Why do solicitors always seem so slow

Wouldn't you do that yourself?
One reason I've done probates myself is that you have to do the lion's share of running around and obtaining information yourself anyway.

They don't use the fastest method of getting information.
They wait rather than chase.
If you were doing it yourself you would be on the case constantly. When I have done probates it's been completed in a few weeks at most because I follow up every email, letter and phone call constantly instead of just waiting.

Because you get what you pay for. When we moved 11 years ago, it went like clockwork and swiftly. However, the bill was high

Regarding probate, and I have some recent experience, it isn't always the fault of the solocitors. In the case I was involved with unacceptable delays arose from the utility companies in finalising accounts and refunding overpayment due to direct debit payments by the deceased.

As others have said, you get what you pay for. Conveyancing factories staffed by unqualified fee earners have driven the price down and down, and service standards have followed. For my last move I paid a proper solicitor to do a proper job. I could have got it cheaper but I wanted it done properly and efficiently.

Compare it to air travel before the budget airlines came in - bigger seats, better service, luggage included, free drinks on every flight, etc. But you paid a higher fare. Now you have the choice to fly Ryanair for a cheap price with no frills. And that has impacted the whole market - the non budget airlines have had to change their business models to compete.

We had one independent solicitor who worked alone with a support person and she was amazing during our conveyancing. Speedy and efficient. We never had a better one.

The other thing is that solicitors are literally paid to be thorough. You might think it should be quick to fill out a form, but their entire role is based on expertise and importantly, diligence.

I'm a residential property solicitor. I work in a support role now, but having worked for all types of firms over the last 20 years I would recommend a self-employed consultant for conveyancing work.

And yes, you definitely get what you pay for. I'm fast and efficient and my fees are high, but people are happy to pay for a quality service. If they're not, I don't want them as clients anyway tbh.

Because you don't pay enough.

Services like probate and conveyancing tend to be fixed fee, and they can achieve that my volume. This means they have huge case loads where fee earners (often not solicitors) will process matters according to schedule. So, .e.g Friday 10am they are scheduled to check the files of Messeduptheplan where a admin would have filed anything that comes in. Something comes in on Friday 2pm it waits till the next time they are scheduled to check it. Some are not so rigid, but generally they don't deal with things immediately for that reason. The huge case load means things come in all the time too. The other thing is they are generally liaising with government departments for inputs and approvals which are notoriously slow.

You can avoid it by paying a reputable private client firm by their hourly rate, but I doubt that would be very palatable unless it's a massive estate.

This 💯

Well if you pay £600 an hour you can get a 100 page corporate loan agreement negotiated and signed in a matter of days. I used to work all night - literally all night - with huge teams of lawyers and conclude huge deals in a few weeks. The bill would be in the six figures. Lawyers of different calibre work in different types of practice and a different speeds.

Then there is the horrible pressure some are under to process high volume low margin work.

There are some brilliant conveyancing solicitors who take on sensible work loads and are incredibly speedy and efficient - but they won’t be the cheapest. You get what you pay for.

I have previously turned around a house sale and purchase in a very tight timeframe as a favour to a commercial property client BUT they were royally charged for it. You get what you pay for. And I had to badger the other side incessantly which is not easy as a junior fee earner speaking to a Partner on the other side (national v high street firms!)

Used to work for a conveyancing company doing IT for them. They tried an experiment at one point with taking on a smaller case load to see if they could speed things up.

While it meant that they could get their side of things done quicker, they still ended up having to wait for the other side to get back to them. They lost money due to the smaller case load, and were sat twiddling their thumbs a lot of the time because all their cases were up to date their side, but couldn't progress things.

In short, it makes no business sense for a firm to lower their case load unless every single other firm they have to deal with does the same thing. Which is never going to happen.

And billed!

We had three elderly family members die one after the other all within a year. Each one was the beneficiary of the previous one, so three estates to sort out. Took 6 years and cost £18k. Death is an expensive business - and that's not including the cost of 3 funerals.

It’s a myth that solicitors want to drag stuff out for more fees. In my experience, it’s far more likely that they want stuff concluded and off their desk.

Those were the days before bulk conveyancing factories took off, people probably paid a lot more (relatively speaking) for conveyancing services.

Because while one case is simple and straightforward, most solicitors have hundreds and so do the solicitors acting "for the other side". It's simply the sheer volume of cases, plus if something really urgent comes up - usually involving a Court or contractual deadline - everything else grinds to a halt.

You hit the nail on the head. Pay cheap get cheap service. Solicitors have the same cost of living pressure as everyone else. You pay cheap expect to wait as they will have a high volume of clients to make the same money.

Find a much more expensive firm
I moved all my conveyancing files along swiftly - but people/businesses very much paid for the privilege!

If you pay Aldi prices you get an Aldi experience

Also - top tip, chase once a week. And always turn your bits around immediately. And lean on your estate agents - make them earn their commission by chasing the other side and their lawyers

Sympathy to you OP as a service being provided very slowly is incredibly frustrating.

I echo what PP have said re the pressure of very high volume low margin work. I'm a solicitor in a very different practice area and constantly amazed at how conveyancer in particular survive.

@NotAnotherScarf these sorts of work are almost invariably fixed fee so not sure how you think dragging things out means more fees?

I worked for a lady in her 90s who was waiting 5 years to settle her late husband's estate...most was going to her and there were a couple of trusts written into the will by the same solicitor. I was her gardener but have in a past life, huge experience of dealing with solicitors, so I wrote a stinking complaint letter...the final document came through and they'd not even spelt her name right..there were over 20 errors... sadly she couldn't face complaining further.