Changing Conveyancing solicitor

[Theeasypeasywoman]

Hello everyone, I hope someone can help me with this. We are buying our first house and our current solicitor is providing very poor service. They never pick up our calls and never respond to where they are at the moment in handling case. They have really poor reviews all over the Internet and I blame myself for not researching about them before hand. We went with them because our previous estate agent (reeds rains) recommended them. All we have done so far is providing them documents and paid for searches and Its has been a month and no update whatsoever. My question is is it possible to change solicitor to avoid stress ? Will it be an easy process as As far as I know we only have to infor our bank, estate agent and seller's solicitor. Have you ever changed the conveyancing solicitor ?

I also forgot to mention that we are not in chain and the house we are buying is also not in chain. So I don't think It should take this long.

It shouldn't be difficult but you will likely end up paying more overall as you will have to pay the existing solicitor for the work done to date and then the fees of the new solicitor.

It's not hugely common but perfectly possible. The main caveat is that everyone is very busy at the moment so you may not find it easy to get someone new but if the firm is bad at this stage, definitely worth at least telling them that you are so disappointed that you are considering de-instructing them.

I'm not sure it's worth it, but I do understand the urge! We are in a similarly simple conveyance and our (allegedly good) solicitors are so bogged down they're delaying our sale. We found threatening to make a formal complaint created a small flurry of activity - have they applied for the searches yet? You need to be chasing constantly until they move you to the top of the pile to make you go away!

My buyers switched solicitors half way through...somehow managed to find someone even worse it's been 4 months since then and we just got back the searches 10 days ago and we still don't have any enquiries.

It's possible but it's worth phoning other solicitors first and checking whether they can take on the work and how long they would expect it to take. The ones near us are really busy and you would be 'at the back of the queue' again (I know it's not really a queue but you won't be priority).
If you can't find anyone better could you ask the EA to chase them up? If they refer a lot of work to them they might have a bit more sway. Some EA are really lazy at this once the sale is agreed but it is part of their job.

I think i would stick where you are but just contact them regularly for feedback. At the beginning of the purchase things do go a bit quiet and it feels like nothing is happening but solicitors are often waiting for firms to be completed by the seller before they can then raise enquiries. Christmas will also slow things down, let alone covid.

I would have a contract that they have to do x by Y date.

I have just re mortgaged, 2 solicitors started the work then pulled out, I suspect as too busy. I ended up with a hideously expensive one that I use at work but I knew they couldn’t pull out as my company is major client