Impatiently waiting

My God, what a minefield housebuying is these days, so glad I have no intention of moving!! ?‍♀️

Luckygirl, buyers’ solicitors will ask questions that only you can answer I’m afraid. I know it’s a PITA. The fee your solicitor quoted would doubtless have been based on an assumption that the other side would be reasonably co-operative so yes, if you’re asking her to phone them every day that’s over and above what the quote would have been based on. Don’t blame her, blame the other side.

I was not asking her to ring every day - far from it! There was a specific document that I knew and she knew was there at the vendor's solicitors but had not been sent. I do not think it is the least unreasonable to ask her to chase that up without being charged, especially as it would make the difference between stamp duty or not.

In no way did I even suggest that I was asking her to do it every day - the idea that she might chase up this document ONCE A WEEK when the stamp duty deadline was looming is ludicrous.

During my professional life I kept constant tabs on the progress of my caseload and kept things moving forward by chasing up all loose ends - it was my professional duty and simple courtesy to my clients. And a matter of pride to me that I should do my job well.

My apologies Luckygirl, I misunderstood or should I say read your post too quickly. An extra charge for chasing once a week is ridiculous. She should be diarising and doing that as a matter of course. She sounds pretty hopeless to me. Is this one of the what I call cheapo firms who advertise low fees and therefore attract more work than they can cope with? Her service, if you can call it that, sounds appalling. I wonder if she uses this marvellous invention ‘the telephone’ instead of emailing - I always found it worked wonders. And that includes speaking to clients to go through enquiries.

Estate agents charge vast amounts compared to what they actually do, especially when houses are selling as soon as they go on the market. I have always believed in getting them to earn their fees. They’re usually good at chasing, What I suggest is that you tell the vendors’ EA what this missing document is and that it has to be produced now or you may pull out (there’s still time to buy before the stamp duty holiday ends, with a decent solicitor so it’s not an empty threat). By the way are you able to tell me what the document is? Is it something the vendors might want to suppress?

Sorry I went off "off on one" but this wretched woman made my life a misery for months at a very difficult time in my life.

I have moved now; and within the deadline.

I have moved several times in my life and solicitors have been a problem every time. Weeks and weeks would go by with no contact at all; then I would ring up and lo and behold something would happen ..... repeat ad nauseam!

The solicitor I used this time was not a cheapo - established local firm. At one point (after my bungalow had already been sold and new purchase was in train) she contacted me to say that I had to bring in documents to establish my identity. I pointed out that I had already done this - she had forgotten/lost the paperwork. I had to put her right over several other things that she got wrong; not legal things, but just inefficiency.

After the transactions were complete I kept getting invoices with demand for payment, when all the money I owed had been removed from the balance at final settlement. I kept replying that I did not owe this, but still the invoices came!

I am NEVER moving house again!!!

I’m glad it all turned out well in the end but you do seem to have had some bad luck. I’m going to sound like a dreadful snob saying this but I was a partner in large firms and I have little time for the high street firms. Having one on the other side of a deal (usually acting for someone selling land to one of my developer clients) was without exception a nightmare. The concept of client service is, in my experience, totally different. One chap got so out of his depth that he found out somehow where I lived and turned up at my home one evening with all his client’s papers in a carrier bag and asked me to sort them out! He had been a partner in a small firm for many years. Small firms often (not always) don’t have everything stored electronically so it’s always at people’s fingertips, and drown in vast amounts of paper. It invites inefficiency and mistakes.

After I retired and we moved to Norfolk we wanted to revise our wills. I looked at the local (long established) firms’ websites as we didn’t want the hassle of travelling to my old firm in London. I didn’t feel I could have confidence in any of them. The really good people go to the really good firms (I’m not including myself here, just saying that the bigger firms attract the talent) and I really couldn’t have seen any firm I’d worked with hiring any of these uninspiring people on the websites, a lot of them far too young to have gained much experience and a lot of those doing conveyancing just glorified secretaries. However just as I was thinking we’d have to bite the bullet and travel, I found a real gem of a chap who’d been a partner in a very good London firm and decided to set up on his own. Brilliant chap, wonderful service. I’ve recommended him to others and he gets all his work from recommendations, doesn’t advertise. So don’t despair if you need to consult a solicitor again but don’t rely on the firm being long-established, which means nothing in terms of competence and efficiency, rely on recommendations from people you trust.

I hope you’re enjoying your new home after all the hassle!

I am!!

After several months of this, several people told me that this solicitor had a bad reputation!! - too late!

There is really no way we can know who might be good.

Luckygirl That’s awful! I think mine is a fixed price, but if it isn’t I’ll be having words. I feel like myself and the EA selling mine have done more work than she has
I am really starting to panic now as both myself and my purchasers are keen to benefit from the stamp duty reduction that ends September. (We had hoped for an end of June completion )
I have a course to go on the 2nd week of September followed by a holiday for 10 days.
It’s so stressful!

Oh Flaxseed - it is so stressful isn't it?

I had a fixed price with my solicitor but apparently that did not include chasing up missing documents! Hmmmm!

Thanks for the further info germanshepherdsmum
I am really concerned about this car port business now and starting to regret this. I can’t see it being resolved anytime soon
I don’t even feel I can back out. I really need my house sold as it’s costing me too much money now, some money from my sale is enabling my DD to move on and she can’t do this without that help. I have signed the contract for the sale of mine now.
It all feels like such a mess
My solicitor is with a long-standing, well known firm that I used for my divorce. But quite frankly she’s useless and I swear she does nothing until I chase her. It’s draining.

luckygirl that’s madness. Surely chasing stuff up is all part of the job!

