Am I expecting too much from my conveyancer or is she just useless?

AdrianC

skm1981 said:

and no, I don't want my conveyancer to make the decision for me with regards to who pays for an additional survey.  I wanted her advice as to whether that is normal or not.  I certainly didn't expect her to tell me to try and speak with my buyers personally.  

It matters not what is "normal".

What matters is whether you want to take the risk that your buyer is going to walk away from the purchase if you refuse to pay for the survey. Your conveyancer simply cannot answer that, because - unlike you - they've never ever spoken to your buyer.

princeofpounds

skm1981 said:

But maybe my expectations have been set too high, judging by the responses, which is fine - and was the whole point of me asking. 

I don't think your expectations are too high compared to what 'should' be. I'm sure that you could do better than you have, but if you go looking for that conveyancer of your imagination you might be searching for a long time given how things are in practice. I agree, it's a shame.

skm1981

AdrianC said:

skm1981 said:

and no, I don't want my conveyancer to make the decision for me with regards to who pays for an additional survey.  I wanted her advice as to whether that is normal or not.  I certainly didn't expect her to tell me to try and speak with my buyers personally.  

It matters not what is "normal".

What matters is whether you want to take the risk that your buyer is going to walk away from the purchase if you refuse to pay for the survey. Your conveyancer simply cannot answer that, because - unlike you - they've never ever spoken to your buyer.

Whether that is what "matters" here or not is irrelevant to my post.  I didn't ask that.  I asked my conveyancer if it was normal as, from my limited understanding of buying and selling houses, it is typical that the purchaser pays for all searches.  And it's irrelevant anyway because, again, I wasn't asking anyone on here that question.  I was asking if my expectations of my conveyancer were too high.  I now believe that they probably are.

saajan_12

skm1981 said:

AdrianC said:

skm1981 said:

and no, I don't want my conveyancer to make the decision for me with regards to who pays for an additional survey.  I wanted her advice as to whether that is normal or not.  I certainly didn't expect her to tell me to try and speak with my buyers personally.  

It matters not what is "normal".

What matters is whether you want to take the risk that your buyer is going to walk away from the purchase if you refuse to pay for the survey. Your conveyancer simply cannot answer that, because - unlike you - they've never ever spoken to your buyer.

Whether that is what "matters" here or not is irrelevant to my post.  I didn't ask that.  I asked my conveyancer if it was normal as, from my limited understanding of buying and selling houses, it is typical that the purchaser pays for all searches.  And it's irrelevant anyway because, again, I wasn't asking anyone on here that question.  I was asking if my expectations of my conveyancer were too high.  I now believe that they probably are.

Well the two points where your conveyancer seems to be missing your expectations are:
1) willingness to discuss / liaise / advise on who pays for surveys normally
2) responsiveness to communications and speed of updates

For (1) yes you asked whether its normal, not what you should do, but the two are linked. The conveyancer probably didn't want to answer because its not their place.. if they say yes / no to it being normal, you take that as advice on what you should do, and later feel you overpaid / lost the transaction as a result, you might complain.. better they don't get involved because what matters is up to negotiation with the buyer. 

For (2) I wouldn't say its standard to get acknowledgement emails before they have a chance to actually action something, or to get an update saying 'no update', particularly when they're working to a fixed fee instead of billing for each phonecall / email / letter. You can generally assume they received and are working, and will get back to you when they actually get the answer to the query etc. Re F&F forms etc, thats pending the seller, so not on your conveyancer. Remember the total fee for your solicitor after disbursements is likely much less than what your EA gets, so its the latter who should be doing any chasing or liaising. 

[Deleted User]

Last time i sold and bought I paid for the boiler service on my place to satisfy my picky buyer and also on the place i was buying to satisfy myself when the seller refused to pay for it.    I tried to refuce to pay for my sale one but I only had 1 offer in months and I couldnt afford to lose my buyer.  Bigger picture and all that

But generally a negotiation to be done with estate agents rather than solicitors/conveyancers.   The estate agents should have had a lot more contact with all the parties involved in the transaction that anyone else

Thrugelmir

skm1981 said:

As for writing letters, I'm pretty sure that the conveyancers are communicating via email. 

Email is the bane of the professional world.  Spam abounds. 

coachman12

skm1981 said:

AdrianC said:

skm1981 said:

and no, I don't want my conveyancer to make the decision for me with regards to who pays for an additional survey.  I wanted her advice as to whether that is normal or not.  I certainly didn't expect her to tell me to try and speak with my buyers personally.  

It matters not what is "normal".

What matters is whether you want to take the risk that your buyer is going to walk away from the purchase if you refuse to pay for the survey. Your conveyancer simply cannot answer that, because - unlike you - they've never ever spoken to your buyer.

Whether that is what "matters" here or not is irrelevant to my post.  I didn't ask that.  I asked my conveyancer if it was normal as, from my limited understanding of buying and selling houses, it is typical that the purchaser pays for all searches.  And it's irrelevant anyway because, again, I wasn't asking anyone on here that question.  I was asking if my expectations of my conveyancer were too high.  I now believe that they probably are.

You're quite right , skm. What matters is simply the question you asked. 
And my personal answer is that these days any high expectations of conveyancers are always too high. It's a sweeping generalisation, of course, but by and large, solicitors ( who use a clerk anyway) and conveyancers do not give a damn about your wishes, your preferences, your wishes, your instructions-----once they have your business. As I have said several times on all these regular threads about conveyancing incompetence and indifference, solicitors/conveyancers have joined bank workers in the same category that we were brought up to believe was the sole preserve of used car salesmen. Estate Agents have a job to do and seem good at their job----why they are then expected to go above and beyond their role in order to help out clients who have rubbish conveyancers is unfair yet many of EAs provide this onerous service and they are to be commended. But it is not fair. Expect nothing from your conveyancer, unless you know him/her and have used him/her for donkey's years. There needs to be new guidelines applied to the legal profession about exactly what their duties, ways of working and fees should be. 
BTW, I have paid for plenty of surveys over the years---always for the house I'm hoping to buy ; but I have never paid a prospective purchaser of my property for costs of a survey, and I would never do so.
Good luck, skm ,during this frustrating time for you----hang in there and remember that YOU are the employer of these useless "professionals" and you should remind them of that whenever possible.

eddddy

The internet is making consumers very price sensitive.

There are now many price comparison websites and price quoting websites for conveyancing. Some people are probably choosing their conveyancer on the basis that they are the cheapest by £10 or £20.

So conveyancers and solicitors are looking at every way they can reduce their prices to keep them competitive - and reducing the level of 'customer service' is an obvious way of reducing costs.

It's a bit like what happened when Ryanair entered the airline market, with cheap prices and little focus on customer service. All the other airlines had to reduce their levels of customer service, in order to reduce costs, so that they could compete with Ryanair.


But if you agree to pay your conveyancing solicitor on an 'hourly rate' basis, I suspect you will get much better service.

Hannimal

I paid my high street conveyancer high street prices. She wasn't phoning me daily or replying to me daily. Maybe because I work in a field where everyone is constantly busy and because I can take weeks to reply to e-mails (or I simply forget) it didn't bother me. It was nothing out of what I am used to. I can get in excess of 100 e-mails in a working day, I imagine conveyancing is also very busy right now with house sales being up by about 20% compared to last year. Be patient.