Solicitor threatening to sack us- what would you do?

[coralpig]

I'm in a bit of a mess with a house purchase and no idea what to do.

We are buying a house and I've been really unhappy with the solicitors we have appointed. Here are some of the errors that have been made:

• paperwork sent, lots of mistakes in it. No apologies made.

• they asked for our marriage certificate. claimed to have never received it - when we pointed out that this had been sent via recorded mail and we had a signature proving it had been received, they said they had lost it. A few days later, it turned up 'in a pile of papers'. They said they would send this back to us - we've received nothing several weeks later.

• we were promised that we would have one designated member of staff (conveyancing assistant) - we've had 4 and communication between seems poor. No logs of phone calls made, no messages passed on.

• enquiries not chased until we have requested these - claim to have called us with updates - no calls made.

• we indicated a projected deadline - they agreed to this. a few weeks later they claimed never to have received this and 'the office is closed that day anyway'. No apology.

I have telephoned a few times and voiced my unhappiness - I admit that I have been frustrated and my tone has not been friendly. However, I have never raised my voice or used inappropriate language.

We sent an e-mail of complaint and the response from the manager was that they are working hard on this, they cannot always promise to meet client's unrealistic expectations and that I personally have been aggressive towards staff who are trying to help. She went onto say that if there is any further aggressive behaviour from me they will dis-instruct their company from this case

I can't prove that I wasn't aggressive but I think this is very unfair and another example of them not taking responsibility for their actions.

What's the best thing to do? Do I apologise? Drop it and stop calling? I just want things to get done and I know they have more power in this situation. What would you do?

Thank you.

I assume you want to stay with them so you don’t lose out on money? How far along the process are you?

Don’t make any more phone calls. Do as much as you can via email so that everything is recorded. Then you can keep your complaints factual ie ‘according to our email dated X...’

we do want to stay with them - it will just take longer to change now and complicate things further.

We were working towards exchange next Friday but I'd be surprised if that happens now.

Have another look at their Engagement Letter and see what it says about their complaints procedure.

It shouldn’t be, especially considering what they are paid, but everything you have said seems fairly typical with conveyancing solicitors. Do try to remember that the solicitors they are working with (and if you are in a chain, there will be many of them) will probably be fairly similarly lax to them.

I agree about emailing everything and keeping all contact as minimal as possible and only send it if you absolutely have to.

there is a solicitors regulatory authority but suspect it is fairly toothless.

is it worth a meeting with the manager? You are the paying client to these idle sods who have you over a barrel. Trouble is you can't even argue about the bill as they deduct their money at completion.

solicitors are not sacred (although many seem to think they are) and if they can't deal with cross customers when they cock up they need to find a job that is not customer facing.

tear them apart on review sites afterwards.

I would be emailing the manager back with a list of the things you feel have gone wrong (as in your op) already and say firmly that these are not unreasonable expectations and that you have never been aggressive, simply understandably unhappy at the level of service. Clearly July/August like any holiday period is not a time when you can expect one point of contact so you might rephrase this to say they should either not have promised a single point of contact or organised it better. Say you have no interest in disinstructing THEM at this stage but that you expected the client care they promised. You would not expect them to disinstruct you since this would be a needlessly punitive measure for their own failings. Do not let them put you on the back foot - and record your calls but let them know you are doing so.

Don't apologise! From everything you have said they sound like a total mess. Hopefully they'll at least have done the correct due diligence on the purchase. Go through the complaints procedure and also I'd email her back a list of everything you wrote above in the OP.

Stick with them, keep chasing (politely), exchange and complete on your property then go full bore at them with their complaints procedure.

Apologise that they thought your comments were aggressive (i.e. not apologising per se for actually being aggressive, if you don't think you were), but explain that your tone was due to the frustration arising from their ineptitude and the unprofessional way in which they conducted your conveyance.

Follow their publicised complaints procedure to the letter, and if you don't get a satisfactory response, complain to the SRA. Especially if you don't receive your marriage certificate back by then - the SRA will not take kindly to them losing such a significant piece of paperwork.

If they're a good law firm they'll take the criticism and complaint on the chin and work out ways to avoid it happening to anyone else. A bad law firm won't ever change and the only way to impact them is for a negative review to become public and/or for the SRA to take action against them.

By the sound of it, they're not a good law firm. Check your completion statement carefully for any unfortunate "mistakes" in their adding up.

Is this some cheap conveyancing farm? You do get what you pay for when it comes to conveyancing.

Not cheap- award winning apparently as they love to publicise. Things are moving forward but the documents they’ve sent through to us today are full of errors- they have missed a significant £10k! error in the price of our purchase on the contract. don’t know what we are paying them for.

In my experienxe as a property solicitor, firms will usually just accept the clients complaint even when it is unreasonable and usually offer some discount just for a quiet life. The fact that they haven't in your case speaks volumes to me that they really don't think they are at fault. None of the examples you've given suggest to me that they have delayed your transaction. Even the last example of the price in the contract is immaterial as the solicitors in put the price on exchange of contracts, not when you sign it in advance. Maybe think about how often you are emailing/calling, what deadlines you're asking for? If they simply aren't possible. All solicitors will work in a team so the fact you've spoken to four people is normal. Sadly typos happen in all communication. Replies can't be chased every day and it's professional courtesy to other solicitors to give them time to respond.

I did my own conveyancing when I last bought. It is perfectly possible if you follow the rules/LS guidelines/land registry stuff.
If they do pull out you may still be able to do it yourself and exchange on time. get reading up!

Sounds like a typical conveyancing situation. Conveyancing is usually a fairly cheap business when compared with typical legal costs and is very much based on set procedure I should imagine with very little time build into the costs for handling client calls. Your conveyance will be one of many underway. Although to you it’s very stressful, to them it’s prob very run of the mill and they’ll get their fingers out once the exchange deadline brings yours to the top of the pile. Tbh when you call they’re prob trying to think you you are. Just let them get on with it! What’s the point so long as you get your house on time