Solicitors - Are they all slow?!
Discussion
3 weeks in (4weeks on Monday since offer was accepted & solicitors instructed) and nothing has been done yet my solicitor is saying they can't start the searches until they receive a contract from the sellers.
Just seems so easy from a non legal sense but for the money I'm paying my solicitor id expect more, don't know if I'm just being impatient or not.
Just seems so easy from a non legal sense but for the money I'm paying my solicitor id expect more, don't know if I'm just being impatient or not.
As my Solicitor said to me yesterday, the process is only as fast as the slowest person involved. Which seems to be the Solicitors at the bottom of our chain.
We've been delayed yet again and no-one knows the reason, as said Solicitors are so uncommunicative. We accepted an offer on our house in the 1st week of January, from a buyer that was apparently completing in two weeks!
I think they are so slow because they spend every working hour thinking of lies to tell people!
We've been delayed yet again and no-one knows the reason, as said Solicitors are so uncommunicative. We accepted an offer on our house in the 1st week of January, from a buyer that was apparently completing in two weeks!
I think they are so slow because they spend every working hour thinking of lies to tell people!
They might have a policy of not forking out on disbursements unless they know the sale is fairly likely to go ahead as otherwise they may well not get paid back. You could offer to pay on account now, in order to speed things up ready for when the other side have found a sharp crayon.
Whatever you pay your super-responsive solicitor, if somebody else in a chain decided to go el cheapo warehouse sausage factory legal services dot com you may experience periods of non-activity to put it politely.
Whatever you pay your super-responsive solicitor, if somebody else in a chain decided to go el cheapo warehouse sausage factory legal services dot com you may experience periods of non-activity to put it politely.
andy43 said:
They might have a policy of not forking out on disbursements unless they know the sale is fairly likely to go ahead as otherwise they may well not get paid back. You could offer to pay on account now, in order to speed things up ready for when the other side have found a sharp crayon.
Whatever you pay your super-responsive solicitor, if somebody else in a chain decided to go el cheapo warehouse sausage factory legal services dot com you may experience periods of non-activity to put it politely.
Yep, looks that way. All being well the OP should be in for Xmas Whatever you pay your super-responsive solicitor, if somebody else in a chain decided to go el cheapo warehouse sausage factory legal services dot com you may experience periods of non-activity to put it politely.
As others have said if one party in a chain has picked their solicitor on the basis of typing "cheapest conveyancer" in Google the process will be slow and painful and there is nothing the decent solicitors/agent/purchasers etc in the chain can do about it.
I would advise when in the process of being offered on a property ask for who they will be using to do the conveyancing if it is cheapesthouselegalstuff.com or they don't know who they will be using then proceed with caution or even make condition of offer acceptance that they use another conveyancer.
I would advise when in the process of being offered on a property ask for who they will be using to do the conveyancing if it is cheapesthouselegalstuff.com or they don't know who they will be using then proceed with caution or even make condition of offer acceptance that they use another conveyancer.
andy43 said:
Whatever you pay your super-responsive solicitor, if somebody else in a chain decided to go el cheapo warehouse sausage factory legal services dot com you may experience periods of non-activity to put it politely.
One of my daughters used one of them after being leaned on by her building society, and they were fine. I'd have thought it's in their interest to try and push stuff through as quickly as possible, and they did.It seems solicitors are event driven - as in the OP; they wait for the contract, then do something. Then they wait for the searches to come back, etc.
Our experience is the opposite (FTB and no chains either side though). We instructed, signed and returned the instruction document with £300 fee and had searches well underway within a week of making an offer. 10 days from instruction to first batch of searches coming back (including the weekend).
Our solicitor went on holiday for 2 weeks and we are still ready to exchange a week quicker than the sellers (who have far less to do considering no chain!). Their solicitors are both rude and incompetent though so no surprises there. Having viewed their lazy attitude to several issues that have arisen, I would have cancelled their involvement weeks back if I was the seller. Hey ho, must have been cheap!
We are now waiting on them to get ready to exchange as they failed to pass the contracts to the buyers for signing despite us sending them back almost a week ago!
If you want to help move things forward, just involve the EA. They don't get paid until exchange and in our situation, the EA has been very motivated to keep on at the sellers solicitors as a result of this!
Our solicitor went on holiday for 2 weeks and we are still ready to exchange a week quicker than the sellers (who have far less to do considering no chain!). Their solicitors are both rude and incompetent though so no surprises there. Having viewed their lazy attitude to several issues that have arisen, I would have cancelled their involvement weeks back if I was the seller. Hey ho, must have been cheap!
We are now waiting on them to get ready to exchange as they failed to pass the contracts to the buyers for signing despite us sending them back almost a week ago!
If you want to help move things forward, just involve the EA. They don't get paid until exchange and in our situation, the EA has been very motivated to keep on at the sellers solicitors as a result of this!
Currently going through this ATM.
Our solicitor & broker for that matter, not to bother forking out for all the searches until we had the mortgage offer in writing (we had to alter offer last minute due to the surveyor down valuing the property).
They did say they could carry them out, but it was risking losing money if anything put a spanner in the works & the sale didnt go ahead.
Our solicitor & broker for that matter, not to bother forking out for all the searches until we had the mortgage offer in writing (we had to alter offer last minute due to the surveyor down valuing the property).
They did say they could carry them out, but it was risking losing money if anything put a spanner in the works & the sale didnt go ahead.
