Conveyancing - overly slow or just too high expectations

Lifes_Grand_Plan

Hi folks,

I recently contracted with a local conveyancing company - the firm had very good reviews locally but the person I was dealing with was new to the practice.

Anyway on Monday afternoon I dropped in the "Client information Form" which was mainly just contact information etc. Tuesday at just after 9am she e-mailed to say I would shortly receive a client care pack in the post. Well today I still haven't received anything so I called up to see if there was any progress. I was a bit reluctant to do so because I wasn't sure if I am a bit too high with my expectations and would be pushing her...

Anyway she gave me some excuse about people on holiday and her being new and she will check with the secretary what happened to the client care pack. I advised that sending it on e-mail would be fine to speed the process up.... they are now hopefully doing this.

I also asked for a progress update and again I got a waffled answer that seemed to include "we haven't heard from the buyers solicitors yet"....

Is she being slow or am I just expecting things to happen to quickly?

In a sale, which solicitor would normally contact the other one first and what would be the gist of the contact?

TIA

Char89

This is happening to us as well, in the ninth week - still havent had anything back. Our connveyancer keeps saying we haven't got anything or when we do we will send it through. Keep having to chase her, she never responds to messages. Just call once or twice a week to ask how things are going and I occasionally drop her an email. We are buying a leasehold flat and still havent recieved the pack, everyone wants to complete by end of September but I am not holding my breath.

audigex

To an extent you do just have to wait at various times in the process - both parties have to instruct their solicitors, searches etc have to come back and so on.

That said, this doesn't sound like one of those times - they don't need to wait for the other solicitor in order to give you the basic information, welcome pack, "Here's what you can expect to happen" etc package. It sounds like they're just being slow.

Be aware it is a busy time of year for conveyancing, as there are generally more sales at this time of year and obviously people are on holiday (less staff at the solicitors to do the work, more clients themselves off work hassling the solicitor), but I'd still expect a better response than you're getting.

Don't be afraid to hassle your solicitor (politely!) too. They're working for you.

jaxkesa

Same thing is happening to me, it seems to be normal. But very annoying when you send an email and no reply so you have to follow up with another email or phonecall so end up getting charged twice!

G_M

Everyone, but everyone always wants, and expects, things to move faster than they do.

Conveyancing always takes longer than people want/expect.

Thrugelmir

Lifes_Grand_Plan wrote: »

In a sale, which solicitor would normally contact the other one first and what would be the gist of the contact?

Has your buyer obtained a mortgage yet? No one wants to waste their valuable time if the transaction doesn't proceed.

Brown_Eyed_Girl

From my experience, there were forms and bits that I needed to fill in and get back to them whilst they waited for the other sides solicitors to get the contract to them, it took about 10 days for that to be received.

So on the contract side, it is a case of waiting and they'll probably get it next week. On the client pack, if you've not got it in tomorrows post then give them a call on Monday.

teffers

Had offer accepted beginning July, asked solicitor to hold everything until I had my mortgage, gave them the go ahead beginning of August.

I got my solicitor's info pack through pretty sharpish, along with their request for £210 upfront to cover searches ... every other interaction has been VERY slow by comparison.

All I ever get to emails is an automated "we have received you email" reply.

When I call no-one is available and when the solicitor's secretary's assistant calls me back I get "We're dealing with your papers".

Everything I read is that the conveyancing is the worst part.

I've now given myself over to a power greater than myself and just accept it. Having said that, I intend to doorstep the solicitor on Monday at their offices as I have the week off lol.

I just want to know what stage we're at.

libf

You get an automated response to show that the email was received?! Wow...

I sent two emails to my 'new' sale conveyancer and left her two phone messages last week (one of which I said was urgent), no response at all. I sent a complaint email to the complaint handler on Thursday and no response at all.

So no idea if the enquires from the other side (sent in June) have been responded to yet...

('New' because the office I was dealing with was shut down with no warning at 4:30pm a week ago Friday and my file was transferred to the other office on Tuesday.)

chopper78

Conveyancing takes a long time.

It shouldn't take as long as it does, and they have lots of random ways of causing arbitrary and unnecessary holdups in the process.

csgohan4

if searches have not been done can you change for no charge?