Serious delays in signing-lost deeds and solictors not helping

If your solicitor isn't up to it you need to find one who is.
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Indeed. From what I can see a big part of your problem is the fact that your solicitor doesn't want to do any more work for you 'cos they feel they won't get paid for it. Maybe this guy is too busy or lazy to spend extra time on your file (if this is the case then he should be ashamed of himself, from a simple client service viewpoint). The other possibility is that you hired him on a fixed-fee basis, the volume of work has been greater than originally expected and he feels he is losing on the deal (forgive me if this isn't the case as I can only speculate in the absence of concrete facts).

If the latter is the case, what you need to do now is to wipe the slate clean in relation to your earlier fees deal. Go to him, tell him (1) you recognise that the original fee deal is now redundant in the light of developements to date and that it is now an obstacle to progress, (2) you're happy he should get paid for whatever work he does for you subject to him satisfactorily sorting out the problems for you and (3) if he does sort out the problem you are happy to pay him for his extra time costs in doing so.

If he agrees, both you win and he wins.

If he doesn't agree, definitely go elsewhere
 
I suggest you hang on in there. At this stage you have nothing more to lose really. As stated above the seller/agents seem keen to carry on and genuine in their attepts to resolve it as they have not 'pulled the plug'. Look upon it as a bonus if all works out well and that way you can get on with other worries.
Best of luck
 
Hi,
I went sale agreed on a house that was owned by a separated married couple - their youngest child had turned 18 so the wife had to sell the house and divide the profit with the husband.
We signed contracts - however we never got them back signed. After a couple of months of excuses their solicitor stopped answering our solicitors calls. The estate agent was unable to contact the wife who was at this stage living abroad. I understand your situation because it really is out of you hands -solicitors will only deal with solicitors.
What I did in the end (after seven months) was knock on the vendors door - I knew she was no longer living there but hoped whoever she was letting stay in the house might have some information. I know it's not the best approach or in anyway professional but at least we got some answers. Her daughter's boyfriend was there - I told him who I was and asked him if he knew what was happening. He said that as far as he knew she had taken it off the market and that he'd get onto her for me. The next day my solicitor got a call to say the same thing - I had to contact the estate agent as he did not even know. A few months later it went back on sale with another estate agent and they got alot more money.
I checked into it and we had no legal standing because they never signed contracts But we have a lovely house now and are much happier with it than the first one - they do say things happen for a reason
I'd recommend you try the house and see if there is anyone staying there that has some information - other than that all you can do is wait.
Hope it all works out for you.
Kaza
 
Thanks Kaza

I actually live in a rented house about 250 yards from the property. It has been empty for 5 years.

my god, your story seems worse than mine.

I spoke to the estate agent yesterday. He assures me that the vendors have signed the contracts, but as they have not returned them to my solicitor, I suppose that means very little.

Anyway best of luck in your new home
 
spurs fan said:
I spoke to the estate agent yesterday. He assures me that the vendors have signed the contracts, but as they have not returned them to my solicitor, I suppose that means very little.
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I wouldn't place much credence on what the estate agent says to be honest.

But on the offchance what he is saying is actually fact, is there a possibility that the vendor's solicitor has sent the contracts to your solicitor? Or that the vendor's solicitor is sitting in them?


Something similar happened to us. We were told by our solicitor that our contracts had been returned to the vendor's solicitor. 2 weeks later, we got a phone call from the vendor asking why they had not received the signed contracts. It turns out that after we signed them they had been filed away in our solicitor's office instead of sent to the vendor.

As has been advised on AAM before, is there any possibility of a conference call between yourself, your solicitor and the vendor's solicitor, and possibly the vendor? Probably not, but no harm in seeing if you can try it.
 
I would be willing to try anthing to close out deal

But believe it or not, I am actually afraid to contact my own solicitor

as I firmly believe he would delay matters even more
 
After further though on this, I think the best way forward is to find a new solicitor.

Can anyone recommend a thorough solicitor whom i can trust to do some work on my behalf to close out this deal.

I appreciate all your help
 
If you are in Dublin, I can recommend my solicitor. She helped us a lot and is really a good communicator (when we had problems, we knew straight away!).

Valerie Buckley of O'Connor Buckley & Co - 872 6949
 
Thanks sun_sparks

called valerie today and she will take over. will be informing my solicitor on monday that his services are no longer required and will be making formal complaint to the law society on tuesday
 
spurs fan said:
...and will be making formal complaint to the law society on tuesday
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Be very, very careful before you do this.

A complaint to the Law Society will not speed up the sorting out of your problem. In fact it will probably cause more, and far worse, delays for you.

You (and your new solicitor) will need your previous solicitor's co-operation in handing over documentation etc. If you lodge a complaint with the Law Society, the previous solicitor will hardly be anxious to co-operate except to the absolute minimum level that they are compelled to do so by law.

Your new solicitor may also (not unjustifiably) take fright given that you are so quick to lodge a complaint against her predecessor.

From what you have said above, there doesn't appear to be any evidence of wrongdoing or malpractice on the part of your solicitor, certainly a degree of unhelpfulness and failure to be proactive, but nothing more serious than that. On that basis, the Law Society would be very unlikely to uphold your complaint. Hence you could be landing a whole new set of problems on yourself for no benefit
 
I am not saying that it is necessarily the case here, but one of the grounds for a complaint to the law Society is :

A. Inadequate Professional Services

This is defined in Section 8 of the 1994 Solicitors (Amendment) Act as services which are inadequate in any material respect and are not of a quality that could reasonably be expected of a solicitor or a firm of solicitors.
(from the Law Society website)

I have been in a situation with a firm of solicitors where I felt it necessary to threaten a complaint on just those grounds. It made a difference in the short-term, but whether it will have any long term effect remains to be seen.
 

I can't comment on your own case, but based on the facts above there is no evidence of "Inadequate Professional Services" on the part of the original poster's solicitor. The problem clearly lies with the other side to the transaction and while the solicitor has clearly not been proactive in helping their client, this would not be sufficient grounds to warrant a Law Society investigation, as I said above.
 
for anyone who is interested, as I mentioned above I removed my solicitor who duly charged me the full fee even though the transaction was not complete. He has also told my new solicitor that he will not release the file until he is paid

Its worth it though just to never have to deal with him again
 
You should sue AAM for the fee seeing as it was from this site that you got the recommendation!!!!! (JOKE)
 
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