Should I trust my solicitor?

ftb14

We are first time buyers, looking (like everyone) to finish our purchase before the end of the month.  I'm beginning to suspect our solicitor is just telling us what we want to hear and then doing nothing.  I might just be being paranoid, but as I have no prior experience with the process.  The estate agent seems to think our solicitor is being slow, but then they work for the seller so...

The situation is that we're buying a property that is currently unoccupied from the development company that built it ~40 years ago (they've rented it out until now).  The seller has agreed to a lower price if we don't complete before the end of June, although we would still be worse off paying the lower price + increased stamp duty.  So both parties are incentivised to get it done in time.  Both parties have no chain, our mortgage is approved, and we've had a survey done which showed no concerns.

We initiated the searches with the council about a month ago.  They were expected back today, but our solicitor now says they will come back Thursday.  The solicitor has taken all next week off, something he didn't bother telling us and we found out from his automated email reply today.  The estate agent is getting titchy about our solicitor not having raised enquiries, but whenever I bring this up with our solicitor he just says that he'll do "everything together" when the council searches come back.  Whenever I speak to him he is super confident it will get done before the end of June, but it's hard not to be nervous.  The fees he's charging are about double what the online only solicitors charge, which we'd hoped would buy us a certain level of reliability.  I guess the specific concerns are:
 1) Is there any sense in waiting for the searches before raising enquiries?  It would seem to me it's best to get everything that can be done out of the way ASAP.
 2) Do you think the solicitor's confidence that we'll be able to complete before the end of the month is justified, given the current state of the transaction?
 3) Am I being overly suspicious and paranoid and should we be more trusting of the solicitor?

Thanks!

moneysavinghero

1. This is quite standard
2. He can be confident, he has nothing to lose if it's late or not. By sounding confident he hopes you won't hassle him so much.
3. A little

Slithery

1) Perfectly normal to wait on the searches before raising enquiries. If solicitors acted immediately every time they received a piece of new information instead of waiting until they had everything they needed then they'd only get half as much work done, so the cost to you would be double.
2) It's not really down to your solicitor, if the seller takes months to answer enquiries then it's going to take months.
3) Yes.

GDB2222

I've got this great idea. I'll shop around for the cheapest possible conveyancing quote. Clearly, the solicitor won't be bound to prioritise his efficiency over great customer service.

wjr4

When was your offer accepted? I mean you’ve not got much time for it all to happen by the end of June IMO! 

Slithery

If your offer was only accepted a month ago then I don't fancy your chances of completing by the end of the month. Most transactions are taking 4+ months at the moment...

steampowered

It is normal to wait for the search results before raising enquiries.

This is because the search results can lead to further enquiries. It is more efficient for your solicitor to send the sellers' conveyancer all of the enquiries in one go, rather than raising some now and some when the enquiries come in.

Justonemorecupoftea

Just to add - council searches are taking a lot longer than normal. In our area it's 16 working days which ends up more than 3 weeks in "real" time. A delay of 2 days isn't really that much.

teachfast

You can't trust your solicitor to communicate well or effectively. Nor can you trust them to do things in a timely manner. They will do them as and when they can work them around too many other clients, plus their own personal house moves, and the golf course. 
What you can usually trust them to do is not mis-handle money or they lose their own job and possibly go to prison. Sadly, they think this makes them above reproach in other matters such as dealing with clients in a courteous fashion. 

princeofpounds

There is a lot of sense to not raising enquiries before the result of searches, because some of the enquiries will depend on the results of the searches.

Obviously that's no guarantee that you will get what you want done in the time you want it done. Just that the sequence of work is not unusual.

firebubble

Your solicitor doesn't get paid until the transaction completes, so he's incentivised to get you to completion. However, it's not just up to him. A solicitor can promptly request searches, but it depends how quickly the results are returned to him. He can send you as his client a document to action, but if it takes you a week to return it, that slows him down. Professional conduct rules mean he's not allowed to contact the seller directly, he has to contact the seller's solicitor. The seller's solicitor may be slow in responding. The seller's solicitor has to pass on the information to her client, who may also be slow responding. If you're buying with a mortgage, the bank has to approve the transaction, so there is also potential for a slow response there. All these variables affect the speed of the transaction, so it's not just your solicitor.
I think what's happening at the moment is that solicitors are prioritising those transactions which are more advanced and therefore more likely to get done by the end of June. Other transactions aren't exactly on a go-slow, but I get the feeling the files are being actioned once all the priority work (ie pre end of June completions) is done. 
The only things you can do are make sure you are returning documents to your solicitor within 24 hours of receiving them, keep the pressure on and pester your lender to return documents asap, and chase the estate agent to chase their client, ie the seller to return documents quickly (after all, the estate agent will only get paid on completion, so they want the sale completed too).