Aibu to send this message to house buyer

[Harrassedofhertfordshire]

1st time poster so please bear with me .

Selling house and it seems to be dragging on. We need to sell to secure the house we’re moving to (we’re relocating so decided on a new build). It’s a cash buyer, no estate agent - friend of a friend wanted to buy ours as an investment.

I sent this message to my buyer to try and speed things up. Is it a bit much? My DH said it’s about as tactful as an elephant taking a shit on the lawn 😱.

Hi X and Y, I hope all is well. We are keen to exchange asap due to purchasing the new build. I spoke to Z at your solicitors on Tuesday afternoon. He said he only just got the contract pack from (name of solicitors) even though it was dated 23 October. I don’t know it went around the building or was with A before that? He hadn’t seen the survey report at that point. I hope they have it now so things can progress. I have let my solicitor know they only just got the pack. Thanks.
(Edited by MNHQ)

I realise clients often get the impression that conveyancers (be they solicitors or paralegals) are doing nothing and holding things up. This couldn't be further from the truth (in my experience, at least). I have yet to meet a lazy conveyancer. All the ones I have worked with have done unpaid overtime and usually to be found hammering away at their keyboards or running around the office getting paperwork ready for a last-minute settlement. As I said, fees have been driven down which means Partners (not the worker bees like me) have to take on more cases to make the business worthwhile. It is really not a case of lazy, fat cat lawyers. I'm not expecting sympathy or anything, it's my choice where to work but in my own small way I'd like to correct the impression people have of solicitors/conveyancing. We are mainly normal folk doing our best but we are still human as well.

Anyway, for those of you involved in property transactions, I hope it goes well and that you are safely in your new homes for Christmas. And if you do get a good service, a thank you card to display proudly in reception is always appreciated.

But do continue hating lawyers, we're used to it.

Everyone hates lawyers until they need one.

Actually, that's code for "fuck, this client is going to be hard work

What, with categories like "purchase", "sale", "ID"?

OK, then.

Yes I paid £3,000 including VAT for both buying and selling, one of which is leasehold and there is a bit of a further complication thrown in. No Stamp Duty included. I got three quotes all about the same price, unless I went with one of those warehouses. So no I wasn’t robbed, this isn’t my first foray into the world of conveyancing. I’m also happy to pay for the service I have received.

And an organised client is a hard work client. Jesus, in my profession an organised client is a gift. But your clients seem like an inconvenience to you.

My current conveyancer is amazing, organised, on the ball and responsive. We aren’t treated like hard work and whilst away his team know exactly what is going on.

In turn he will get a lot of recommendations from me to all my friends and I will use him again in the future. So no I don’t think all lawyers are shit, and you aren’t my punchbag but I do think there are an awful lot who come across as you do, which isn’t a great advertisement for your profession.

And you're taking that very personally. The solicitor who dealt with my divorce was great. 3rd house purchase with 3 different solicitors in 2 different towns and yet to meet one who wasn't sleeping on the job.

We've had a great solicitor doing conveyancing who saved us from wasting a lot of money, together with a surveyor who really worked hard.

Equally, our last house purchase was the opposite. We bought a new build and there were a couple of solicitors who were known to the sales office, so we used one of them. The person dealing with the purchase was so poor that she was sacked three weeks before completion. The person who took over 'lost' £20,000 in the completion statement and gave me a sleepless weekend, because she couldn't do the calculations.

Several weeks after we moved, they wrote to us demanding additional money because they had got the Land Registry fees wrong. How can a solicitor not know what fees the Land Registry charges?

Some weeks after that, a cheque for £20 arrived in the post. The accompanying letter said that they owed it to us, bu didn't know what it was for.

Im sorry that ive apparently come across so badly.

3k for two transactions seems reasonable. Would be steep for one though.

"Everyone hates lawyers til they need one"
True. I got a lot of "how can you defend criminals" from friends. Different if its THEIR son accused of rape.

I'm a conveyancer (whispers) and I work my arse off. It's bloody hard and luckily my clients come back time and time again . As someone else said above I work hard, take work home and certainly don't leave stuff on my desk. It's a thankless job and people don't like us , but I chose it so no complaints from me

Wish I could post a selfie of a conveyancer at the end of a Friday aka me right now ( Friday is moving day for a lot of people).

I've sweated off all my make-up and my hair is a touch worzel-gummidge. But I did get several "thank yous" from clients

I'd have contacted them. We appointed ours as she said she understood Scottish law and would be able to immediately send a letter to our bank so they could process the mortgage application.

The day before completion we get a message on answerphone saying she phoned our bank and we didn't seem to have a mortgage. Oh, and that she was out of the office for the rest of the day.

Thank goodness for understanding bank staff, major favours and a thankfully competent secretary.

In retrospect we really should have refused to pay that one...