Buyer enquiries - should my conveyancer be being more helpful?

[CarrotyO]

I am selling my house. My conveyancer sent the buyer's enquiries to me a month ago via email. I answered as best as I could but I didn't understand some of them, and so my email response to my conveyancer for some of the questions was along the lines of "I don't know how to answer this question. (And then my attempt to explain the peculiarities of my house)." I expected her to give me advice on how to answer / to call me to discuss. I didn't get a response from her. I emailed her once a week, and after 3 weeks she finally responded to me to say she had sent partial responses to them. I asked to see how she had responded. She let me see her responses one week later on 29th November. She had copied out verbatim my clearly confused explanations to her about my house. Needless to say the buyer's conveyancer was not satisfied with the answers. My answers were intended for her benefit. I thought she was the expert and would help me answer in a professional way. Am I completely mistaken here? I've tried searching on google but can't find any information about what I can actually expect from my conveyancer. The latest email from her is asking me to "confirm the covenants contained in the deed of grant have been observed" and directing me to page 5 of a very old and confusing document. Is it right that she isn't explaining anything to me? She doesn't respond to my emails, and clearly doesn't like it when I phone her. I tried this once and she sounded very unhappy to have received a call. I get the impression she is super busy and I don't want to be a burden that is disrupting her work flow if my calls will slow her down. I would love to hear about the service other people got from their conveyancer, and especially in regards to the buyer enquiries stage. Are we expected to know how to answer these complicated questions ourselves?

No. She sounds shit. My old conveyancer always used to send me drafts of any communications to the seller's conveyancer for my approval before he sent them. And the very longest it took including our back and forths to understand one another was around 10 days.

They are really just an admin function. I'm similarly dissatisfied in mine, getting any actual advice is difficult. You could do your own conveyancing in theory! I wish I'd got an actual solicitor instead.

What sort of conveyancer is it? Local firm?

@Chewbecca No. It's an online firm - Premier Property Lawyers. I think I've made a big mistake going for them. I really regret not going for a local firm.

@KievLoverTwo That's really helpful to hear how other conveyancers approach this, and far more professional, thank you for sharing.

@Summerhillsquare Sorry to hear you're in the same boat, hope things improve for you.

It's an online firm - Premier Property Lawyers. I think I've made a big mistake going for them. I really regret not going for a local firm.

Their Trustpilot rating isn't as shocking as some I've seen.

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/premierpropertylawyers.com

Sounds like you now need to manage them. I.e., 'please can you draft a response for me to review before you send it to the vendor's conveyancer before the end of the week, thanks.'

They used to operate under the name 1st Property Lawyers and didn't have a good rep, I assume that's why they changed their name.

I used them years ago and they were truly shocking. I've never used an online conveyancer since. They repeatedly told me they hadn't received documents I'd sent to them, so I had to resort to sending everything Special Delivery. I was told for weeks they were still waiting for the contract to be sent and in the end I contacted my buyer's (the council) solicitor myself, who told me they'd sent the contract weeks before. I ended up being served with a Notice of Completion and called 1st Property and my conveyancer was on holiday, and what do you know... the contract was sat on her desk.

A lot of these companies take on far too much work and just fob you off to delay things. Always use a local solicitors now and hand deliver all documentation.

Just to add... the contract wasn't sat on her desk as she was on holiday. It had been there all along!

Sorry to hear that op but yes you did make a mistake using them. They are dreadful to deal with and not sure how they managed to achieve such good reviews. Did the Agents recommend them by any chance? Ask to speak to the Complaints Manager and pass on your comments. Your Solicitor cannot tell you what to say with replies to enquiries but they can guide you.

She sounds rubbish, a lot like the first conveyancer we used.

We hired someone else when we moved after that, and it was like chalk and cheese.

Which questions are you struggling with? Maybe we can help put them in plain English for you?

Former conveyancing solicitor here.

That is immensely poor service but seeing the firm name, I can't say I'm surprised unfortunately! It should go without saying that any legal jargon is translated into plain English for clients.

@KievLoverTwo The advice to manage her is great thank you, I will try that.

Lots of the Trustpilot reviews are excellent and I notice a familiar theme in those - people are satisfied when their conveyancer is a prompt and friendly communicator and guides them through the process. I guess they are a huge company, it is pot luck who you end up with, and they have an ineffective system for dealing with poor performance.

