Solicitors complaint

bargainbetty

You can also follow the advice given by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority - here. 

https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/

GoogleMeNow

brianhewitt said:

I thought giving too much knowledge would bore people to death tbh I didn't think it would be a reason for criticism. We were recommended this solicitor by multiple people in a local group, and they seemed OK until they got our instructions. We had a cash buyer and were buying a vacant possession house so it was as simple as it gets. Our estate agent chased them up after 4 weeks and they couldn't find our sale file and discovered it on a recently retired employees desk, so they say. You allow this mistake but our survey results for purchase went missing and we had to resend those and as we could get through to them or get a response this took 5 weeks to find out. It was also taking more than 10 working days to get even a response  from them. When trying to talk to the solicitor, who is also the director of the company we could never get through she was always busy and never returned a call.  We had booth estate agents chasing them they said they have never experienced this ever before as they never got any info back or a call. In the final week before it went south we finally get a call from her and she was rather rude saying there were no communication issues?. Oh and put the final nail in the coffin by saying there was an issue as we were buying from an estate and sorting the title could take some weeks? During the process our buyers had to ask questions about the property through the estate agent as they had given up on a response. I've since looked at reviews and the recent ones are not good and state the same issues. I have started to contact people who have dealt with her and they have also had nightmares.

It does sound like responses from your solicitor were slow and you may have grounds to complain about this.  Bear in mind though, that solicitors will not guarantee deadlines.

However, please consider the following:

It does take a while for a solicitor to open the file and get all the 'pre-legal' work done, before the actual legal work can begin.  Pre-legal work is things like providing your ID paperwork and passing their AML checks, providing monies on account, filling in and returning all the initial paperwork and providing them with any warranties and certificates for your sale property.  Also, they may be waiting for your mortgage offer on the property you are buying.  When you have sent back the Fixtures & Contents form, Property Information Form etc, they can start to collate the documents needed for the draft contract pack to be sent out to your buyer's solicitor.  On your purchase, they would not start work until they received the draft contract paperwork from your seller's solicitor.  As the seller is acting as Executor, it may take longer to collate the paperwork.  Average timelines would indicate that 4-5 weeks is quite normal for this stage.

Now with reference to the bits I have highlighted above:

It is not as simple as it gets.  A small chain does not equal simple.  You are buying a probate property and it sounds like there are issues with the title.

The solicitor is not being paid to read through your survey.  If you have any concerns regarding the survey, you should address these via the vendor/estate agent.  Your solicitor is only interested in the section headed up Legal.

I don't understand why your buyer had to ask questions about the property.  Do you mean your own property or the one you are buying.  If it is about your property, then that's for you to respond.  The one you are buying is not really any of their business.  They are not the client, so only the estate agent can help them here.

Conveyancing takes as long as it takes.  The solicitor is relying on information being asked of and responded to by third parties.  If third parties take 5 weeks to respond, there is little your solicitor can do about this.

Your transaction was probably not a priority, since it was unlikely to complete before the end of the stamp duty deadline and for this reason, other transactions/clients were dealt with in preference to your case.

Thrugelmir

BikingBud said:

@Thrugelmir Knowing the law is somewhat different from acting professionally, efficiently, competently and communicating this with the paying customer to manage expectations effectively despite sometimes over ambitious timelines.

A well considered complaint, not a whinge, when the conveyancer has gone native and not provided the level of service should be the norm in a well run practice and should be addressed by the manager/senior partner.

If they are not prepared to accept negative yet constructive feedback then they should expect to receive less than sparkling reviews. 

Without the full facts. No point in jumping on the solicitor bashing bandwagon. There's a considerable lack of understanding when it comes to the entire process. As with the petrol crisis. There's a culture in this country that has a certain mindset. 

TripleH

Break this down into 2 parts.

1. Are the delays in the property you were buying down to you (you and your solicitor)

2. Did you do everything you needed to in a timely fashion and did you seek updates on progress from your solicitor about progress?

3. For the sale of your property was the stamp duty window the target for your buyer that they could not afford to exceed?

4. Were there any delays in selling your property due to you not responding to questions?

5. Did you converse regularly with the estate agent about progress?

6. We're the timeframes your buyer and seller working to communicated to everyone from the start

If you are going to challenge a solicitor you need to be methodical and to the point with your reasoning. If no determined deadlines were ever given and/or any extensions required not communicated to all parties the solicitor can null your argument quite quickly (for example).

If it does get further, having everything written down in time sequence points will be useful.

As an aside I know of solicitors who have taken lay people to court trying to be clever and had strips torn off of them by the judge because they should have known better.