Does your conveyancing solicitor actually provide legal advice?

[Shwish]

I'm asking because ours seems to just be a very expensive information collation service.
We've asked them a couple of legal questions such as whether in their opinion a restrictive covenant had been breached by a particular action of the seller, and whether all the necessary documents were in place for an extension (they've sent the documents but they're not standard so I don't know what they mean)and they seem to just avoid answering. Is this normal?
Are we basically paying thousands for an admin service? It is a law firm btw, not an online conveyors.
They are also incredibly rude and asked me to stop ringing them. I DID call 3 times yesterday but only because we are meant to be exchanging this week and I need these questions answered and they are ignoring emails. (3 phone calls was only because they didn't call back) They still haven't answered my questions.
What can I do?

Mine provided a pack on the transaction once all the information was in.

Nobody will do legal opinions for you over the phone. Getting a lawyer to form a legal opinion usually requires paying them for their time to do the research and even then there will be disclaimers on it.

Ok so the covenants question maybe won't get answered then I guess. Surely I can expect them to confirm whether or not the docs they've sent me for the extension are correct / enough to be considered compliant from a building regs perspective though? To be clear I'm not asking about the work itself, just that we have all the correct documentation. Otherwise really what is the point of a conveyancing solicitor? If it's just to apply for a load of searches and then pass them on, without even checking if everything is there I could have just done that myself? Would have been quicker as well because the local authority search is back within 48 hours if you order it direct. They use a third party so it takes 3 weeks.

The point of a conveyancing solicitor is that they will write a contract for you to buy a house that protects you and ideally makes sure the purchase goes smoothly.

Mostly they adapt standard contracts.

This is so, for example, if the seller refuses to move out on completion day you can sue them.

They will give opinions on things that they are qualified to give opinions on and that are included within what you are paying for. So my pack included an opinion on the leasehold.

They are not experts on building regs. Building regs have changed over time and depending on when the extension you are talking about was built it is actually very hard to give an opinion (even from a builder or someone who knows about these things) on whether it was compliant at the time.

That's the point of the documents. Ideally they show planning permission given (or not required at the time) plus building regs sign off (or not required at the time).

Yes see that's the thing. It wasn't signed off by the council but by a third party who have since gone into liquidation. I just want them to confirm that is enough. The entry on the register says "initial notice accepted". I want them to just tell me whether that's effectively "signed off" or not. To me that seems pretty basic - and very important!

Depends what you have paid them for.what does your contract with them say?

If you are waiting for a search, then it is likely you haven’t been reported to yet. So, give the solicitor a chance. He/she will probably set out advice in that, once has all information. Then raise questions.

Thanks. We're not waiting on a search though. We have everything back. I just don't know whether the extension is considered "signed off" based on what we've been sent as it's not a doc from the council (like all the others) it's from a third party. Surely that's not too much to ask?

I would expect the solicitor to raise this if they think it is of concern. Have you had the title report?

One thing to note: it's common for building control to be undertaken by approved 3rd parties rather than by the council, and is perfectly legit.

Yeah we've had the report on title. It doesn't actually SAY anything about it though. Just a bunch of docs.

A conveyancing solicitor will give you advice about you purchasing a good and marketable title, but the other issues/queries are normally covered by their enquiries, which they raise with the seller's solicitor, who in turn asks the seller.

If there are no additional documents forthcoming/available, the seller is 'not aware' that they've potentially breached a covenant, or that the sign off hasn't been completed, that's when your solicitor has to deal with the enquiry further, such as requiring an indemnity policy or request that the seller applies retrospectively to obtain certification. Obviously your solicitor cannot contact the seller directly, but any enquiries sent to the seller's side will need to be considered and resolved by the seller and their solicitor to your/your solicitor's satisfaction. As the buyer, you have to decide whether or not to proceed in the purchase, based on the response you get. You may have to take a view, i.e. you're not getting a satisfactory response to your enquiry, so you decide whether to continue in the purchase, or not.

Your solicitor does literally send you everything that they have received from the seller's solicitor and expect you to read the documents and query anything you are worried about. Don't do this in a telephone call, instead write it in an email as written evidence. It is much easier this way for the solicitor to forward your email directly to the seller's solicitor (with contact information redacted), rather than have to take your phone call, get the file out and write notes, then send an email later.

Notwithstanding the fact that they were rude on the phone - no excuse for that, you can probably find what you need to know online. The building regs for our loft conversion were done by a 3rd party. That's normal. You may also have a completion certificate and guarantee (depending on age of project) from the builder. If it was done under permitted development there won't be planning permission, but you can check building regs were filed on the council website by searching on the planning site. This will allow you to see any work that has been undertaken and even things like refs to Fensa certificates for any new windows. You might be able to find out if permitted development applies by searching online, but be aware that regs do change over time. If you still feel that there is missing documentation or a covenant has been breached, you can ask the vendor to take out indemnity insurance. This may be preferable to requesting they get retrospective certs from the council as that can take a long time. Be aware that you can't do both - if you indemnify, you must not inform the council as it voids the insurance.

Regarding the legal advice, I would expect a solicitor to call out an obvious covenant breach, but they get breached all the time - often because they make no sense in the 21st century - and nobody checks these things during development. They only come to light at sale time, and sometimes then they fly under the radar.