Conveyancers not communicating

Tiglet2

Phone calls are not generally liked by conveyancers because they like everything to be in written form, then there is no disparity over what was or wasn't agreed.  

teachfast

Covid has become the go-to excuse for the whole conveyancing industry. It's perfect for them: plausible deniability of responsibility no matter what the real reason behind the delays. Throw in the odd 'furlough' and 'unprecendented times' and you have the perfect incompetence-excuse pack. 

Tiglet2

teachfast said:

Covid has become the go-to excuse for the whole conveyancing industry. It's perfect for them: plausible deniability of responsibility no matter what the real reason behind the delays. Throw in the odd 'furlough' and 'unprecendented times' and you have the perfect incompetence-excuse pack. 

Agree with you, however as a furloughed employee and now working from home, it is more difficult trying to do a job when the physical files are with someone else or at the office, when lenders take over an hour to answer the phone and when other solicitors are doing the same.  Councils and Management Companies are also slow to respond. 

I am using my own scanner which is so slow in comparison to the office scanners, so a "simple" job of sending out a report with attachments to clients now takes a lot longer to do. 

Instead of instantly speaking to colleagues when I have a query, I now have to telephone them or chat via email/WhatsApp so getting a response/advice is time consuming. 

We have a case management system which helps but of course some documents are not available to view on it, though we are now scanning as much as possible so that we can view documents this way. 

We all take it in turns to go to the office to pick up post and files, but of course I cannot pick up every single file I might need as I don't know what issues might occur that week. 

As a firm, completion fees are what pay our wages so there is no incentive to drag out a transaction.  Our firm has let a few people go as they couldn't afford to keep them on, probably not the most sensible action but it has meant that there are fewer people handling more transactions. 

Yes, the excuses for not doing the work in the timeframe that clients' desire might appear to be incompetence, but honestly, I think the main issue is that solicitors are not clear about managing the client's expectations and being honest about timescales.  Often they will just go along with the "deadline" a client has set until it is necessary to advise that the deadline won't be met, causing upset and frustration.  

I think clients cannot see the issues conveyancers face and conveyancers can't see the issues clients face.

teachfast

Tiglet2 said:

teachfast said:

Covid has become the go-to excuse for the whole conveyancing industry. It's perfect for them: plausible deniability of responsibility no matter what the real reason behind the delays. Throw in the odd 'furlough' and 'unprecendented times' and you have the perfect incompetence-excuse pack. 

Agree with you, however as a furloughed employee and now working from home, it is more difficult trying to do a job when the physical files are with someone else or at the office, when lenders take over an hour to answer the phone and when other solicitors are doing the same.  Councils and Management Companies are also slow to respond. 

I am using my own scanner which is so slow in comparison to the office scanners, so a "simple" job of sending out a report with attachments to clients now takes a lot longer to do. 

Instead of instantly speaking to colleagues when I have a query, I now have to telephone them or chat via email/WhatsApp so getting a response/advice is time consuming. 

We have a case management system which helps but of course some documents are not available to view on it, though we are now scanning as much as possible so that we can view documents this way. 

We all take it in turns to go to the office to pick up post and files, but of course I cannot pick up every single file I might need as I don't know what issues might occur that week. 

As a firm, completion fees are what pay our wages so there is no incentive to drag out a transaction.  Our firm has let a few people go as they couldn't afford to keep them on, probably not the most sensible action but it has meant that there are fewer people handling more transactions. 

Yes, the excuses for not doing the work in the timeframe that clients' desire might appear to be incompetence, but honestly, I think the main issue is that solicitors are not clear about managing the client's expectations and being honest about timescales.  Often they will just go along with the "deadline" a client has set until it is necessary to advise that the deadline won't be met, causing upset and frustration.  

I think clients cannot see the issues conveyancers face and conveyancers can't see the issues clients face.

Fair comments, but the onus is on the professional to communicate effectively about the industry and processes they understand and the client does not. And many simply do not do it, leading to unnecessary stress, anxiety and frustration which they couldn't seem to give two figs about. 

Tiglet2

teachfast said:

Tiglet2 said:

teachfast said:

Covid has become the go-to excuse for the whole conveyancing industry. It's perfect for them: plausible deniability of responsibility no matter what the real reason behind the delays. Throw in the odd 'furlough' and 'unprecendented times' and you have the perfect incompetence-excuse pack. 

Agree with you, however as a furloughed employee and now working from home, it is more difficult trying to do a job when the physical files are with someone else or at the office, when lenders take over an hour to answer the phone and when other solicitors are doing the same.  Councils and Management Companies are also slow to respond. 

