How long for draft contract?

seabright

G_M wrote: »

Hi seabright - I welcome your expertise and comments on the forum but have to comment and raise the issue for posters generally:

charging by time for conveyancing is not, I believe, the norm (though I accept a minority of solicitors do it.)

Certainly my advice to posters here would be to get a fixed price from their conveyancer, including a clear breakdown of which extras/disbursements etc are included/excluded.

Except in perhaps a very small minority of cases where the conveyance is in some way unusual/complex eg perhaps unregistered land.

Would welcome your view.

Hi G-M. I personally do very little fixed-fee work. I always give an estimate (as required by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority) and 90-95% come in at or under it. The only fixed-fee operators I know of in my area are the "knock it out quick" firms, and I get a lot of business from their ex-customers, which probably tells you something!

Yes, always get an estimate, but realise the cheap isn't always best with property law - many/most of the "cheap" firms have lots unqualified people doing the work overseen by one qualified person. You're paying a lot of money for your house, you want to be sure you're getting a service that's good.

I do "normal" property transactions, but also do a lot of the more unusual cases too - adverse possession/squatter's rights, lack of easements and rights, drainage issues etc, which are virtually impossible to do fixed-fee.

Richard_Webster

Hi G-M. I personally do very little fixed-fee work. I always give an estimate (as required by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority) and 90-95% come in at or under it. The only fixed-fee operators I know of in my area are the "knock it out quick" firms, and I get a lot of business from their ex-customers, which probably tells you something!

Yes, always get an estimate, but realise the cheap isn't always best with property law - many/most of the "cheap" firms have lots unqualified people doing the work overseen by one qualified person. You're paying a lot of money for your house, you want to be sure you're getting a service that's good.

I do "normal" property transactions, but also do a lot of the more unusual cases too - adverse possession/squatter's rights, lack of easements and rights, drainage issues etc, which are virtually impossible to do fixed-fee.

Unusual cases are difficult to do for fixed fees and that is understood.

I wouldn't entirely agree with the general line. I tell clients that the figure is an estimate but then emphasise that it is very rare to depart from it but that I do have to protect my back against doing loads of extra work in extreme cases.

May be we are saying the same thing - its just that I feel a client would feel aggrieved if we say had a difficult solicitor on the other side and therefore I spent an hour longer than normal - a pain for me - but frankly I would spend an awful lot of time pacifying my client if I charged him for the extra time - it would not end up being cost effective because of the stress and time spent on the argument and I would not get repeat business. So I don't ask for more money unless it is pretty obvious to the client that I am putting myself out for them.

timmyt

solicitors are not usually slow, after all they do not get paid until the deal completes. most of the time it is the client who is slow at giving the lawyer what they need or expressly tell the lawyer to go slow.

ask the estate agent to speak to the slow lawyers client to see what the problem is...it won't be a slow lawyer