Solicitor not replying - poor show?

GolfR

I am almost at completion with my house purchase. Over the past week and a half I’ve emailed my solicitor twice with no response. I sent her the deposit money and their fees on the 3rd along with final documentation that she needed and she asked me to propose some completion dates, which I did.

She replied with the usual ‘thank you for the documents etc’. I replied on the 10th Dec asking if she’d heard anything about the completion dates and no response. I emailed again on Wednesday basically asking what was going on and that I’d had no response from her and no reply for a few hours so I phoned their office who told me she’d been on annual leave for a few days and would be responding to all emails today. Still no response so I emailed the estate agents after reading on this forum to go that route if you’re having trouble with solicitors. They responded within five minutes saying they were not aware of any delays and that they had contacted the solicitors who said they were still waiting for a response about completion dates. Next day I have another email from the EA saying the solicitors have just gotten back to them to say they’re hoping for a completion date of 7th Jan. But I’ve still had no email from my solicitors to tell me this! Or to mention exchange dates etc.

I’m getting fed up with this lack of response now, I’m hoping they’re not being like this because I’ve already paid and they don’t see the point replying to me anymore? I really have no idea. What do I do from here? I don’t want to hound but still the same time I want to get this purchase through at the soonest date possible.

Sorry for my ramble and thank you for listening!

Debt

Were they an online company?

Sounds like they might have run away with the money

GolfR

Debt said:

Were they an online company?

Sounds like they might have run away with the money

Nope they’re local! I’ve been to their offices twice to drop documents off

kerrymxxx

Mine are totally useless also never give us any updates, if you don’t mind me asking all in all how long has this taken you? We sold our house beginning of September and they are saying they are still waiting for search’s, we are no chain and buyers are 1st time buyers just seems like it’s taking forever. 

ccbrowning

Seems a poor show. Mine keeps me in the loop and lets me know when on holiday. 

kerrymxxx

I haven’t had one update at all I have to chase them and the estate agents 😭

Owleyes00

Why did you call them after not having heard back after a few hours?

They are all pretty 💩 at replying but to be fair they will charge you for extra time responding to queries so it is saving you money. No news is good news with solicitors. If they’d have heard anything, they would have told you. No point on stressing about not having received an email saying “sorry no news yet”

TheJP

Process is process. God forbid the conveyancer is entitled to a holiday (but i admit it would have been good for them to let you know). 

1. You are 1 case of many
2. Priority cases take precedent
3. Id rather the conveyancer work on the case than respond to me every couple of days 
4. Take anything an EA says with a pinch of salt
5. A good conveyancer will only table dates when they are pretty much concrete, otherwise dates get slung around which is unhelpful

Take 5 minutes, go for a walk, have a bath, read a book or distract yourself in anyway is best for you to level out. You are very close, let the process do its thing. 

GolfR

kerrymxxx said:

Mine are totally useless also never give us any updates, if you don’t mind me asking all in all how long has this taken you? We sold our house beginning of September and they are saying they are still waiting for search’s, we are no chain and buyers are 1st time buyers just seems like it’s taking forever. 

I viewed the house and offered 12th October and instructed solicitors the same day which makes this week 9 so it’s all been pretty quick until now. The sellers had done most of the things required back in June/July as they had an original buyer who pulled out due to unforeseen circumstances which helped move things along.

How on earth are they still waiting for searches after all this time? I’d be getting really cheesed off about this, surely they don’t take more than a couple of weeks at most to come back!

I phoned my solicitors office and was told my solicitor is off on annual leave today as her partner has tested positive for covid but she should be working from home next week until they finish for Christmas. As I politely explained my annoyance at not having any response despite emailing twice, the woman who answered very kindly looked through my solicitors emails and has not seen one from the other sides’ solicitors about this potential completion date of 7th Jan - the last email she’d received from them said they were still waiting to hear from their clients.

I have emailed the estate agents and told them what I’ve been told and have asked them to ask the vendors solicitors to get in touch with my solicitor to tell them this. I’m annoyed that I appear to be acting as the run around person for all this but if it gets it done promptly then so be it.

GolfR

TheJP said:

Process is process. God forbid the conveyancer is entitled to a holiday (but i admit it would have been good for them to let you know). 

1. You are 1 case of many
2. Priority cases take precedent
3. Id rather the conveyancer work on the case than respond to me every couple of days 
4. Take anything an EA says with a pinch of salt
5. A good conveyancer will only table dates when they are pretty much concrete, otherwise dates get slung around which is unhelpful

Take 5 minutes, go for a walk, have a bath, read a book or distract yourself in anyway is best for you to level out. You are very close, let the process do its thing. 

It wouldn’t have bothered me if she was taking annual leave, we’re all entitled to it but when she asked me on 3rd December when I’d like to complete I gave three dates for this current week and despite her knowing she was on annual leave on those dates she didn’t think to tell me there was no chance it would be done that soon. And if that was the case I could have given her different dates. I know the process takes time but not having had a response in almost 2 weeks and with two emails is a p*** take. 

And from things I’ve read on this forum, people have had to pester their solicitors otherwise nothing seems to get done.

user1977

GolfR said:

kerrymxxx said:

Mine are totally useless also never give us any updates, if you don’t mind me asking all in all how long has this taken you? We sold our house beginning of September and they are saying they are still waiting for search’s, we are no chain and buyers are 1st time buyers just seems like it’s taking forever. 

How on earth are they still waiting for searches after all this time? I’d be getting really cheesed off about this, surely they don’t take more than a couple of weeks at most to come back!

If you tell us which local authority you're talking about maybe somebody here can tell you current turnaround times, but many are taking far in excess of a couple of weeks.