To sack my conveyancer?

[Movingissues]

I instructed a conveyancing solicitor prior to us securing a new build on the recommendation of a friend. We exchanged a few emails as she’s not in our local town, and all good. We’re part exchanging our property, so she sent some questions over about our house just over a week before Christmas. I replied the next day, and didn’t hear back. I chased her last week to see if she’d had chance to look at my email. Still no reply, so I called and left a message on Monday as we’re supposed to be exchanging this Friday. No reply again, so I called again yesterday. I was then sent a flurry of emails saying she’d not received replies to various emails, which it turns out have been because she’s misspelled my email address (think [email protected] instead of [email protected]).

I called a third time and expressed my concerns about my details being sent out to a random person, and I still haven’t had the courtesy of a call from her, although her assistant called me late yesterday to check I’d received the documents Every time I’ve rang, I’ve only been able to speak to the receptionist/switchboard operator as she is always on another call

So she has completely broken my trust as she’s now breached data protection by sending personal details out to the wrong email and there is now the potential for someone with the same name as me also knowing my current address, the fact that we are selling, my DH’s name, our new property address and how much we’re buying for. I understand it’s fairly low risk as my DOB wasn’t on there, but I would have thought a solicitors firm should be better at that.

I’ve not paid her anything yet, as the letter asking for payment on account to start the work hasn’t come to me until yesterday, but clearly we won’t be exchanging on Friday as the searches won’t be back in time.

AIBU to cancel my contract (that I’ve not signed) and find another conveyancer? Not sure what that will mean for the new build situation if I tell them we’re changing solicitors though

You certainly will not be exchanging on Friday if she has not even received your signed initial paperwork , you are right on that front !

However why did she get your email address from ? It happens A LOT with new builds that site office write down the wrong info and pass it on and then the Conveyancer gets it in the neck (as we are supposed to be mind readers that it’s wrong).

Yes she should have tried to speak with you at some point but realistically she is probably carrying about 150 files and you haven’t returned your initial paperwork yet (albeit problem with email address), so she will be very busy with people whose files are actually progressed.

Unlikely your emails have gone to anyone who is interested really, at best they probably went to someones junk folder🤷‍♀️

Complete your paperwork and go from there.

Unfortunately IME most conveyancers are busy and border on shambolic. Their assistants tend to be much better at keeping in touch.

With my last conveyancer (who dragged her heels and risked our sale falling through because she lost our documents) I emailed her head of department and copied in the complaints partner - that got things moving.

There’s really no excuse for the email issue though - if she’d just pressed reply it wouldn’t have been a problem.

I say all of this as a lawyer myself by the way - I always contact clients within 24 hours so the lax attitude in conveyancing drives me mad!

We had an appalling conveyancer and got really fed up with the poor communication, shocking inaccuracies in paperwork and glacial pace of the process. We were really tempted to choose someone different but I was worried we would just go round in circles. I'd ask yourself whether it'll take longer to find someone else and start again? In the end we stuck with ours but I would never use them again or recommend them.

Thanks for the replies.

@CheshireDing - she already had my correct email address as I started the original correspondence by email, and we had exchanged a few emails in terms of quotes for work required etc. And as I said, she emailed me the week before Christmas but is now claiming to have not received my reply, nor my follow up. Which is why I’m confused about how this could go so wrong. I haven’t used the new builds own solicitor, as I wanted an independent one.

@MrsPinkCock (love the username btw!) I know they’ve definitely not got a good reputation, which is why I went for a personal recommendation I’ll be telling the person that recommended her about this as well so as to hopefully save them any further embarrassment. I agree about there being no excuse as to the email issue. That’s just sloppiness! And sure let if you’ve not heard anything to an email with the contract in early December, you make reference to it in mid December when you next contact? I have thought about going down the complaints route, but I’m wondering whether I should bother or just start again. I do actually want to speak to her as there a couple of potential complicated matters that I wanted to actually have a conversation with her about prior to exchange, in case they become show stoppers and we decide not to go ahead.

Buttertoast55 It’s awful that people can be so bad at this, given most cases are fairly straightforward (I used to work in a solicitors a gazillion years ago). They must spend so much time correcting mistakes that if they did things right the first time round would save them a lot more time and effort!

Our conveyancer was mysteriously vanished by the company halfway through the process! Her boss then picked up all her cases as far as I could tell and never responded to emails, paid the stamp duty late and got fined and didn’t extract £600 off the other side which had been agreed for completing early! Useless!! I will probably not go for the lowest quote next time.
But it’s the sort of thing where if you abort the process halfway through and try to start again with someone else it’s probably going to slow everything right down. Plus all conveyancers seem to be shit from what I hear. So I’d probably try to stick it out if possible and get it over with.

Who told you that you were exchanging on Friday? It’s impossible if you haven’t payed any money on account because the searches won’t be ordered never mind back.

Is move to the new builds conveyancer. They'll be fast on the behalf of the builder. Searches still take a while, but maybe they can re use searches they've already done for other purchasers? I've no idea if this is possible.

@Queenoftheashes - mine definitely appears to be of the disappearing type! Although given the emails yesterday, I guess she is still around —or a mysterious hairy handed trucker—

@thecapitalsunited - Friday has been the planned exchange date since we reserved the plot. Which is why I was confused to have only received the one email before Christmas which I replied to immediately. But as we’ve been busy (and I’m not very well at the moment), I guess I’d let it slide more than I normally would have done.

Lionsleepstonight No it isn’t, the new build companies solicitors as we wanted someone independent. It would definitely have been quicker had we have gone through them but I wanted to trust any advice they would give, was because they were genuinely on our side rather than having a vested interest in staying on the new builds panel.

Strike through fail! 🤦🏼‍♀️

You can’t really plan an exchange date before all the searches and enquiries are back though. So it was always a fantasy date.

