Solicitors writing letters instead of emailing, WHY??

SG27

robatwork wrote: »

A very cynical person may suggest that some solicitors charge in 6 minute increments.

It's easier to justify a few 6 minute periods of time in typing a letter, printing it, signing it, enveloping, addressing, stamping and posting.

My last conveyancing had a new-fangled web portal where I could see each stage as it happened on the web. But the letters still went with penny blacks.

Back this makes noe sense. As the solicitor will have already quoted for the work beforehand so dragging it out is not going to earn them more money. Plus a solictor who works fast is likely to get recommended to friends. A slow one will not.

TBagpuss

Solicitors have no vested interest in slowing things down. Their clients may, but the solicitor doesn't get paid til the job is done, the sooner it's done the better.

Whether they use e-mail or post of both may be down to individual preferences and ways of working.

There can be issues with people expecting / demanding a faster response to e-mails, eve though there are still only a limited number of hours.

Another issue is what you are sending. I am not a conveyancer, but I have close friends who are. They've mentioned that one problem they get quite a lot is if they e-mail attachments, such as searches, often the client can't open them as they are reading e-mails on their phone. So in some cases they've gone back to sending larger documents by post because it is more efficient than repeatedly talking the same client through how to access e-mailed items.
It can also help to ensure that a client actually reads what they have been sent rather than skimming it and sending a fast but incomplete or incorrect response to an e-mail. People seem to feel e-mails have to be responded to immediately, whereas they are willing to take a little more time to actually read a letter.

It's also the case that there are still lots of people who don't like / use e-mail.

However, if you want your conveyancer to send everything via e-mail, ask them.

dunroving

Slinky wrote: »

That's all very well but I have a hopeless customer that if you ask her more than one thing in an email will only respond to one question and nothing else. I then have to email again asking the questions that didn't get answered the first time.


Fortunately I don't do business with her much anymore.

Did you bullet list (numbered) the items that needed a response? I find that by doing this, with a prefix (or even Subject Line) saying "three questions" or "three tasks", the problem with elements all guddled up in a paragraph doesn't occur (at least I've never had that problem).

It sounds like in this instance, the problem was the person, not the method.

I don't buy the argument "That doesn't work because 1 in a 1,000 people don't like it" leads down a tortuous path of trying to accommodate everyone via multiple methods (which in itself causes problems).

brentcloning

My solicitor emailed important informatioin and posted it too. It was good as I got immediate reply and had a hard copy in case it was needed.

deuxchatsnoirs

Mine not only exclusively uses letters, but will reply to an email via a letter a week or so later, 2nd class post. I do not see why she feels the need to drag it out like this especially as she has quoted a fixed fee for her conveyancing. I am beyond frustrated right now as we have no chain, mortgage offer in place, surveys, searches and inquiries done, and yet here we are in week 12 of the process and not even an exchange date in sight.

ThePants999

My last conveyancer would write letters, email the document, then print it off, sign it and post it as well. Seemed a waste of paper, but at least got the message there quickly.

davidmcn

Posting stuff to clients in particular stretches things out, especially these days when the postie comes round at lunchtime rather than before breakfast.

Solicitor writes something on say Tuesday at 6pm, email can get to client instantly. By post, it goes into Wednesday night's mail, if lucky it gets delivered to client on Thursday but they can't read it until they get home on Thursday pm, so can't discuss with solicitor until Friday...

sugarbabe84

My conveyancer generally seems to ignore my emails and only responds to them after she’s been prompted by her colleagues when I have phoned to follow up.

My process has been delayed somewhat and for some reason it hasn’t been in their interests to have it moving. I almost had the seller pull out because of their relaxed pace.

vw100

I think I read a report that house buying and selling would be speeded up in the future, not sure when. Buy getting some of the paper work done before house goes on the market - so I assume this would included things like the normal searches, EPC.


Lets hope they do improve the process it about time it was updated and brought into the 21st century.

Surrey_EA

vw100 wrote: »

I think I read a report that house buying and selling would be speeded up in the future, not sure when. Buy getting some of the paper work done before house goes on the market - so I assume this would included things like the normal searches, EPC.


Lets hope they do improve the process it about time it was updated and brought into the 21st century.

It's getting slower if anything!!

EPC has to be ordered before a property can be marketed already. As for searches, what happens when a property is on the market for 18months? How frequently do the searches get updated? Some search results won't alter in that time period, but others might.

Of course I agree that something should be done, but there's no simple fix.