Stroppy Solicitors

[SpnBaby1967]

We emailed our solicitors this morning as we know out of 12 queries our Sellers still have 9 to respond to.

Anxious to keep things moving we asked out solicitor to chase our sellers solicitor this week but she has sent a right stroppy response back about managing our expectations.

We have emailed back stating we're not suggesting she isnt doing a good job, and our concerns lie with our sellers solicitor but as she is the conduit we have to them is it not reasonable for us to expect she chase them a bit?

All we have left is our boiler certificate which has been delayed by the company just not bothering to show up for the prebooked appt. Unless our buyer comes back with any further queries we are done. Therefore, its the seller who needs chasing.

Were we being unreasonable asking our solicitor to be chasing a bit more? At the moment she gives a week for replay to anything she sends, and these weeks are flying past with no progress.

Our chain is cash buyer, us, seller - so its not a big chain either.

Whats annoying is the EA for the seller keeps chasing US!

How long have you been waiting, we are in a similar chain and been going through this since Jan

Ask your agent to help chase, it’s their job to liaise with all parties.

@Leigh8721

How long have you been waiting, we are in a similar chain and been going through this since Jan

That’s shocking!!!

@Leigh8721

How long have you been waiting, we are in a similar chain and been going through this since Jan

Wowsers, not that long! We started the process in the first few days of April.

I know its unlikely to be done by the end of the stamp duty holiday, but would be great if it could be. But i'm more concerned that our seller is just a bit too relaxed l in their speed at replying whereas we get everything back within days, if not hours and its our sellers chasing us.

Think you will struggle to beat the stamp duty everything is taking so long especially the local searches.

Whats annoying is the EA for the seller keeps chasing US!

Explain to the EA that they need to chase the solicitor acting for their vendor.

It is likely that your solicitor might have somewhere between 100 - 150 files on the go right now and probably hasn't got time to chase the other side of each transaction.

YANBU! They charge an arm and a leg and do very little unless promoted (in my experience). You're their client and your not paying them a fortune for nothing.

As for managing your expectations... you expect a proactive and professional level of service, that's what you're paying for!

YANBU! They charge an arm and a leg and do very little unless promoted (in my experience). You're their client and your not paying them a fortune for nothing

That's interesting, because I've always felt that conveyancing is incredibly cheap for what it is, and is the main reason why solicitors have to take on so many files at one time in order to make it commercially viable.

£1500 - £2000 for the purchase, maybe a bit less for sale, £1000 - £1200. Doesn't seem too bad for employing a qualified legal professional.

What you think £2000 for someone who takes a week to reply is good value. Maybe if they were more efficient and updated their customers people would pay more and they wouldn't need to have so many cases!
What a silly answer to the Op and utterly pointless

What a silly answer to the Op and utterly pointless

I wasn't replying to the OP, I was replying to a previous poster who commented that conveyancing solicitors charge 'an arm and a leg.'

The world of conveyancing is probably as busy right now as it's ever been, and as such expectations need to reflect that responses will take longer than normal.

@Mildura

YANBU! They charge an arm and a leg and do very little unless promoted (in my experience). You're their client and your not paying them a fortune for nothing

That's interesting, because I've always felt that conveyancing is incredibly cheap for what it is, and is the main reason why solicitors have to take on so many files at one time in order to make it commercially viable.

£1500 - £2000 for the purchase, maybe a bit less for sale, £1000 - £1200. Doesn't seem too bad for employing a qualified legal professional.

Conveyancing is amongst the lowest paid of all legal services, arguably lowest paid per hour spent. But has the highest rate of indemnity insurance claims and insurance premiums are the most expensive vs any other practice area.

Go figure.

@Mildura I moved house recently and paid just shy of £5k for sale and purchase so I suppose it depends where you live.

Regardless, any amount of money for substandard service is not on. I agree with @Leigh8721, a client pays for a service, it's irrelevant how busy solicitors are. If they can't provide good customer service then they aren't worth their fee in my opinion.

is the main reason why solicitors have to take on so many files at one time in order to make it commercially viable.

A race to the bottom and why so many unqualified people now handle cases.

I don’t dispute OP’s crappy service though. Sorry to join the derail.