PositronicRay said:
One solicitor likened it to "herding cats"
That's a great term. the whole situation is bizarre re conveyancing lawyers. There was a race to the bottom 10 - 15 years ago and now everyone expects to pay £350 for the transaction (whilst paying an estate agent 10 times that amount to stick it on rightmove and accompany prospects on a few viewings).
The liability exposure is vast if they miss anything, so insurance premiums for prof neg are huge. The margins are daftly small given the foxed fees they charge. They are dealing with stressed house movers and in a complex process with all parties working at differing speeds (herding cats is the best description).
I have no idea how anyone makes a profit, let alone a half decent profit, doing residential conveyancing.
Doesn't help the OP, and lawyers are the last profession to ever gain sympathy, but I'd rather stack shelves in Tesco than be in this arena, and that would probably give me a better wage to boot.
My fiancée is in conveyance and I asked her the same thing.
Her response was if people paid the same to a solicitor as they do to an estate agent (that does b*gger all in reality) then it would get done faster as they could employ more people.
Its the back and forth correspondence that is the time consuming part so mix this in with 100's of other cases then that's where the time is lost.
Annoying I know but that's how it is unfortunately.
Her response was if people paid the same to a solicitor as they do to an estate agent (that does b*gger all in reality) then it would get done faster as they could employ more people.
Its the back and forth correspondence that is the time consuming part so mix this in with 100's of other cases then that's where the time is lost.
Annoying I know but that's how it is unfortunately.
theguvernor15 said:
Currently going through this ATM.
Our solicitor & broker for that matter, not to bother forking out for all the searches until we had the mortgage offer in writing (we had to alter offer last minute due to the surveyor down valuing the property).
They did say they could carry them out, but it was risking losing money if anything put a spanner in the works & the sale didnt go ahead.
My solicitor won't even start the searches until they receive a contract from the seller solicitors! Just seems stupid that the searches could be done in 2/3weeks (Lead time currently with the Local Authority) and then be in a position to do everything else nice and quick! but nope nothing! Already paid money onto the account did that when it started!Our solicitor & broker for that matter, not to bother forking out for all the searches until we had the mortgage offer in writing (we had to alter offer last minute due to the surveyor down valuing the property).
They did say they could carry them out, but it was risking losing money if anything put a spanner in the works & the sale didnt go ahead.
Dan_M5 said:
theguvernor15 said:
Currently going through this ATM.
Our solicitor & broker for that matter, not to bother forking out for all the searches until we had the mortgage offer in writing (we had to alter offer last minute due to the surveyor down valuing the property).
They did say they could carry them out, but it was risking losing money if anything put a spanner in the works & the sale didnt go ahead.
My solicitor won't even start the searches until they receive a contract from the seller solicitors! Just seems stupid that the searches could be done in 2/3weeks (Lead time currently with the Local Authority) and then be in a position to do everything else nice and quick! but nope nothing! Already paid money onto the account did that when it started!Our solicitor & broker for that matter, not to bother forking out for all the searches until we had the mortgage offer in writing (we had to alter offer last minute due to the surveyor down valuing the property).
They did say they could carry them out, but it was risking losing money if anything put a spanner in the works & the sale didnt go ahead.
You could do the searches for no10 Downing Street. You don't have to have any sale agreed or memo of sale or contracts, nothing. They are public records.
Edited by superlightr on Thursday 11th May 15:52
Shnozz said:
There was a race to the bottom 10 - 15 years ago and now everyone expects to pay £350 for the transaction (whilst paying an estate agent 10 times that amount to stick it on rightmove and accompany prospects on a few viewings).
The liability exposure is vast if they miss anything, so insurance premiums for prof neg are huge. The margins are daftly small given the foxed fees they charge. They are dealing with stressed house movers and in a complex process with all parties working at differing speeds (herding cats is the best description).
I have no idea how anyone makes a profit, let alone a half decent profit, doing residential conveyancing.
That sums it up. The liability exposure is vast if they miss anything, so insurance premiums for prof neg are huge. The margins are daftly small given the foxed fees they charge. They are dealing with stressed house movers and in a complex process with all parties working at differing speeds (herding cats is the best description).
I have no idea how anyone makes a profit, let alone a half decent profit, doing residential conveyancing.
Agent vs conveyancer fees are indeed about 10 to 1
Crazy.
andy43 said:
Shnozz said:
There was a race to the bottom 10 - 15 years ago and now everyone expects to pay £350 for the transaction (whilst paying an estate agent 10 times that amount to stick it on rightmove and accompany prospects on a few viewings).
The liability exposure is vast if they miss anything, so insurance premiums for prof neg are huge. The margins are daftly small given the foxed fees they charge. They are dealing with stressed house movers and in a complex process with all parties working at differing speeds (herding cats is the best description).
I have no idea how anyone makes a profit, let alone a half decent profit, doing residential conveyancing.
That sums it up. The liability exposure is vast if they miss anything, so insurance premiums for prof neg are huge. The margins are daftly small given the foxed fees they charge. They are dealing with stressed house movers and in a complex process with all parties working at differing speeds (herding cats is the best description).
I have no idea how anyone makes a profit, let alone a half decent profit, doing residential conveyancing.
Agent vs conveyancer fees are indeed about 10 to 1
Crazy.
Dan_M5 said:
My solicitor won't even start the searches until they receive a contract from the seller solicitors! Just seems stupid that the searches could be done in 2/3weeks (Lead time currently with the Local Authority) and then be in a position to do everything else nice and quick! but nope nothing! Already paid money onto the account did that when it started!
Well then:superlightr said:
as an ex- solicitor doing conveyancing in the distant past - yes they can do the searches they don't have to wait. ... They should follow your instructions.
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