Solicitior closed over christmas break?

stevec59

I am selling my house, I just phoned the solicitors office to see when they are open over christmas, they shut tommorow (weds 22nd) lunchtime and don't open again until Jan 4th, is this standard?
I was hoping that there would be some progression with my sale, but I guess not :mad:

Are the banks open to exchange over christmmas, if my solicitor was open to do so?

Thanks

Steve

Keith

Most close...

Some of us aren't so lucky and have to work over the period, although it's very quiet as most staff are on AL and the majority of firms are closed.

stevec59

Thanks for the quick reply :beer:

If I had used a solicitor who was open over Christmas, would I be able to complete (if I was in a possition to do so), I.e. are the banks open to transfer the money etc?

Thanks again


Steve

poet123

Yes, all my friends/family who are in the legal profession are closed over the Xmas period, except those in crime;) who are covering the police stations as duty solicitors.

duchy

Even if your solicitor was an exception and open the chances are your seller's wouldn't be so nothing lost even though it's frustrating.

ginandtonic1988

stevec59 wrote: »

I am selling my house, I just phoned the solicitors office to see when they are open over christmas, they shut tommorow (weds 22nd) lunchtime and don't open again until Jan 4th, is this standard?
I was hoping that there would be some progression with my sale, but I guess not :mad:

Are the banks open to exchange over christmmas, if my solicitor was open to do so?

Thanks

Steve

Are you working over the christmas period?

Richard_Webster

It is fairly common. I'm shutting officially tonight at 5pm and reopening on 4th January. As I am on my own I get this short period over Christmas and 2-3 weeks in the summer where I have to pay someone else to run my office for me, so I don't think it is unreasonable to be shut. Because of the Stamp Duty land Tax changes back tot he £125K threshold in January I will actually be coming into the office on 30th December to do some completions to help my clients.

Nothing much happens over Christmas in conveyancing and OP might well find that the other solicitors are also closed for some or all of that period. Even places that are open will be running with smaller staffs so the ability to move things on will be less.

zzzLazyDaisy

When I was in practice many years ago we always closed between christmas and new year. Then we were taken over by a commercial firm based in London and with little idea of how we do things in the 'sticks'. They insisted that we stay open during the traditional christmas break, and even sent someone to manage the office as they didn't believe us when we said it was a complete waste of time as all other solictors firms would be closed.

There were a lot of over-paid filing clerks in work that year and the experiment was not repeated!

To be fair, more solicitors firms do open over christmas now, but few conveyancing firms/departments, as far as I know.

stevec59

Thanks all. I guess I was a liitle annoyed that my solicitor hadn't told me that they were closed over christmas, but if there is little that can be done, I guess there isn't much point.

Steve

goldbyron

It is really frustrating - however try and see it as a chance to take time out from the anxiety of the process.

PasturesNew

ginandtonic1988 wrote: »

Are you working over the christmas period?

I can see how the OP was surprised because in the main people working "normal jobs" will close on Xmas Day (Friday this week) and Boxing Day (next Monday in lieu), most offices would be open Mon-Thursday this week, then again Tuesday-Friday next week.

Certainly some industries shut down for Xmas (to save heating the building/where factories have processes that mean it's easier to have complete shutdowns), those staff would normally have had to set aside days from their annual leave to cater for those events ... and until this year and the questions on this forum I had no idea that conveyancing solicitors as an industry tended to close up for so long.

Banks will only be closed on Xmas Day and Boxing Day, so Fri-Mon as it's a weekend.

Maybe it's a historical thing as a lot of house purchases involve a new build somewhere and the building industry close down for about 2 weeks over Xmas.