Solicitors writing letters instead of emailing, WHY??

SG27

My solicitor have been emailing my buyers solicitor going through the usual back and forth. However when ever my buyers solictor replies to the email she does so by typing, printing and posting a letter. My solictor then recieves the latter a couple of days later and continues to respond via email. So they have a strange sort of half email half posted dialogue.

You can imagine this is a tad frustrating for me. So my question is: is there any practical or legal reason for this archaic letter writing? Or is it purely just to annoy us!?

buggy_boy

Conveyancers are in the dark ages, they are set in their ways, maybe some day it will be brought into the 21st Century. Im actually surprised your solicitor uses email to communicate.

Technically an email is not seen in the same way as a written letter in uk law thus conveyancers tend to use email, although ive never understood this as most other areas of solicitors do use email..

lena_halo

I think it!!!8217;s so strange and out of date! Yes send important documents by post where original signature is required but surely they could converse with enquiries etc via email! Plus then there is a written record all in one place. Why would they write letters in reply to emails?! I don!!!8217;t get it. The mind boggles...

SG27

buggy_boy wrote: »

Conveyancers are in the dark ages, they are set in their ways, maybe some day it will be brought into the 21st Century. Im actually surprised your solicitor uses email to communicate.

Technically an email is not seen in the same way as a written letter in uk law thus conveyancers tend to use email, although ive never understood this as most other areas of solicitors do use email..

I thought maybe a letter is more official. So then write the letter and email the pdf?

davidmcn

It seems to be a trait of residential conveyancers only - I think it gives them an excuse to slow things down and blame it on postal delays. There's no real evidential advantage in putting it on paper. Correspondence in commercial property transactions is almost solely by email, unless we're actually needing to send deeds.

drspa44

This may be totally wrong, but my personal theory on this is residential conveyancers have a great incentive to make the process as slow as possible. 39% of house sales fall through before completion and in many such cases, this would not have happened were the transaction quicker. However, often the conveyancers still get partial or full payment. If fewer sales fell through and the transaction took days rather than months, there would be much less demand for conveyancers. Home-buyers would also be less happy paying £1k or so for what seems like less work.

Margot123

This happened in my last transaction. My solicitor actually said it was sometimes used as a way of delaying things for they buyer.

Turned out, 6 months from accepting their offer, they still didn't have full finance in place. Although my solicitor had to speak with a senior partner at the buyer's solicitors to get a straight answer.

Thankfully it did get sorted in the end after 7 months.

G_M

SG27 wrote: »

..... my question is: is there any practical or legal reason for this archaic letter writing? Or is it purely just to annoy us!?

No practical reason.
No legal reason.
Yes - it is purely just to annoy you.


At the start of each transaction, the solicitors discretely agree between themselves which of them will use the post, and which email. They alternate between clients.

SG27

G_M wrote: »

No practical reason.
No legal reason.
Yes - it is purely just to annoy you.


At that start of each transaction, the solicitors discretely agree between themselves which of them will use the post, and which email. They alternate between clients.

:rotfl:thanks G_M, I knew it!

victoriavictorious

In my experience, anything that gives conveyancers the slightest excuse to drag out the process and make it seem as though they're doing incredibly complex work, somehow 'justifies' an inflated fee.
This, I think is the main reason the system will never change.
We're going through similar fun & games with our Vendors solicitors who not only insist on sending snail mail letters but also keep denying receipt of just about every communication our solicitor has ever sent them, then lo and behold, there it suddenly is when they're chased up.

steampowered

Corporate/commercial solicitors have to respond to emails the same day - even if it means they are up until 5am that night sorting things out.

There is no particular reason for conveyancing solicitors to write letters rather than use email. Except perhaps the copy of the sale contract for physical signature.

I've always found the fact that conveyancing solicitors still use letters pretty unbelievable. I'm a bit surprised they get away with it - perhaps the overall conveyancing process takes so long that people don't miss a few days here and there?