To think solicitors are f***** unprofessional and no other professions would get away with it

[Indigo93]

A chance to rant. Please tell me I am not being unreasonable to feel utterly pissed off and beyond exhausted over this???

After 5 months of attempting to buying home with no chain at either end, we have been "apparently" ready to change contracts since last Thursday but surprise surprise it hasn't happened. So far I have been the one to chase the seller, the agent, the lender and other parties to send stuff back as our solicitor prefers to sit on their bum and wait for days for snail mail. We needed to exchange today in order to not be homeless for a few days due to complications with renting. Today was finally to be the day but guess what?? The vendor's solicitor is "working from home" and has not responded to emails or phone calls all day!!!!! Her team have apparently said they can't do any more. The e. agent can't reach her either.

WT ACTUAL F??!!

How is this professional?!?!?!

How do they continually get away with slow and non-responsive practice!!!

Rant over

Buying our house took 7 months and nearly 3k in fees from a solicitor who wrote snail mail letters for everything, and the vendor’s solicitor who never followed up. I do know about the process (lawyer, although not a conveyancer) and I couldn’t believe how shoddy it all was. YANBU.

Check the law society website to see if who you are dealing with is actually a solicitor. Often it will be a 'conveyancer' or a paralegal who works for a law firm. Insist on a solicitor and say you want updates every two days on what progress he/she has made (although many conveyances/paralegals are perfectly up to the job!)

Me too Hari!

We bought two weeks ago. Our solicitor was great but the vendors' one was awful. Claimed to have responded to queries 3 times before actually doing so. Kept returning documents by email via the vendor rather than solicitor to solicitor so they weren't valid. Our solicitor had to hand hold theirs all the way through.

This thread makes very disturbing reading - not only as a result of the Experience I had with my divorce but as I am also about to purchase a property and there are a couple of issues I want properly looking into.

@wejammin- thank you for your post - you have remotivated me to contact the SRA - I wrote to them originally but was told to go via LO first but this is grinding to a halt - and the thought of paying out more money with no guarantee that I will get an honest solicitor galls me -

And this is what I think defines the experience we have not whether they are "good" per se but "honest" - my divorce was complicated - I did not necessarily expect my solicitor to have experience of my situation but to pretend she did and then ditch me when I started to suss her out - I cannot find a word to describe this and the repercussions of her dishonesty have lost me my family home - sold I believe so there was a ready fund of money to fund future fees - and put my mental health which was already strained under even more stress.

To make matters worse she is the MD of the company - she was not the solicitor I appointed - she left - why I have my thoughts as she was good and honest - the family home was also dealt with by the company- the solicitor here did a good job - but as a result of the MD the whole company in my mind is tainted and I would not use any of them no matter how good the individual.

Also in relation to juniors I had to deal with a lower level solicitor in MD' absence - mainly holidays and whether this is coincidental or not seemed to coincide with my court hearings and so the advice I was given I do not believe was what I was expecting or paying for - there is no way the attention is going to be quite the same when you are sunning yourself on a beach as I am preparing to head to court for a hearing to decide on the future of my family home.

Also the juniors are being groomed in an establishment that is less than honest - and as for the complaints director dealing with my complaint - such utter garbage!

It's not just the solicitors - the unprofessionalism and disregard for the client goes all the way up - I had to take my mental health support worker to court to get a hearing adjourned because the judge did not accept my GP's professional capacity or my distress in a telephone hearing or my medical history - WTF gives them the hierarchy over my own GP!

Bit of a sweepzing statement. In any profession, you'll get the proactive and the slack ones sadly.

That's being said, I know it's frustrating, we are buying and the sellers solicitors took a month to reply to some documentation. Our solicitors were/are brilliant on the other hand.
Hope it's sorted soon OP.

@Nat6999 - I should be astounded by what you have said but I'm not - I want to make a complaint against my ex solicitor too - so many dodgy tactics and twisting of info and blatant lies - but my MD solicitor let it go when it suited her - for some reason my X's statement for the sale of the family home never arrived - I turned up at court unrepresented and without it - again advised to do this - and home was ordered for sale in 20 minutes - gone just like that! No way I could defend myself against x' barrister who played on my emotional distress and judge who frankly I think sees all women as bitter and full of vitriol - what an easy job he has with such a narrow minded view!

Nat how far did you take your complaint - to SRA? - obviously she's still working and no doubt continuing to boost her own ego and pension pot at the sake of her vulnerable clients.

I have no faith in the legal system anymore - what I observed during my final hearing was the biggest load of old bollocks I have ever experienced _ respect for the legal profession who are supposedly highly qualified and have to swear on some oath? X barrister caught himself out with the drivel coming out of his mouth - I laughed - I'm sure some of his questioning of my x over the company was rehearsed for the judges benefit - it was so stilted I said this! And at the judgement the x barrister and judge were from the same chambers and I was on my todd - no need to say which way it went!

