsibility for the problem. You need to ask her for a detailed report of what is going on and what has happened but I fear you might lose this property.

Fay · 12 May 2005 at 7:29PM

I also think we are going to loose this property. I think we need to still sell our house though because in the current market its not going to be easy to re sell it, if anything I suspect things will get worse with the housing market, so we need to take our money and run now! I think we are going to have to ask our buyers if they will wait until the end of the month and then if nothing is sorted move out into rented accomodation.

Our solicitor kindly informed me that if the house cannot be sold to us due to the probate, we won't have to pay her fees for the purchase...how kind. However, if we decide not to go ahead due to the probate issue then we still have to pay.

I know this has happened to lots of people but I feel really screwed over by the solicitor as she just hasn't kept us informed of what has been happening at any stage

Like I said, even if we do sell ours we aren't in a position to buy another house yet, so we would end up in rented for a few months at least. Not a nice prospect really.

Bossyboots · 12 May 2005 at 8:05PM

Fay wrote:

I also think we are going to loose this property. I think we need to still sell our house though because in the current market its not going to be easy to re sell it, if anything I suspect things will get worse with the housing market, so we need to take our money and run now! I think we are going to have to ask our buyers if they will wait until the end of the month and then if nothing is sorted move out into rented accomodation.

Our solicitor kindly informed me that if the house cannot be sold to us due to the probate, we won't have to pay her fees for the purchase...how kind. However, if we decide not to go ahead due to the probate issue then we still have to pay.

I know this has happened to lots of people but I feel really screwed over by the solicitor as she just hasn't kept us informed of what has been happening at any stage Like I said, even if we do sell ours we aren't in a position to buy another house yet, so we would end up in rented for a few months at least. Not a nice prospect really.

I think this is a case where you need to invoke the complaints procedure as pointed out by jazzyjustlaw if she insists you pay some of the fees. Failing to keep clients informed is bad service and I would anticipate that you could persuade the complaints partner at the firm that if they waive all fees, you will not take your complaint any further.

Fay · 12 May 2005 at 11:14PM

Thanks for all of the advice, I will leave things now until monday and try to find out what is happening then.

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

Unreasonable with solicitor?

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free