Pissed off and fed up, but am I wrong?

[Itsfridaynight]

Currently in the process of buying a house. Everything is so so slow at the moment. Mortgage is all set but my solicitor is slow with everything. We're on week 5 now and still not had the drainage searches back yet. I appreciate this isn't the solicitors fault but she was confident it would only take 3 weeks and 6-8 weeks for the whole process. There's no chain and the property is vacant which should make a difference. I've been phoning once a week, normally a Friday for an update which I think is reasonable. I phoned last Friday and was told that she was still waiting on the vendors solicitor to come back with some paperwork but that she would chase it up. Apparently she requested this 3 weeks before so I have no idea why she hadn't chased it up sooner. I contacted the EA as per her suggestion to see if he could speak with the vendor to get the ball rolling.

The secretary that I've been dealing with (who is lovely btw and told me that I could phone anytime) has been on holiday all week and isn't back until Tuesday. I phoned up this morning and was put through to a different office who told me that she couldn't give me an update and that I'd have to phone back on Tuesday as she couldn't access other staff's emails. I queried why this wasn't being dealt with by somebody else (such as herself) whilst the other lady is on holiday. Surely this will hold the process up now if emails have been sitting in her inbox all week and nobody has responded to them.

I explained that I didn't understand why they couldn't provide me with an update. She then miraculously accessed her emails and explained that the vendors solicitor had responded and sent the paperwork back on Tuesday but it was waiting to be looked at by my solicitor. It will not be looked at now until next week 🙄. She also made a lovely point of saying that I can't expect an update every single day - I've never expected this btw and it took a lot for me to hold my tongue and not snap back. I wasn't rude at any point but she just had such a shitty and unhelpful attitude and made me feel guilty for even ringing.

I'm more than happy to be told that I'm being unreasonable and impatient but I do think they could try a bit harder to speed up the process. I was hopeful that I would be in there by mid September but it doesn't look like this will be the case. She said that it's far too early to be discussing exchange dates, even though the other lady was confident that my expectations weren't unreasonable. I don't even know what my AIBU is at this point, I'm just so drained with it all and I don't feel that we've even progressed with anything. Also, surely it is not unreasonable for me to ring them once a week? This service is costing me an arm and a leg...

Oh my god @GinIronic don't tell me that! That is beyond ridiculous, no wonder you were so fed up. Why so long to complete? I hope to god mine doesn't take that long 😱

Bloody nightmare isn't it! @GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER

I think it sounds ok to ring once a week OP. Not a Friday though, that’s busy with completions.

The people who say rang every day are dicks, even if less than 50% of the clients rang every day that would be 50 plus phone calls just from clients, not including phone calls from estate agents, other Solicitor ms, actually making a phone call out to chase a lender etc. Plus at least 100 emails a day, post the has come in that day, how is the file supposed to actually be looked at ffs !

Searches can easily take 6-8 weeks from ordering, if it’s leasehold it will take longer.

So many things. The house had a different name in the deeds. The house had two mortgages on it - would the sale cover them? There was a dropped kerb and no paperwork for building consent. The front green purchase was a separate purchase to the house. Did the neighbours have a right to access their property via the lane - no! Was the original barn on the site listed? I won't go on - you get the gist. We were happy to wait because we love the house - but boy did the process try our patience. When we picked up the keys, the estate agent gave us his card in case we wanted to sell in the future. Not a chance!

Thanks @CheshireDing. I definitely won't be ringing every day, I won't have time to working myself. We are just waiting on the drainage search to come back now, hopefully won't be too much longer (I pray) 😬 just really need the solicitor to get a move on with paperwork now...

Ex conveyancing solicitor you or your estate agent need to be on the phone daily. They have 100s of files and it needs to be top of their list.

Interesting to hear @Beachmummy23. I'm more concerned that I will piss them off if I ring everyday and they might refuse to proceed with the work. Can they do that at this point? Obviously I want to be firm and let them know that I'm not happy that everything is so slow though!

