We were expecting to be close to completing our house purchase soon but an arrangement with our solicitor’s and building society threatens to delay / blow the whole process up.

We have been using a sole solicitor to do our conveyancing. Early in the process he advised that our Building Society won’t deal with him as he is a sole practitioner rather than a partnered firm (he’s not on their books). He said its not a problem as he uses another Solicitor’s to act on his behalf.

So far so good, everything is set up and all the searches are done and everything looks to be in place, except the paperwork isn’t in place between Building Society and the 3rd party solicitor. Now the Building Society have said that we’ve been misled (may not be the actual words) and that we’ll have to begin the process all over again for the purchase using their solicitor re-incurring costs and adding delays.

I’m assuming we’ll have to pay our solicitor for all the work he’s already done, but is there any mileage in contacting another solicitor’s to transfer the searches to that our man has already done or is this highly illegal? Seems reasonable enough to me as the search results will still be the same, but I guess they’ll want to double check his work.

Any advice very much appreciated.

Unqualified/opinionated advice…don’t pay the sole solicitor for anything that cannot be transferred to the new solicitor…sounds like he has miss-lead both building society and you 🙁 Neither of them lose out, but you have.

Does the building society have a panel solicitor they can tell you to use?

We are about to move and had the same issue with a solicitor and Santander, although fortunately the solicitor was open about it up front.

We could use the solicitor, but then pay an extra £300 for one of Santander’s ‘friendly’ solicitors to do the actual conveyancing. We didn’t do this as it made the solicitors cost more then another local one who was approved to work for Santander.

Good luck and hope it’s sorted for you soon!

I’m assuming we’ll have to pay our solicitor for all the work he’s already done

If he’s told you that he could provide the service required but can’t then he’s failed to deliver on ‘the contract’ between you and you can legitimately not pay or pay only for what he has delivered.

Of course, proving exactly what ‘the contract’ between you is/was may be difficult unless you have it in writing.

Close to completing, or close to exchanging? Big difference (albeit not if you’re planning to do both at the same time).

Exchanging? Find another solicitor and don’t pay the one who’s led you up the garden path.

Completing? He’ll be liable for so much cash should his cock-up delay completion he’ll find a way to sort it out himself.

i would call a good local conveyancing firm that is recommended to you and get them to take over dealing, there is no reason why they can’t pick up where the previous person dealing leaves off.

Phone them first, they shouldn’t charge you for advice if they are looking to take over the matter from you.