Changed Conveyancing Solicitor - Old Solicitor isn’t transferring Searches

[JoshD92]

Good Evening all,

 

I've been in the process of trying to move house for what seems like forever and, to cut an extremely long story short, we’ve had two houses fall through. 
 

The first house however came back onto the market and now we’re back in the process of buying that. The searches were done and I’m not sure how far along  they were with enquiries etc but we were at quite an advanced stage. 

The original solicitors that we used closed our file and when we’ve gone back to them they’ve refused to continue with our purchase as they’re too busy so we’ve had to look elsewhere. 
 

However, we’ve asked all the documentation that we’ve already paid for be sent over to our new solicitors. We asked for this 3 weeks ago and they still haven’t done it. 
 

Any advice with how to proceed would be greatly appreciated. 
 

Kind Regards,

 

Josh

[slick132]

Hi Josh,

 

How long ago did the original solrs start the searches.

 

Ignoring anything you paid for disbursements, did you pay the solrs for their time up to when the purchase fell through.

[JoshD92]

Hi Slick

 

They started the searches around June time and they closed our file when the house fell through towards the end of August.

 

We paid everything that was owed.

 

Originally, our Mortgage Broker asked them to transfer the documents over (as he was the one who asked could they reopen our file) and when they didn’t, we’ve had to ask ourselves.

 

They still haven’t and I suspect they’re going to be more difficult to get hold of now with the Lockdown restrictions coming into play and possibly more people working from home. 

[slick132]

Hi Josh,

 

Seach documents are valid, I believe, for 6 months so it would be useful if the old ones were made available. However, a lot can happen in 6 months (planning applications, etc) so maybe up-to-date searches would be more relevant.

 

I'd get the new solrs to do new searches unless they think they should get the docts from the old solrs. Let them guide you.

 

In the scheme of things, a few extra quid paid for current searches will be worth it if it gets the purchase moving, so good luck with it all.