I am using my own scanner which is so slow in comparison to the office scanners, so a "simple" job of sending out a report with attachments to clients now takes a lot longer to do. 

Instead of instantly speaking to colleagues when I have a query, I now have to telephone them or chat via email/WhatsApp so getting a response/advice is time consuming. 

We have a case management system which helps but of course some documents are not available to view on it, though we are now scanning as much as possible so that we can view documents this way. 

We all take it in turns to go to the office to pick up post and files, but of course I cannot pick up every single file I might need as I don't know what issues might occur that week. 

As a firm, completion fees are what pay our wages so there is no incentive to drag out a transaction.  Our firm has let a few people go as they couldn't afford to keep them on, probably not the most sensible action but it has meant that there are fewer people handling more transactions. 

Yes, the excuses for not doing the work in the timeframe that clients' desire might appear to be incompetence, but honestly, I think the main issue is that solicitors are not clear about managing the client's expectations and being honest about timescales.  Often they will just go along with the "deadline" a client has set until it is necessary to advise that the deadline won't be met, causing upset and frustration.  

I think clients cannot see the issues conveyancers face and conveyancers can't see the issues clients face.

Fair comments, but the onus is on the professional to communicate effectively about the industry and processes they understand and the client does not. And many simply do not do it, leading to unnecessary stress, anxiety and frustration which they couldn't seem to give two figs about. 

Simply put, in these days of cheap conveyancing and fixed fees, conveyancing is purely the transfer of a property from seller to buyer.  There is no room in their business model to be spending time to handhold clients through the process, when there is paid work to do.   Ideally, the solicitor would communicate effectively with their client, but this pile-it-high, sell-it-cheap culture puts the onus on the client to study the documents they get sent, for the client to query any document they don't understand and for the client to read up on the process on their website.  This is what cheap fixed fees has done to the industry.

badger09

@Tiglet2

I'd like to say thank you for your input 'from the other side'. 
As a recent vendor & hopefully, soon to be purchaser, I really do understand the constraints my conveyancer is working under. She is worth her weight in gold and is almost always contactable by phone as I've made a point of only contacting her when absolutely necessary. I've also expressed my thanks on several occasions.
BUT on the few occasions I've sent requested docs or info by email and asked for confirmation of receipt, it never happens. Thinking stuff has gone into a black hole (as our email address is sometimes identified as SPAM) is not helpful.
Are conveyancers totally opposed to email communication?

Tiglet2

@badger09

Absolutely not.  The main way to communicate is by email.  It is actually time consuming sending documents by post when many staff are working from home and have no access to the office franking machine.  If there is a case tracker for the client, then communication between the client and the solicitor tends to be through that, but I guess every firm has their own way of working.

It must be frustrating, but my firm receives such a lot of post, emails and tracker messages that it would take all day confirming receipt of everything, so I guess that's why it doesn't get done.  They will soon chase you if something hasn't arrived.  I do think that they should confirm receipt of deposit monies though.

Sotts

I signed my contract and returned it to the solicitors office on Monday.  I received an email on the Tuesday that it had been received.   Someone is clearly in the office dealing with these things.
Same with mortgage offer.  Agreed Thursday night and all the paperwork arrived with my Saturday 

davidmcn

badger09 said:

BUT on the few occasions I've sent requested docs or info by email and asked for confirmation of receipt, it never happens. Thinking stuff has gone into a black hole (as our email address is sometimes identified as SPAM) is not helpful.
Are conveyancers totally opposed to email communication?

No, but I don't think it's reasonable to expect individual acknowledgement merely of having received an email from you, when they could be receiving literally hundreds of pieces of correspondence a day and actually have to action many of them. If you're saying your solicitors have a faulty spam filter, then I agree that is something they ought to be fixing.

badger09

davidmcn said:

badger09 said:

BUT on the few occasions I've sent requested docs or info by email and asked for confirmation of receipt, it never happens. Thinking stuff has gone into a black hole (as our email address is sometimes identified as SPAM) is not helpful.
Are conveyancers totally opposed to email communication?

No, but I don't think it's reasonable to expect individual acknowledgement merely of having received an email from you, when they could be receiving literally hundreds of pieces of correspondence a day and actually have to action many of them. If you're saying your solicitors have a faulty spam filter, then I agree that is something they ought to be fixing.

I'm not expecting, nor would I want acknowledgement of receipt of every email from me, and that is not what I said.
One instance was when our local area was having very long postal delays  - solicitor herself told me they & other local businesses had not had a RM delivery for 10 days. She sent various docs to me for signature by email. As we were close to exchange on our sale, I returned scanned copies by email & also posted hard copies. On that occasion I asked for acknowledgement of receipt, which I did not think unreasonable. I didn't get it any.