Conveyancing Fiasco UPDATE

After lunch yesterday...

Called Helen at POP. She told me that she had faxed Blake Lapthorn (buyers’ solicitor) about the leasehold info and was sure that they would contact POP if they needed anything (thanks for the sense of urgency dear). She said that my solicitor’s partner would be back in tomorrow and the file would be passed to him for action. I asked her whether she felt it was realistic for exchange to happen this week. She said no, probably not. The woman is an effing limp rag, it would be nice to prove her wrong.

Having got such a laissez faire response from POP, I called BL to check that they had received the docs and promptly got a bollocking for ringing them direct. I did however ascertain that they had received the docs and that they would be reviewed this afternoon. I then emailed Tony at Mann and explained all of the above to him and asked him to keep chasing BL as much as possible.

Went into the loo for a little cry and was greeted by a colleague with the words "hey stressypants" which was nice and helped matters loads.

I then called Chelsea BS again as they hadn't returned my call. They took another message, then Mark called me back. He started at Guildford branch yesterday so doesn't know a thing and asked me disturbing questions such as "so how much were you wanting to borrow?".  Not what you need to hear when you're supposed to be at the point of exchange.  Apparently there is a note on my file that POP is not on the panel of approved solicitors - Mark is not sure what that means. He is going to call the underwriters this afternoon, find out what the hell is going on and call me back.

UPDATE 15:45

Utter disaster. Mark from Chelsea calls me back. To inform me that because I have £3k outstanding on a student loan (which they have known for weeks) the underwriters are not willing to lend me the full amount that I asked for. Bizarrely they have reduced the amount they are willing to lend by more than the amount of my student loan, so it seems as though I’m being penalised for having one, which is nice. I ask Mark when this decision was made and he informs me it was made on the 16th November – 10 days ago, and no-one had bothered to tell me. Then Mark starts going on about POP needing to contact the Law Society about a change of address to be added to the panel. It is evident that he has no clue what he is talking about, as he is unable to answer any question I have about this.

So I hang up, go into the car park, call my dad and start to cry hysterically down the phone to him. After about 5 minutes of hysteria, my dad asks me what I would like him to do. I ask him to call Brian Farley – another solicitor at POP and a man that managed my conveyancing last time round without a single issue. I was just too upset to be able to do it. Dad caught Mr Farley just as he was about to go to London for a meeting but nonetheless he found time to look into this beforehand. Within minutes, he has sorted out the panel issue and will be looking at the other conveyancing issues this morning.

And that’s the saga up to date. Will I be able to complete next Friday? Doubtful. But I’m going to keep my chin up and get this bloody job done. Keep your fingers crossed.....