My

fleur8

Thanks guys 

greatcrested

'due course' could mean either when they have gathered everything together and can answer all your queries at once, (timeframe unknown), or when they have something else to tell you eg searches etc, or maybe just - when your file reaches the top of the pile!

Local solicitors? Online warehouse?

TonyMMM

You may also be getting charged (quite a lot) for the time spent answering every one of your enquiries 

camden_kid

Get another solicitor. There's lots of them about.

KatrinaWaves

Theres really not a lot of point in updating you once everything section is 'complete' just once its all done. No point chasing them. Yes you are paying them but so will a lot of other people. Three weeks isnt that long in the grand scheme... what exactly were your 'personal questions' that you sent off?

steampowered

This is very poor behaviour from your solicitor, I think you are completely in the right.

If the solicitor is working through a backlog, or they are waiting for x y and z from the sellers' solicitors, they should just tell you that !!!

Thrugelmir

How many times in total have you contacted them recently?   At least 4 times by the sounds of it. 

AskAsk

they are not good solicitors.  our solictors, which i think is bad, actually updates us with progress if we ask without any problems.  they may not have done much but they are not afraid to say they haven't done it!

Exodi

I have a lot of sympathy for conveyancing solicitors.

FTB'ers aren't aware of the timeframe to buy a house, quickly become impatient andabsolutely hound solicitors for updates.

A lot of the time a solicitor may be waiting a respone from a search, or the vendors solicitor, or a whole host of things - people just instantly jump to the conclusion that they're just sleeping in the office all day. Should they not have an answer to one of these queries, you can see why they would respond with 'in due course' - they don't want to make promises of how soon the searches may return because they don't know.

Your phrasing of "I simply wanted to know what 'due course' and 'soon' means" could be interpreted as you being a [Insert Profanity of Choice Here]. Your post comes across as a bit entitled to me, to the others in this thread, if the head of the OP's solicitors messged them personally and asked him to stop bombarding them, I'm sure they wouldn't be fussed in the slightest if the OP took himself to another solicitor to start the process again.

Tonyw193

I found my solicitor a very poor communicator I find if solicitors communicated better with clients they would avoid a significant amount of unnecessary emails and phone calls from all of those involved. 
You do need to allow a solicitor to do there job and sometimes there isnt anything to update on. However given that they've told you a time frame about certain aspects its poor on there behalf not to fulfill them. Id be tempted to fire something back at the head there about poor communication and failing  notify you when expected.
 Leaving a solictor can be costly so its best to try and work with them from what i gather than starting the whole process with someone else. 

moneysavinghero

They are busy and dont want to be wasting their time answering questions that they don't know the answers to. Due course probably means whenever they get the information that they are waiting on from someone else, then they will update you.