But of course you are all professional - remove the financial incentive and let's see how good you really are - when there is no conflicting gain!
And for those that deem yourself to be honest stop covering up for those that are not - expose those that are putting the whole profession into disrepute - but this takes a different level of dedication and not one most are willing to risk -

For those that have received service that is anything less than acceptable you need to complain! complain! complain!.

But believe me I understand how preferable it is just to put it all behind you and move on because let's face it we use the legal profession at the most emotional, stressful and vulnerable times of our lives and it seems as though many are abused emotionally and financially during these times.

As someone who did not realise my marriage was abusive until it ended and who now is aware of red flags and abusive behaviour can see that many of the actions of solicitors in a personal relationship ironically would be punishable by law!

Crooks in suits is how I describe those I have had this abusive behaviour from - if you are in this profession and do not like this - do something about it!

And to @justinhawkinsnavalfluff - I soon got wise to the "quick" telephone call and the "lets have a meeting" because it bumps up fees quickly and massively and very often what has been said could have been said in an email - and then you have the proof also - though in my experience my MD solicitor still denies what she said.

And as for "notes" taken during the meeting well these get doctored too and those telephone calls that get recorded for training purposes - when you want a transcribe suddenly they don't exist!

I know of someone who is talking about doing a book highlighting the dodgy goings on and you know what all the comments on here make me think she would have a bestseller!

Honestly you are not paying much for a lawyer. A decent solicitor at a decent firm is upwards of £300 an hour. You can't do much in an hour. Regulations means just opening a file takes ages.

If you want a decent service, pay for it and go to a firm where you can actually meet your lawyer. Your solicitor probably has over 100 open files and unless a partner is probably not even a higher rate tax payer if they are only doing property conveyancing. I get it's frustrating if you can't get hold of someone but you aren't paying enough for them to be at your beck and call.

I'm not one to be perpetually offended, but I couldn't not comment on this ridiculous post.

I am a solicitor. I am not in conveyancing or property but I am a solicitor all the same and I work really really hard. Given that you have decided to lump all solicitors in as one without considering their practice area, qualifications or charges, I feel that I should address this on behalf of all solicitors.

1. Not ALL solicitors provide this kind / level of service. I am a finance solicitor and I am constantly having very short (and often stupid) deadlines shoved down my throat by banks which I have to meet or we lose them as a client. I work evenings, weekends and, unfortunately more often than I would like, overnight. Recently I billed 85 hours a week for 4 weeks straight on just one transaction - I didn't leave the office before 2am once during that time. As a trainee I worked 36 hours straight on more than one occasion.

2.. You are describing conveyancing solicitors specifically. Rather than lumping all lawyers together, maybe you should consider the following:

(a) Cost - You may consider the hundreds or low thousands of pounds that you are paying to be a lot of money, but in the grand scheme of running a business and a law firm it isn't. To break even, each conveyancer will need to do tens of these per day. And they still have professional duties of care to adhere to (more on this below) and specific processes to follow which cannot be sideswiped or deviated from on any of those deals. As a result, things slow down.
By contrast, it may be worth considering that I charge £450 an hour (our partners charge over £700). I could probably complete your deal for you a lot quicker than your conveyancer, but I don't imagine you would want to pay my rates...

(b) Expertise and support - Conveyancing doesn't pay well. Small high street firms running lots of small deals don't have the capital to pay city-level wages and they get what they pay for. You don't generally find the Oxbridge types or the people with degrees from top 10 universities doing conveyancing unless they are particularly keen to work in a rural or specific local area and, even then, in my experience the tend to gravitate towards family law or private client work. Also, often you'll find that one solicitor is supervising a number of paralegals and legal executives in order to maximise profit, so your actual work isn't being done by the solicitor themselves and it slows down the process of chasing them as they have to go down to the person they delegated to for a status update. As such, if you're expecting someone to be able to assimilate information, delegate and push your case forward at lightning speed whilst also doing a perfect job of it with no issues at all, you're expecting miracles. The best you can expect is a slow run, but with excellent and accurate results.

1. Regarding the snail mail signatures. I have never understood why conveyancers insist on snail mail for signatures. I have my clients sign £1bn+ loan agreements by printing the signature pages and scanning them back to me. I also know that our property department does the same thing for huge real estate transactions. No snail mail required. It's both perfectly acceptable in English law (provided certain requirements are adhered to (for the lawyers out there, I'm thinking about Mercury for deeds)) and enforceable in English courts. I think, perhaps, that acting for individuals who may not be particularly intelligent or educated means that you have to choose the path of least resistance and the easiest approach to signing which can be explained to both Dr John Smith and his architect wife buying their £1.1m house and the perhaps-less educated Mr John Smith who is buying his first £60k flat.

The moral of this is that you get what you pay for and, quite frankly, you should fork out more if you want a better service - this is the case with almost all service professions and it's totally unreasonable to lump all solicitors in together in your criticisms.

