Does my conveyancing solicitor sound any good?

lizzyshep

I first contacted my firm of solicitors back in October after I had put my flat on the market. A lady replied straight away saying she would be very happy to help me and gave me a breakdown of costs and what she needed from me to begin. She sounded very efficient so as soon as I got an offer at the start of Jan I instructed her and sent her a cheque to start the initial work and so she was ready to carry out searches on the house I was planning to buy. After I accepted the buyer's offer I found a house to buy within a week, had the offer accepted and informed my solicitor. She then sent me some forms to fill in which I took nearly a week to return because I had to find all the info. I also had to call my solicitor to ask for help on a couple of the questions, I called in the morning and again towards the end of the day, I was told she was very busy but she did call an hour later, sounded very nice and helped me with.the form. There was one form she had forgotten to send me but I got it 2 days later, sent it off immediately and she now has all the information. My buyer got their mortgage offer through 2 weeks ago and I got mine last week, so I feel like things are moving quickly. What has worried me is that the estate agent dealing with my sale called me 3 days ago and said the buyer's solicitor was asking why there was a delay in sending them the draft contract forms. It is only 3 weeks since we accepted the offer so I didn't feel things were being delayed! Anyway, I emailed my solicitor to tell her and ask if she knew when these forms would be sent out, I also emailed her yesterday with a different query but haven't had a reply. I know she is busy and don't want to harrass her but I have heard you need to keep on top of solicitors. I am always polite when I email so hope I don't come across as pushy. Should I call her today or wait for her to reply to my email? Also, I don't know if she has had any forms from my seller yet. What do you think, does it sound like my solicitor is being efficient and that everything is going at an acceptable pace? Thanks!

lizzyshep

Anyone got any immediate thoughts on this? I was planning to call my solicitor in a couple of hours, if she's not available I will leave a message to ask her to call me back today or Monday? Does this sound ok or too pushy?

kingstreet

Is the property you are selling freehold or leasehold?

What date did the selling agent issue the memorandum of sale to the respective parties?

lizzyshep

Thanks for the quick reply :-) I am selling a leasehold property. Is the memorandum of sale the document from my estate agent which said I have agreed to sell to the buyer, with the price, my and her details and solicitors details on it? If so, I think I got this about a week after I accepted the offer so 2 weeks ago, I assume the buyer got it the same time but I'm not certain.

Yorkie1

I'm sorry but your post is really difficult to read. Please could you edit it so that there are some paragraph breaks in it? A whole wall of text will be offputting to many people who might otherwise be inclinded to offer their comments.

Thrugelmir

lizzyshep wrote: »

What has worried me is that the estate agent dealing with my sale called me 3 days ago and said the buyer's solicitor was asking why there was a delay in sending them the draf contract forms.

The others party's solicitor wouldn't be communicating through the EA with you.

Sounds as if your purchaser is trying to speed the process up. When in reality their not achieving anything. Except waste peoples valuable time.

lizzyshep

Thanks for the replies. I wrote my first post on my mobile this morning which is why there are no breaks in the text but will try to edit it now. Anyway, I did call my solicitor today and left a message, she called back but unfortunately I was on the phone to my seller's estate agent and when I called back she had gone home, I will call again on Monday. By chance I found out today that my solicitor needs to send off to the council for a resale pack for the flat I am selling, don't think this has been done yet and apparently it takes up to 2 weeks! A cheque will need to be sent to the council as well so I assume my solicitor will want the money off me first. These delays are all very frustrating!

lizzyshep

Unfortunately my phone won't let me put breaks in the text, will have to wait until I can get onto a computer. Thanks to those who fought their way through my long paragraph!

lizzyshep

Thrugelmir wrote: »

The others party's solicitor wouldn't be communicating through the EA with you.

Sounds as if your purchaser is trying to speed the process up. When in reality their not achieving anything. Except waste peoples valuable time.

Thanks but I'm not quite sure what you mean by your first sentence, please can you clarify?

G_M

Just chill!

Buying / selling property ALWAYS takes longer than people either want or expect.

And behind the scenes there are far more activities going on than you are being told about.

And many of those activities take a fixed time, which is beyond the solicitors control (response by local authority; response by freeholder, etc etc)

lizzyshep

Thanks, I know it all takes time and I'm fine with this as long as I know things are being done properly. Just a bit concerned about lack of response to emails, not sending out all forms needed or requesting resale pack from council yet. But maybe I am expecting too much too soon.