My solicitor treats me like an idiot!

Windsorcastle

cattie wrote: »

Fridays actually are the most busiest day for solicitors, so she wasn't fobbing you off there. Also, it is really the ea's job to do the liaising between solicitors & to keep them on their toes by chasing things etc. So I wouldn't take it personally.

Whenever I've sold & bought, the ea has always phoned me whenever they feel I need to get on to my solicitor to give them an elbow dig if they have felt that their calls to them have maybe not quite got the message across.

Some solicitors have a very brusque manner & others are more friendly seeming. As long as you are able to get to speak to the solicitor when you need to & don't get fobbed off by a receptionist & never get your calls returned, then I'd say you have no worries.

Thanks Cattie. I will make sure to lean on the EA more now before bugging the solicitor unnecessarily. Thanks for your advice.

Colin297

I'm a solicitor.

All i can say is, give her a chance to do the job.

I know it can be frustrating now being treated like you're priority, but you honestly have no idea how equally frustrating it can be when clients repeatedly phone requiring reassurances (that you've already given them) and explaining things that they don't even need to know.

If you work in a solicitors office, you'll see how much the phone rings. People expect all their conveyances done asap, but yet noone wants to give you the peace to do it. The phone rings constantly. This line of work is particularly time consuming, very often client phone calls and emails are an impediment on getting any actual work done. You were probably the 30th person that day who had rang her and/or emailed her with problems, that in all reality, probably aren't problems.

All that said, expect a good job!

lika_86

Definitely agree that you should avoid Fridays to call, that's when the problems with completions will arise and tend to be fairly manic for solicitors having to ring everybody left right and centre to find out whether money has arrived and to instruct estate agents to release keys and to tell the clients what's going on. Routine queries from other clients are really not top priority.

You mention a survey, what kind of survey? Is this a structural type survey? Or a proper legal search? If the former then these are usually done prior to involvement from solicitors and so if so I can probably understand the solicitor's reluctance to get involved at that point, it's not her job to chivvy the buyers on in that respect. Legal searches are usually carried out following receipt by the buyers of draft contracts (usually the first stage of involvement for the seller's solicitors) and can take a number of weeks to come back depending on the searches, search provider and third party bodies so a month on from sale is not slow in this respect.

Windsorcastle

Colin297 wrote: »

I'm a solicitor.

All i can say is, give her a chance to do the job.

I know it can be frustrating now being treated like you're priority, but you honestly have no idea how equally frustrating it can be when clients repeatedly phone requiring reassurances (that you've already given them) and explaining things that they don't even need to know.

If you work in a solicitors office, you'll see how much the phone rings. People expect all their conveyances done asap, but yet noone wants to give you the peace to do it. The phone rings constantly. This line of work is particularly time consuming, very often client phone calls and emails are an impediment on getting any actual work done. You were probably the 30th person that day who had rang her and/or emailed her with problems, that in all reality, probably aren't problems.

All that said, expect a good job!

Hi Colin, point taken! Thanks, I can see what you mean!

lika_86

Also, I should add that I did conveyancing for a few months and my most annoying client repeatedly rang which drove me to distraction, the worst was when I provided him with an update at 4.50pm on a Friday and he was on the phone to me again on Monday at 9.20am wondering if there was any update (effectively half an hour of working time, clients often forget that they've been thinking about it all weekend because it's their life but that nothing is actally going to happen in that time). I think he thought he was my only client and deserved premium service for the £400odd he was paying.

Windsorcastle

lika_86 wrote: »

You mention a survey, what kind of survey? Is this a structural type survey? Or a proper legal search? If the former then these are usually done prior to involvement from solicitors and so if so I can probably understand the solicitor's reluctance to get involved at that point, it's not her job to chivvy the buyers on in that respect. Legal searches are usually carried out following receipt by the buyers of draft contracts (usually the first stage of involvement for the seller's solicitors) and can take a number of weeks to come back depending on the searches, search provider and third party bodies so a month on from sale is not slow in this respect.

Thanks Lika. The survey is very delayed because the lender says there is a huge backlog in London. So I wanted the solicitor to make sure the other side had started the legal searches (rather than wait until they get the survey back to do this). That is why I was ringing her. But I realise now that Friday is not a good day to ring solicitors with non-urgent enquiries.

Thrugelmir

Windsorcastle wrote: »

Thanks Lika. The survey is very delayed because the lender says there is a huge backlog in London. So I wanted the solicitor to make sure the other side had started the legal searches (rather than wait until they get the survey back to do this). That is why I was ringing her. But I realise now that Friday is not a good day to ring solicitors with non-urgent enquiries.

Until there's a mortgage offer on the table. Then the buyers unlikely to incur any expense.

Yorkie1

Windsorcastle wrote: »

Thanks Lika. The survey is very delayed because the lender says there is a huge backlog in London. So I wanted the solicitor to make sure the other side had started the legal searches (rather than wait until they get the survey back to do this). That is why I was ringing her. But I realise now that Friday is not a good day to ring solicitors with non-urgent enquiries.

Your solicitor can only enquire. They have no right to dictate to the other side when they do things and to what timescale, in the way that your post seems to envisage.

