How long is reasonable for a solicitor to respond to an email?

Loopy28

I recently decided the solicitor I wished to use for my move who are a small local firm, who were recommended by a friend who used them.

I emailed in response to a quote to ask a few more questions, they responded 2 days later with an answer.

I then responded to say could I used them and 2 days later and I have not had a reply.

Is this normal? I am not sure if alarm bells should be ringing straight away at no response in two days or if solicitors are simply just busy and I should be patient? I thought they might be keen for new business.

At this stage I can still change solicitors if need be so don't want to make a mistake!!

camperdown9

Hi

The people I am using always respond to emails within a couple of hours. However often its just to say they have received the email and they will get back to me with an answer as soon as they can.

Have you tried calling them and if so how good are they at answering questions over the phone? And returning your calls.

I get the impression that solicitor are very old fashioned. My solicitor doesn't send my venders solicitor an email, he sends them a letter and we wait! (and wait)

Some people just don't like replying to emails.

martindow

It could be that he is posting a letter with the terms of business etc. for you to sign. Solicitors can be terrible replying to questions often on the basis if nothing has happened it's not worth replying, but usually are quite eager to get new business. Have you phoned to find out what is happening?

kirtondm

I would not have thought at reply whithin 2 hrs reasonalbe. I would expect a reply within 1 working day.

jacko74

The last conveyancing solicitor I used was slow and useless in general, but especially so when it came to responding to emails.. some went completely unanswered, others where I was lucky enough to actually receive a response took at least 3 working days and even then it would literally be a one word reply to my query.

princeofpounds

I would expect a good solicitor to reply to most things by COB the day after it was sent.

I would not necessarily expect them to have done what I asked them to do or have all information to hand. However a holding acknowledgement at least, and an explanation preferably.

Your experience tells me that they are either overworked and/or sluggish in customer service. So if I had any desire for urgency I'd go elsewhere.

Million_Percent

I recently had the pleasure of trying to instruct a conveyancing solicitor and found many to be useless at prompt communication. Out of 4 I phoned to ask for a quote, 3 took my details and said someone would call back. I had no call backs at all. The fourth I phoned up and was put straight through to the actual solicitor who happily spent 10 minutes on the phone talking me through things. I asked him to email me a breakdown of this costs which he did within 3 minutes of hanging up the phone. I instructed him straight away and he has been great. If I email him, I normally get a reply within the hour.

I don't know why some solicitors are so bad at communication. I think customer service is the biggest differentiator for conveyancing solicitors. I wouldn't deal with a company who take more than 2 days to even acknowledge your email. To me it shows that they either have terrible customer service or are so busy they can't cope properly. In either case I wouldn't want to use them.

DRP

Always ring if you want a prompt response.

Catti

Always worth ringing - we sometimes find emails have strangely been caught in a spam filter even after previously exchanging emails!

Of course - they may just be waiting for the details from the relevant estate agents before sending you out a full package of paperwork!

jbainbridge

DRP wrote: »

Always ring if you want a prompt response.

I'd echo that - certainly at this early stage they should be able answer any general questions straight away.

Ours was brilliant. Even if I couldn't speak to her on the phone I would always get a call back or more often a quick email on the same day. In the end I just stuck to email for most things as I always got a response.

Maybe speak to the person who recommended them and dig a little deeper! Also I'd keep in mind that -
1. You won't be the solicitors only client - in reality they will be dealing with loads of people.
2. Although to you and me every query is urgent the process will usually take 6-8 weeks (in many cases a lot longer)
3. It will be frustrating ... but most people get there in the end.

Good luck!

Loopy28

Thanks for you replies. I have to admit that alarm bells are ringing at the lack of email response.

Yes it might be quicker to phone but in this day and age of email, I would expect to have some sort of acknowledgement quicker than 2 working days via email and in fact it is now more than 2 days and I haven't had a response still.

When I used a solicitor for my move 5 years ago, everything was done by email and I had all email responses by the end of the same day. Unfortunately that solicitor has now become very expensive-over 1k more than most other quotes so haven't used them again. But I guess you get what you pay for sometimes.

Think I might instruct a new solicitor tomorrow, I haven't even had acknowledgement from them yet in response to my request to use them so can't see that that they can hold me to any payment yet.