Solicitors completely unresponsive - do we sack them?!

boldaslove

Long story short, we were in the process of buying a house last summer and withdrew from the sale and then had a long break due to health complications. Our Case Manager at the Conveyancing firm we were using told us that we still had a small amount of money on file (no exact amount but we paid for some searches in advance and we're not sure how many were instructed by the time we pulled out) and to come back to him once we'd had an offer accepted on another property.

We instructed them again at the beginning of May and had an email response from our Case Manager saying that he was leaving on Friday (several weeks gone now) and that he'd pass on our details to our New Case Manager. Since then we have not been able to speak to them at all despite multiple emails and phone calls apart from when I filled out a form for a new quote online - then we magically got a call back within 15 minutes but the person who called us couldn't tell us anything and didn't even send us a new quote.

We've asked friends for advice and have now located a firm that's been recommended by a few of them, the quote they've given us seems fine. Our vendors haven't had an offer accepted yet so I'm not in a panic about things but I think we'd rather sack the existing Solicitor and instruct the ones we've been recommended as they seem more capable at communicating with us. I reckon we have maybe £100ish left on file at the old place - it's not much in the grand scheme of things but I'd prefer to get this back as I don't think the Solicitors should be given free money for being ?!$£ at their jobs!

I'm not sure how to go about it - do we just sack them and find out any consequences when they finally decide to respond to us? We were referred to them through a broker but we're not using a mortgage now so we're not having any further dealings with the broker.

user1977

They won't be "given free money", they're not allowed to just pocket client money left on their account - it would be returned to you one way or another.

saajan_12

If they're being rubbish at the start (granted 2nd property) then they're not going to get better, so you're best jumping ship before they start on the new property.  Other than maybe an id check on you, there's going to be very little duplicated work by changing at this stage. 

Email old solicitors asking them to close your file and inform you of the abortive fees. Ask them to return any extra monies promptly. If they don't respond, then write again giving a deadline and follow up with a letter before action. That'll make them pay attention. 

Thrugelmir

Like most solicitors currently their focus will be on meeting the June deadline. If your previous contact has left perhaps they've not managed to recruit a replacement yet.  No need to sack them and they are not currently engaged. Ring some other solicitors for quotes. 

boldaslove

user1977 said:

They won't be "given free money", they're not allowed to just pocket client money left on their account - it would be returned to you one way or another.

I understand that, they're just literally not responding to our requests for anything so we have no idea when, how or how much would be refunded to us nor of any fees we'd be liable for if we decided to cancel. 

Thrugelmir said:

Like most solicitors currently their focus will be on meeting the June deadline. If your previous contact has left perhaps they've not managed to recruit a replacement yet.  No need to sack them and they are not currently engaged. Ring some other solicitors for quotes. 

You make a good point about the stamp duty deadline that we hadn't considered. They apparently have the time to chase new clients though so I feel like even a courtesy "sorry, we're really busy but we'll look into it as soon as we can" email would be acceptable. 

saajan_12 said:

If they're being rubbish at the start (granted 2nd property) then they're not going to get better, so you're best jumping ship before they start on the new property.  Other than maybe an id check on you, there's going to be very little duplicated work by changing at this stage. 

Email old solicitors asking them to close your file and inform you of the abortive fees. Ask them to return any extra monies promptly. If they don't respond, then write again giving a deadline and follow up with a letter before action. That'll make them pay attention. 

The abortive fees worry me a bit as we were introduced via a broker and I think some introductory payment gets made between them? I looked through our contract with the Solicitors but couldn't find any specifics about fees other than we'd be charged for the work that had taken place up till cancellation. I don't think they spent much time on us last year other than ID checks and instructing the searches but I'd be miffed if we ended up with a bill for leaving them.

TBagpuss

When you withdraw state explicitly that it is due to having not had any response despite multiple attempts to contact them, and as such you no longer wish to instruct them on the new transaction and, being aware that they have funds remaining from the previous instruction, request that those are returned.

You may be liable to pay them for work they did on the previous transaction unless they had a no-sale, no fee agreement.