Is our solicitor delaying our purchase and charging extra?
In the middle of a purchase of a 2 bed house in London. Our offer was accepted in Feb, now we have sign the contract and posted back to the solicitors and awaiting property searches which was sent on 24 April and source of funds which we completed 2 months ago.
About 10 days ago we called the solicitors offer to find that the solicitor dealing with our case is unavailable until further notice due to bereavement, and our case is being dealt on by the team. We emailed 2 days ago to ask for a update on the searches and source of funds, however no reply until today, called them today to get an update and was told that the team is dealing with your email and will get back to you shortly, and they still don’t know when my solicitor will be back. Do I need to worry that my case is being delayed due to my solicitor being away and the other team is busy with their own tasks and I am down their list of tasks?
On an unrelated issue- I was quoted 295£ for local and other searches, the latest statement mentions im charged 393£ for the same. And they have added charged not in the quote, like completion searches, indemnity insurance etc. overall charged by extra 200-300. How do I deal with this without annoying them and they purposely delay my purchase.
Any help on how solicitors operate with these things would be helpful.