When are they taking the pins out? ...They're not

When the lease didn't arrive on the third day, the good solicitor, asked God to smite the bad solicitor. God didn't agree to this, preferring a less energetic solution.

God instead forced the stand-ins to answer the telephone and finally tell the truth. 'Actually', said Dave the stand-in, looking at his shoes and kicking the floor, 'there isn't a lease.' The good solicitor was astounded. 'What do you mean there isn't a lease?' he asked, eyebrows raised so far they nearly tipped backwards and fell of the back of his head.
'Well', said the bad solicitor stand-in. 'When Mr & Mrs Vendor bought the flat five years ago -' he paused and looked up at God through his eye-lashes in a way reminiscent of a certain dead princess, 'we didn't register the lease with the Land Registry.'
'What?', said the good solicitor, his eyebrows desperately clinging onto the top of his head.
'Well there was a season of Murder She Wrote reruns on TV at the time and we sort of watched them back to back and erm, forgot' admitted Dave the stand-in.
'You can't possibly mean that the current owners have lived in the property for five whole years without being registered as the owners!' barked the good solicitor.
'Yes', said the Dave the stand-in.
'And in all the five years you never got around to completing the registration, as you are required to do in your role as conveyancers?'
'No' said Dave the stand-in, now very red in the face. 'But our knowledge of the adventures of Jessica Fletcher is second to none!'
'I don't care about that!' exclaimed the good solicitor. 'What am I going to tell my eager client? He's expecting to move in tomorrow and this could take another four weeks!'
'I don't know', said Dave the stand-in. 'He can have our Diagnosis Murder DVDs if he likes.'

The good solicitor devastated, hung up the phone and immediately started hatching a plan to allow the poor beleagured client a solution. 'I know', he thought, 'I'll get my client occupation of the property under license until this registration is sorted out. We'll exchange contracts, subject to the registration and he can move in. It'll mean he'll have to pay Mr & Mrs Vendor some money as a kind of rent for the first few weeks, but at least he'll be in there as he wishes. Then, when the registration is complete, I can complete the sale and request mortgage funds.' Then he laughed to himself as he wondered how the bad solicitors were going to explain to Mr & Mrs Vendor that they were unable to complete the sale because they forgot to register the property to them all those years ago and they technically do not own it at the moment. 'Ha ha! I wouldn't like to be in his shoes!' laughed the good solicitor, as he sat down to work on his proposed solution to make sure it happened as he planned.

But will Mr & Mrs Vendor allow the eager client to live in the flat before completion? Will they accept the meagre £100 per week fee suggested for permitting the eager client to live in the flat? You'll find out in the next instalment of, The Bad Solicitors of London Town.