Any tips to speed my solicitor up

JasonHand

Yeh, I know this is probably a really dumb question but I thought I'd try

I'm hopefully nearing the end of a house purchase. Now one thing came up in the searches which needed to go back to my lender. Now before today my solicitor had been telling me they were still waiting on the lender to get back to them.

Well today I took matters into my own hands (probably a week too late) and I rang my lender to see where they were at. Turns out they had responded back to my solicitor saying they were happy to proceed a few days ago.

After speaking with my solicitor today they have informed me that all the paperwork is now ready to be sent out to me but they can't tell me when because the conveyancer who was running the sale is off sick and someone else has taken it on but is currently busy completing other cases.

Basically does anyone have any hints on how I can get them to speed up (yep dumb question). But the vendor is already to exchange and ideally we really want to get completed before the 10th December.

davidmcn

Well, they seem to have mostly answered your question i.e. no they can't speed up because they're short-staffed at the moment, and giving priority to clients who actually have deadlines or are sitting in removal vans. Your turn will come.

JasonHand wrote: »

we really want to get completed before the 10th December.

Can you give them a good reason why? If so, tell them.

SELagom

Which solicitors are you using? Several come to mind where it would not be a surprise.

Ultimately - complain! Make a complaint and they will do what they can to appease you. It should not happen like that as some people just complain for the sake of it but that is how it goes.

JasonHand

davidmcn wrote: »

Well, they seem to have mostly answered your question i.e. no they can't speed up because they're short-staffed at the moment, and giving priority to clients who actually have deadlines or are sitting in removal vans. Your turn will come.


Can you give them a good reason why? If so, tell them.

In fairness thats a good question, one which I can't really answer without sounding selfish. I can only say to be completed before Christmas. I admit thats a rubbish answer.

I guess I need to be more patient. We've waited years to get our own house so a couple more weeks won't make a great difference

JasonHand

SELagom wrote: »

Which solicitors are you using? Several come to mind where it would not be a surprise.

Ultimately - complain! Make a complaint and they will do what they can to appease you. It should not happen like that as some people just complain for the sake of it but that is how it goes.

Am I allowed to say who the solicitors are on here?

hazyjo

You're allowed, but I can't see the point of saying. They've not exactly done anything wrong, and without knowing how long it's taken so far, they may not even be going that slow.

JasonHand

I guess its just a little frustrating not being able to get a completion date out of them. Apparently they are ready to send the paperwork for me to sign and they have told me that we will discuss completion dates then.

Is that the norm?

SmashedAvacado

It is normal, but its not acceptable. The problem is that many clients are fixated on who is cheapest, and that means that firms have to be cheap, which means they are going to be slow.

they typically adopt the "respond to who shouts loudest" approach - so i would complain if i were you

by telling you that you are in a queue they are telling you that there are other clients more important than you. That's not a good message.

JasonHand

SmashedAvacado wrote: »

It is normal, but its not acceptable. The problem is that many clients are fixated on who is cheapest, and that means that firms have to be cheap, which means they are going to be slow.

they typically adopt the "respond to who shouts loudest" approach - so i would complain if i were you

by telling you that you are in a queue they are telling you that there are other clients more important than you. That's not a good message.

Thanks for that. I went for these guys because my mortgage broker advised them to me and in fairness my broker was bloody brilliant.

I think I'll give them until the start of next week and if they haven't got the paperwork out to me by then I'll start shouting a bit louder.

hazyjo

SmashedAvacado wrote: »

It is normal, but its not acceptable. The problem is that many clients are fixated on who is cheapest, and that means that firms have to be cheap, which means they are going to be slow.

they typically adopt the "respond to who shouts loudest" approach - so i would complain if i were you

by telling you that you are in a queue they are telling you that there are other clients more important than you. That's not a good message.

The solicitors only heard back "a few days ago". The one dealing with it is off sick.


Of course there will be priorities. Others will have already exchanged and HAVE to complete! They are obviously more important than you. It's Friday tomorrow, so prob several completions then and prob others this week. Some poor sod is having to do double the amount of work.


I really don't think it indicates a crap firm of solicitors in this instance.

ReadingTim

hazyjo wrote: »

Of course there will be priorities. Others will have already exchanged and HAVE to complete! They are obviously more important than you. It's Friday tomorrow, so prob several completions then and prob others this week. Some poor sod is having to do double the amount of work.

Furthermore, when the OP gets to that stage of proceedings, their case will then take priority over those who are further away.... swings and roundabouts basically.

Also, shouting loudest doesn't always work - it's knowing when to when to shout, not how loud to shout. Ranting and raving when there's nothing the solicitor can do (solicitors are people, and people get ill..) or thinking that you're the only client they're working for in the world.

Maybe therefore, concentrate on the 3rd line of the serenity prayer...

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.