House Purchase Stuck: Conveyancing Question

[DonaldDuck92]

In the process of buying a house and during the searches the solicitor suggested that there was a management agency attached to the property. The house is one of six houses, plus a block of flats in a new build dev from early 2000s.

We've waited two weeks and no management pack materialised.

Through another source we found that no management pack exists. There was one 5+ years ago when the houses and flats shared responsibility for a drainage system. This was changed and the utility company took ownership.

Both solicitors are chasing something that doesn't exist.

Where do we stand in moving this forward? Do we sign a waiver on this subject? Get indemnity insurance? We are a week behind the date that we needed to hit to exchange contracts.

Any advice and solutions appreciated!

[Zacs-Master]

Surely you just need to make the solicitors aware of your findings?

[bednobs]

i was going to say exactly the same - you are paying for professional advice - use it!

[Canary42]

These are questions your solicitors should be answering. In my experiences of house buying I found it necessary on several occasions to confront my solicitor in their office and demand action while I waited, refusing to leave the office until he'd rung the appropriate people to move things forward. Without such pressure a fair number of them are lazy sods.

[davebro]

Conveyancing is money for old rope, pay solicitors' rates & get clerks' service!

[DonaldDuck92]

We changed solicitors on Monday as the previous one was useless and barely communicated. We've done most of the leg work so far.

The new one is slow out of the gate...

[Zacs-Master]

So the new one is aware that no management pack exists and the utility company took ownership of the drainage system?.

[bednobs]

in all honesty, it's not an uncommon experience i think!

[DonaldDuck92]

@Zacs-Master. Yes. Apparently the vendor solicitor paid for an applied for a management pack two weeks ago but we don't know what they could be getting. And nothing has materialised...

The vendors had the same experience when buying and know that it doesn't exist.

Our solicitor has just been waiting for it to arrive. Just waiting!

We went and spoke to people and made enquiries to find all of this out. Otherwise nothing would have happened.

Now our solicitor has to seek advice within the firm as not sure how to proceed.

[Zacs-Master]

Sounds familiar. Conveyancing for Solicitors is just boring bread and butter stuff and will be the lowest priority, usually given to a newbie / inexperienced solicitor or a paralegal to do.

[DonaldDuck92]

I'm learning this quickly...

We have a conveyancing assistant working on this...

How do we solve this quickly? If there isn't a restricted covenant on the title deed, how do we get people to acknowledge this and move on past it?

We feel like absolute micromanagers, but we're the only ones actually getting stuff done in this process.

[Zacs-Master]

Make yourself a real pain. Phone, write, email, turn up in person.

[bednobs]

in all fairness, theyve only had 3 and a half days to get up to speed :)
Just give them a call and work out the way forward