I know that you have a date by which you want to have moved. However, if I was your buyer, I'd be starting to get worried about you as a seller.

Take these things together from a buyer's perspective:

1. On your 'how do I chase a slow buyer' thread you've been advised that several surveying firms have a backlog and that the delay is unlikely to be down to the buyer, but you want to hassle the buyer nevertheless.

2. On your 'how to answer surveyor's questions' and 'next door's subsidence' threads, you have made an insurance claim for repairs to cracks caused by tree roots, but want to cover this up if possible.

3. Now you're trying to harass and bully the buyer's solicitor in what could be interpreted (not saying this is your intention but how it might appear) as an attempt to try to get them to hasten over things which might be discerned if greater attention was provided.

If you raise too many flags, people will get suspicious and your attempts could well backfire so that your sale falls through completely.

[Deleted User]

I think part of the problem is that this is a very important process to the people buying or selling (it's literally the most important part of their life) and they know nothing of the process. The professionals involved (estate agents, solicitors) know everything but because they have so many clients and there's so much work involved they don't have the time to walk each client through the process, instead they drip feed a small amount of information (the points they know to be most important) which can leave the clients in the dark about what exactly is happening.

Although I have no experience with the process (only what I've read about on this forum) I suspect it would go a long long way to have some sort of informational booklet available for every client that walks them through the entire process, from start to finish. An explanation of each step, what can and can't go wrong, what to do if they have a concern, who does what, how specific things happen, directions to all of the available resources (websites, forums, books) and then have some sort of pre-arranged period every day where the solicitor is available to the clients to answer any questions not covered in the booklet or resources provided.

Structure is very important for most people, open ended answers do not inspire confidence and people get very antsy when there is no end in sight. There's always going to be people that demand to have their hands held through the process no matter what is done but most people are very reasonable and don't want to bother their solicitors, they're just extremely nervous about the biggest purchase of their lives having so many unknowns.

Just from what I've seen posted in this forum I would put money on a solicitor that provides structure throughout the process being very successful and very efficient. Every client is provided with a booklet that explains the process, covering the majority of potential scenarios and provides relative timescales (eg: If x has happened, y will happen within 2 weeks...). Every client gets a weekly update that covers the status of their purchase/sale. Every day between 4 and 5 PM the solicitors make their jobs answering the phone and fielding any questions not covered by the material provided, clients cannot call outside of that hour and expect a response.

Tell a person you don't have any news but you might have some news soon and they'll freak out, what's soon? is soon now? is soon tomorrow? I'll call every day just in case it's soon! Tell a person you don't have any news but you will provide an update on Friday at 1PM and they'll sit back and relax, 'cause the update is coming! No ambiguity!

If any business is having problems with clients phoning at all hours demanding updates interrupting the work that needs to be done then there's a problem bigger than "our clients are dumb impatient children".

Thrugelmir

citricsquid wrote: »

I think part of the problem is that this is a very important process to the people buying or selling (it's literally the most important part of their life) and they know nothing of the process. The professionals involved (estate agents, solicitors) know everything but because they have so many clients and there's so much work involved they don't have the time to walk each client through the process, instead they drip feed a small amount of information (the points they know to be most important) which can leave the clients in the dark about what exactly is happening.

Although I have no experience with the process (only what I've read about on this forum) I suspect it would go a long long way to have some sort of informational booklet available for every client that walks them through the entire process, from start to finish. An explanation of each step, what can and can't go wrong, what to do if they have a concern, who does what, how specific things happen, directions to all of the available resources (websites, forums, books) and then have some sort of pre-arranged period every day where the solicitor is available to the clients to answer any questions not covered in the booklet or resources provided.

Structure is very important for most people, open ended answers do not inspire confidence and people get very antsy when there is no end in sight. There's always going to be people that demand to have their hands held through the process no matter what is done but most people are very reasonable and don't want to bother their solicitors, they're just extremely nervous about the biggest purchase of their lives having so many unknowns.

Just from what I've seen posted in this forum I would put money on a solicitor that provides structure throughout the process being very successful and very efficient. Every client is provided with a booklet that explains the process, covering the majority of potential scenarios and provides relative timescales (eg: If x has happened, y will happen within 2 weeks...). Every client gets a weekly update that covers the status of their purchase/sale. Every day between 4 and 5 PM the solicitors make their jobs answering the phone and fielding any questions not covered by the material provided, clients cannot call outside of that hour and expect a response.

Tell a person you don't have any news but you might have some news soon and they'll freak out, what's soon? is soon now? is soon tomorrow? I'll call every day just in case it's soon! Tell a person you don't have any news but you will provide an update on Friday at 1PM and they'll sit back and relax, 'cause the update is coming! No ambiguity!

If any business is having problems with clients phoning at all hours demanding updates interrupting the work that needs to be done then there's a problem bigger than "our clients are dumb impatient children".

I doubt people would pay for the service you've outlined. Besides which no manual can account for human nature. As it's individual timescales that often steer the process along. So organising a chain into a proceedable state is no easy task.

If the EA is any good. Then they'll have an office handler that will keep all parties informed of developments.