Property purchase annoyance

[Charltonstrek]

Hi
Posted before about this it's been a long drawn out purchase that I feel could have been completed within 8 weeks if all involved had thier act together.
Solicitor hasn't been the best not giving updates been dismissive etc etc so now I am getting near the end my solicitor doesn't have the capacity to deal with my file at the moment due to dealing with other clients completions.
Do you think this acceptable or do I need to calm down

All good no issues therefore I dont feel it would have held things up too much

No there's a few of them

Do you speak for your Lender as well @Charltonstrek ? Everything has to be acceptable to the Lender, not (even) just you. Your solicitor acts for your Lender (primarily) as well as you.

There doesn't appear to be anything that lender wouldn't be happy with

So it's a big firm with various people process your case? Is that the case? If so chances are it's all automated. They have a scheduled time to check the file, action what needs to be actioned at that point and then don't come back to it until the next time they are scheduled to do this. That's how those big conveyancing firms can offer such low prices vs more traditional law firms.

So to an extent it's the service you pay for.

See if you can work out when they deal with your file (e.g. work day) and ensure they have everything they need for them. Follow up immediately on any requests for information, etc. And then next time use a personally recommended conveyancer.

Theres a few but clients are allocated a particular person so only one person is working on my file

Honestly, this is the least of it. I hope things go as smoothly on any future purchases.

Yes lucky in no major problems so more reason for it not be so slow ive been packed up last 2 months😣

My cirst property purchase took six months it was only a tiny flat too.
I bave since found some solicitors offer a 30 day turn around for uncomplex cases but you have to pay a bit more
I think you can acream and shout but they might just be quite shit and it won't help.

Its ridiculous isn't it?

Something that could have been sorted, between Solicitors, right at the beginning of our sale with a simple few phone calls back and forth took the best part of 3 months of them emailing and not replying to each other. I honestly was so frustrated I could cry (and I never cry!)

I honestly feel for you. When you know that it could have all been done and dusted ages ago but you are STILL waiting. Its so stressful and you just want to shout at them to 'get the fuck on with it!!!'. Alas we have to wait until THEY are ready. Its brutal.

I really hope you get somewhere soon and this will all soon be forgotten about once you are in your new home.

For future reference (and anyone reading) always choose a local, reccommended solicitor.

Never go with one the EA insists on, or a cheap online one.

You do get what you pay for!

I’m on the other side of this, selling an investment flat- it’s a complicated transaction even for leasehold, and it’s been ongoing since September. I’m desperate to sell it and get on with planning our next move (there’s a lot of equity in the flat) and the buyer is desperate to move in.

We delayed ordering our management pack until the mortgage offer was secured on the EA’s advice (which took a couple of months), and then there was 21 days before the management co would respond and Christmas delayed things further.

My solicitor has been pretty decent (I have one contact who responds very quickly) but the sellers’ has struggled with the complexity.

At this stage I’m just hoping it completes before the end of the tax year. It costs me money to keep it empty. I’m so done with it now. I share your frustrations!

I can see alot of you have experienced much worse
I woke up monday morning feeling like this is the week things are finally gonna start moving only for him to bugger off and work on other clients completions.
Ive emailed today asking him to please come and complete my purchase im so annoyed as no reply.

Im in the same position, its been 5 and a half months and finally today I got asked what my preferred completion date is. I was also told by the estate agent that the place I'm buying was chain free, turns out that was a lie. I had two months of my solicitor saying they were waiting for the management pack and the sellers solicitors saying they'd sent it. It wasn't being sent/received because the file was too big but because they seemed to refuse to speak to each other and the estate agent vanished the moment the offer was accepted, it took a ridiculously long time to sort out. Your solicitors sound particularly useless too.

There's nothing you can do, you have to just surrender to the process or you'll get yourself so stressed about it.

That’s the sellers’ fault, not your conveyancer. I don’t think people realise how much price pressure has created this problem, as conveyancers have to take on so much work they are basically fire fighting all the time and there is no room for flexibility.

Honestly to be saying he is going to charge you more you must be being a nightmare with unreasonable expectations as they never do that.

FYI most searches take at least 6 weeks so unless yo you are a cash buyer and willing to take the risk of no searches 8 weeks is wholly unrealistic.

Yes im aware thats fault on sellers side.
There was 1 day where i sent 3 emails asking for updates as he wasnt communicating with me hence the reason for him saying that to me also ive noticed in thier latest reviews this hasn't only just been said to me

Anyway today i sent a email asking him to please not delay my purchase any further by putting it on the back burner in order to go off and work on other client.
No response on that so I emailed sellers estate agent to ask if she can prompt them and what you know the forms came shortly after.

Also it's been 18 weeks a few posters have got this confused with it been 8 weeks

The difficulty is people will not pay proper rates for conveyancing so they have to take on to many files.

my hourly rate for a different area is £350 plus VAT and people want fixed fee conveyancing when in reality for a high risk area such as property it should be around £5k per average transaction at least if you were paying hourly rates.

Problem is that you cant always guarantee a better service for paying more

Did he actually say he was prioritising other files over yours? Sounds very un-solicitor like.

He said they didnt have capacity to produce and send the forms as working on other customers completion dates so gave him a week to come back to my file and chased it up today as no contact.

This! There’s a race to the bottom on fees. If you want a solicitor with the time to really prioritise you, ultimately you have to pay a higher cost because the bottom line is at the rates most conveyancers charge, you need a lot of files to hit targets.

That’s not your solicitors fault though?

Sorry, me again! By and large you can. I am a property solicitor, primarily commercial but I do some residential work for commercial clients. I charge hourly, rather than a fixed fee. This means my fee for a transaction is usually a fair amount higher than colleagues who only do residential work on fixed fee basis. We have billable hour targets, and fee targets, basic maths means that my fee structure allows me to take on less clients and therefore offer a better service. That said, if you need mangement packs, deeds of variation, anything that requires a third party, you can be as efficient as you want but ultimately you’re in their hands!

(it’s not entirely fair comparison as in general our fees our fairly decent, so none of our conveyancers need to hugely overwork themselves but you get the gist!)