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Original poster

Is anyone else's solicitor absolutely useless?

31 replies

Misscf81 · 28/04/2020 18:20

We are buying our first home - a stressful situation at the best of times - not to mention the global pandemic, and to make matters worse my solicitor is an absolute ashl.

Is this normal? Are they all like this? I do keep asking a lot of questions, granted, but she just keeps firing paperwork at me that is full of jargon that I just don't understand. I feel like we are paying them for a service, but she is just making me feel bad all the time and making me feel like I am asking stupid quesitons and being a nuisance.

I want to exchange and complete on the same day - I have made this clear from the off, at first she said we were not in a position to talk about it, and now (she emailed me to say we can start talking dates soon) she has just sent me something from the Law Society that makes no sense.

After this, will I ever need to deal with them again, as I want to leave a not so nice review and it will be very clear that it will be from me.

OP posts:
Tulipvase · 28/04/2020 18:25

What did she send you from the law society?

We are in the process but haven’t got as far as talking dates yet. My understanding is that they are only really recommending exchange and completIon on the same day at the moment.

Is the property you are buying empty?

Original poster
Misscf81 · 28/04/2020 18:32

Yes, the property is empty - there is no chain. The lady selling it has moved on, she has not been there since December. We are renting so there is no one else in the chain. the document she sent me was something that they (the law firm) has put together but it just makes no sense to me - all jargon. I have emailed her this evening and said she needs to explain it to us as we are FTBs and this is all new to us - I mentioned it on an email this morning and she said we had already discussed this (about a month ago) and just sent me these documents.

OP posts:
HaveAtEm · 28/04/2020 18:33

Yeah mine is awful...all I've been waiting for is the bloody management pack from my estate management company. (I'm selling my house, no chain at all, just me selling to a cash investor and I'm not buying..couldn't really be simpler!!).

I'm freehold...so the pack shouldn't even be complicated...and yet the company charged me an absolute fortune (back in December WAY before COVID-19 was even a 'thing' here in the UK!)

And yet I'm still waiting..and I've chased and chased but my awful solicitors can't seem to get them to produce this damn pack (despite me paying the extortionate fee IN FUCKING DECEMBER!!) and they are now blaming the damn virus!! I am beyond angry...and it seems this may now cost me my sale 🤬

So yes...I have a shit solicitor...I feel your pain OP 👍

Original poster
Misscf81 · 28/04/2020 18:38

I have never had to deal with them before - it is horrible, and I will definitely not be using this solicitor again.

OP posts:
Catforaheadrest · 28/04/2020 18:40

I’m not exactly experienced (2 purchases.. well, 3 but one fell through) but we tried to pick a solicitor based on recommendations rather than cost. We paid £1200+ each time, but the service was great and felt worth it. Is that expensive? Is it a cost thing? Solicitors trying to take on high volume at low cost?

CayrolBaaaskin · 28/04/2020 18:42

You obviously don’t understand what she is sending you. Most conveyancing firms charge so little that there isn’t the time to explain it all and it has to be done as a formulaic process. Change your firm if you like but if you are not willing to pay for someone to explain the ins and outs of the process to you, don’t be surprised if they don’t do it for free.

Racmactac · 28/04/2020 18:44

Are you using a high street firm or someone like enact? Factory conveyancing?

Y

DennisTMenace · 28/04/2020 18:47

I have had a good, ok and crap one before. The worst was the national chain one through the estate agent. Would not be using them again. Not that I have any plans to move soon

Original poster
Misscf81 · 28/04/2020 18:47

I am using someone local, but they are expensive. The estate agent recommended them to me as they were near our house - that has worked in our favour as we have been into the office twice to sign the paperwork. However, a girl I work with got a quote for a house she was purchasing and they were over £500 cheaper. We decided to stick with these as we were so far down the path, plus I thought because they were more, they may be better (again, not very experienced in this area). For reference, I think they are charging us aorund 1500?

OP posts:
Loofah01 · 29/04/2020 08:47

£1500 is not expensive.

If you don't understand something then ask for it to be explained, that's not unreasonable of you. You're spending a lot of cash and should be clear in where it's all going and why. If they refuse then dump them and pick someone else.

GU24Mum · 29/04/2020 12:00

Has she sent you a Property Information Form which the seller has filled in? If it's something else, let us know and someone will be able to give you a basic overview of what it is.