@Leigh8721 but it's not the solicitor replying to much of the queries. It may be the client who has to chase down a certificate, or land registry that has a contradictory report, or planning, or searches, management packs, leases etc that have to be read through, summarised then queried or clarified via the relevant parties (and property management agents can take weeks to reply). It's not just 'when was the boiler last serviced' questions.
I feel my solicitor gives very good value.

Conveyancing is amongst the lowest paid of all legal services, arguably lowest paid per hour spent. But has the highest rate of indemnity insurance claims and insurance premiums are the most expensive vs any other practice area

Indeed - nobody enters a career in law dreaming of residential conveyancing.

@Mildura

Conveyancing is amongst the lowest paid of all legal services, arguably lowest paid per hour spent. But has the highest rate of indemnity insurance claims and insurance premiums are the most expensive vs any other practice area

Indeed - nobody enters a career in law dreaming of residential conveyancing.

Yep - I'm a solicitor and I'd rather leave the profession than be a residential conveyancer. Masses of risk involved but no budget to spend time looking at things properly, and for 95% of your clients this is the most important thing going on in their lives so (unsurprisingly) they want gold star service.

Yep - I'm a solicitor and I'd rather leave the profession than be a residential conveyancer. Masses of risk involved but no budget to spend time looking at things properly, and for 95% of your clients this is the most important thing going on in their lives so (unsurprisingly) they want gold star service.

Same here.

Managing expectations is a good thing, to my mind. You need to accept that they're rushed off their feet due to the SDLT holiday, and can't magic up experienced and competent conveyancers at the drop of a hat to cope with demand.

That doesn't mean some aren't also rubbish at providing a service, but there are only so many hours in a day.

You really haven't been waiting that long, and you're not the only client.

@Mildura I moved house recently and paid just shy of £5k for sale and purchase so I suppose it depends where you live

And depends on who you choose to intruct. Different firms will have different pricing structures.

I think it's probably a pretty sensible thing to pay a bit more and get a better service, from a solicitor who is juggling fewer clients.

We changed solicitors because our original ones said they wouldn’t start work for a few weeks so they could focus on the current back log for June.

I don’t expect to get through for the end of June, but I also don’t want to be left to July before anything happens!

Definitely see if the EA has any more luck.

It's not so much that we think she isnt busy or anything, but we're paying her to chase the solicitors of our sellers. If we could chase them, we would!

We dont want miracles, we just want a proactive service and certainly dont expect stroppy responses. We were really polite, we both work in jobs ourselves with stroppy customers so we know what is a reasonable way to enquire and frankly her response took us back.

@Leigh8721

Think you will struggle to beat the stamp duty everything is taking so long especially the local searches.

We have our searches back, as do our buyers.

Our sellers are getting ones from the previous people who were going to buy that plot (new build) but then decided to buy a new build on a different scheme. I dont really understand this.

we're paying her to chase the solicitors of our sellers

The EA acting for your vendor is likely to be more effective in chasing the solicitors on your sellers side.

I don’t blame you for wanting a polite response OP, but you’re paying for her legal expertise. Not chasing ability. As I’ve said upthread, chain chasing is the agents domain.

@Mildura

we're paying her to chase the solicitors of our sellers

The EA acting for your vendor is likely to be more effective in chasing the solicitors on your sellers side.

Absolutely this! - and don't forget the EA is getting paid several times as much to make sure the sale goes through. 30 years ago the EA and the solicitor both got about £600 from a sale, but the EA got a fixed percentage. Looking at the boom in property prices, that 1-2% is now worth 5k-10k on a £500,000 house and the solicitors' prices haven't risen at the same rate despite needing a couple of expensive degrees, lots of professional training, practising certificates and insurance.

Chasing up boiler certificates is the EA's job. Legal advice and title investigation is the lawyer's job, and they're under so much pressure at the moment, I have friends in such firms dying to get out.

Faffing about composing formal emails to "urgently request piddling certificates on behalf of my clients" several times a week is a waste of her valuable time. (It usually has to take some form of professional courtesy, you don't just go "hi Mrs S wants the cert, can you get your guys on it ASAP thx bye").

The EA is usually happy to ring around everyone at the drop of a hat and doesn't need to compose formal correspondence, time record it or file the email.