Solicitors causing delay in house purchase

bobobski

alchemist.1 wrote: »

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.

It wasn't a comment on how much people are willing to spend; it was a comment about how these things are done in practice. Double (hell, triple) the fee and I'm sure the situation wouldn't change. I speak not as a buyer but as a property solicitor.

Shahni

bobobski wrote: »

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.

A legal executive is a qualified lawyer the same as a solicitor. They just specialise in a particular area, in this case conveyancing, and qualified via a different route. They could potentially have many years experience over a newly qualified solicitor, in fact.

Doesn't negate the issue of poorly trained case handlers causing problems of course, which I agree is an issue.

Richard_Webster

Have you found out the name sof the partners or regualted principals of the practice? You can get this from the Law Society website or the equivalent for Licensed Conveyancers.

Normally a formal complaint to the senior partner does the trick because that carries with it the implied threat of a complaint to the LegalOmbudsman if it is not resolved. Dealing with these complaints is an awful lot of hassle for a practice, so usually they will want to prevent that happening by dealing properly with your complaint.

If you phgone make a note of the date and time of thecall and ask for the name of the person you speak to. Tell them that you are going to complain and ask for their name. When you complain you set out a list of the dates and times that you phoned wrote or e-mailed and the responsess or lack of them freceived.

If you got the firm through MoneySupermarket.com then it is worth complaining to them - again don't just phone - phone, get a name and an e-mail address and send an e-mail detailing what has happened (or not happened). They may threaten to take the practice off their panel.

At the moment of course none of this will do very much because a lot of conveyancing practices are closed until the New year.

bravotango

Sorry, did the OP mention what was the name of the company?

I'm very surprised they have got away with it.

:mad: :eek:

Cosm0

Update:
Still no response to previous complaints, starting from 6th of December. On top on that today, Monday, 4 January we received calls from our seller's and vendor's solicitors. The seller's Solicitors complaining that our Solicitors are not answering their queries, despite the fact that our Solicitors advised Estate Agent that the answers to the queries have been sent on the 18th of December 2015, the Seller's Solicitors stating that nothing has been received. Our Solicitors are not answering the calls at all, or nobody is able to talk about our cases. As a clients, after 4 months we still do not know who is dealing with our cases, only Receptionist is sending emails to us once we tell them that we are going to refer to Ombudsman. We spoke to Director of the firm , on the phone ( 2 weeks before Christmas) who assured us that the contracts will be exchanged Christmas Eve, also we asked to send us a contract for our purchase , which was ready and signed by our vendor in October however we have not received any contract and when we tried to ring ( at least 20 times) to Solicitors Company Director, but he was always unavailable, left messages- he did not come back.
The worst now is that our vendor re marketed the property, and now we have 1 week to complete all process. Our Solicitor also lying (manipulating dates if you like) on Moneysupermarket that they sent contract to client for signature 20 November 2015, but in reality they didn't.We never received any contracts...

Cosm0

Received contracts today. They look like draft, there is crossed sale sum and on top by hand written another sum of sale, our names misspelled... If I understand correctly these contracts still need to be signed and sent back to solicitors and then solicitors will exchange contracts?
However, vendors property has been remarketed and vendor said last date to exchange contract is tomorrow, 8th of January. So technically it's impossible to complete sale on 8th January, and it is clearly not our fault. Who will be responsible for compensation of financial loss in this case (survey, mortgage approval, solicitors fees, postal services)? Also sleepless nights and stress caused by solicitors..
any advise please?

stator

Cosm0 wrote: »

Received contracts today. They look like draft, there is crossed sale sum and on top by hand written another sum of sale, our names misspelled... If I understand correctly these contracts still need to be signed and sent back to solicitors and then solicitors will exchange contracts?
However, vendors property has been remarketed and vendor said last date to exchange contract is tomorrow, 8th of January. So technically it's impossible to complete sale on 8th January, and it is clearly not our fault. Who will be responsible for compensation of financial loss in this case (survey, mortgage approval, solicitors fees, postal services)? Also sleepless nights and stress caused by solicitors..
any advise please?

Send in the signed contract to your solicitor. As long as they have the signed contract tomorrow you could exchange tomorrow. Speak to your solicitor to confirm everything is ready to exchange. Then phone up estate agent and say "we're ready to exchange tomorrow, please contact the vendor to confirm they are willing to exchange tomorrow".
Unless they have had a larger offer from someone in a good position, they will likely exchange with you.

Cosm0

Vendor remarketed property and sold property. We received letter from estate agent confirming it.
Conclusion: do not trust moneysupermarket conveyancing. Do research about solicitors you hire before you proceed.
Our expenses: £500 for HSBC mortgage, £600 for full survey, £600 (partially paid) to solicitors.
Now. Anybody know how to reclaim money from HSBC (we haven't used mortgage)?
Is it any chance to reclaim money back from solicitors?
thank you

csgohan4

That's sad to hear and certainly annoying when it's not your fault.

What was the name of the firm?

stator

What was the money you paid to HSBC for?
You may be able to transfer your mortgage to another house and not lose some of the fees. But the survey fee won't be reclaimable.

You might be able to reclaim some costs from the solicitor since they failed so badly, but I wouldn't hold your breath, they might fight you all the way.