We've been blocked and deleted by the solicitors.

FitzWilliams

Or that's what it feels like.

Exchange was meant to be on the 1st December which hasn't happened. I've been trying to contact the solicitors multiple times a week since to get an update on what was happening since but the calls go to voicemail every time. They have an online messaging system which never gets answered so at this point in time I literally have no idea why they have a telephone number or any other contact as they never seem to use them! I'm being completely neive here but I was under the impression that the solicitors work for me and I shouldn't be doing all of the chasing?

I'm buying a new build and have use the recommended firm that the builder have suggested. I just want to know if never being able to contact them is a normal thing or should I move on to another firm? I'm not saying this process should be easy but they are completely tainting this whole thing.

G_M

Sound like terrible solicitors. Have you tried email? Writing?

They'll have a complaints procedure published somewhere (online? in the T&Cs you orignally got?) - try that.

Or just go in to their office. Unless, of course, you chose a cheap online conveyancing warehouse........

There again, if you choose conveyancers recommended to you by the seller......... :eek:

Lesson for others - use a local solicior with an office in the High street and a friendly solicior you can visit!

martindow

FitzWilliams wrote: »

I'm buying a new build and have use the recommended firm that the builder have suggested.

This is generally not recommended as they have a vested interest in getting transactions through and may gloss over problems that other solicitors may consider more important. However that should not include being uncontactable.

The lack of contact suggests they are behind schedule. Have you looked at the house yourself recently to see how finished it looks?

walwyn1978

If your calls aren't being answered, email or writing to them is another option.

But my personal preference for a quick response would be to actually go and visit. And, as Martindow says, go and visit the build site as well.

Online messaging is (almost) never actually inhouse, it's a third party who pass that on to their client (in your case the sols). It's not a member of the solicitor's staff poised over their computer waiting for someone to go onto live chat and ask them a question. It's fine for questions to (say) broadband providers, or fairly general stuff like that, but pretty useless for complex purchases, which a house is.

ReadingTim

What was the last thing they told you with regard to updates? i imagine it's something along the lines of 'we'll be in touch when there's an update'. Therefore, no contact = no update to be given, and frankly, some firms are too busy to phone people up to say that they have nothing to say.

I suspect you've been "blocked" precisely because you've been calling "multiple times a week" - I know I certainly ignore such persistent pests in my working life. Yes, they work for you, but they also work for lots of other people, and frankly, they're probably devoting their time to less demanding and tiresome customers.

FitzWilliams

Tim I can understand if they actually answered when I called. Then yes calling multiple times a week would make me a pest. But seeing as I am never able to actually get through to anyone no matter which number I try I don't understand how they're actually in business. They have never said they would contact with an update, just that exchange would be the 1st of Dec. A gave the, a week to get back to me and when they hadn't it took days of calls before I finally used their online messaging system. It then took the, a week to respond to that saying that it will be another couple of weeks before exchange with no explanation of what the hold up was.

I thought using the recommended solicitors would make the process go more quickly. I'm now seeing that this'll was a bad idea. It is an online firm but their office is local to me so I might see if they will allow me in, which I suspect they won't. And now I feel like even if I did use another firm I wouldn't be able to request the work that they have already done if no one ever answers.

moneyistooshorttomention

I'm wondering if the problem is coming from the builders end - ie they have deliberately told the solicitors (trans = conveyancing firm??) to delay things because of a problem they (the builders) are experiencing.

I echo the posters' suggestion to check out your house and see how progress is going. Though, I admit that if I were buying a house that's in the process of being built, that I'd probably have decided to have an exercise walk daily (which, by coincidence;), was in that direction anyway).

errr...you are taking that daily walk in that direction anyway aren't you? ...and noting down in a household diary what progress you saw on it since yesterday?

G_M

FitzWilliams wrote: »

I thought using the recommended solicitors would make the process go more quickly. I'm now seeing that this'll was a bad idea. It is an online firm but their office is local to me so I might see if they will allow me in, which I suspect they won't. And now I feel like even if I did use another firm I wouldn't be able to request the work that they have already done if no one ever answers.

Yes you seem to have made two very common newbie errors in your choice.

Changing solicitors is an option but is a major decision.It will inevitably

* cost you more:
- you'll have to pay the current guys for their work and time to date and
- the new solicitors will need to check (and maybe re-do) all the work the current guys have already done

* delay matters further

* you'd also have to ensure the new sols were on your mortgage lender panel (if you're getting a mortgage), and the lender's beaurocracy might further delay things as they come to grips with he switch

Given that you seem to be near Exchange, that could be a major set-back.

Richard_Webster

Send them a tracked mail advise receipt letter saying that you have been unable to talk to anyone for some time and that you want to make a formal complaint.

Ask for details of their complaints procedure and for them to write or email you with details of progress and what is holding up exchange of contracts.

They may well be closed for some time over Christmas (probably already closed) and may not reopen until after New Year. However, if you send a tracked letter asking for advice of receipt then you should know whether or not they have it. (Do not use Recorded Delivery because it takes several weeks for Royal Mail to tell you the letter has not been delivered - you get no confirmation that it has been.) The tracked system should give you details over the internet.

StumpyPumpy

G_M wrote: »

Lesson for others - use a local solicitor with an office in the High street and a friendly solicitor you can visit!

Obviously no help to the OP but... This, exactly this.

When we got documents to approve we simply dropped them in at the office, no worries about whether they had arrived or not in the post. Minor or trivial questions could be answered by popping in. And things that you'd rather not have written down (like advising your solicitor that EA selling the house you're buying seem to be a bunch of numpties) can be mentioned "in passing" during another conversation.

I know it would have been cheaper to go to a national conveyancing company but in the general scheme of things it is a small amount when looked at in relation to how much you are spending on the property. There are enough things to get stressed out about when buying and selling a house without having communication issues with people who are supposed to be on your team.


SP

Hoploz

Have you paid your deposit for exchange of contracts? Normally 10%?