An issue when the conveyancer / solicitor firm acting for both seller and buyer.

mirand

I am selling my property using a national estate agent and part of the deal is to use their recommended conveyancer / solicitors which was fine.

The same conveyancing firm was recommended and used by the buyer.

The sale was progressing very slow due to this conveyancing team and ten weeks later the buyer pulled out due to problems with his mortgage, an issue in my view could have been caught earlier if the progress was robust.

The buyer sent me a lengthy message apologising and also detailing his bad experience with this conveyancing firm, something I relate to having had few issues with my allocated team.

Had to re-advertise again and an offer was made almost immediately and again the Estate Agent recommended the same firm to the new buyer and four weeks later am still waiting for the sale to progress.

Contacted the estate agent post support team raising my concern but things still are very slow-paced.

I am considering asking the buyer to join me and change conveyancing team and if they are reluctant just move on and get another Estate Agent all together.

I wonder if anyone has been through a similar experience and would also appreciate any input / thoughts.  

Not enough having to deal with the stress of the sale but also the added worry about the sale being held up. 

thank you. 

Thrugelmir

mirand said:

The buyer sent me a lengthy message apologising and also detailing his bad experience with this conveyancing firm, 

Totally irrelevant. The lack of a mortgage offer is the key. Hence why it's not advisable to start the conveyancing process prematurely. Conveyancers know this, with transactions frequently failing to get off the ground. To them it's a waste of their time. Other clients they could be attending to.  Time costs money. 

user1977

It's a terrible idea to be using the same conveyancing firm as the other party, there's no way they can offer you (or their other clients) best advice in that scenario. The only people it benefits are the EA who are presumably getting two lots of bungs from the firm for "recommending" them.

MaiTai

Is this one of the on-line conveyancing sheds?

teachfast

Do not ignore warnings about the conveyancing firm, no matter what the apologists on here tell you. You cannot polish a turd and sadly there are more turds than diamonds in that god-forsaken 'profession'. Switch conveyancers soon and listen to what other say about them. 

mirand

MaiTai said:

Is this one of the on-line conveyancing sheds?

Yep, the worst one no doubt. I found a very bad review about them on youtube, someone was so angry with them posted a video review about them. I wish I saw it before agreeing to use them. 
Not sure if naming them here will be against the forum's policy but I will no doubt, once all is over, be posting a detailed review on trusted pilot so others don't go through what i am going through. 

Disjoint

Never ever take the estate agent's recommendation. Always a recommendation from friend or family. Stay clear from online agents as well