@pilates Thank you for the advice to make a complaint. I made a complaint and I have had a response from a manager (a fairly quick response to their credit). The manager has defended my conveyancer and doesn't acknowledge the substance of my complaint. I understand that a manager will defend their team member / their service, but it doesn't give me much confidence in their company or any confidence at all that the service will improve. I've asked if I can have a new conveyancer, they do clearly have lots of good ones.

@Stephisaur The latest question I couldn't answer was "Please confirm the covenants contained in the deed of grant have been observed – attached- see page5 “2. The purchasers and 3 the vendor”

The deed of grant is old and tricky to read in places (poor copy). It seems to be talking about a yearly £127 rent charge, but my house is freehold and I've never paid a rent charge so I have no idea how to answer this, or even what the question means.

Am I being lazy, should I be googling this and figuring it out myself rather than receiving advice/guidance from my conveyancer?

I responded to this question asking for help and I haven't had a response from her. Is it just a stalemate until I figure out how to answer this, without her help?

Previous question I struggled to answer were:

1. "Our clients valuation report makes reference to the property having the benefit of a balcony. Please confirm the same the balcony/landing and staircase fall within the curtilage of the property. Again the surveyor makes reference to the rear landing overhanging the neighboring property. Please advise us further in this regard and evidence the necessary rights required, should this be the case."

My answer: "I'm not sure how to answer this. It is a landing which extends across the back of both mine and my neighbour’s house but my neighbour doesn’t have access to it so never uses it. I use it as my back door opens on to it. From which there is a staircase down to the communal area at the back, which is where my bins are."

1. Please provide evidence as to your client's right to use the communal yard. Please all confirm no part of the same as been incorporated into the boundary of your client's property."

My answer: "I'm not sure how to answer this. It isn’t a yard/garden, it’s more like a back alley. This is where my bins are kept, and I take my bins out to the road through the communal alley. The whole street does the same."

1. For the sake of clarity please confirm there have been no alterations, additions, or extensions to the property since its original construction.

My answer: "I'm not sure how to answer this. The property hasn’t had any extensions or additions that I am aware of. It was built in 1880 so obviously has had alterations in that period (new windows, new guttering, etc). I’m not able to account for 140 years of alterations, I don’t have evidence of any of it.

For each of these answers, she removed the part where I said "I don't know how to answer this." and then sent the rest of my answer directly to the other side exactly as I had written it.

I am mortified that these answers have gone to the other side. I genuinely had no idea this would happen. I thought my conveyancer would turn them into professional answers, talk to me to help me understand the question and how to answer them. I feel embarrassed and a bit daft. There is no guidance or anything to explain that this is how the process works.

@popplego That's good to know! I am not getting anything translated into plain English.

OP the reason PPL have great trust pilot reviews is that they get the bad ones removed.

They are a nightmare to deal with and you don’t get the same conveyancer each time. If you are early in the process I would really recommend changing to a local solicitor rather than an online firm. Local ones are well worth the extra money.

Our chain fell apart as one person was using PPL - could never get hold of them. My friend has issues using them where they didn’t register a title correctly, she made a complaint and the CEO has a similar brash response denying any wrongdoing etc, like the manager’s response you received.

They also had a systems failure a few years ago, they were down for ages - google and you’ll see the news articles.

Regarding your last post OP - it's immensely lazy of your conveyancer and not something you should be having to Google to figure out yourself, please don't feel bad or embarrassed! You're paying for a service which includes advice, it's really very poor of them.

By way of an update: My case has finally been transferred to a different conveyancer within the same company, following my complaint and request for a new conveyancer. The new conveyancer is communicating well with me by phone and email. She has explained what the outstanding buyer enquiry is all about, and is effectively sorting it out on my behalf. It is like night and day, and we should be moving to completion in the New Year. It is a huge relief.

Thanks to the advice and comments on this thread. It was helpful to be reassured that what I was experiencing wasn't normal and that I could and should expect better. I do have empathy for my old conveyancer who was clearly struggling and didn't feel able to ask for help / wasn't being managed effectively and taught the basics of how to communicate with her clients, but I'm very glad to have someone more competent now.

I went with a local firm and they were hopeless and actually screamed at me.

Good conveyancers are VERY few and far between

I've used the same conveyancer twice in a year. She was excellent and very helpful. Would give advice not just forward stuff on. Yours is not helpful.