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MalMonroe

Surrey_EA said:

camden_kid said:

princeofpounds said:

Exodi said:

I have a lot of sympathy for conveyancing solicitors.

I don't.

I totally understand that the financial incentive is to process huge volumes of work, and not to communicate at each stage of the process. They don't get paid for it.

However, their communication skills are frequently awful, and OP's situation is a prime example. Their replies were vague and dismissive, and the ultimate response was borderline rude (or even plain rude depending on what the 'telling off' actually involved). If they had expended an ounce of effort into explaining their replies, the OP would never have felt like they needed to resort to multiple enquiries.

It would not be remotely hard for them to craft and copy-past a number of replies that would address most of these queries, even if they cannot give a definitive answer they could actually address some of the underlying concern. For example; 'We expect your searches to be back soon, but that could be a matter of weeks rather than days. Please be reassured that we will contact you as soon as we can progress your file, but for now we are waiting on third party services, which is totally normal in a transaction. You do not need to contact us, we will contact you.'. I'm not claiming that's the best reply ever (far from it!), but you get the idea.

Nor would it be hard to set fair expectations of communication at the outset. Particularly with FTBs they are dealing with people who have never been through a transaction, which is the most important of their lives to date. A simple paragraph would explain that housing transactions can take months, that regular updates are not useful if the file has not progressed, that the firm will be in touch at certain milestones so enquiries are unnecessary etc.

Part of the problem I think, apart from the lack of incentive and customer service ethos, is that they don't really like to explain to clients that the transaction can take ages, they are often waiting on other parties, and they are doing nothing with your file more often than something.

Certainly it's not hard to communicate with them promptly when they are angling for new business or chasing up money, when they have to...

If I was the OP; if it was early in the process, I would sack them. If not, bite your tongue and consider making a formal complaint afterwards, emphasising that the only reason for multiple enquiries was the multiple dismissive responses. The Law Society has a conveyancing protocol with the following obligations:

https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/en/topics/property/conveyancing-protocol

"Agree at an early stage how you will communicate with all others involved and respond promptly to communications."
"Maintain high standards of courtesy and deal with others in a fair and honest manner"
"Ensure that you have managed and covered timing and other expectations and linked transactions such as chains appropriately."

Of course you may not have the energy when you get to that stage. The easy alternative is simply to name and shame them online in reviews.

At a minimum a solicitor should update you once a week, even if it's to say there's no news.

It is not uncommon for each solicitor to have around 150 files on the go at any one time. If they gave weekely updates they would need to average 30 each day, or roughly four an hour, taking a typical business day. 

That doesn't leave much time to get any actual work done.

It's absolutely NO excuse for rudeness though. If it had been me, they'd have had one less file on the go right now.

MalMonroe

camden_kid said:

Surrey_EA said:

camden_kid said:

princeofpounds said:

Exodi said:

I have a lot of sympathy for conveyancing solicitors.

I don't.

I totally understand that the financial incentive is to process huge volumes of work, and not to communicate at each stage of the process. They don't get paid for it.

However, their communication skills are frequently awful, and OP's situation is a prime example. Their replies were vague and dismissive, and the ultimate response was borderline rude (or even plain rude depending on what the 'telling off' actually involved). If they had expended an ounce of effort into explaining their replies, the OP would never have felt like they needed to resort to multiple enquiries.

It would not be remotely hard for them to craft and copy-past a number of replies that would address most of these queries, even if they cannot give a definitive answer they could actually address some of the underlying concern. For example; 'We expect your searches to be back soon, but that could be a matter of weeks rather than days. Please be reassured that we will contact you as soon as we can progress your file, but for now we are waiting on third party services, which is totally normal in a transaction. You do not need to contact us, we will contact you.'. I'm not claiming that's the best reply ever (far from it!), but you get the idea.

Nor would it be hard to set fair expectations of communication at the outset. Particularly with FTBs they are dealing with people who have never been through a transaction, which is the most important of their lives to date. A simple paragraph would explain that housing transactions can take months, that regular updates are not useful if the file has not progressed, that the firm will be in touch at certain milestones so enquiries are unnecessary etc.

Part of the problem I think, apart from the lack of incentive and customer service ethos, is that they don't really like to explain to clients that the transaction can take ages, they are often waiting on other parties, and they are doing nothing with your file more often than something.

Certainly it's not hard to communicate with them promptly when they are angling for new business or chasing up money, when they have to...

If I was the OP; if it was early in the process, I would sack them. If not, bite your tongue and consider making a formal complaint afterwards, emphasising that the only reason for multiple enquiries was the multiple dismissive responses. The Law Society has a conveyancing protocol with the following obligations:

https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/en/topics/property/conveyancing-protocol

"Agree at an early stage how you will communicate with all others involved and respond promptly to communications."
"Maintain high standards of courtesy and deal with others in a fair and honest manner"
"Ensure that you have managed and covered timing and other expectations and linked transactions such as chains appropriately."

