For all the conveyancers reading your posts - how can they improve?

timmyt

Seriously, and without being rude, for all the conveyancers reading your posts - how can they improve?

What would you like every conveyancer to do that - as potential clients - you would appreciate if they would do that some or all are not now doing?

(e.g return your emails/calls, explain things better etc)

googler

You posted the same question(s) a few months ago.

Didn't you like the answers you got then?

timmyt

googler wrote: »

You posted the same question(s) a few months ago.

Didn't you like the answers you got then?

i just cant find the original post, i must be going crackers - i cant even multi quote either

but happy to hear posters views again, as visiting NZ for a month from Thursday and can prepare some articles on the comments while I am away

hazyjo

I hate being ignored. I used to email with the same question over and over and then she'd get stroppy when she finally did answer. If she'd have just told in the first place what was happening, I wouldn't have to keep asking. She'd pick the questions she wanted to answer and ignore the rest.

We wanted to know how long a deed or variation would take over an indemnity policy (garages had never been assigned to the vendors), but she kept bloody ignoring us. In the end we had to do the DOV (or whatever it was called) anyway, but the annoying thing is we could have started it around three weeks prior if she'd only answered the damn question. She'd been waiting to hear back about the indemnity - which was never our first choice anyway. If she'd have said the DOV could be done in a week or two, we'd have just got that started from the beginning.

They seem to think they can only reply once they can answer your question. That's not what we want - we want to hear 'I've applied to the council/whoever, and will get back to you in a few days/weeks when I have the answer'. They just leave you in limbo not knowing if they've applied for whatever or not. Just one simple answer is sometimes all it takes. We were chasing up the searches for ages, under the impression they'd been applied for, then when she did finally reply (stroppily), she said they'd not been applied for yet as she needed some answers back from the vendors' solicitor (I think) before she could apply. Things like that were just so bloody frustrating. We wasted weeks on things.

We'd tell her to call the other side's solicitor, but she'd send them a letter, then say she'd had no reply - all several days later. It took at least a week to do anything.

OMG I feel stressed just thinking about it all again. Had 5 months of hell buying our house. The only decent lot were the EAs we were buying through! Can't praise them enough. They chased so much and got so involved. He was absolutely brilliant. I swear the purchase would have fallen through if it wasn't for him. I know he wanted his commission, but he did way over and above what would have been expected.

Jx

timmyt

yep i sympathise, we see that when we try and get hold of other conveyancers.

well no access to MSE now for 4 weeks (phew from the 'turf protectors' on here) but may September be as busy as July #

and remember if moving over the summer, get a decent conveyancer (qualified) for your money

DizzyDasher

Our solicitors were very good BUT as first time buyers it would have been really useful just to have a "1 page" run down of what was happening when (e.g. the solicitor was very efficient and sent out questions etc. very quickly, but we didn't actually see them until the answers came back). Similarly I wanted to see the actual sale contract I was signing in advance (she just sent me the changes) - apparently nobody ever asks for this and I was a first (though she was very happy to run me through it) - I guess this is horses for courses, maybe most people would genuinely prefer not to see it.

But in all other respects she was very good. She proactively kept us up to date with responses from the vendors, consulted us on timings on the searches etc. to coordinate this with the surveyors/engineers feedback, made sure we were clear on costs, insurance timings, etc. and explained issues around having an old extension (without buildings regs etc. but likely to pre-date all that) well, and also the transfer of a chemical DPC guarantee. She was always available on the phone, replied quickly and clearly to e-mails (e.g. numbered responses to questions so it was all very clear).

daisiegg

Send things off as soon as they are ready to be sent off...

Our solicitor has really annoyed us this week - I phoned on Monday only to be told that the contracts have been sitting on his desk all ready to go for a week, asked him to send them to us, he did. They arrived in the post on Wednesday morning and on Wednesday afternoon we were getting phoned saying "we really need those contracts back, the other side are really pushing to exchange asap" ....errrr, they had only arrived THAT MORNING, my partner was at work so hadn't even seen them yet, if the other side are pushing I guess it's because they thought it was all ready to go a week ago when you just didn't think to send them to us!

I'll stop before this turns into a giant rant rather than constructive advice...

nomoneytoday

timmyt wrote: »

Seriously, and without being rude, for all the conveyancers reading your posts - how can they improve?

By never being employed by me again..!
By not hiding fees in the small print.