Appalling conveyancing service - help!

ClaireMC

In the middle of a nightmare with my buyer’s solicitor – any advice appreciated.

The buyers are not British, and they are not experienced in the UK buying process. Instead of helping and guiding their clients, the solicitors have caused them and us, stress and upset in what should have been a straightforward transaction.

Poor/nonexistent communication and unreasonable delays, which none of us knows the reason for as they refuse to return emails, and indeed have told their clients not to ring as it clogs up their system - staggering. The professional discourtesy that they have shown my solicitor too is shocking, not replying to any email from him for over seven weeks. When replies are sent, they are short and give no actual information. The buyers were asked to pay over 6k but were not told what for, and when they asked the accounts department they were told to pay it, and they would get a statement afterwards – again the solicitor would not take their call and not tell them what this is all about!

The questions that they have asked my solicitor have demonstrated their incompetence, including; asking about flooding- we live on a hill 500ft above sea level; access rights over the drive – it is a townhouse and has no drive and many more bizarre questions. Worryingly this lack of detailed questions, illustrates that they do not know the property that their clients are purchasing, so I would be very concerned that they are not asking the right questions just randoms ones to tick boxes. Nearly six months into a property transaction that should have happened in a fraction of the time. The stress, upset, and costs that it has caused all parties is unnecessary and unacceptable, and all down to their incompetence. 

I understand a complaint to the Law Society Ombudsman has been submitted from their client. I don’t know what I can do, if anything. This is costing me so much money as I don't live at the property (family home - bought and moved before this sold), mortgage, insurance, management fees and the legal fees that I will have to pay anyway if this falls through - its crippling! The buyers and us are at our wits end! 

davidmcn

ClaireMC said:

I understand a complaint to the Law Society Ombudsman has been submitted from their client. I don’t know what I can do, if anything.

Nothing, it's not your solicitor and your service to complain about. If your buyers (and their advisers) are too much hassle to deal with, you are free to pull out and sell to somebody else instead.

AdrianC

ClaireMC said:

Worryingly this lack of detailed questions, illustrates that they do not know the property that their clients are purchasing, so I would be very concerned that they are not asking the right questions just randoms ones to tick boxes.

No, they never do. Nor do they need to.

The response to those questions is simply "no" or "not applicable". Next.

ClaireMC

davidmcn said:

ClaireMC said:

I understand a complaint to the Law Society Ombudsman has been submitted from their client. I don’t know what I can do, if anything.

Nothing, it's not your solicitor and your service to complain about. If your buyers (and their advisers) are too much hassle to deal with, you are free to pull out and sell to somebody else instead.

Yes I know I'm free to do that obviously but everything is signed, in place, and we are simply waiting to exchange & complete and have been waiting like this for two months! Starting again will cost us dearly. I thought it unlikely that there is anything that we can do, but just asking here incase I had missed something or someone had an idea that would help. Thanks.  

dimbo61

So in June 2020 when the country was in lockdown and Covid19 was having devastating consequences to millions of people the buyers solicitors were not on the ball sorting a house sale !
Perhaps they were working from home, perhaps they had Covid19 
Everything to do with buying and selling is taking forever and many buyers/sellers are going to miss the stamp duty holiday and not complete by 31-03-2021

ClaireMC

dimbo61 said:

So in June 2020 when the country was in lockdown and Covid19 was having devastating consequences to millions of people the buyers solicitors were not on the ball sorting a house sale !
Perhaps they were working from home, perhaps they had Covid19 
Everything to do with buying and selling is taking forever and many buyers/sellers are going to miss the stamp duty holiday and not complete by 31-03-2021

Sorry I don't see the point of your comment! This is a desk based role so where you sit makes no difference! Additionally, if there are issues, they simply need to tell us, but they are not replying to their clients nor my solicitor - or don't accept the job in the first place maybe! I know a number of people who have sold in a much shorter timescale than this recently. 

Neil49

The bizarre questions you refer to are very sensible in my opinion. No, of course their solicitor doesn't know anything about your house location but they are protecting the interests of the purchaser.

Having said that, we have just completed on a sale and the buyers solicitors were completely useless, even forgetting to advise the buyers on the completion date they had agreed with us and then discovering that the buyers funds weren't in place on the day of completion! The company had dire online reviews and were a cheap online company based somewhere in Wales who employed trainee staff to do the work.

It's the buyers problem to sort them out despite the frustration you are experiencing. Your solicitor should keep harassing them from your side on a daily basis. 

moneysavinghero

The questions that they have asked my solicitor have demonstrated their incompetence, including; asking about flooding- we live on a hill 500ft above sea level; access rights over the drive – it is a townhouse and has no drive and many more bizarre questions

The solicitor is not going to get in their car and visit the property. They won't have a clue (nor should they) if its on a hill or has a drive or not. It is up to your solicitor to provide evidence of these things. Just because you are 500ft above sea level, does not mean your house cannot flood.

ClaireMC

moneysavinghero said:

The questions that they have asked my solicitor have demonstrated their incompetence, including; asking about flooding- we live on a hill 500ft above sea level; access rights over the drive – it is a townhouse and has no drive and many more bizarre questions

The solicitor is not going to get in their car and visit the property. They won't have a clue (nor should they) if its on a hill or has a drive or not. It is up to your solicitor to provide evidence of these things. Just because you are 500ft above sea level, does not mean your house cannot flood.

And they did - a number of times - as she asked the same Q at least 3 times! It's more about the poor service that I was looking for help on than this specifically but thanks!

AskAsk

it is the buyer's responsibility to get their solicitors to do their job and if this is not possible, they should change solicitors.  i would ask them to change solicitors as the existing one is not working, especially now that they have formally made a complaint against them.

princeofpounds

This post is giving me deja vu... I'm sure there was something similar on a few months back.