Conveyancing solicitor - nice job to have

[scarlets]

My friend and her elderly mum inherited a property that they sold quickly. It was supposed to exchange yesterday but one of the solicitors further up the chain went home at 4pm without returning a phone call. Today, there was loads of faffing about and again, one of the solicitors went home at 4pm ("because it's Friday"). They're not badly paid, these people! I know it's not a field that attracts ambitious and dynamic lawyers, and there are many competent ones I'm sure, but seriously, what a doddle...

Am I being unfair? I don't mean to sound spiteful, but it's very well-paid for short-ish hours and relatively unchallenging legal stuff.

Perhaps I'm just jealous.

I'm always bamboozled by how little we pay for conveyancing vs estate agents fees.

Conveyancers are qualified professionals with a responsible legally binding in the housebuying process whereas the agents role is minimal with no responsibility & we pay them many x more.

Having worked as a PA for conveyancing solicitors; they are hugely busy constantly, and many of the clients are incredibly demanding and forget that they are not that solicitor's only client.

Two fair comments. Thanks, both.

Last time I sold and bought a house I did my own conveyancing, am not a solicitor. Simple case of filling in forms via the land registry. House sales were all from family members though, might have been more stressful/impossible if buying from a stranger. But the land registry even have a YouTube video to help you fill the form out!

Yes completely unfair. For all you know, they may have been in the office at 7 am and stayed late every other night. Were you?!

And you have no idea how much a conveyancer gets paid or what hours they work. And I very much doubt any solicitor has gone home at 4 pm "just because it's Friday". Having been a solicitor for 12 years (not conveyancing but working alongside several) I changed my hours to work 7-4 for childcare purposes but usually worked again when the children were in bed. I have NEVER worked less than 120% at least (and usually 150% or more) of my contracted hours.

And compared to my peers who went into other professions such as accountancy or medicine, it's crap pay.

And yes, some of it may be "form filling" but lots of it involves an understanding of property law. When it's a straightforward property, yes, it's less involved but certainly not a "doddle". When it's more complicated, and the consequences of getting it wrong are so huge, it's very stressful. Especially when you have people who are not even involved in the transaction slating the profession about short hours, easy work and big fat salaries. If only....

Try saying that to my DH who worked until 11.15 last night to ensure that today's completions went through....

I've used the same solicitor for years and he's always in the office from about 7:30am and still there at 6pm! He's always been really efficient but obviously there are great and rubbish ones like in every other profession.

My conveyancing solicitor has been known to email on a Saturday. And in Scotland you must use a lawyer.

Incidentally, as one who is in the middle of what has turned out to be an extremely complicated house purchase, I'd far rather be paying slightly more for an expert in conveyancing than a general practice solicitor...

Sorry I agree with you.
Today we finally exchanged on a property we offered on on the 1st June.

It is a simple buy.
No chain, the house was empty, deposit was in cash, mortgage all arranged.

We have had to send EVERY document twice.

I ended up sending everything tracked so when they told me yet again they hadn't got something I could inform them exactly when it had been signed for.

It has been a nightmare.

Especially as we had builders lined up to do alterations and have not been able to give them a date so have lost them.

Fuming.

standards do vary wildly - in my experience the laziest are the old high street firms which all the senior citizens in the area use. They charge double and it is a SERIOUS inconvenience to turn anything round in less than a week.

the ones I used were very good, very efficient and understood the meaning of the word 'delegate'.

I also note the impossibility of getting anything done once it is less than 10 working days before retailmas.

my last selling agent really worked for their money. The chain took six months to go through because we had a lazy solicitor and a 'oh, the little people will wait' vendor involved in the links.

Crikey - nothing like a sweeping generalisation specialsubject. That's really quite insulting.

I worked in a high street solicitors where there was a team of conveyancers with solicitors, clerks and secretaries. They all worked very hard. It used to be seasonal, and work would dry up during times of low house price sales, and suddenly overwhelm them when everyone was trying to buy houses at the same time. Even with 'form filling' there are so many things you have to prepare to be able to fill in the form, and the government keeps adding more. They have to be very flexible and all for a competitive fee.

Shosha1 congratulations. I'm still waiting to get the keys for the property I offered on in May. No date in sight... but an incompetent general solicitor causing chaos

And in Scotland you must use a lawyer

That's not strictly correct. If you were a cash purchaser you can do it yourself if you want to. The seller might be wary of dealing with you and the seller's solicitor will be very wary of accepting the price from you due to compliance with money laundering rules. As indeed should English solicitors.

Likewise as a seller if you are capable of doing it yourself(and that means exhibiting a valid title, ordering and exhibiting property enquiry certificates, ordering and exhibiting Land Registry searches) there's no reason why you can't although buyer and buyer's solicitor will be wary of you and of your ability to deal with these issues.

It's an awful job. My mum was a conveyancing solicitor in a high street firm. She had to go into work to deal with completions the morning my sister was found dead in her cot, she was back at work 3 days after giving birth to my brother.

Family life improved 1000 fold when she went in house.

Oh Hamish, I'm sorry. How awful. No wonder she wanted out.

I understand what you're saying but don't agree. I imagine that it's like lots of jobs; easy when everything's straightforward but a nightmare when there are complications.
When we bought our house the deeds were all wrong, the boundary wasn't clear and there was a right of way that no one knew about. Our conveyancer (from a small independent high street firm) was amazing.