Reply With QuoteSounds bad.
Try this:
https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/en/pub...ut-a-solicitor
We have been trying to buy a flat for investment purposes and have had terrible service with a conveyancing company, its a cash purchase so no drawn out mortgage times, no chain either end and both the seller and us are using the same conveyancing company to help speed up the process.
The property has a difficult leasehold issue which means we will probably need to pull out, one of the problems is that this was not raised by our solicitor until over 3 months after instruction, now I'm not expecting problems like this to be raised in a week especially with the recent stamp duty holiday but 3 months is surely too long to raise a major concern?
During this time and beyond (we are at 4 1/2 months now), I would get no reply from emails other than auto response, phone call messages direct to my solicitor would not get a call back, the agent who recommended them apologised as he said lots of his other clients are having trouble and they have removed them from their recommended list, with that I emailed the CEO and had a response from the head solicitor who didn't seem pleased I contacted him!
Contact picked up but its all gone cold again, with that I would feel aggrieved to pay for any work they have done if we pull out, I paid for an insurance which covers costs if the purchase falls through but I'm not sure this covers us if we are the people to be pulling out, I did call to ask this question but again no reply.
Any other line of work you would not pay for such bad service, but being solicitors I feel they will use their expertise to demand payment?
Advice would be greatly appreciated
Sounds bad.
Try this:
https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/en/pub...ut-a-solicitor
Sounds like all conveyancers to me. Mine was the same when we bought this place.
I would say you will not pay, set out your reasons and get them to reply to each point with evidence to back their stance, I feel you may be on a loser though - it’s worth a try.
The market was hectic recently and all conveyancing services were swamped apparently, thats no excuse though. You are paying for a service and they are charging top money.
If you ever use a conveyancer recommended by an estate agent or mortgage broker ask them one simple question……”will you be receiving a referral fee?” If the answer is yes, then look elsewhere. The vast majority of agents will be getting a kick back of around £250 if you use one of their referred conveyances. They don’t recommend them because they’re any good, simply because they get paid. They’re supposed to tell you about the referral fee but it will be hidden in small print somewhere.
Much better using a firm recommended by friends/family/colleagues who have received good service. There are some good firms out there (generally small/local/family firms of solicitors and not the big Conveyancing factories). If anyone mentions a “team” then also run a mile, it’s code for a load of untrained monkeys doing the donkey work overseen by one person.
If they have genuinely been crap snd you have a legitimate complaint, (sounds like you do) refuse to pay, they’re unlikely to pursue you as it’s not worth the hassle of a drawn out complaint
Same problem here...buying a new house and if it wasn't for the house builder chasing them up i wouldn't have a clue what's going on.I have bought a number of houses and never had such bad service...and don't get me started on how useless doctors are at the moment.Originally Posted by Sinnlover
This x 100.
From a solicitor in a small/local/family firm and not a big conveyancing factory.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I had this situation with an accountant I used a couple of years ago. She was terrible and I got fed up of it so I 1) contacted her professional body (anonymously, neither mentioning my or her name) and discussed the situation with them. They said it sounded as if I wasn’t receiving the appropriate support and that I should write to her, listing the failings and mention I had discussed the situation with her professional body who had recommended this course of action.
She never once tried to deny anything. She waived her final two involves and completed the handover work to my new accountant without making a peep. I got the impression she had “outgrown” a little business like mine and it simply wasn’t worth the effort to her anymore. I was just relieved to move onto someone who actually gave a damn!
Good luck OP - I would definitely speak to the professional body. From my experience they were very good and willing to discuss the situation openly and fairly.
Thank you all especially the link above, think I will investigate the details with a professional body first before responding to them.
Someone mentioned about the SDLT holiday, I now know the conveyancers I used just took on every job coming to them creating a bottle neck of work where others were not taking on what they couldn't handle.
Before our next purchase we really need a good solicitor, it makes all the difference!
Try to find someone local, face to face dealing has many advantages! I used a local firm last year for buying and selling and they were excellent, being able to call in saved time when supplying documents and signing stuff.
I've never had a good experience with a solicitor, from my divorce to house buying they've always dragged their feet and have been saved from horrific F*c*-ups by luck and serendipity.
Our last house buy ended with us and our movers sat outside our new place waiting for a local councils computer system to reset because paperwork that should have been submitted weeks before the move in date were submitted on the day. They then had the gall to mess up our billing and charge us an extra £700 3 months later.
My divorce and subsequent child custody battle only went in my favour because my ex had a melt down at the judge and was removed from the court room, after that a bowl of tepid porridge could have won custody for me - which is lucky as this is exactly what my solicitor resembled.
In both these cases I used the same firm (albeit different branches) which started out as a small independent when my parents used them, which subsequently got bought and sold through the years, each time getting worse afaict.
Delays seem particularly bad at the moment.
We had a similar experience, no responses to emails or calls for weeks, long delays between actions, etc when buying a flat recently.
No chain involved, we were buying for investment, seller had moved in with her boyfriend.
Took 4 months, but it seems that's actually pretty quick at the moment.
What did seem to spur our solicitor into action was when we and the seller started copying each other in on emails to our solicitors...
M
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