Solicitors causing delay in house purchase

Cosm0

Good afternoon.
It started 1st of September 2015 when our Solicitor created a case.
(data from money supermarket conveyancing website utdgroup.com/legal moneysupermarket)
It is still not clear when our solicitors are going to complete purchase and sale.
We are selling our property and buying another one. There is no chain for buyer and seller. Long time ago , about in end of September we have done all necessary things - get mortgage, sent to solicitors queries, complete surveys etc. etc. There is no delay from us.However we have done a crucial mistake:
We have found Solicitors on Internet and have chosen them because of reasonable price and reliable website such as Money Supermarket. However, now we came to conclusion that the cheaper price/fee only means more stress and less efficiency. We are disappointed about this Firm, and could describe it as one of the worst experiences ever. The estate agents that we are dealing with and our purchasers and sellers Solicitors are describing our Solicitors as 'awful'. They are delaying with our purchase/sale process, do not update us or other Solicitors about the case at all. When you try to get hold of them on the phone, there is nobody there. When told that our Solicitors advised that a phone is not the only way to communicate, that there are emails, post. Unfortunately, when you send them an email and request an update or anything else they are not responding to it. They have been very efficient to send us a quote, however after deposit was paid they just went quiet. So we need to ring them and chase them all the time, sadly all updates we are getting now from our seller's Solicitors or estate agents, who are loosing their patience too. Now there is a risk that we are going to loose the property that we are buying, because of the delays, caused by our Solicitors. In addition, the process/case tracking does not reflect the reality, the dates are incorrect in there.
Last week our vendor run out of patience and declared that she will remarket property.Sadly we have been looking for property in this area for 1,5 years and now regretfully our solicitors (or might be our property buyers solicitors) making huge delays.
We don't know how to deal with our/our buyer solicitors.
Is it worth make formal complain?
Are there any strings that can be pulled to make them start working.
Situation is awful, they just ignoring us.
Please help.
John

knightstyle

You keep saying solicitors, are they solicitors or conveyancers??????
If solicitors you can make a complaint,

"Each solicitors firm will have a designated complaints handler whose details may be obtained from the Solicitors Regulation Authority Contact Centre. Tel: 0370 606 2555 or email: contactcentre@sra.org.uk
If you've complained to your solicitor about poor service or about their bill, and you aren't satisfied with your solicitor's response, you should contact the Legal Ombudsman on 0300 555 0333, who can help to resolve your complaint for you."

The above was from the Law Society.

If conveyancers then you get what you paid for as in with so many things in life.

alchemist.1

They will both have a complaints procedure. At this stage, that will be the best option.

Cosm0

Thank you knightstyle for a clear answer.
They are Solicitors, so we're about to write them a complaint.
cheers

nidO

A complaint is all very well but there's every possibility that at this point it isn't going to actually speed things up, depending on what your solicitor (hasn't) done so far.

You might also consider at this point dis-instructing them and going to another solicitor.

This time make sure you find a local one whose office you can physically go to and who has good recommendations. When you speak to a new solicitor tell them that you've had major problems with a prior solicitor which has left you on the verge of the deal collapsing, and would like the quickest turnaround possible.

Then get on to your buyer and seller and tell them you've changed solicitors to try to get things progressed promptly and ask them if they'll give you a little more time to get things finished.

stator

Definitely send a complaint. Keep it short and to the facts of the case. Ask them to phone you upon receiving the complaint and you might be able to judge whether they are going to take it seriously or not. Get the name and phone number of the complaint handler.

TBagpuss

When you make the complaint, as well as keeping it bief and factiual, be very specific about what you want them to do to remedy it - e.g.
- to exchange and complete by a specific date and to confirm in writing within 7 days any details of why they may not be able to comply
- provide written details of the current position, any outstanding matters and the likely timescale for them to be resolved
- to reduce the fee due to the poor service

Also speak to a local, competent solicitor to find out what it would cost you to transfer at this stage (hint: this is a very busy time of year for (good) conveyancing solicitors. You may pay a premium as taking on a file half way through a transaction is time consuming (doubly so if they have not known what they were doing) and most decent conveyancing solicitors will be up to their eyeballs at present .

Cosm0

Looks like there is no force on Earth to make them work!
Complaint written on 6th December, still waiting for response...
Solicitors regulation authority informed, even moneysupermarket conveyancing informed, nothing changes.
SRA saying they do not deal with cases and advised to wait 8 weeks and call ombudsman.
Moneysupermarket conveyancing website responded with answer that they rang them and nobody answered phone, so they just left a message.
And they are on HSBC approved solicitors panel!
On top on that we have to pay extra £2000 to vendor for delay. Last date to exchange contracts without paying extra £2000 today.
I don't know what else to do.


.

stator

Cosm0 wrote: »

Looks like there is no force on Earth to make them work!
Complaint written on 6th December, still waiting for response...
Solicitors regulation authority informed, even moneysupermarket conveyancing informed, nothing changes.
SRA saying they do not deal with cases and advised to wait 8 weeks and call ombudsman.
Moneysupermarket conveyancing website responded with answer that they rang them and nobody answered phone, so they just left a message.
And they are on HSBC approved solicitors panel!
On top on that we have to pay extra £2000 to vendor for delay. Last date to exchange contracts without paying extra £2000 today.
I don't know what else to do.


.

Why would you pay £2000 extra? Surely you can just refuse and walk away?

bobobski

The SRA is less effective than most law firms. I'd go to the ombudsman over the SRA if you can. When you engaged the solicitors they were bound by the SRA Code of Conduct to provide you with a full complaints process, including referrals to the ombudsman (http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/handbook/code/part2/content.page). Check what that says.

It may be that a complaint to the right partner at the law firm will whip the lawyer into shape. Unfortunately, in so many cases, even if you engage a law firm it is actually a legal executive or paralegal (or trainee solicitor) handling your case, not a qualified solicitor (check here: http://solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk/?Pro=True). If that's the case, a partner would be very interested in an unqualified member of staff tapping into his professional negligence insurance cap, if they're even covered.

alchemist.1

bobobski wrote: »

The SRA is less effective than most law firms. I'd go to the ombudsman over the SRA if you can. When you engaged the solicitors they were bound by the SRA Code of Conduct to provide you with a full complaints process, including referrals to the ombudsman (http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/handbook/code/part2/content.page). Check what that says.

It may be that a complaint to the right partner at the law firm will whip the lawyer into shape. Unfortunately, in so many cases, even if you engage a law firm it is actually a legal executive or paralegal (or trainee solicitor) handling your case, not a qualified solicitor (check here: http://solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk/?Pro=True). If that's the case, a partner would be very interested in an unqualified member of staff tapping into his professional negligence insurance cap, if they're even covered.[/QUOTE]

Reminds me of a time when a buyer wanted a partner to deal with the conveyancing of a house she was buying but wanted only to pay £600.00 fixed fee.