I thought I should add to my previous post that if you consider the service you have received to be negligent or sub-par, please report it to the Solicitors' Regulation Authority.

if you're in Scotland, I think it's the Law Society of Scotland.

it constantly amazes me that in this digital age, it still takes so long to complete a house sale and/or purchase! My friend sold his parents house after they both passed away - obviously no chain, people buying it was a business so no chain that end either. Still took over 14 weeks!! And the solicitors didn't bother updating him either - he chased the estate agent on a Thursday only to be told "oh we exchanged last week and completing tomorrow - didn't your solicitor tell you?" .

However, now it seems to be taking an age for same solicitors to get probate and everything sorted for the parents will!! It wasn't complicated in any way but now, two weeks after completion the estate isn't finalised! House sale was the very last thing so why does it take so long?!

No wonder they can charge £250 an hour (plus VAT) and £17.50 (plus VAT) to read a bloody email. No one seems to be able to control them in any way!

And apologies to obvious and all the other decent sounding solicitors - plus the one who handled my divorce! She was awesome. It just seems to be those involving property which give the rest the bad name

Conveyancer here 🙋

It totally depends on the firm and the way it's ran. I currently work for a great firm who put (and this is important) both clients AND staff at the top of their priorities and it makes so much difference to the service you can provide.

There are so many volume firms around these days (especially in conveyancing) which offer services for peanuts. But there is a reason why their fees are cheaper than the rest. They are known by name to people who work in the industry as just being awful and it's bevause the staff are worked to the bone and usually have twice as many files as the recommended amount for a decent service. I and my colleagues sigh when I get certain firms on the other side of the transaction as you know full well you can get everything ready on your side with the greatest efficiency but it will make sweet f all difference as the other side will delay and delay and delay due to the simple fact they are just too busy. Then you have to wait to get it in the neck from your client for something you literally cannot control.

I'd also say as well that please do not listen to things your estate agent tells you regarding dates as to when you're ready to exchange. I promise you they very rarely have a clue what's going on or how the process actually works. They are notorious for getting clients worked up with wrong information and it coincidentally always seems to be month end when their commission is due that suddenly 'everything is ready to complete'.

If it is the opposite side of the transaction that are holding things up I'd suggest making a formal complaint (you aren't their client so they will likely not liaise with you whilst the transaction is ongoing but you can certainly leave reviews etc... Or write post completion. Or to the SRA as others have suggested).

I'd also suggest keeping on top of your agent as they are the best placed to chase all parties. Your solicitor cannot contact the buyer directly but your agent can. The buyer needs to give their solicitor a shove and your agent is the only one who can initiate contact with them and request they do this.

It's so frustrating as a solicitor when you've not done anything to hold things up but are reliant on another party who is being unresponsive. I appreciate it's 10x more frustrating for a client.

Greenberet I can't comment on your particular experience and as a child protection solicitor I can't comment on conveyancing. I just get v frustrated at the perception of solicitors as dishonest and money grabbing. In the type of work I do that could not be further from the truth. Sadly even if some book is published due to clients confidentiality we will never be able to respond to allegations made. Often its our clients drip feeding us or giving us inaccurate information that can cause a significant amount of the delays and extra costs but we will always be blamed.

Mangoo - well said. Can you enlighten us as to why it's all done by post? I've never really been able to work it out...

Ps. I think a lot of people don't actually appreciate or understand the amount of work required in conveyancing in the UK. That is due to the law not solicitors personally. To you the average 8-12 weeks may sound ludicrous to purchase a property but to someone experienced in the industry who knows the amount of work required it is actually about right. Especially considering the process relies so heavily on various parties (not just solicitors) all working efficiently together I.e both sets of solicitors, vendors and purchasers, lenders, management companies, freeholders, search providers etc...

I do most things via email personally but there are some things we are required by law to obtain via post i.e. executed documents signed by clients. We require a wet signature on file legally.

I do know of some solicitors which are very old school though and won't accept documents via email for data protection reasons but most do and view this as really obstructing.

I knew this would be about buying a house. In my experience the hold ups were mainly on the estate agent side. They weren’t very helpful - when I’d deal with something I’d always ask what the next step was and what to prepare for and they would always say nothing, then call me on Friday afternoons with things that needed to be posted to arrive Monday morning.

They were also obsessed with scanned photocopies and wouldn’t accept my payslips as they had been emailed to me. They wanted me to print them, photocopy them, scan the photocopy and email them. I could never work out what the extra steps were for...

@justinhawkinsnavalfluff - - I don't doubt you do a good job just from your commenting on here and that you are getting a rough deal - the dishonest and money grabbing will be the last ones commenting on this thread because deep down they know who they are!

Mangoo - Do you? Clearly my ignorance as to conveyancing is showing but I haven't ever done anything throughout my career where I've needed a wet inked signature other than a deal in Poland... clearly there are nuances to property law that I wasn't aware of. I've done multiple insolvency-sales of commercial property and I wasn't aware of this law.

Hope you don't just get signature pages signed and scanned obvious. You ought to know you can't do that anymore!

But obviously you can do it all over email

Solicitors in my experience are shit, unless you pay premium prices.
I’ve complained about our last lot to the ombudsman, who are also shit. You have my sympathy. I couldn’t get away with being that unprofessional at work