I definitely chose the wrong career.

Flaxseed I’m so sorry about the worries you’re having and I do hope that in trying to be helpful I haven’t made things worse for you. Has your solicitor (is this actually a qualified solicitor, so much is passed down to people who aren’t?) given you copies of the freehold and leasehold titles including a copy of the lease? So many leave this until the final report to the client then there’s masses of stuff to wade through at the last minute. If not (as I suspect), get on the phone first thing tomorrow and insist she emails everything she has to you immediately. You might not understand everything but you’re an intelligent lady and it won’t be as Chinese as you might fear. All the title stuff can be obtained from the Land Registry for a few quid and she doesn’t have to wait for the other side to produce it. Some things can be downloaded straight away, others they send out by post. The EA very likely has a copy of the lease (and maybe more) which he can copy for you and the sale particulars he prepared should state how long the lease is and what the current ground rent and service charge are. If the man co are being slow (they never do anything until they’ve been paid for it), get the EA to chase them and also to chase both lots of solicitors. They can be very useful for this. I do hope you see some good progress soon. As I said before, the length of the lease and its terms are very important and no matter the pressure to sell, don’t buy the place if the carport lease isn’t all it should be.

Flaxseed, yes, solicitors/conveyancers do very little without being constantly chased up. You end up wondering why you bother with them!

Still, you don't sound like somebody planning to move any time soon. You say:

'We always have family birthdays here, as I have the biggest garden/entertaining space'

but it's not compulsory - or even expected is it? There are plenty of birthday celebration options outside the home. I'd be packing everything that's not absolutely essential!

Not all of us Hetty!

Hetty we have indeed hired somewhere for DGS birthday as everything is such a mess in the house. I am taking anything we might need over to my mums tomorrow and I will pack the rest of it up.
There’s not a lot more I can do with a houseful though.
It’s hard not having anywhere to store boxes though as DD, DSIL and DGS are are in the other two bedrooms.
One good thing is I have finally finished clearing my loft this weekend. There was over 30 years of ‘stuff’ up there and I am so glad I started it a while ago. It’s taken hours sorting through everything, and I have had numerous trips to charity shops and the dump. It’s a huge weight off of my shoulders.

germanshepherdmum I am really grateful for your advice and will write it all down and speak to her tomorrow. Thank you.
I have looked at the paperwork and her title is ‘Chartered legal executive’

She should be ok then Flaxseed. I think the trouble with a lot of firms is they have to give low quotes for conveyancing as there’s so much competition, and they then have to take on more work than they can really cope with in order to survive. When I first qualified conveyancing solicitors charged a lot more than they do now and of course that meant they could give a much better service. The advent of the really cheap outfits meant fees had to go down and also the level of service. Of course there are firms that charge high fees and give really good service but unfortunately so many people go to a local firm which operates on this sort of low price, low service level basis and the whole profession gets a bad name. It has always amazed me that people pay much, much more to estate agents who by and large don’t have professional qualifications and do so much less than the solicitor has to but their fee is several times that of the solicitor.

Whilst I can’t work as a solicitor now I’m retired and haven’t kept up my practising certificate (along with insurance, one of the big overheads solicitors have), if I can help informally I’m always happy to. Good luck! (Clearing out all that stuff feels good, I know only too well!)

I thought I had everything organised when we moved. I'd cleared the loft - but forgot the garden shed - so we needed an extra van!

Hetty I have sorted the shed which was another dump run! I’m just grateful I don’t have a garage!

germanshepherdsmum
I am very grateful for your advice and offer to help further. I will let you know what happens

Flaxseed you can always PM me if you prefer.?

Thank you. I have taken you up on your kind offer

Well it’s going from bad to worse!!

I am still no nearer getting anything resolved regarding my purchase.
And this afternoon my EA rang to tell me that my purchasers have told him that unless we complete within the next couple of weeks, their buyers will have to pull out as they are expecting a baby in September. This in turn means my purchasers won’t be able to proceed.
Everything is complete with my sale, it’s just my purchase that’s holding everything up
I cannot guarantee my purchase going through in time and I really don’t want to lose my purchasers (due to reasons I have explained before)
So, it looks like I (DD, DSIL and DGS) will have to look for a rental property
I have no idea if we will find one available at such short notice, but that’s my mission for tomorrow.
The advantages will be that my sale will (should) complete which frees up the money I am gifting DD and that I get rid of a house that is a money pit and will be harder to sell in the future.
The disadvantages are that renting is so expensive and I will be tied into a contract, meaning I will have to pull out of my purchase.
The other thing is that most rental properties don’t accept pets so I will need to find a temporary home for my poor cat

I honestly never envisaged it being this difficult

We rented after selling our property as we couldn’t find anything suitable, as you say the money is in the bank and it gives you breathing space to find something you want to buy.
I hope you are able to find something quickly and be able to take your dear pet with you.
Meanwhile get your DD to start packing, I’m sure she and your GC can survive with just the basics and if you clean all the appliances now, with DDs help, they will just need a wipe before you leave.
I hope your Solicitor doesn’t charge you too much if your purchase falls through though.
Best wishes.