Finding a competent solicitor / conveyancer or just DIY

TBG01

.In general a chain can only proceed at the speed of the slowest element!

Which in most cases actually tends to be the client.

onylon

fimacdoodle said:

I think you pay for what you get.
`old adage I know.
I had a bad experience with a cheapie online. They all took on too much work at the time.

Make your choice `!

If that was the case we wouldn't see all these threads asking how to pick a good solicitors firm.

I've paid through the nose for an expensive firm with good reviews and they were terrible. Friends that sold at the same time as us used a warehouse and had a great experience 🤷

It's a total lottery 

TBG01

The issue is no two transactions are ever the same. 

You might have a transaction that flies through. You're on the ball. The other sides solicitor is on the ball. The title has no issues. Searches come back in days. The mortgage offer is there day one. It's a quick easy process.

You then go onto recommend that solicitor who goes on to act in your sale for a property where the buyer is in no rush. The solicitor on that side is in no rush. The title is a mess. Searches take months. The mortgage lender is not forthcoming. It's a long drawn out process. 

None of that is necessarily the solicitors fault but they're the first to get blamed for it.

dont_use_vistaprint

TBG01 said:

.In general a chain can only proceed at the speed of the slowest element!

Which in most cases actually tends to be the client.

Well if you treat it like a project you would be dealing with things in a very different way, many of these tasks could be done in parallel, you dont have to do them all sequentially. 

And the general complaint isnt overall speed, most people understand the dependencies and issues, its the way they are managed and communicated so badly

dont_use_vistaprint

GDB2222 said:

Solicitors in Scotland often act as estate agents. That means that they are vastly better paid than English solicitors. 

People here post about how to get a good deal on conveyancing fees. Then, having chosen the cheapest, they moan about the job not being done well.

 In England, to keep conveyancing fees down, most of the work is done by non-solicitors. Some of them are very good, with loads of experience, but it’s pot luck. 

Ive never gone for cheapest or complained about prices. Happy to pay a premium for a decent one

TBG01

dont_use_vistaprint said:

TBG01 said:

.In general a chain can only proceed at the speed of the slowest element!

Which in most cases actually tends to be the client.

Well if you treat it like a project you would be dealing with things in a very different way, many of these tasks could be done in parallel, you dont have to do them all sequentially. 

And the general complaint isnt overall speed, most people understand the dependencies and issues, its the way they are managed and communicated so badly

What tasks? How do you know they aren't done in parallel? Most of the tasks are done in parallel but as I alluded to in my above post, there's several parties involved in a transaction and expecting them to all line up is near impossible.

Communicated badly or not giving the response they were wanting? 

We have a client who has clocked over 350 emails sent from them on their file. They were told before Christmas that the application had been submitted to the Land Registry. Last week they once again asked if the application had been submitted which again they were told yes and asked to take note of the estimated completion date which isn't until next year (it's likely to be before then but it's a new lease application which takes months). Guess who emailed this week asking if the application was finished yet?

To me that email didn't warrant a response. That time could be spent elsewhere but to a lot of people on here the lack of response would be seen as bad communication.

onylon

TBG01 said:

What tasks? How do you know they aren't done in parallel? Most of the tasks are done in parallel but as I alluded to in my above post, there's several parties involved in a transaction and expecting them to all line up is near impossible.

Last year when I pressed my conveyancer to do work in parallel she initially said she would, then didn't do it. When I chased she told me that she always left each task until the very last minute because then she wouldn't need to do it if the transaction fell through. Is this standard practice?

The same conveyancer later tried to pressure me into same day exchange/completion when it was clearly not in my interest. I suspect it was an extension of her "leave it until the last minute" strategy.

TBG01

Maybe she didn't like you telling her how to do her job. 

nekr0mantik

onylon said:

TBG01 said:

What tasks? How do you know they aren't done in parallel? Most of the tasks are done in parallel but as I alluded to in my above post, there's several parties involved in a transaction and expecting them to all line up is near impossible.

Last year when I pressed my conveyancer to do work in parallel she initially said she would, then didn't do it. When I chased she told me that she always left each task until the very last minute because then she wouldn't need to do it if the transaction fell through. Is this standard practice?

The same conveyancer later tried to pressure me into same day exchange/completion when it was clearly not in my interest. I suspect it was an extension of her "leave it until the last minute" strategy.

Cant comment on other bits but the not doing it in case sale falls through is something the buyer or seller may want to do anyway. Like delay any chargeable work like searches and draft contract until the buyer has secured mortgage or funds and done survery etc.

I got burnt last year in my first time purchase so now if I get offer accepted I will tell them not to do any searches or draft any contracts etc until after valuation. They can still do initial asking vendor for title deeds and documentation so as soon as valuation done and offer received we can start the work.

onylon

TBG01 said:

Maybe she didn't like you telling her how to do her job. 

So in other words if a client annoys you, that makes it ok to lie to them.

I think we might have found the root cause of your 350 chaser emails.