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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Solicitors conspire to drag out conveyancing

175 replies

SweetCruciferous · 28/11/2020 18:54

AIBU to think solicitors deliberately eke out every step of the conveyancing process as a deliberate ploy to justify disproportionate fees for simple boilerplate admin tasks amounting to no more than a couple of days’ work?

This is my suspicion. Can anyone confirm this? Any heretic solicitors? AIBU?

OP posts:
PickAChew · 29/11/2020 00:22

Ah, I get you now. They struck me as working on the same model as an Indian customer service call centre with a narrow script and no actual knowledge. As son as they had strayed outside the script(by just plain missing something) they were utterly lost then did their best to ignore you rather than get back on track.

Our vendor's estate agent ended up pulling everything together, at the end.

HerLadySheep · 29/11/2020 02:56

[quote PersicariaBistortaSuperba]**@jujuball* @minecraftmother and @redcar2022* You have all (much more eloquently than me) summed up what I hate about my job. I'm going to retrain in...something just as soon as I figure out what that is. There has to be a better way.
Even 35k is a distant dream at my firm Confused and the stress keeps me awake at night.[/quote]
I quite agree as one who has escaped the profession. Wages are nowhere near what many people think they are, £30k is not enough money to wake feeling sick with stress about deadlines every single night, a case load of 200+ files and zero respect for the work you do. I would never advise anyone to become a lawyer.

Lurcherloves · 29/11/2020 06:50

Oh my goodness I feel so sorry for conveyancing solicitors. Judging by this thread people have absolutely no insight into what is involved. In fact estate agents don’t understand and quite often lie. When I worked in conveyancing I remember an estate agent moaning at me because I had raised an issue about a doubling ground rent clause. The agents would let you buy that just to get their commission, a property you couldn’t sell and probably couldn’t afford in a few years once the doubling rents picked up and wouldn’t get a remortgage. But hey we just hold things up for the hell of it

MinnieMountain · 29/11/2020 07:19

The replies on here make me so glad I can work genuinely part time as a conveyancing solicitor. And not deal with clients.

I work for a licensed conveyancer but not all are terrible. We also dread dealing with PPL.

PimpleMoose · 29/11/2020 07:31

Shocked at £35k for a qualified solicitor.
That's roughly what I was earning when I was practicing in the UK. I knew another solicitor on £23k, and they worked 60 hours per week plus 2 nights on call.

@Joswis

I don't know why they do it, but my sellers solicitors waited unto l the last possible day to complete. Literally the day before my mortgage offer ran out. God only knows why. Bldy cowboys.
I hope this is a joke. You complete on the completion date.

Belledan1 · 29/11/2020 08:03

Some can be slow but get pittance compared to estate agents. Estate agents constantly ring them too asking for updates which adds to delays as they want their fee. Also it can be a bit of a production line especially if you go with one an estate agent or mortgage provider recommends (the estate agent or mortgage person normally get a nominal fee for this from the solicitor) as they have so many files. Conveyancers/solicitors work really hard. I am not one but worked near people in the past and helped out. As people say above its very complex. I would always recommend going to a local independent solicitors then recommended ones by associations.

KatieB55 · 29/11/2020 08:05

There is a lot of box ticking and the insistence on sending enquiries by post drives me mad! Our vendors were elderly & very slow. I ended up picking up documents & driving them to vendors to sign & driving back to get to exchange.

borageforager · 29/11/2020 08:07

@ktsc89

OP, does your post also mean that you consider the conveyancing process all a 'simple admin task'?

Oh dear.... you'd have a nasty shock if you actually found yourself working for a law firm! It's a shame that a lot of respect has been lost from clients for what was once considered a respectable profession.

My mum always does the Conveyancing herself for any house purchase and says it’s very straightforward. Isn’t this the case?
borageforager · 29/11/2020 08:17

Just caught up on the rest of the thread Shock sounds really stressful for solicitors at the moment and I hope things ease up soon.

midgebabe · 29/11/2020 08:25

Raising issues , due diligence is fine,it's what you are paid to do.