I phoned every day. I felt like a twat but it dragged on for 5 months! I actually chased up a few things for them to try and speed it up.
It was painful; the person buying from us was a cash buyer the people in the place we were moving to were paying cash for their new place

@Itsfridaynight

Interesting to hear *@Beachmummy23*. I'm more concerned that I will piss them off if I ring everyday and they might refuse to proceed with the work. Can they do that at this point? Obviously I want to be firm and let them know that I'm not happy that everything is so slow though!

It depends on what they tell you obviously if they are waiting for something from other side that's when you have the estate agents chasing the other side. No point chasing when waiting for searches etc to come in but in the final few weeks when they are dealing with queries you should be calling and chasing your solicitor regularly. However it depends what firm you are using. These call centres type places linked to estate agents seem to take forever but a reputable firm should always have someone who can help in your solicitors absence

Some things just take the amount of time they take ....chasing up searches can be time-consuming ( have you ever tried to ring a local Authority or water Board? You can hold for literally hours.. I think some LAs do not actually pick up calls at all and just take messages which they will respond to within x working days...) and not productive - however much you rave at them, if their turnaround time is ,say 12 weeks, then that's how long it's going to take, unless you pay for personal searches, which a lot of mortgage companies won't accept.
You could chase these yourself, but a solicitor wouldn't normally do so because of the time involved and the non-productiveness of it.
Having said that, a timeframe of 6-8 weeks to conclude the matter is really ambitious, not sure why your expectations were not better managed. I'm sure staff absences due to the pandemic at the LA/water company and everywhere else will point to longer response times.
Your file will usually be looked at if anything important happens while your solicitor is on leave, but if someone is doing 2 jobs, they probably won't be phoning you to say that nothing has happened and they are still waiting to get the papers they requested 3 weeks ago.
If you want an update, call the agents to find out when the sellers solicitors expect to provide the necessary outstanding info.

@DelphiniumBlue sorry if I didn't explain things properly. My solicitor has already received the paperwork needed from the vendors solicitor on Tuesday but has not yet looked at it. With it being the bank holiday now it won't be picked up until Tuesday at the earliest, but could be longer if she is in court or away from the office on Tuesday. The fact that it's taking over a week for her to even look at paperwork, let alone process anything or send me documents is what I'm finding extremely frustrating... The mortgage is set, local authority search has come back and we are waiting on the drainage search to come back but she's positive that it will arrive by the end of next week as it's already been over 5 weeks now. She said that the drainage search won't hold anything up even if it does come back later on. It's the solicitor who is holding everything up at this point!

Have a think before you start filling up someone's day with regular phone calls. Time spent dealing with you is less time available to do the work.
Not sure when it became acceptable for clients to ring daily but I see it recommended a lot. Most conveyancers have c300 or more cases. Fridays are taken up with completions and they might do 15 on one day typically. That leaves 4 days to do everything else usually at very low fees. They are not being slow or unproductive on purpose with yours.
Think professionally and have a heart.
I am not a conveyancer.

Sitting on paperwork for a week is not professional. I think we all understand searches take time but if they can't deal with 300 + cases in a timely way they shouldn't take on 300+ cases.

My friend moved last year. Her solicitor told him if he rang more than once a week he would charge him more as it meant less time to do all the work. .....

We rang everyday when we moved house about 10 years ago. Our purchase had stalled because the vendor needed help filling one of the forms in so both solicitors and the estate agents had just pushed it to one side. It was only because we started ringing up that it came to light and it had been four moths up to then. Eventually took 6 months altogether when it could have been 3 or less.

If you ring daily then surely they’ll just charge you more, or start dodging your calls? I don’t see an issue with phoning on days when you expect something to have arrived / been actioned, but if it’ll take 3 weeks for searches and nothing further can be done without them, then there’s not a lot of point phoning in week 1 or 2.
Also, no point calling on a Thursday or Friday, I’d assume Tuesday was best timing.