Changing solicitors during house buying process?

Dab122

Hi everyone,
I've been lurking for a while since starting the purchase of a new house and I'm wondering if anyone have had any experience of changing solicitors during an ongoing purchase.

I appointed a conveyancer and looking back now I should have done some research on them. Basically it has always been hard to contact them, with awkward phone switchboard, unanswered calls, no return messages and sporadically returned emails.

Other parties involved have also struggled with coms with my conveyancer - my vendors solicitors, my mortgage broker and mortgage lender have all struggled.

I am very tempted to appointed a more local solicitor just for piece of mind and help avoid any issues towards exchange and completion but I'm curious if a) it's possible, b) may hold up things.

At present I think all the searches have been completed (I have copies of them from the 2emails I have received from the conveyancer). The house chained has formed and is thankfully quite short with only 2 houses in it and all surveys and mortgages have been undertaken and offered.
The process is about 8wks in and we're only hoping to complete in early July so not a particularly hurried sale.

Anyone with any thoughts or similar experience?

Thanks in advance

G_M

Yes it's possible.

Yes it will delay things.

Yes it will cost you money.

You'll have to pay the current conveyancer for work they've done so far.

The new conveyancer is likely to have to repeat some (maybe all) the work, so their fee will not be much less than if starting from scratch. Indeed it may be that picking up halfway adds a complication to their work, so their fee may increase.

And inevitable there will be delay while the new solicior gets up to speed, repeats work to their satisfaction perhaps etc.

If a mortgage lender is involved (and assuming the current conveyancer is representing them too) then either

* the lender will need to switch conveyancer too or
* you'll end up with both solicitors: one representing you and one representing your lender


..........

alchemist.1

GM has given you the perfect answer.

Dab122

Evening,
Thanks for the feedback. A few things to think about - hadn't thought of the complication about possibly getting the lender to change solicitors.