Poor solicitor service

dazeruk

I'm in the process of purchasing my first property.

The conveyancing solicitor I'm using was recommended to me, but I'm finding them pretty useless.

I was sent a copy of my Homebuyers survey about three weeks ago, which I passed onto the solicitor to check. They said they would only look at the legal issues raised in the report and would need an extra payment of £125 to look at it as a whole. I agreed to this payment. The property is leasehold and I wanted someone to look into a number of the issues raised and determine who was responsible. Three weeks later and I still haven't had any feedback on the report.

I have today formally requested a copy of their survey 'review' and stated that if it wasn't carried out then this charge should not appear on my account.

We are also now getting close to their estimated day of exchange.

If this charge does appear, how should I handle it?

I know I have to pay 10% of purchase price plus solicitors fees at exchange. Should I pay their full amount and then query?

I don't want a dispute of fees to hold up exchange. If they insist their fees are correct could they claim the full deposit hasn't been sent?

kingstreet

The solicitor should examine the lease as a matter of course. The survey has absolutely no relevance to that. I'm not sure what you want the solicitor to tell you about a survey and why you'd spend £125 on it.

Maybe others will have better ideas...

sonastin

I suppose the solicitor could be checking which items in the survey are your responsibility under the lease and which items you can realistically expect the freeholder to be repairing. From that it would be worth asking the solicitor to make enquiries as to whether the freeholder or management company has any plans for addressing the items in the survey and if so, how that is going to be paid for (part of sink fund, additional service charge, etc). If that is what he is doing, it could take some time as it depends on when/if he gets an answer from the management co.

But if you are asking your solicitor to tell you what the survey says and if you need to be worried about it... well you might as well ask your plumber if the electrics are any good - he might be more knowledgeable than you because he's seen a bit more of that kind of stuff but it really isn't his field of expertise and you shouldn't be relying on his advice.

dazeruk

sonastin wrote: »

I suppose the solicitor could be checking which items in the survey are your responsibility under the lease and which items you can realistically expect the freeholder to be repairing. From that it would be worth asking the solicitor to make enquiries as to whether the freeholder or management company has any plans for addressing the items in the survey and if so, how that is going to be paid for (part of sink fund, additional service charge, etc). If that is what he is doing, it could take some time as it depends on when/if he gets an answer from the management co.

This.

sonastin wrote: »

But if you are asking your solicitor to tell you what the survey says and if you need to be worried about it... well you might as well ask your plumber if the electrics are any good - he might be more knowledgeable than you because he's seen a bit more of that kind of stuff but it really isn't his field of expertise and you shouldn't be relying on his advice.

Not this.

Anyway not the question I was asking.

If they did no work on the survey and still charge for it, what is the best way to handle this and not delay exchange?