Would you ignore solicitors advice?

[ClarkL]

Help! We appear to have had none stop issues with house purchasing and I really can't tell if I just have blinkers on now to force the purchase or if there may actually be an issue.
Firstly I should say I have concerns about our solicitor. She is never available on the phone when you call, can never get a time for her to call you back, sometimes it's within an hour sometimes the next day which is really tricky with work so I tend to email her.
She takes a day to reply to emails and continually speaks in 'solicitors' speak, which annoys me, If I understood what she was talking about I wouldnt need her, I'd be handling the purchase myself, so again I know I aready dislike her which may be clouding my thoughts.
So the property we are buying is not registered with land registry. Our solicitor has said she would charge us £300 to register, plus the land registry costs (£270) but there is no guarentee we'll get it registered and there are risks, many risks, financial risks and risks around not getting full title (I have no idea what that means)
Yesterday my husband spoke with her, she told him it was a terrible thing and we must make the sellers register it first even if it takes months. Yet everything I have read online suggests this is a really common issue and we can take out indemnity insurance to help with any legal costs if it becomes complex.
Husband says he wants to pull out because he doesnt understand the risks, but shes told him there are risks.
I say she has to talk to their solicitor see if they are willing to register and we can meet them part way on the costs. Our mortgage offer is valid for 5 months and we are currently in a rental so we aren't in a huge rush. I call the estate agents to inform them.
Today estate agent phones sellers solicitor to ask what they think, turns out my solicitor hasn't even bothered contacting them yet despite me emailing instructions yesterday lunch.
My gut instinct is I sack our solicitor, write off the money we've paid her and get someone new to handle the sale and agree to registering the property after purchase.
Does my solicitor have a point, if the title deeds are correct (which would be her job to check) that really what is this blummin risk she's whittling about because quite frankly I don't get it. Deeds used to be paper, now they are electronic and there's a few paper ones not yet converted it all seems straight forward and logical to me.

I would insist the other side register it.

To register it they pull all the documents together about title and deed over as many years as possible and then submit this to the Land Registry who then draw up what exactly you will own by purchasing the property.

The risks are that it is not exactly as you have been sold regarding boundaries or the property particualrly where there is a flying freehold or rights of way over the land etc - if it is detached prob fewer issues if in the country could be rights of way which could be intrusive - these could be general or private. It will also outline who is responsible for maintaining which boundaries and rights of way. On top of this and seperate to registration are searches around gases such as radon or flood etc and they are the ones that generally cause problems. I wouldn't meet the seller on costs - I think they want to sell so they should pull their finger out and get it sorted, and keep you in the loop so you are aware immediately of any issues. I would change solicitor at this rate as she sounds bloody useless if I am honest. She isn't speaking to you in a way that you understand and is getting cross when you ask simple questions, she is not clearly outlining risks in a way you understand and to me that is not doing her job. Often conveyancing is done by less qualified staff and overseen by the solicitor (ie just signed off) yours is more complex by the sounds of things so I would try and find a smaller firm which means the more senior staff are more involved int he day to day work. Good Luck

Doesn't the solicitor act on behalf of the mortgage company as well ? In our last purchase a fence wasn't on the boundary. Our solicitor wasn't happy to buy a house for the mortgage company where they wouldn't have access to all of the land.

Dealing with unregistered title is a skill in.its.own right amd one whixch is dying out. However there is no reason why the mortgage company would.not want to lend. It will be registered once you buy it.

I think the solicitor is uncomfortable taking on the risk of an unregistered conveyance and is trying to pass the buck into the seller. Unfortunately the Land Registry who used to be great are now horrendously slow and take months to register anything.

I.would suggest that you find someone experienced in unregistered land and instruct them. I would be surprised of their fees are less though?? Depending on the title there can literally be piles of old docs to.look through which is very very time consuming.

