I had a lot of things to write about this week as so much seemed to be happening. Still a lot of negativity on LinkedIn, still a lot of conveyancing bashing. We now also have a consultation about how to make this all better, and which could result in cheaper fees for buyers (thereby increasing fees for sellers, which no one seems to have mentioned).
I was also planning to try and finish my working afternoon with the next episode of ‘A day in the life’ – but then something funny happened I have to share with you.
I am acting in the sale of a property. Clients are lovely – they completed my forms and when it came to completing the Property Information form they were a dream, all certificates labelled in folders. You know the sort of client I mean!
I checked the forms and made sure that the certificates tied in with their responses and prepared the documents to send. And then, on Friday afternoon, I received enquiries. Quite straightforward enquiries – in fact there were only two: one asking for copy FENSA certificates and the second asking about something mentioned on the Local Authority search.
I answered about not needing competent persons’ certificates and dealt with the query about the search. The estate agents then emailed for an update so I told them I had received enquiries and answered them.
I was then tidying my desk before leaving the office on Friday only to find the file. On top of the file were the contract, supporting documents and copy FENSA certificates. It then occurred to me: if the clients were so good in providing documents, why had the buyer’s solicitor asked for copy documents?
And do you know why? Because they had raised enquiries before even receiving any contract documents! They had clearly received their searches – nice and quick! – and raised queries on them. So we have a bit of a misunderstanding now between everyone, which is easy to resolve but a little embarrassing.
The buyer’s solicitor has not received the draft contract documents so I now have to send them, knowing I have answered some enquiries already. It makes me feel a little odd. Is this a new way of doing things? Asking questions before the draft contract documents are received? I don’t see anything wrong with it other than it feels all out of order!
Has this happened to anyone else?
One Response
I once had a sale property on my desk, client was going to part exchange it. We hadn’t issued anything yet to the buyers solicitor because we did not have substantive instructions. However, the buyers solicitor had gone and got a copy of the title and raised 40-50 enquiries included requesting a Deed of Variation for a rentcharge – Even though there was no rentcharge but it was a service charge. Their excuse? They do a Deed of Variation on all service charge matters to specifically say it is not a rentcharge. The client in the end looked at all of this and thought against part exchanging!
I suppose if a buyers conveyancer was a bit bored or interested or wanted to get on with matters, they could jump on to Land Registry, get the title, get the searches ordered, go on to gas safe, niceic, hetas, fensa and see if any work has been carried out and jump on to the local authority website/land registry land charges to see if there are any entries. They’ve effectively created a HIP for themselves.