But not wanting to communicate until you are ready, at some none defined future point is unacceptable. That's why you are getting disruptions. Because you are not meeting people's expectations.

if as a rule all conveyancers could be relied on, then you would get fewer disruptions from people checking if anything is happening. If as a profession you could be relied on not to lose things, forget things, sit on things, take on too much work, there would be less likelihood of disruption from people checking that everything is progressing.

It doesn't actually matter if you personally never do these things. People deal with you rarely, they know that problems are commonplace. They would be negligent if they didn't make some effort to ensure you were actually doing your job.

And all this talk of overwork, I know that errors are made when people are overworked. Again, presenting the business in a bad light.

That also does not excuse rudeness by the clients, but again, you would minimise that if the clients felt you were on there side not holding yourself aloof.

badpuma · 29/11/2020 08:36

"My mum always does the Conveyancing herself for any house purchase and says it’s very straightforward. Isn’t this the case?"

Your mum presumably doesn't buy properties with mortgages if she's acting for herself and she can decide what risks she's willing to take which speeds things up because the risks don't need to be analysed and reported (to purchaser and mortgage company).

borageforager · 29/11/2020 08:41

@badpuma

"My mum always does the Conveyancing herself for any house purchase and says it’s very straightforward. Isn’t this the case?"

Your mum presumably doesn't buy properties with mortgages if she's acting for herself and she can decide what risks she's willing to take which speeds things up because the risks don't need to be analysed and reported (to purchaser and mortgage company).

She does buy with mortgages, or she certainly has done, possible the last house wasn’t (post divorce financial settlement) Confused I’ll ask her about it when I speak to her. These are simple suburban semi detached properties, quite straightforward I think. This makes it sound like she has a property empire, this is just her moving house every ten years or so. She encouraged me to do our own conveyancing when we bought our house but I got a solicitor Grin
badpuma · 29/11/2020 08:46

Mortgage companies usually want a solicitor so they have someone to sue if something important turns out to be missed. Brave of your mum to take that on!

BLToutanowhere · 29/11/2020 08:50

My conveyancing solicitors (fixed fee plus search costs) were awesome. Recommended by our estate agents (also fixed fee) who were also uniformly excellent.

A straightforward conveyance may be doable by a non professional but if you miss something, you'll pay a hell of a lot more over the years.

jujuball · 29/11/2020 09:12

@borageforager the problem is that your mum may think it's straightforward, but she'd have no idea if she missed something that's actually a problem that a lay person isn't trained to know to look for.

Also, if she bought with a mortgage lender, there's no way she did it entirely herself without a solicitor being involved, the lender requires representation (usually solicitors act for the buyer and lender, occasionally they will have two separate solicitors). A lender wouldn't release mortgage funds direct to a lay person for a purchase and trust them to register their charge at the Land Registry etc. I'm a solicitor and my lender wouldn't let me do my own conveyancing Grin

MinecraftMother · 29/11/2020 10:25

@borageforager
She wouldn't have been able to act for herself when a lender is involved. The lender just won't deal with pay people.

We are regulated to deal in this area, not to mention qualified.

Lenders will never send £150k to a Lay person and hope that they send it to the sellers' co vegan we. Also, lawyers should only be receiving funds like that from other lawyers.

It just didn't happen. Your mum might have done all the running aground, getting people signed up and such, but where there's a lender involved there's just no way this happened. I'd eat my hat.

MinnieMountain · 29/11/2020 11:45

This illustrates the problem with clients’ attitudes these days: “It’s so easy, my mum can do it.”

MinecraftMother · 29/11/2020 12:07

I have consider stacking shelves in Waitrose as something to retrain in.

