Advice on dealing with conveyancer please?

teachfast

They'll mostly do the last thing they were sat on for so keep contacting.  What they are spectacularly bad on is explaining and setting up expectations with their clients.  If they did this when they were first engaged a lot of their problems with insistent over-bearing clients would disappear.  But they don't - and they simply don't care.  They get multiple complaints and, for most of them, it's a job not a vocation so they simply see it as part-and-parcel of working life.  For the most part they lack enough empathy to appreciate the incredible stress their clients go through, particularly for a problematic sale/purchase when they could quickly and easily put their mind at rest or bring them up to speed on a difficult situation.

These sweeping generalisations don't apply to all conveyancing solicitors, just most of them.  The smarter ones and those with any modicum of emotional intelligence chose a different branch of law to practice (think Traffic Wardens vs Police).

ele_91

Are you a FTB? Thinking back to when I was, I was the same as you and tbh it was total overkill. Much better to relax and allow the process to happen. Yes you may need to get involved if something takes an unreasonable amount of time, but I would class that as weeks without communication, not days. For most of conveyancing the solicitor is at the mercy of third parties and all you can really do to influence the speed is ensure when you have a task to fulfil you do it as soon as possible. Every time you are asking them to give you an update, it’s time they could have spent working on your case. 

Of course you can always go elsewhere and probably get the same speed of service!

Thrugelmir

ele_91 said:

Of course you can always go elsewhere and probably get the same speed of service!

If you are prepared to pay on a time charged basis rather than a fixed fee. Then options are available. Though when you see the per minute charge one suspects you would regret making all those unnecessary calls.  

rik111

I'm just glad I'm not a conveyancer, couldn't be putting up with people constantly asking for updates when there is nothing to tell them. A decent estate agent should be updating you regularly, that is part of their remit. Solicitors / conveyancers are paid to carry out a legal transaction action on your behalf, not constantly keep you updated. Bet you used to sit in the back of your Dads car saying "are we there yet".
As someone else suggested if you want this type of service you have to pay for it, otherwise just chill and stop moaning.

teachfast

rik111 said:

I'm just glad I'm not a conveyancer, couldn't be putting up with people constantly asking for updates when there is nothing to tell them. A decent estate agent should be updating you regularly, that is part of their remit. Solicitors / conveyancers are paid to carry out a legal transaction action on your behalf, not constantly keep you updated. Bet you used to sit in the back of your Dads car saying "are we there yet".
As someone else suggested if you want this type of service you have to pay for it, otherwise just chill and stop moaning.

My dad was sensible enough to explain what the next major milestone would be to prevent this; so I could watch out for myself. 

It's the dads that simply ignored their kids or, worst still, treated them with disdain that got the nagging. Some of them were too stupid to realise this.