Saturday morning update for anyone following along from the other thread.
Our side is ready to exchange. Searches done, mortgage confirmed, enquiries answered. The holdup is now entirely above us in the chain. Our solicitor sent a ready to exchange email to the vendor’s solicitor on Thursday afternoon and has heard nothing back.
The agent says the vendor is still committed and “everything is on track” but that is exactly what they said last time before things fell apart. I have asked my solicitor to chase first thing Monday but obviously nobody is working today.
Is it normal for solicitors to just not respond for two working days when exchange is supposedly imminent? Or is this a red flag?
- Should I be asking my agent to contact the vendor directly?
- Is there anything I can actually do over a weekend or am I just sitting here refreshing my email for no reason?
- At what point does silence become a genuine concern rather than just “solicitors being solicitors”?
I know I am probably overthinking this but after the last collapse my tolerance for radio silence is basically zero.
Two days including a Friday is nothing. Solicitors dont work weekends and plenty of them treat Friday afternoon as optional. Chase Monday morning and if you dont hear back by Tuesday lunchtime then ask your agent to find out whats going on at the vendors end. Refreshing your email on a Saturday is not going to change anything.
Know exactly how that feels. When my late husband and I bought this place the solicitor vanished for nearly a week and we were convinced the whole thing had fallen through. Turned out he’d been on a golfing holiday and hadn’t told anyone. Different era obviously but solicitors going quiet is as old as the profession itself 
Hope it sorts itself Monday.
Sunday morning, nothing I can do today obviously.
@rb471956 yeah, I know two days over a weekend is technically nothing. The problem is this is the second time in this chain where someone has just gone dark without explanation. The first time it was our buyer’s broker, and that turned out to be a genuine problem. So I’m probably reading too much into it, but once bitten.
I’ve told our solicitor to chase first thing Monday morning. The question is whether I should also ask the agent to call the vendor directly. My worry is that if there’s actually a problem on their side, the vendor might not even know their solicitor has gone quiet. On the other hand I don’t want to look like we’re panicking.
Is it just me or is there something fundamentally broken about a system where you can be financially committed to a purchase and have absolutely no visibility of what the other side is doing?
@kev8421 short answer: yes, the system is broken, but it’s the system we have and complaining about it on a Sunday afternoon won’t move it along 
In practical terms I would absolutely get the agent to ring the vendor tomorrow. That’s what they’re there for. When we bought this place back in the late nineties there was a similar gap where the seller’s solicitor went quiet for four or five days, and it turned out they’d simply been on annual leave with no cover arranged. Our agent discovered that with a single phone call that nobody else had thought to make. The vendor was furious, the solicitor was embarrassed, and things moved very quickly after that.
The agent calling doesn’t make you look panicky. It makes you look like someone who is ready to exchange and wants to get on with it. That is a perfectly reasonable position to be in.
Monday morning update.
Chased our solicitor at 8:30 on the dot. She rang the vendor’s solicitor and got through to someone, not the actual fee earner but a paralegal who said the file is “being reviewed” and they expect to be in a position to confirm exchange this week. Whatever “being reviewed” means.
So not a brick wall, but not exactly a green light either. @greenwhistle_hants you were right about not panicking over the weekend, but I still don’t love the fact that nobody can tell me what specifically is being reviewed. Is it normal for the vendor’s solicitor to go vague like this, or is that a sign something has come up in the title or the replies to enquiries?
I’m going to give it until Wednesday before I start properly losing it.
“Being reviewed” is solicitor speak for “its on someones desk and they havent looked at it yet.” Dont read anything sinister into it. If there was an actual problem with title or enquiries theyd be raising it not going quiet. Wednesday is a reasonable deadline before you chase again.
Tuesday update. Chased again first thing as planned. Our solicitor got through to the actual fee earner this time rather than the paralegal, so that’s progress I suppose.
Apparently there is a “minor query on the title” that they need to resolve with their client before they can confirm replies to enquiries. Our solicitor asked what the query was and got told it was “a boundary matter that should be straightforward to clarify.”
So now I’m sitting here wondering what that means. Is this the sort of thing that takes a phone call and a signature, or are we looking at weeks of back and forth? Our solicitor says she’s seen similar things resolve in a day or drag on for a month. Helpful.
I’ve asked our agent to lean on the vendor directly and find out if they’re aware of this boundary issue. No reply yet. Am I overthinking this or is a title query at this stage actually a red flag?
Boundary queries are bread and butter stuff, nine times out of ten its a fence line thats slightly off from whats shown on the title plan or an old transfer plan that doesnt quite match. Usually sorted with a statutory declaration or an indemnity policy.
The part that would bother me more is if the vendor doesnt know what their own solicitor is talking about. That usually means the solicitor found something in the title they havent raised with their client yet. Chase the agent again this afternoon.
Wednesday update.
So the vendor’s solicitor has finally responded on the boundary query. Turns out it’s exactly what @rb471956 predicted, a minor discrepancy between the title plan and where the fence actually sits. They’re saying the vendor needs to provide a statutory declaration confirming the boundary has been in its current position for 12+ years.