Go in, do a super job, leave and sleep a full night.

redcar2022 · 29/11/2020 12:14

@midgebabe

But there you go, 2 weeks , nothing to say , you therefore appear to have done nothing in 2 weeks for your client. Not even a mail to say we are waiting for something. nothing, cant you see how It Looks?
No., If you put in the paperwork for a divorce it will take 4 weeks before the courts issue it and then another 6 weeks before if you are lucky you get a decree nisi date.

So, no, there are times when there is not much going on. or if you are doing finances on divorce, then you submit your court paperwork and it takes 3 weeks to get a court date then that is in 3 months time. (I am getting court dates for the first hearing for March 2021.... that is the quickest. And end of February for the first hearing regarding contact). So, i send the paperwork to the client tell them there is nothing to do and I will contat them 2 weeks before the hearing to get them up to speed. I don't have to e-mail them every 2 weeks. I literally cannot e-mail them every 2 weeks. It's a simple impossibility. Because I am not sitting there with my single client waiitng for their court date. I have 6 hearings this week alone. 2 contact hearings; one final 2 day fact find in relation to a child abuse case; one directions hearing for a child abuse case; 1 first hearing dispute resolution for finances on divorce and a without notice non-molestation application.

I'm not e-mailing client X whose court date is in February.

redcar2022 · 29/11/2020 12:15

@MinecraftMother

I have consider stacking shelves in Waitrose as something to retrain in.

Go in, do a super job, leave and sleep a full night.

My deputy says she wants to stack shelves in Waitorse.

My dream job is to work in Waterstones. :)

Ironically I retrained into this. Only been doing it 6 years post qualification. I can't do it for much longer that is for sure.

redcar2022 · 29/11/2020 12:16

@borageforager

Just caught up on the rest of the thread Shock sounds really stressful for solicitors at the moment and I hope things ease up soon.
Thanks. :) I really appreciate you saying that. Thanks
redcar2022 · 29/11/2020 12:19

@PimpleMoose

Shocked at £35k for a qualified solicitor. That's roughly what I was earning when I was practicing in the UK. I knew another solicitor on £23k, and they worked 60 hours per week plus 2 nights on call.

@Joswis

I don't know why they do it, but my sellers solicitors waited unto l the last possible day to complete. Literally the day before my mortgage offer ran out. God only knows why. Bldy cowboys.
I hope this is a joke. You complete on the completion date.

yeah i am 6 years post qual. I was on a ytraining contract and paid just under £18 k. I qualified and worked at 21k for a few years and clawed up. I actually left a job in the charity sector where I was paid more than what I am paid for now after 3 years of university, 2 years training contadt and 6 years qualified. I really am not sure what I am thinking. I have a colleague on £19 k who is newly qualified. She pointed out to me that our local Morrisons petrol station was advertising for a cleaner for 30 pense less an hour than what she was getting.
redcar2022 · 29/11/2020 12:20

*pence

sorry for spelling. I cannot find my glasses (and am fat of finger anyway).

Phyzzy · 29/11/2020 12:54

But not wanting to communicate until you are ready, at some none defined future point is unacceptable. That's why you are getting disruptions. Because you are not meeting people's expectations.If as a rule all conveyancers could be relied on, then you would get fewer disruptions from people checking if anything is happening. If as a profession you could be relied on not to lose things, forget things, sit on things, take on too much work, there would be less likelihood of disruption from people checking that everything is progressing
This.

I can think of no other example of engaging someone to do work for you where there is no time scale, no communication and you are chastised for having the temerity to chase it up.
If they do not have the capacity to do the work they should not take it on. Tradesmen would simply say if you want me to do the work you will have to wait x months.

minionsrule · 29/11/2020 13:25

We had fixed price conveyancing as well but what I never understood was why they asked for something, it was supplied. Then they asked for something else, it was supplied.... and on and on.
All of the things requested were required, not dependent, so why not list everything they needed up front? It dragged it all out for weeks longer than necessary Hmm