Solicitor too busy to contact for 26 days

[Charmtaste]

We had an offer accepted on a house on the 4th May. Solicitor said she was initiating searches etc… she sent us the property forms in May, we responded with our queries for the vendor.

Our solicitor has now not responded to us or contacted us since the 30th of May. 26 days with no contact. We have no idea how our purchase is progressing, we don’t know if the vendors have answered our queries.

We have emailed her and we get an automatic reply telling us not to disturb them for general queries because of how busy they are due to SD holiday. I spoke with a secretary at the firm today and she agreed that no response for 26 days was poor. She tried to call our solicitor but came back and said she was too busy to speak to me.

So should I cut my losses and find another solicitor? I am reluctant to do that because we want to benefit from the stamp duty reduction in September. On the other hand if she is not actually progressing my purchase what do I have to lose?

Any thoughts welcome 🙏

I doubt you will find any other solicitor who will take a new instruction this side of the current deadline (end of June).

Does she not have an assistant that could give you an update and answer specific queries?

Good Estate Agents generally keep tabs on progress and often get a response from a solicitor, so you could ask your EA. They could also ask your vendors whether they have returned the PIF, F&F form etc, and ought to be able to give you an update.

I think instructing a new solicitor even if you can find one you wouldn't complete by September houses are currently taking average 5 months we sold in Jan and only completing on Tuesday. They will be priotising more advanced properties to make the June deadline at the minute.

If it is a very short chain, and no complications, you could / should be OK. Have you had the survey done?

Are you using a ‘proper solicitor’, or an online conveyancer?

Searches are taking 6 weeks to come back in some areas.

Some are taking 10 weeks

My solicitor sent me a quick email saying that she’d be able to speak after 30 June when the first bit of the SD holiday ends. Perhaps she’ll contact you after then? Or if you want to give her one more chance, you could send an email saying you’ll expect an update around the beginning of July and you think that’s more than reasonable?

Agreed that they may just be waiting for searches to come back and they are taking a ridiculous amount of time at the moment. Apparently land registrations are taking even longer!

@MarianneUnfaithful a proper solicitor in a big London firm.

I'd be contacting one if the firm's partners about this. Completely unreasonable of the solicitor.

I recently had this exact experience and ended up changing from a big firm to a smaller local one when our sellers were wanting updates and we couldn't give them one. Turns out the conveyancer had done nothing beyond verify our ID and the new one did more in 48hrs than they had done in six weeks. Things progressing nicely now so very glad we switched. However if your current solicitor has actually made some progress it might all be much of a muchness. Do you know how far they've got? If they aren't returning your calls you might be in same boat as me as in I assumed they had at least set the wheels in motion only to learn later they'd done nothing, not even request searches!

Thos is totally unacceptable. I'd be asking to speak to her senior partner or whomever. My solicitor has just been instructed this week on the third house I've been trying to buy since May. She is of course trying to get all her current clients over the deadline, and I know I come second in this. However, since Monday, she has: ordered searches, sent me whatever reports she received from sellers solicitor, scanned and sent me the property info forms and raised queries back to seller, looked up the land registry details to check for boundary issues before survey next week. I'm sure her assistant did much of this work, but I think that's pretty good.

I would make a complaint, expect them to apologise and rapidly pull their finger out. If they don’t, l would start with another company

@LopsidedWombat this is what I am worried about. I have had no contact for 26 days. I don’t even know if she has started the searches. All of my emails get the same automated reply about not bothering them because they are busy.

I find this paragraph in the automated response particularly rude

“ If you are emailing with a general request for an update, we would politely remind you that the time spent in responding to such requests will detract from the time available to actually progress necessary legal work to move on transactions”

Bollocks. They work for you at your convenience.

I'd put in a complaint too. 26 days is ludicrous!

That is not acceptable.

A Secretary/Assistant should be able to give you an update.

Complain to Senior Partner.

100% put a complaint in. You are paying them a service. If they’re too busy because of the SD deadline they shouldn’t take on new clients.

I wouldn’t bother finding a new solicitor as you’d be starting again but if it were me I’d phone and say you’d like to make an official complaint regarding the 26 days lack of contact (and arsey out of office!)

I would be unimpressed even by the solicitor a PP mentioned who said she would have time to speak with her after 30 June. But 26 days is ridiculous. It takes 2/3 minutes at most to check what stage a file is at and drop an email to a client.
I will be interested to see the reviews that start appearing on some conveyancer’s google results soon.
It’s a breach of professional duty to take on more work than you can effectively manage.

I asked my solicitor, in an e mail, when negotiating the instruction, if they had capacity to take on my conveyancing given the rush.
Got the reply in writing.

My EA had recommended them as a young ambitious efficient solicitor with an extremely efficient assistant… and so it turned out.

I’d probably cut her some slack til June 30 has passed. Most solicitors have taken on c. 4x as many transactions ahead of June 30, and before someone says “well they shouldn’t have!”, someone has to take on the excess work as you can’t magic up paralegals or change conveyancers from nowhere.

If you aren’t getting traction in the w/c 5th July, I’d start inquiring into the complaints process with the business development team or similar.

@Porridgeislife

I’d probably cut her some slack til June 30 has passed. Most solicitors have taken on c. 4x as many transactions ahead of June 30, and before someone says “well they shouldn’t have!”, someone has to take on the excess work as you can’t magic up paralegals or change conveyancers from nowhere.

If you aren’t getting traction in the w/c 5th July, I’d start inquiring into the complaints process with the business development team or similar.

No but they could have explained they were at or over capacity so that the OP could have gone elsewhere.

26 days is an unacceptable delay in reporting to you and their responses are simply rude. I would follow the complaints procedure set out in their initial client care letter to you which should have the name of the partner you should complain to in the first instance.

Porridge, you can and should say no. By taking on too many matters you know you’re not going to give a good service.

@pilates

Porridge, you can and should say no. By taking on too many matters you know you’re not going to give a good service.

It's rarely the individual conveyancer's choice in relation to file count, unfortunately. I imagine many aren't liking the situation much either.

The conveyancers I know are working pretty much round the clock at the moment - all are doing 12-14 hour days, because clients whose transactions are advanced are piling the pressure on to complete by 30th. At least one has had to be seen at A&E for stress-induced heart palpitations. Sorry but you just won't be a priority until the end of next week. There are only so many hours in the day and these are human beings under a great deal of pressure. Cut them a bit of slack.

@Charmtaste

I find this paragraph in the automated response particularly rude

“ If you are emailing with a general request for an update, we would politely remind you that the time spent in responding to such requests will detract from the time available to actually progress necessary legal work to move on transactions”

But it's true, though?