If you haven’t paid any money on account are you sure any work has been completed? Have you signed an agreement with the conveyancers? If no work has been done it’s probably going to be straightforward to switch. Your builder isn’t going to be happy if you’re missing contracted dates but if it’s clear things are progressing hopefully they’ll be ok.

“All conveyances seem to be shit” - very, very unfair.

I'm remortgaging not buying but the solicitors appointed by the bank took two weeks to locate my paperwork despite multiple calls from me trying to find what was happening. They only found them when my financial adviser kicked the bank who obviously kicked them. As it was then about 10 days before Xmas they told me they weren't going to work on it as I wasn't trying to move before Xmas. They then shut for 2 weeks for Xmas! It took 1 month from them being appointed to actually start working on my file!

It's terrible.

Our conveyancer was ‘disappeared’ by her firm three weeks before we were due to complete. They then ‘mislaid’ £20,000 and DH found it again fortunately. An error in their paperwork. Then they wanted us to pay an extra land registry fee for their mistake and after we moved in, they sent a cheque, because they thought we had overpaid, but dispense know where or how. Shambolic

The annoying thing is that the woman has set up her own company locally. It annoys me every time I walk past..

I could have written your post 2 yrs ago, we stuck with the same one for fear of delaying further but wish I hadn't. They then charged almost double for 'expedited' paperwork etc, even though it was their errors which held up the process meaning we had just a few weeks to complete everything. We had no choice but to pay to complete, literally finding out about the extra charges on the day, but if I'd known then I would have changed. Sent complaints during and after, but they refused to engage over the phone or via email, and kept sending letters to my old address. Given they charged so much to get us into the new address on time, you'd think they would work out which address to send stuff to!!!! Still gives me rage thinking of it all

I don't know anyone who had a good experience with conveyancing though tbh so I guess it's worth investigating other firms and asking them how long etc before deciding to switch?

The problem with conveyancing is its a race to the bottom with fees, which means to keep overheads low there’s lots of unqualified staff who are managing too many cases. The market is totally saturated and there’s a high turnover of staff. They aren’t properly supervised. A conveyancer is just a job title. Some firms hire completely unqualified staff, historically they atleast used to have a law degree.

Anyway, don’t “sack them” but say you’re not happy, ask for their complaints procedure and their manager will get involved. I’m sure from that point the service will improve and you’ll get things done faster than swapping conveyancer altogether.

I’ve worked in conveyancing (always called people back same day and check emails 20 times!) and this sort of experience is unfortunately very common.

Conveyancers are always stressed and have too much work. You do need to shout pretty loud to be heard sometimes.

My husband is a solicitor who does conveyancing. He has to be incredibly organised (more than any I’ve ever met before!), he works early and finishes very late most nights. He always phones clients the same day and prefers to speak to them rather than leave it to an assistant. I know all this as I work with him.

He is certainly not a crap conveyancer. He’s not worked there that long (just over a year) but he’s fast becoming very popular.

I've recently moved house and my conveyancing solicitor always got back to me quickly and was very fast and efficient, so there are good ones out there.

I think in the cases where conveyancing is carried out by an actual experienced solicitor, as a previous poster’s DH, things tend to be less shambolic. Most conveyancing is done by paralegals and they have enormous case loads and are therefore prone to dropping the ball a bit unless chased. I’m currently making what should be a straightforward purchase (cash, no lender to deal with, I’m having limited searches) but it’s still taken over a month just to get the information forms and title deed for me to view.

They’ve started now so I’d stick with them; ask to make a complaint about the data breach and hopefully that will get somebody more senior reviewing your file and pushing things along a bit.

I'm in exactly the same boat on the opposite end at the moment!
If you're in the Greater Manchester area you could even be who we're buying the house from!
Our solicitor has been chasing theirs for so long and they just seem to be dragging their heels with the enquiries and I'm pulling my hair out as I'm hearing nothing back from anyone. :(
Buying a house is waaaaay too stressful!!

Thanks for all the replies. I’ve had a call this morning from the paralegal and explained everything to her. Poor lady has only been there a week though, so she’s been thrown in at the deep end! So I’ll see what she comes back with before I send over any money or anything. She was great and has so far kept her word. But what they do about addressing the data breach is my primary concern, as if they handle that badly then my trust will be completely broken, and I’ll go elsewhere.

@thecapitalsunited I know that it was a planned exchange date that could move, but it’s written into my offer from the builder that they can change the offer if exchange doesn’t happen when planned. I’m hoping this is just standard wording and that once they know things are moving, that they won’t invoke the clause.

Thanks for sharing the story about them charging for expedited documents @Christmadtree - I’ll make sure to flag that I won’t be paying for their mistakes up front. And I guess we’ll see if that becomes an issue or not later!

@Osirus - it’s a shame that there aren’t more people like your DH! If I do decide to change I might PM you for his details

@Katlow - nope, not us I’m afraid. We’re the other side of the Pennines

You’re not Derbyshire are you?

I wouldn't get hysterical about a data breach. I think GDPR has got everyone all hot under the collar about this but really no one will have found out anything that could damage you. The regulations are there to protect people whose sensitive medical info is shared carelessly or people whose abusive ex is sent information about where they live now. It's annoying but an understandable error and unlikely to cause you any harm at all.

Also if you haven't made contact really during that time then you are at least as much responsible.
I work as a solicitor in commercial property law and my advice to people is to make contact with their conveyancer or their secretary at least weekly to check what is happening (if they haven't heard in that week).

@Katlow in your situation you need to be contacting the estate agent too. It may well be the seller who hasn't got back to their solicitor rather than their solicitor's fault. Either way, contact the estate agent regularly to update them and get them to chivvy things along.