Lying solicitor

[AllesAusLiebe]

Hi everyone, just wondered whether there are any experiences of similar, as I don't know what to do.

Long story short - we accepted an offer on our property in May, had an offer accepted on a property we wanted to buy at the beginning of June. I instructed the solicitor to handle both the sale and purchase in the first week of June.

We still have no completion date.

Our buyers are FTB, the lady whose house we're buying is moving in with her partner, so no real chain to speak of. Both EAs are calling me to ask what was going on, as it's taking such a long time. Here's a brief rundown of what has happened until now - should I be taking this further?

Sale
Our buyer's solicitor claimed to have sent enquiries 3 times to ours without a reply. Our solicitor denies this, but the EA has seen copies of emails sent which seem to prove that buyer's solicitor is telling the truth.

We eventually found out on Monday that the buyer's solicitor sent 65 queries. Our solicitor sent all of these to us to answer, which we did on Monday night. I'm pretty pissed off that we had to do this work, but agreed to do it in the hope that it would speed things along.

Purchase
DH and I have previously called the solicitor to request updates and have been told that they're waiting for the searches to be returned.

I spoke to our solicitor on Monday and they advised that our searches had just been returned that day.

Subsequently, they claimed to have sent enquiries to the seller on the 3rd July and have not had a response. Seller's solicitor denies this and said that they first received enquiries at 4:57pm on Tuesday night. If there really was a delay, I'm struggling to understand why when DH and I have called for updates, they haven't told us. I'm also struggling to understand how our solicitor could have been raising enquiries while they were still waiting for the searches to be returned? Seems odd to me.

There have been other low-level problems - solicitor not communicating with us, and not returning my calls. Our file has been passed around, so no continuity either.

I'm wondering whether to contact the Ombudsman, or whether to just suck it up and accept that we've been taken for a ride. Surely there are professional conduct rules in place to prevent these people lying to clients? Thanks for reading. x

Get the EAs to liaise with the solicitors. They want the fees so have a vested interest in keeping things on the boil.

you wouldn’t be us using a firm that starts with T and is based around Birmingham? If you are run for the hills, take the loss and change soliciters. our buyer is using a these idiots and we are currently on month 9, small chain. We are at the point where everyone’s searches and mortgages are expiring and we still don’t have an exchange or completion date.

It’s been horrible, to the point where our solicitors have emailed them calling them unprofessional and incompetent. They don’t respond, don’t answer the phones, take 2 weeks to answer email enquiries from our solicitor. The left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing. we’ve seen the email chain from our solicitor and it appears our buyers have had 3 different people acting for them because they keep getting passed around. Honestly, if it’s not going well, change solicitors now, it’s definitely not going to get better.

Ask for your file to be reviewed by a manager. Those who make the most noise get deal with the quickest.

Are you using a local firm or the dreadful online conveyancer companies?

Thanks everyone for the replies. I've emailed the solicitor's office this morning re: handing my file over. The issue is that the guy who we're dealing with purports to be a senior, so I'm not sure to what extent I'll be able to escalate things. I've asked for the manager to call me back anyway, so hopefully, I'll get somewhere with him/her.

It's a local firm that we're using who were recommended to us by someone who had used them for a really tricky probate transaction. I don't believe this clown we're dealing with could ever warrant a recommendation, so I guess it must've been a different solictor at the firm!

@LoyalCrab no, I'm in the North East - this issue may be more common than I realised! I can definitely identify with the communication problems. That sounds terrible - really hope you get sorted. Shocking amount of time.

We’re having similar issues with a house we are buying. The estate agents have been so helpful so I’d go and see them/speak to them and ask what they could do to help.

Sorry to see you’re having trouble OP.

Raising enquiries before the search results are back is fine. The local search in particular can take a while.