Solicitors question

Harrycat27

Hi all - hoping you can offer me some advice/experiences here. We're not first time buyers but have only been through the process once before 7 years ago and I think I've blocked most of it from memory  hence me feeling like a newbie all over again. So we had an offer accepted on our new house on Friday 7th May and we contacted a solicitor recommended by the estate agent on Monday 10th to get the ball rolling. They were really friendly on the phone, sounded really switched on and 'on it', told us we needed to complete a client form, after which our case would be allocated to a lawyer. We were told informally that if we got our client form sent off that evening then we'd likely be allocated a lawyer within the next two days. We also paid an upfront fee of £400 at the time to cover the cost of the searches, I'm not sure how standard a practice that is, but we didn't mind paying it if it helped to speed things up. 
We completed the form and submitted all ID documents by 08.30 on the Tuesday morning, and here we are over a week later and we still haven't been allocated a lawyer. I have phoned several times and they are always tremendously polite and friendly on the phone, but tell me that our case is in a queue and they can't give me any indication at all as to when it will be allocated, not even a "if you haven't heard in a fortnight, call us" which I think is a bit bad as surely there should be some kind of service level agreement?
I do know that conveyancing takes time, and I also know that conveyancers are swamped at the moment, so I don't want to be impatient, but I am just a little concerned that we haven't even been allocated a lawyer as yet. Our mortgage offer, on the flip side, is rattling along at a fair pace and that looks to be all finished by the end of next week.
The conveyancers we're using have great reviews on basically any review site I can find, and I can't believe they would get that kind of feedback if they were playing games. I am just a little concerned that we have parted with money and as yet nothing seems to be happening. Is this usual? Has anyone else experienced similar? Or do I need to take action?
Many thanks for any advice!

Gentoo365

Speak to the estate agent who recommended them. Maybe they can chase it up. 

kingstreet

Has the selling agent issued the Memorandum Of Sale?
Has your solicitor received the draft contract from the vendor's solicitor?

user1977

You're just buying, not selling? Is the property chain-free? If not then there might not be much point in progressing the legals at the moment anyway.

Harrycat27

kingstreet said:

Has the selling agent issued the Memorandum Of Sale?
Has your solicitor received the draft contract from the vendor's solicitor?

Yes to the first question, we have a copy of that. No to the second as we haven't actually had a specific solicitor assigned to the case yet, which is my concern. The company of solicitors have accepted us as clients, but no individual colleague there has been assigned to us yet, so nothing is happening.

user1977 said:

You're just buying, not selling? Is the property chain-free? If not then there might not be much point in progressing the legals at the moment anyway.

Yes, we're just buying and the property is chain free, so no chains anywhere at all - which is why I was hoping to progress things as hopefully it should be (fingers crossed) a fairly straightforward sale. 

Once I know that a solicitor is allocated to us and has ordered the searches etc (which we've already paid for) then I won't mind so much, but it just seems a bit unsettling to be in limbo where we don't actually have a solicitor assigned to us as yet and the ball hasn't started rolling. Thanks all for your thoughts!

Tiglet2

The ball will most likely start rolling when your solicitor receives the draft contract pack from the seller's solicitor and you have passed their ID checks. 

You submitted the client forms on Tuesday 11th May.  It is now Thursday 20th May, only 7 working days later. 

Don't forget that the seller's solicitor also has to send out lots of forms to their client to fill in and return, before they can forward the paperwork to your solicitor.  7 working days for sending out forms and receiving them back, then scanning them and sending to your solicitor would be a miracle, even if they were not snowed under.

There is a certain amount of "pre-legal" work that must be carried out - the solicitor in charge of your case will likely have an assistant to do those jobs, so I wouldn't worry too much that your allocated solicitor hasn't yet been appointed.

To manage your expectations, a transaction takes on average around 12 weeks to reach exchange/completion and the solicitor won't start the legal work until the date the draft contract pack is received.

purplebutterfly

We are buyers. No chain, cash and our vendor also has no onward chain. Sale agreed 7th May, our local solicitor instructed same day and we paid £250 upfront for searches 13th May when we handed over our client forms, ID and proof of funds etc.

