Searches and slow solicitors

omarmansour

Hi. I am buying a property in Leicester, and between myself and the seller, we have managed to get the council to sort out the local authority search in 2 days. That was 2 weeks ago, now the solicitor is adamant that they haven't received these searches back. My guess is that the search company there are using is just incompetent. I am getting very frustrated, as we are 6-7 weeks into the conveyancing process without real progress. I appreciate there is a process, but waiting that long for a document to push the process forward is extremely frustrating. Any recommendations on how to approach this? Thanks !

Tiglet2

Considering there are probably 20 or so processes to complete, the searches are just one process out of the 20.  Unless all other 19 processes have been completed and the local authority search is the last process to be completed, it will not hold up the transaction.  Chill.

MalMonroe

Councils and solicitors are both notoriously slow, at everything. It usually does take a while to finalise a house sale properly so I'd just hang on. Also, coronavirus is a great excuse for tardiness these days, whether it's relevant or not. Buying a property really is a time consuming venture. As Tiglet2 advises - chill. You'll get there in the end.

omarmansour

Thanks- I will try to. It is indeed a very stressful process. Gets worse when the solicitors are so laid back and not very proactive in chasing the paperwork sitting on someone's desk at the searches company.

Tiglet2

omarmansour said:

Thanks- I will try to. It is indeed a very stressful process. Gets worse when the solicitors are so laid back and not very proactive in chasing the paperwork sitting on someone's desk at the searches company.

Solicitors will not chase paperwork sitting on someone's desk at the searches company because they are ordering searches every single day for different transactions.  There is a turnaround time - the search company lets the solicitor know when to expect the return of the search and nine times out of ten, the search comes back on that day.  Search companies do not expedite searches nor will chasing produce the searches any quicker so there is little point in chasing when the search company have already told them when to expect the results.

Thrugelmir

omarmansour said:

Thanks- I will try to. It is indeed a very stressful process. Gets worse when the solicitors are so laid back and not very proactive in chasing the paperwork sitting on someone's desk at the searches company.

Rather than a fixed fee basis. Are you prepared to pay for their time by the minute?  I suspect when you realise the full cost of having a personalised service you'll soon back off. 

omarmansour

I never claimed I wanted a personalised service or to pay them by the minute. It's just when the process is held up for almost 8 weeks for no apparent reason (now I know search companies won't budge on their timelines), I just thought this warranted a point of concern on my end.

Thrugelmir

omarmansour said:

I never claimed I wanted a personalised service or to pay them by the minute. It's just when the process is held up for almost 8 weeks for no apparent reason (now I know search companies won't budge on their timelines), I just thought this warranted a point of concern on my end.

If you want some to chase all the time you'll need to pay them. If you don't. Then they'll spend their time more productively working on other clients affairs. Unlike the vast majority of people who go to work. Solicitors have to account for all their time and how they spend their working day. It's the revenue that pays the bills. 

rik111

It’s gone from 6 or 7 weeks in to almost 8 weeks in the space of a few hours.... If the search company were that incompetent they wouldn’t be in business any more, last thing a solicitor needs is them holding things up and having neurotic buyers chasing them constantly so they can’t get any work done. It all sounds like it’s progressing nicely if you are only at 8 weeks. Either relax and accept the fact these things take time or pull the plug as you are clearly not cut out for moving home.

omarmansour

rik111 said:

It’s gone from 6 or 7 weeks in to almost 8 weeks in the space of a few hours.... If the search company were that incompetent they wouldn’t be in business any more, last thing a solicitor needs is them holding things up and having neurotic buyers chasing them constantly so they can’t get any work done. It all sounds like it’s progressing nicely if you are only at 8 weeks. Either relax and accept the fact these things take time or pull the plug as you are clearly not cut out for moving home.

I appreciate your help and input which I wanted from this forum in the very first place. But a) Not your place to judge if am a neurotic buyer or not b) not your place to assume I amnot cut for moving home. My assumption is that these forums are public for everyone to comment and seek help from other people who have been through the process, not to be judged and definitely not be scolded becuase I sought help after some weeks of no news. Perhaps you should accept the fact that you shouldn’t be commenting on posts that triggers judgmental statements for no reason? Thanks for your input again.

Slithery

Perhaps you should realise that this is a public forum. Other users can post whatever they wish...