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

You'd be surprised how many clients do ask us to do what Devilish said OP.

I very often have clients asking me to stall for various reasons but not to disclose anything to the agents or other party. It puts me in such an awkward position but I have to act on client instruction.

YABU to generalise about an entire profession on the basis of your experience of one person who may not even be a solicitor.

It's nice to see so many other Solicitors/Conveyancers on here though. Who else is in the office already? 😭

Wfh going since 6.15 am

Yeah I'm late today hahaha.

I have Fridays off 😁 and work 9 - 3 so I can do the school run.... I'll get my coat.

I'm eating porridge at home listening to my two kids bicker about whether they are savage or average??! Happy days. Looking forward to getting to my desk...

Savage or average 😂😂

Though amusingly I have been accused on here of "pretending" to be a solicitor as if such a glamorous and impressive job is out of the reach of normal woman. Believe me if I were to be an internet fantasist I would choose something much more interesting than a solicitor

@sleeping dragons "lawyers will not beat AI at their own game"

Why would they want to? They would use AI, just as they already use a raft of technology to make the work more cost effective and to continue to compete. We don't still use a quill and parchment you know!

I have worked paperless for years now, rarely send a letter or get a wet signature. I also use tools like voice recognition digital dictation. This is common in law firms.

Hello, can I shamefully hijack this thread and ask if any of the solicitors (conveyancing or otherwise) on here with young children would mind having a quick chat to me via PM about how they balance their career with family life etc? I am a mid-twenties LLB holder who is about to give birth any day now and work in a law firm in PI on not much more than minimum wage (not in London), eventually hoping for an actual career in law but concerned about how I would juggle that with family life.

I'll pm you in a bit, about to see a client!

I used to work as a legal secretary, and I often had frustrated clients calling in to speak to their solicitor. Mostly they couldn't take the call because of being 'in a meeting'. I would take a message, then later in the day they would call again saying their solicitor hadn't called back.

Sometimes it's actually better to let the secretary help you, rather than just getting more and more frustrated. It's not a case of 'monkey and organ grinder', sometimes the secretary can progress matters for you.

I've worked for excellent solicitors and others who are not so good. The worst kind were those who would just expect the secretary to do the work, sign the letter without checking, then put the blame on the secretary if there were mistakes.

I think the majority of solicitors simply have too many clients.

Why would they want to? They would use AI, just as they already use a raft of technology to make the work more cost effective and to continue to compete. We don't still use a quill and parchment you know!

Yes, I know, I've worked in the legal industry. But you are still naive to think technology, including AI, won't be massively disruptive to the legal industry.

What you are suggesting is using technology to support what you already do. It's not revolutionary. You're not reinventing your business model to make the best use of technology.

But soon enough, someone will.

Look at what's what's happened with book stores, for example.

The independents have gone and a massive company (Amazon) with a new business model built around technology - rather than fitting it in to an existing pre-tech model - has cleaned the floor with the competitors.

Sure, some indy book shops survive - but not many. People are reading more books, incidentally.

Speak to people who know about tech, and they predict this will happen across multiple white collar sectors. This isn't a radical view, this is what most predict will happen.

To put it another way - why wouldn't it happen? I expect some of the savings will be the end of physical offices, with basic legal advice delivered online by AI.

There’s a really interesting film called ‘most likely to succeed’ about this & more specifically about how education has to change to match this new world. Law was mentioned as a field that will suffer huge job losses.

www.mltsfilm.org

OP Update

Seller's solicitor now uncontactable today it seems (haven't got to the bottom of if she is working from home again or just not responding). My solicitor has spoken to their firm and another solicitor there said he will oversee the exchange today...

Not filled with confidence but ever hoping

I agree with Kerala, vendor is stalling and blaming the solicitor. Solicitor is in on it so unavailable.

If the solicitor is stalling on the vendor's instructions then a colleague taking over is not going to get the property exchanged.

MeadowHay in house seems to be the answer. I loved my 9 months at a utilities company.
I'm now doing a specialist role at a licensed conveyancers (yes, boo hiss) as they were the only firm who would do PT.
local authorities tend to be flexible too.

Working for yourself is the way to go I'm currently multi tasking because its Friday afternoon (which technically I don't work)

Drafting something long and boring but not particularly difficult
baking brownies for DS2 and his friend who is staying the night.
MNing
trying to walk about with wet toenails
supervising the builders

To the OP - if you haven't already chase the estate agents and the seller (if you are in touch with them direct). If not chase the estate agent to chase the seller (your solicitor can't call the seller direct).

It may be there is something behind the scenes (has the seller suddenly got an issue of where to move to, found a house to buy that they suddenly want tied in without telling you) and the seller could be telling their solicitor to hold off, but that often draws a 'we are waiting for authority to exchange/instructions to proceed'. For her to be in hiding, there has to be something going on (even if it is just that the solicitor can't cope with the amount of work she has to do) and someone else should be able to do it.

The problem is you can all chase as much as you like, but there is not really any way to force their solicitor to do it.

The only option to push it you have (if you want to take the risk) is tell your solicitor and the estate agents that if contracts are not exchanged today/by the end of Monday/whatever date then you will pull out.

That should frighten the seller enough to push their solicitor and you may get somewhere (it doesn't always work, but it can work and may get you the exchange).

No resi conveyancer I have ever met takes 2 hour lunchbreaks on a Friday 🤣🤣

The reason AI will be difficult for conveyancing is you would need to persuade the Land Registry, HMRC, all banks etc to sign up. Some land charge departments are still totally paper based information ffs.

Wayleave searches with one utility provider are taking over 8 weeks. Local searches regularly take a month to come back, lots of planning/building control departments are understaffed. Most delays are due to waiting for information from third parties.

In a big chain it only needs issues with one mortgage and the whole chain is delayed.

Also we do like to go on holiday in the summer (school holidays etc) which is when lots of people want to move. Should we all holiday in February?

Local knowledge is a big plus for high street solicitors. We know where flooding is likely, who the difficult management companies are, the right local solicitor who deals with a private estate management etc. It's hard work, long hours and not very well paid. Overheads are massive with insurance, ongoing training, onerous anti money laundering regulations, access to research and precedents. Even things like shredding all paper used in the firm adds to the running costs. Compare that with the overheads for an estate agency who don't even need any qualifications at all.

Go with a local solicitor and speak to the secretary. They can do loads to push things along

And yes sometimes things come up and our clients ask us to stall everything. I find being 'engaged at the moment' covers it without lying.

Also resi clients can be nightmares. All of those CF neighbours do move houses too you know. All those horrible MIL, rude bosses, selfish arsehole drivers, dithering husbands, they are our clients too or are in the chain. You only need one selfish bastard to cause misery.

For example an elderly client lost a spouse during their sale transaction, they were emigrating to be with children. The buyer put massive pressure on to pack up in a week because they wanted to be in the house for their child's prom! I've had people who will only move on certain dates due to the location of the bloody stars. Also the amount of people 'selling and going into rented' finding the perfect property days from exchange and insisting that they synchronise up. Add to that getting 10+ chasing phone calls (on a Friday!!!) from inexperienced agents who don't understand the update I give them anyway.

@Indigo93 how did it go today? Any movement?