Are all solicitors like this now?
Discussion
Excuse me since I live in France, but my original solicitors, who had held deeds to several properties, went bust a few years back. I moved to another firm and sold one of the properties, leaving the remaining set of deed with them. Cash deal, no chain, and it took six weeks. Now I am selling the second, two flats in one building, again cash buyer and no chain. In the meantime a new person has taken over the conveyancing side following the retirement of a partner. They have demanded £350 up front which I didn't notice in the long documentation, they didn't chase me up and so didn't start preparing a contract for four weeks until I had queried progress and then paid the required sum. Three months later I get no answer, unless I really push, to my emails nor can I get through on the phone. They don't have a reception, just "press 1 for conveyancing, 2 for wills, 3 for accounts and so on. Voicemail is unanswered. The purchaser is tearing his hair out, we seem no further forward and that is now three months for a simple sale and purchase. Now I hear they need a document from the local council and it is £40. yes, 40 pounds, but they want even that money up front before getting the document.
My question is simple; is this the norm in the UK now?
My question is simple; is this the norm in the UK now?
When I bought my flat my financial advisor told me that if someone offered the same money as me I was to challenge them to a 'contract race' I think he called it.
I would need to take a couple of days off work with a full tank of petrol and be prepared to drive the documents about as and where required.
His personnal best from acceptance of offer to completion and handover of keys was 3 days.
Tell your Solicitor to FRO and instruct one that understands the concept of working for a living.
I would need to take a couple of days off work with a full tank of petrol and be prepared to drive the documents about as and where required.
His personnal best from acceptance of offer to completion and handover of keys was 3 days.
Tell your Solicitor to FRO and instruct one that understands the concept of working for a living.
TooMany2cvs said:
Unless you bought the flats, and there's been no lease, ownership or mortgage change, since the 1980s, forget deeds. They're irrelevant if the flats are registered with the land registry.
As for this solicitor, find a better one.
Er, not entirely. There should be an original lease. It is not absolutely essential but it should exist and be available.As for this solicitor, find a better one.
That said it does not affect the timing issues at all but what the OP describes is typical of the sort of volume conveyancing that has replaced personal service. The overwhelming reason for that is cost and the biggest contributors to cost are not really legal issues. On a sale of a flat a seller's conveyancer will need up to date details on buildings insurance, ground rent receipts, service charge, anticipated future expenditure and a host of other minor scraps of information that all appear only when someone chases them up.
Our firm provides a proper old fashioned personal service but prices start at £2.5k plus VAT and would almost certainly be more for selling a flat.
Most people don't want to spend this but we focus on higher end properties or on HNW clients who appreciate the personal touch and don't have that much of an issue with price.
We feel that we offer good value because we operate to the client's needs. That means you can generally talk to your solicitor at 7pm (or 7am for that matter) if there is something critically urgent and that is the only time of the day that you are free or if you are in a different time zone and that is the best overlap.
As it was in the past and as it will be in the future, you get what you pay for.
I forgot to mention that this was, when I bought it in 1988, a butcher's shop and house next door which I transformed into offices for myself and then into two flats when I sold the company. It will now return to being a shop, so leases etc. are spurious. One flat is empty and the tenancy agreement on the other was supplied two months back. Five times my managing agents have supplied the gas certificates. There are no mortgages and none needed for the purchase. Oh, and the actual last matter relates to an indemnity in case the church requires funds from each house owner in the parish to reroof the church! Since the property is land registered and all works carried out over five years ago I really can't see what is taking so much time. I have now informed the solicitor that I will take the matter up with the Law Society complaints department. Except the person responsible at the solicitors is on holiday for the next few weeks.
lowdrag said:
Oh, and the actual last matter relates to an indemnity in case the church requires funds from each house owner in the parish to reroof the church! Since the property is land registered and all works carried out over five years ago I really can't see what is taking so much time.
Oh oh, not so fast. Looks like you are a lay rector who is saddled with the dreaded Chancel Repair Liability. Before 2003 many people were blissfully unaware of the potential Sword of Damocles hanging over them and thus had no indemnity insurance cover. A very expensive lesson as the Wallbanks discovered to their cost.http://www.ecclawsoc.org.uk/2003-case-reports/3-as...
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200203/...
PCCs had until October 13th 2013 to register the properties which were subject to chancel repair liability (CRL) and inform the Land Registry - http://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2012/08/rush-to-...
Some PCCs have since revoked the registration after a backlash by those affected - http://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2014/04/another-...
The indemnity insurance could well be an issue which is contributing to the delay. You may find these links of interest.
http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/law/bill-looks-to-abol...
http://www.lawandreligionuk.com/2015/06/17/why-ref...
Lord Avebury's Bill had its first reading this summer - http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/chance... - whether it will be any more successful than previous attempts at abolition remains to be seen. I have grave doubts and, even if it does, there is a long road still ahead. Very few Private Members Bills succeed (and those first introduced in the HoL are rarer still) - http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-informa... Without government backing to secure the necessary Parliamentary time they soon become strangled and die.
Church indemnity or not, the question is why did they wait three months before thinking about it? The whole episode seems to be one of "I haven't asked for that yet" or asking, like the gas certificates, five times forgetting they already had them. Last week it was the 20077 planning consent for replacing the roof, something they asked me about two months ago and which I replied I didn't have. They did nothing about it until last Friday.
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