Our solicitor says this is standard and shouldn’t take long. I’ve heard “shouldn’t take long” before in this process and it usually means another week minimum.
The other issue is that the vendor apparently hasn’t returned one of the property information forms. Our solicitor chased on that too and the response was “we’ll follow up with our client.” So we’re still waiting.
At what point do I just accept that this is going to take as long as it takes? Am I misunderstanding something about how conveyancing works, or is it genuinely always this slow?
Stat dec on a boundary is a five minute job. Vendor signs it in front of a solicitor or commissioner for oaths, costs about ten quid. If that takes more than a week theres a bigger problem. The missing property information form is more of a concern because that usually means the vendor cant be bothered or doesnt know the answer to something. Chase it Friday if you havent heard.
Thursday update. The stat dec has been signed and returned, so that boundary issue is finally put to bed. Our solicitor rang this morning and said she’s now waiting on one final reply from the vendor’s solicitor on an outstanding enquiry about the boiler service history, of all things.
Vendor’s solicitor has apparently said they expect to be in a position to exchange “early next week.” I have heard variations of this phrase approximately four times since this process started, so I am treating it with the level of trust it deserves.
Questions for the wise:
- Is it normal for exchange to keep getting pushed by these kinds of minor queries, or does it suggest something else is going on further up the chain?
- Should I be asking my solicitor to push for a specific exchange date rather than accepting vague promises?
At this point I’m half expecting someone to raise an enquiry about the colour of the front door.
@kev8421 the boiler one might actually be worth not brushing off. My late husband and I skipped over the service history when we bought this place and the boiler packed in within eight months. Cost us nearly two grand. If they can’t produce records it’s worth factoring in a replacement cost, even if it doesn’t hold up exchange.
Friday update. Got an email from our solicitor at about 5pm yesterday saying the final search result came back, so everything is now in order on our side.
She’s going to contact the vendor’s solicitor this morning to confirm they’re also ready, and if so we could potentially be looking at exchange early next week. I know I’ve said things like that before and jinxed it, so I’m trying not to get too excited.
@halfpenny_doris yeah, I did actually go back and ask about the boiler service history. Vendor says there’s a British Gas contract and they’ll dig out the paperwork. Whether that materialises before exchange is another question.
The chain above us is apparently all clear too, according to our agent. Am I naive for thinking this might actually happen?
Good news. Dont book the removal van until youve actually exchanged though.
Sunday update, though there’s not much to update.
Everything is supposedly ready on our side now. Solicitor said on Friday she’d contact the vendor’s solicitor first thing Monday to try and agree an exchange date. Our buyer’s solicitor has also confirmed they’re ready, so on paper the whole chain is lined up.
The bit that’s keeping me up at night is the top of the chain. Our vendor is buying a place from someone who’s relocating abroad, and apparently that person’s solicitor has been slow throughout. If they’re not ready, the whole thing stalls again. I’ve asked our agent to check in with the vendor’s agent tomorrow to see if there’s any intelligence on it.
@rb471956 don’t worry, no removal van booked. I’ve learned that lesson the hard way from the deal that fell through in February. Not spending a penny until I’ve got exchange confirmed in writing.
Monday morning. Sent a polite email to our solicitor at 8am asking if she’d managed to reach the vendor’s side yet. No reply so far but it’s still early I suppose.
The waiting is genuinely the worst part of this whole process. I keep refreshing my inbox like I’m expecting exam results.
Tuesday update. Got a call back from our solicitor yesterday afternoon, finally. She managed to speak to the vendor’s solicitor who apparently has been off sick since last Wednesday, which explains the silence. A locum has been covering but hadn’t picked up our file yet.
The good news is the locum has now confirmed they have everything they need and there are no outstanding queries on their side. The bad news is the vendor’s solicitor isn’t expected back until next Monday, and the locum said she “couldn’t commit to exchange” without the principal solicitor reviewing everything first.
So we’re looking at another week minimum. I asked our solicitor if there was anything we could do to push things along and she said not really, it’s in their court now. Am I wrong to think the locum should be able to handle this? It’s not brain surgery, it’s a standard freehold sale with no chain above.
No youre not wrong. A locum solicitor can exchange contracts, thats literally what theyre there for. The locum is being cautious because they dont want to take responsibility for someone elses file. Get your solicitor to put it in writing that youre ready and willing to exchange and ask them to press the point. Waiting another week because someone is risk averse is not acceptable.
Wednesday update.
Got a call from our solicitor this morning, and it’s actually good news for once. The vendor’s solicitor is back from sick leave as of yesterday and has apparently confirmed she’s happy to exchange by Friday. Our solicitor has sent over the completion date proposal (two weeks from exchange, so 15 May) and is waiting for confirmation.
Our buyer’s solicitor has also confirmed they’re ready on their end, so in theory the whole chain is aligned.
I know I should be pleased, and I am, sort of. But after the last deal fell through in February I’m not celebrating anything until contracts are actually signed. The phrase “happy to exchange by Friday” is not the same as “will exchange on Friday”. Am I wrong to still be nervous?