Of course you may not have the energy when you get to that stage. The easy alternative is simply to name and shame them online in reviews.

At a minimum a solicitor should update you once a week, even if it's to say there's no news.

It is not uncommon for each solicitor to have around 150 files on the go at any one time. If they gave weekely updates they would need to average 30 each day, or roughly four an hour, taking a typical business day. 

That doesn't leave much time to get any actual work done.

150 files on the go - maybe that's why there are so many complaints about solicitors. But I'm not in a position to judge their business model, just saying.

No need for rudeness though, is there? From anyone. Especially not when the OP is paying them. I think we the public actually ARE in a position to judge their business model, tbh.

NinjaTune

MalMonroe said:

Whether or not you were 'in the wrong' - and to be perfectly honest, I believe that if you are paying someone to do a job for you, you are never in the wrong - his attitude is absolutely appalling. 

Okay, Karen. 

MalMonroe

Thrugelmir said:

camden_kid said:

Thrugelmir said:

fleur8 said:

DayDreamerandGeneralWaster said:

It's very difficult. They are very busy. I suspect they don't know what due course means either and are clearly fed up with having to take time out of their day to tell you they don't have anything to tell you. 🤦‍♀️ It's a shame they felt the need to share that with you though. Don't take it personally ⚘

I understand. Many of us have professional
jobs and are under extreme stress. I couldn’t imagine ever speaking to my “clients” in that manner and I’m pretty sure my job is just as busy, if not a bit more than theirs. 

How much of your working day are you prepared to allocate to non productive activity though?  Do you charge your time to clients in 5 minute segments every hour of the working day?  With questions asked if you don't hit a certain level of recoverable time. 

Keeping a paying client up to date is non productive? It's a service based industry. If I didn't keep my colleagues, boss and company up to date regularly I'd be out on my ear in no time.

How much revenue do you directly generate for your organisation?  

How much revenue do solicitors generate for their organisations when they are rude to clients? How much bad publicity? OP's solicitor could have taken maybe just ten minutes at the outset to explain how things worked and asked them not to phone too regularly. Problem solved before there even was one.

MalMonroe

camden_kid said:

ratechaser said:

I think a lot hinges on what this 'telling off' actually entailed. My own job involves navigating clients through a complex process with multiple overlapping steps that have timelines that are hard to quantify -  not entirely unlike buying a house.

But I'd never ever tell them to go away and stop bothering me or my team simply because they don't understand the process. If that's what happened here then I'd be having a very direct conversation with them about minimum expectations about their professional behaviour...

I wouldn't even bother doing that. I'd get new solicitors. Why waste my breath?

Me too. Discourteous and condescending solicitors are the absolute worst.

MalMonroe

ratechaser said:

camden_kid said:

ratechaser said:

I think a lot hinges on what this 'telling off' actually entailed. My own job involves navigating clients through a complex process with multiple overlapping steps that have timelines that are hard to quantify -  not entirely unlike buying a house.

But I'd never ever tell them to go away and stop bothering me or my team simply because they don't understand the process. If that's what happened here then I'd be having a very direct conversation with them about minimum expectations about their professional behaviour...

I wouldn't even bother doing that. I'd get new solicitors. Why waste my breath?

Depends how far along you are. Cutting off noses etc not always the best approach. If this is a genuine firm rather than robo conveyancing then a firm word in the right place can get things back on track...

Not necessarily. I switched solicitors three times before I was satisfied with a conveyancing one. And I made sure to tell them each time, in writing, why I was leaving, copy to partner in charge too.

Some of them think they can get away with treating their clients like dirt. They can't. Or they shouldn't.

MalMonroe

Thrugelmir said:

MalMonroe said:

And you should tell him where to shove himself, too.

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!  

In what way?

MalMonroe

NinjaTune said:

MalMonroe said:

Whether or not you were 'in the wrong' - and to be perfectly honest, I believe that if you are paying someone to do a job for you, you are never in the wrong - his attitude is absolutely appalling. 

Okay, Karen. 

Thank you but my comment was actually aimed at the OP?

camden_kid

MalMonroe said:

NinjaTune said:

MalMonroe said:

Whether or not you were 'in the wrong' - and to be perfectly honest, I believe that if you are paying someone to do a job for you, you are never in the wrong - his attitude is absolutely appalling. 

Okay, Karen. 

Thank you but my comment was actually aimed at the OP?

Ignore them. There's a lot of passive aggressive attitude in this post from some folk.

ameliarate

Have to add my thoughts to this. If I am paying someone to do a job I couldn’t care less how many other people they are working for,  not my problem. It is perfectly reasonable, especially for a FTB, to be anxious and have questions when buying a house. If the companies cannot handle their workload then they shouldn’t take so much on. 

I left a message for my conveyancer  asking whether or. It she was actually acting for us as I couldn’t get responses. She got back to me within an hour of that message.