Slow solicitors

mancboy

Am going through a purchase right now, everything seems to take way too long with no other explanation than "its normal".
3 weeks to get draft contract from buyers solictor.
4 weeks to get searches (so im told by solicitor)when i know for a fact they take 5 days as i have a realtive who does them for local council.
10 days since draft contract recieved by my solicitor and nothing.

Im now 7 weeks in and im of the firm belief my solicitor has done zilch yet, apart from iniate searches.

No chain, 2 year old house mortgage offer firmly in place before solicitor instructed, anyone advise after taking into account the above whats realistic in how much longer i should be looking at to get completed?

Im in 2 minds to switch solicitors, only thing stopping me is surely it should be shorter going forward than starting again?

Tnx

Thrugelmir

What position is your vendor in?

mancboy

House is empty, vender moved in with fiance, am in regular contact, very keen to get resolved ASAP.

PixelPound

Have you used a local solicitor or a national one? Many of these conveyancing solicitors will have large caseloads, so its not that it should take X amount of time but more that they work through cases and once one bit of work is done it goes from one pile to the next. Chase them up and keep on for updates, tat way you don't fall behind others who have chased.

Thrugelmir

3 weeks to get draft contract from buyers solictor.

Are you buying with a mortgage?

mancboy

Yes, got full offer before instructing solicitor.

mancboy

Im chasing them every other day.
Everytime i speak to them i get the "ok lets have a look at your file, de da dum, yes we should be starting making enquiries shortly, its on my to do pile well call you in a couple of days etc etc.

Simby

nic_c wrote: »

Have you used a local solicitor or a national one? Many of these conveyancing solicitors will have large caseloads, so its not that it should take X amount of time but more that they work through cases and once one bit of work is done it goes from one pile to the next. Chase them up and keep on for updates, tat way you don't fall behind others who have chased.

This if you have chosen a firm with a high caseload, you will move up the pile eventually. The work will get done just you are one of likely many many clients and your conveyancer is working through each case.

Thrugelmir

mancboy wrote: »

Im chasing them every other day.
Everytime i speak to them i get the "ok lets have a look at your file, de da dum, yes we should be starting making enquiries shortly, its on my to do pile well call you in a couple of days etc etc.

What makes you more important than any other client?

Making unneccessary contact simply wastes peoples time.

PasturesNew

Solicitors are not optimised for transactions - they have to spread their caseload and income across 2-4 months so they aren't sitting twiddling their thumbs.

You can get a solicitor to work more quickly if you advise them from the start, e.g. auction sales... these cost a bit more as they're taking a bigger risk re their time and deadlines.

Generally you're just packed on the bus with all the other passengers and they go through their motions each time they "need" to -v- when they "choose" to.

Most will sell you their "faster" services at a price, most people don't ask and just accept there will be huge periods of nothing happening, and nothing appearing to happen for weeks at a time.

To do it quickest you and the seller would've both needed to ask for the faster service, preferably using the same firm of solicitors but different branches.

Piiiinksocks

We’ve recently sold our property and it took 7 weeks - the buyer had already had a purchase fall through so their chain was much further ahead. Our solicitor was amazing, she had the draft contract and pre empted some enquiries within a day of the memo of sale. The other side then took 3-4 weeks for enquiries which I assume was due to searches, and our solicitor was on the case constantly.

We’ve now put an offer in to buy somewhere (we’re now chain free as in rented), and it took 3 weeks to get draft contracts. I’ve been told our solicitor is the exception and not the rule, but she’s chasing every week for the next stage - they wouldn’t start searches until they’d received draft contracts so this has slowed us down considerably. They only cost about £100 more than the cheapest quote we had, but that extra money has bought me complete piece of mind. So even though I know my solicitor is on the ball, the other side just isn’t bothered about moving quickly. The vendor is, but the solicitors aren’t. There is very little any of us can do about it (except become a thorn in the estate agents side so THEY do some extra chasing too!!)