What can I do about this Solicitor

[Twinklegreen]

My husband and I part own a house with his brother, 50% ours 50% brothers (inheritance) currently rented to a tenant. Due to various issues, which is a whole other thread, it was agreed that DB would buy us out of our half and then we would be free to buy another property to let out ourselves.

Issue is that bank has been ready to release the money since November, solicitors made and error as they were meant to send a letter to release the funds but didn't send the correct information for this to happen. DB spoke to them in December and they assured him they would re-send the correct info. Since then we have heard nothing DH and DB have repeatedly phoned solicitor for an update and are assured they will get a call back ... but then don't hear anything back. DH and DB are both pretty assertive.

I have stayed out of things until now but both DH and DB have now given up and want me to have a go at resolving this.

Looking for advice about how to approach this...

For context solicitors are not located in our town but are in a town about an 40mins drive away. DB lives at the other side of the country.

I would drive to the office & get an answer personally. Doesn't sound like DB & DH are that assertive. I would have been shouting down the phone at them before xmas - not 3 fecking months later.

I often have to deal with mortgage lenders, valuers, solicitors etc & will give everyone a decent chance to correct errors and/or then get back to me so I do know what its like to be told "we'll get back to you later".

I believe they probably have been shouting down the phone, which may be part of the problem!

I am so tempted to go to the office an stage a sit in but I work full time and have 3 children so major inconvenience which I'm trying to avoid!

Ring up with clear deadlines- "I am going to need you to call me back today to explain the situation " and clear consequences "I am going to have to instruct another solicitor to deal with this matter, and I will be billing you. This needs to be resolved by close of Play tomorrow, so the money can be released by x day" or whatever. All very calm, no shouting.

If you aren't the client, the sols won't speak to you (they would be breaching confidentiality). Your brother needs to be persistent and e-mail the solicitor clearly asking why the instructions have not been implemented. If he doesn't get a reply, he needs to ask to speak to the partner who deals with complaints and escalate it.

In their initial client care letter there will be the name of the partner supervising the solicitor dealing with the matter and it will also set out how to complain.