Our seller is using a solicitor suggested by their utterly terrible online estate agency.  So far they have not been appointed a conveyancer and their file is still with the New Business Dept. 
The vendor has no contact with the solicitor at all!  They have to go through the EA who passes things on so there is an extra step in the process from their end.

 I know this because my solicitor has been chasing theirs up to find out why he hasn't received any paperwork yet.

We are in personal contact with the vendor (we had to be, we still wouldn't have a sale agreed if left to the EA) and they have been told it will be a minimum of 12 weeks to complete.  My solicitor estimates 8 as his standard time (he wrapped up the sale of my grandad's house in 6 weeks). 

Depending on the size of the solicitor firm you are using, it seems that the answer to "how long will it take" is anything from 6 weeks to 6 months! 

I do feel your pain though.  

Harrycat27

Tiglet2 said:

To manage your expectations, a transaction takes on average around 12 weeks to reach exchange/completion and the solicitor won't start the legal work until the date the draft contract pack is received.

Thanks - that does help to manage expectations. I really do not want to be an impatient buyer, I do understand that this all takes time. I just don't remember this lag the last time we bought, but then it was a different market then. purplebutterfly said:

Our seller is using a solicitor suggested by their utterly terrible online estate agency.  So far they have not been appointed a conveyancer and their file is still with the New Business Dept. 
The vendor has no contact with the solicitor at all!  They have to go through the EA who passes things on so there is an extra step in the process from their end.

That sounds scarily familiar, as that is what seems to be the case with us. I am holding on to the hope that their thousands of independent reviews praising them at their effectiveness must count for something, and trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. We at least can contact the solicitor's firm, it's just we don't actually have a solicitor to speak to as yet when we do get through to them!
Thanks all. 

teachfast

Tiglet's response about managing expectations is spot on. Isn't it a shame that a stranger on an internet forum has to do this and not the people you just coughed 400 quid to?

Standard, sadly.

Harrycat27

teachfast said:

Tiglet's response about managing expectations is spot on. Isn't it a shame that a stranger on an internet forum has to do this and not the people you just coughed 400 quid to?

Standard, sadly.

Thank you. I really don't mind waiting, I just wish they could have been up front with me and said "You'll be waiting a couple of weeks to get a solicitor, but don't worry, that's normal at the moment" so I knew, rather than telling me it would be within the next couple of days and almost two weeks later I still don't know anything. It is all about managing expectations. 

Definite

Harrycat27 said:

Hi all - hoping you can offer me some advice/experiences here. We're not first time buyers but have only been through the process once before 7 years ago and I think I've blocked most of it from memory  hence me feeling like a newbie all over again. So we had an offer accepted on our new house on Friday 7th May and we contacted a solicitor recommended by the estate agent on Monday 10th to get the ball rolling. They were really friendly on the phone, sounded really switched on and 'on it', told us we needed to complete a client form, after which our case would be allocated to a lawyer. We were told informally that if we got our client form sent off that evening then we'd likely be allocated a lawyer within the next two days. We also paid an upfront fee of £400 at the time to cover the cost of the searches, I'm not sure how standard a practice that is, but we didn't mind paying it if it helped to speed things up. 
We completed the form and submitted all ID documents by 08.30 on the Tuesday morning, and here we are over a week later and we still haven't been allocated a lawyer. I have phoned several times and they are always tremendously polite and friendly on the phone, but tell me that our case is in a queue and they can't give me any indication at all as to when it will be allocated, not even a "if you haven't heard in a fortnight, call us" which I think is a bit bad as surely there should be some kind of service level agreement?
I do know that conveyancing takes time, and I also know that conveyancers are swamped at the moment, so I don't want to be impatient, but I am just a little concerned that we haven't even been allocated a lawyer as yet. Our mortgage offer, on the flip side, is rattling along at a fair pace and that looks to be all finished by the end of next week.
The conveyancers we're using have great reviews on basically any review site I can find, and I can't believe they would get that kind of feedback if they were playing games. I am just a little concerned that we have parted with money and as yet nothing seems to be happening. Is this usual? Has anyone else experienced similar? Or do I need to take action?
Many thanks for any advice!

I'd be asking for my money back and going to a solicitor that values my business. In a queue to get allocated - Tell them to do one.