Just for some perspective...I'm a lawyer at a general practice firm. I have 32 conveyancing cases right now, 20 litigations, 5 children's cases and 15 criminal cases (and am currently covering a colleagues family work whilst they pop out a baby ) Conveyancing isn't always my priority, partly because there are things in a conveyance which take an amount of time which is beyond my control, and partly because some things are genuinely more important than a sale or purchase. I know that doesn't help when you feel confused and stressed, but it's not necessarily that your lawyer is inexperienced/impatient/obtuse. In your circumstances I would make an appointment to attend in person. If it's a complicated thing it will be easier for everyone to understand what's going on if you can look at the documents (I think), though I would say, even if you are an intelligent person (which you seem to be) there may be things that will be beyond your understanding no matter how much it is explained, which is why you have to do your best to trust your lawyer. I would definitely make an appointment if possible, I think that will really help, and I hope it works out ok for you in the end deep breaths.

As our solicitor is about 3 hours away from us I requested a phone meeting as I am wanting to understand the issue and the emails due to delay in responses is dragging out an issue that could be easily resolved.
She told me she was too busy - not that could we do it the next day or arrange a time, simply that she was too busy.
Later on yesterday I had another email from her explaining the other solicitor had called asking what the issue is and she'd told them we wanted zero risk. She also acknowledged she hadnt even looked at the title deeds sent to her so has no idea at this point what the risk is as she is too busy.

I think I am far too busy to engage with her or pay for more of her services.
I have notified the estate agents who are relieved even though they know this will add a couple of weeks on to the purchase time as apparently when they spoke to her she was incredibly rude. Everything is on hold until the rude solicitor has sold my husbands house and mean time I will be passing ID etc onto the new solicitor and engaging with them.

Thank you for the advice about being too impatient as a first time buyer. That may well be true but as I don't trust my solicitor I know I won't believe anything she says and as I can't afford to loose the money invested in a house it simply isn't worth it

It sounds awful, OP. I'd sack her also. No question.

Some solicitors are just terrible at communication. We had one who clearly thought that he was doing us a massive favour by performing the service that we were actually paying him for.

Some are great though. Our last solicitor (who did the unregistered title) was very good. He had an assistant whose job it was to keep clients updated. She'd call and say "We have processed X, and are now waiting for Y. I don't expect to hear anything until Monday. I will call you on Monday at 4 to give you an update". And then she'd ring at Monday at 4 and guess what? Give an update. I never once had to call them to chase.

This was a local solicitors and it was great to go in the office and go over the deeds. I'd read them myself just before exchange and had a couple of questions which he was able to clarify there and then. Very reassuring.

We've moved away now but I would always go with a local solicitors. Being able to nip in (even just to sign stuff and get things moving) is important to me. And local knowledge can be important.

...well her response was ridiculous, so yea, forget what I said because it seems you've just got a really rubbish one. Most should be reasonable and willing to take an appointment. Good luck with the next ones

If you were paying a fixed fee to a conveyancing "factory" then face to face meetings are not included in the fee being charged. They will make an appointment if you want, but they will charge you at their hourly rate. This may be why you got that response. Similarly, they don't call you unless something has happened that they need to update you with.

My advice - go to a local solicitor who isn't handling more cases than he can cope with.

I work in conveyancing at the moment and unregistered properties are still around, I find it strange that she's having such a flap about it. Maybe it's just more common in my area?

They're trickier than registered properties and take more work, but in my firm we've never demanded that a seller registers the property before we buy it in the last 10 months that I've been in the department. I've only known my supervisor to do this when there's a piece of land attached to the property that doesnt come within the property boundaries on the plan, but has been acquired by averse possession. We wouldn't charge an extra fee for registering the property either, just the land registry fee is higher!

I agree with others that her getting back to you the next day is reasonable, but not making any effort to explain 'legal speak' to you is really poor form. You wouldn't expect your doctor to speak to you entirely in technical terms so that you didn't understand what the problem was.

I think you're right to have cut your losses and moved on to another firm who will hopefully explain the process and risks to you more clearly.

Good luck!

*adverse possession that should've been!

Having just got our contract with our first ever solicitor, I read in it that they will always endeavour to contact us within a reasonable amount of time, and any information will be given in plain English and non legalise speak. If you are having doubts, and you can afford to engage another one, I might be inclined to do that. Maybe email her again, explain your concerns, and go from there.