Bells3032 · 29/04/2020 12:14

I tend to find conveyancing solicitors are all a bit awful. They relatively charge so little compared to other areas of law they need to have a big caseload to make ends meet. Therefore, are overworked. I bought my first flat four years ago, the owners had already moved and were desperate to sell quickly and I was moving out of my parents home to so completely chain free. I had the mortgage and surveys within 10 days and it still took 10 weeks to exchange. was absolutely mad!

Hotpinkangel19 · 29/04/2020 12:24

OP are you my buyer?
We are selling a house, and it's been dragged on for ages by our buyers solicitor asking questions, apparently even our buyer has had enough!

Zomblie · 29/04/2020 13:36

I didn't think you could exchange and complete on the same day as the solicitors need to do further checks to make sure you haven't gone bankrupt suddenly/it takes 5 days to receive money from the mortgage companies/you need to book removals etc?

I am happy to be corrected but those were the answers I was given when I enquired about it.

Patch23042 · 29/04/2020 13:57

I think that on the whole, they should charge a bit more and take on fewer clients. Conveyancing is so cheap compared to the other professions. I paid £800 all-in a decade ago and was surprised at how cheap it was compared to the surveyor for example, who charged (fairly, he was excellent) about £250 for half a day’s work, and the estate agent who took £3.5k but put in fewer hours than the lawyer I think. My dad’s private doctor charges £175 for a 30 minute appointment. I recently paid about the same for 20 minutes in the dentist’s chair. I don’t begrudge paying well-qualified professionals for a quality service and next time I move I’d happily pay more for conveyancing.

Tabitha005 · 29/04/2020 14:08

Our conveyancer (not a solicitor) has been fantastic and we're due to exchange contracts in a couple of days, and then move at the end of May (to a property which has been vacant for some time and we aren't part of a chain). Their quote was very reasonable - over £400 cheaper than the one obtained from the solicitor recommended by the estate agent. Our vendors are using the estate agents recommendation and, guess what..... they are APPALLING - incredibly slow, don't explain things clearly and our conveyancer has said they don't seem to be able to speak to the same person twice on any matter - things just get passed to someone else every time there's been a query.

Tulipvase · 29/04/2020 15:46

Zomblie, my understanding is that they are recommending same day exchange/completion to mitigate the risk of not being able to complete on the agreed date due to illness/self isolating due to Covid19.

It’s always been possible to exchange/complete same day but it’s not common.

HermanHermit · 29/04/2020 15:56

A client not understanding standard forms and the terminology used in them doesn’t mean the solicitor is rubbish.

Veterinari · 29/04/2020 16:35

It's difficult to know if you're being difficult or the solicitor is being lax without knowing what questions you're asking and what responses you're getting

Spickle · 29/04/2020 16:46

OP, please list the things you don't understand. Let us know what exactly the solicitor has sent you and we will try to help explain in layman's terms.

MinnieMountain · 29/04/2020 17:21

@HaveAtEm are you sure you don't have a shit management company rather than a shit solicitor?

If it was the Law Society OP, was it guidance on buying and moving during COVID? If so, it is rather complicated anyway.

HaveAtEm · 29/04/2020 18:49

@MinnieMountain I think both to be honest! I sent the money to my solicitors for the management pack in December, who find me it usually takes 4 weeks for these things to ‘come through’ but ‘due to it being December it could take a bit longer’. I checked at the end of Jan (8 weeks later!) and the person dealing had apparently ‘been off sick’ since before Christmas and nobody knew what I was talking about but ‘would get back to me’. I left it a week and rang back. They hadn’t even sent the money or applied for the pack! This was then done (we are by now mid-Feb and COVID is beginning to rear its head but is not yet huge). I’m told it could take 4 Or more ‘working weeks’. Tge world starts to go to shit. The management company are also shit. It takes longer...and I’m still waiting 🤷‍♀️

HaveAtEm · 29/04/2020 18:50

‘Who TELL me’ not FIND me 😂

GorgeousLadyofWrestling · 29/04/2020 19:11

We completed on our first property at the beginning of February. Exchange and complete on the same day and it was about a month before lockdown so it wasn’t because of that - so absolutely possible.

Our first solicitor was awful - her assistant kept making things up and constantly fobbing me off, and it turned out it was because the solicitor wasn’t doing the work she’d claimed she’d been doing. I was tearing my hair out. In the end, I complained about her to the senior solicitors and they moved me off her caseload and onto one of the seniors. It took about six months to buy a property in no chain ie we were renting and the property was empty.