Complaining about your conveyancing solicitor

purplepixi

Myself and my partner are trying to buy a house.

We put an offer in on a property in the 2nd week of January, then agreed a final price in the 3rd week of January.

I've never brought a house before although my partner has, however, we thought it would be easiest just to go with the estate agents recommendations on things, to get things moving quickly. So we used a solicitor they assigned.

There is no chain, we are in rental, and the guy that owns it doesn't live there - he lives in another property so it's empty.

We paid over the phone for the solicitors fees, and searches on 7th Feb. But didn't get a confirmation of this until 7th March - 4 weeks later. We also paid for access to an online portal to what stages we were at. But this never got set up.

About 2-3 weeks later the pack of info turned up for us to sign and complete. Which we did. Sent back everything that was in the envelope. Another few weeks went past, and nothing. So my other half called them, and was told we couldn't proceed as we hadn't sent back the "buyer beware" form. Which we had - we included everything they sent to us and double checked. But OK, we did it again, but it was nice of them to tell us that it wasn't going forward due to missing paperwork....

A few more weeks passed, and we had the house surveyed, that was fine. We sent off the survey to them. And then... nothing.... another few weeks later we get a letter saying they were doing the searches etc and that it'd go quiet for a bit. OK left them too it.

But no updates.

Then we got to the end of March and we were starting to get a bit annoyed, so went in to see the estate agents, and explained that we needed to get things moving along.... later that day we got an email containing various bits of info - funny that it took us to go to the estate agents to get things going.

Another few weeks and then some more papers to sign arrive - we sign and return. Ask if that's all the paperwork - we're told yes. Then we have some arrive for our daughter to sign (17 yrs), if she doesn't sign it the house sale can't move forward, that was another delay - this could have been sent weeks ago.

Then we leave it for a bit.

Then on Monday just gone, the other half calls the estate agents and states if we don't complete by June we're pulling out because this is taking a ridiculously long time. The contacted the solicitors and were told it's because they were waiting for some answers to some questions from the other solicitors (although we have no idea what these were, as they haven't kept us updated on anything). They told the estate agents that it'd be exhanged this week and complete next week.

Well - end of this week - other half speaks to the solicitor to be told no we won't be exchanging any time soon as they were still waiting for some searches to come back, and questions on the area need to be answered.

Now I know of quite a few other people in this area (North Dorset), that have brought a house in 4-7 weeks - we are now nearly 6 months on and no end in sight - I'm sure our mortgage offer will end soon! It's crazy as there's no chain. The house is a normal semi detached, on a normal road, and the house survey came back fine.

After all this, am I within my rights to complain - has enough reasonable time passed?

I know I have to complain to them in writing before I can go to the ombudsmen but I've never done this before, so I'm not sure how long I should wait before doing it. I know there's a lot of issues with conveyancing solicitors being slow - but this slow?

Thank you for your thoughts

chalky_white_2

You can complain at any time to the firm. It is a requirement for a solicitors firm to provide you (in writing) with their complaints procedure from the out-set. You will often find it in the initial paperwork sent to you.

The procedure will identify who within the firm you can complain to. Set out what issues you have, make it clear and concise, and provide a reasonable time frame in which they can respond (bear in mind the person will need to review your file, speak with your individual solicitor etc.) perhaps 1-2 weeks?

Might be worth checking if the Estate Agent receives a referral fee? This sometimes occurs, which is why they refer to that specific Solicitor (and does not mean that firm is bad).

Good luck!