Sellers solicitor seems extremly slow

[Grim Reader]

My partner and I agreed to purchase a property in July 2018. It is a cash purchase, no chain, and we've put down 10 % of the price as a deposit. It was all ready from our side before August.

Its still not gone anywhere, and according to our solicitor the sellers solicitors are just not doing anything. The seller has repeatedly nagged them, but does not seem inclined to change solicitors. Meanwhile, we've had the cash for a property sitting in a UK 0% interest bank account, and we are losing month after month of potential rent. Also, Brexit is approaching and I am not from the UK, although my partner is. Further, we are not located in the UK and I am worried that the property may be deteriorating, standing empty for a long time with sometimes poor weather. But we cannot travel to the UK just to check up on it.

It may be relevant that the seller went bankrupt sometime this autumn.

1) Is this a reasonable amount of time to have to wait for a no-chain conveyancing? If not, how far in excess of normal is it?

2) If the property is damaged while we are in limbo, what happens? We signed for an agreed-upon price in the summer of 2018.

3) What are our options here? The sellers solicitors are not a SRA regulated practice.

[Peridot]

Hi Grim Reader,

Not a happy state of affairs for you. You say you have paid 10% deposit already to hold the property for you I assume? Do you have any contract confirming the sale will actually happen? Are you dealing with the Trustee in Bankruptcy? I am concerned you mention that the solicitor acting is not regulated! Can you give a little more information?

It would seem that this is rather a long time to wait for matters to progress even if the seller went bankrupt and you are now having to deal with a trustee in bankruptcy. Has your solicitor not given you any pointers? Have they not received a response to any requests or are they sitting waiting rather than pushing it?

What happens to your deposit if you pull out? Do you have an agreement of any sort to protect this in the event the purchase fell through? Are there estate agents involved? If there are it may be worth contacting them. They can be handy when pressure needs to be applied particularly if they may potentially lose the sale.

Personally, I would be thinking seriously about whether you want to look elsewhere just for your own sanity, if you are unable to get any sense of what is happening and nothing is moving? Although I appreciate with the uncertainty of Brexit and not being in the Country this may be really difficult for you. Is your lawyer based in the UK? Can they not be instructed to put some pressure on the seller's lawyers? Sometimes the threat of withdrawing the offer can push things along but you need to discuss your options with the lawyer.

[Grim Reader]

Hi and thank you for the response.

We've paid a 10 % holding deposit which is held by sellers accountant. If we pull out we lose the deposit. We have signed an intention to buy, but not exchanged contracts. Since we are not in the country, most of the contact has been our solicitor pushing their solicitor to do something. Our solicitor reports that they are not moving despite repleaded requests. The sellers solicitor is not SRA regulated, nor accredited by the Conveyancing Quality Scheme. They have very poor online reviews. They also report they have sent papers to our solicitor who have not received them.

The seller is known to my partner, and she has let from him before. She is in occasional contact and he says he is also pushing his solicitor but he does not seem willing to change to a different one. When we started this transaction we did not know anything about his being about to go bankrupt, and so his using a solicitor he knew and had used before seemed perfectly reasonable. I am uncertain who his trustee is, we learned about the bankruptcy through our solicitor.

Yes, our solicitor is UK based. As far as I remember we have agreements in place concerning if either part pulls out, but nothing covering if the whole thing just stays in limbo.

There are no estate agent involved on our side. The seller did initially offer it through an estate agent, but pulled it out to sell to us. He was attempting to avoid paying the fee to the estate agents, as it was a private sale. (I doubt he'll succeed, but thats not our issue). If we could pull out and recover the deposit that would be an option, although that would leave us with the choice of pulling out the money or starting another purchase where Brexit is likely to happen in the middle of it.

[Peridot]

Hi Grim Reader,

I'm sorry to say it doesn't sound a particularly good situation to be in. I would urge you to contact your UK solicitor to discuss the options open to you. Unfortunately one of those options may be to walk away albeit you would lose the 10% deposit apparently.

Who advised you to sign the intention to buy contract? Was your solicitor involved in this? What advice were you given on the agreement and the options should things not proceed in the correct way?

It may be that the trustee in bankruptcy is now involved and delays have been caused through this involvement which wouldn't in itself prevent the sale going ahead provided the property isn't being sold at an undervalue of course. I'm afraid the situation is not sitting right with me.

The decision will be yours to make of course. Either you sit and wait with whatever issues arise due to the bankruptcy and unregulated 'lawyer' dealing with the seller's end which wouldn't fill me with confidence or you risk pulling out and finding somewhere else even with Brexit. Both have their risks although I suspect the Brexit issue on house prices may not be as significant as the worst case scenarios flying about. I don't know about the impact on your ability to remain in the UK after Brexit I'm afraid, which doesn't help you either. It appears to be a catch 22 for you whatever way you look at it.

Is the 'lawyer' affiliated to any organisation. If the seller confirms that he has instructed the lawyer to act on this sale and the lawyer is doing nothing is doing nothing you would have thought he would be making complaints. There is something not right. If the seller really wants to sell the property he would make it happen.

There may be others on the forum who have come across intention to buy agreements that could provide some thoughts but I suspect you have a tough decision to make.

[des8]

Some terms in the intention to buy agreement may be binding but presumably the overall intention was "subject to contract"
Possibly sight of the deposit terms and the agreement would enable further pointers