Solicitor has gone AWOL

babyblade41

Spot on @Tiglet2

[Deleted User]

Tiglet2 said:

[Deleted User] said:

Tiglet2 said:

If you instructed in early February and it's now the third week of march, then about 7 weeks in?

It seems like they have opened the file, sorted out initial paperwork and payment for searches.  They've ordered the searches, of which most are back.  A lot of the larger conveyancing firms will wait for all of the searches to be returned before raising enquiries as they prefer to raise them as a whole, rather than piece meal.

If there are a few problems with the searches, it may be that there are going to be additional enquiries raised.

It does seem like they should have updated you if the last communication was nearly a month ago, but it doesn't sound like they have sat doing nothing.  The bigger conveyancing firms won't usually update you if there is nothing significant to update you with, as this delays their work.  I imagine they are still waiting for paperwork before the enquiry stage.  The enquiry stage does take time, sometimes various third parties need to be contacted for responses so patience is needed at this point.
 

I hope this is the case, and that they have just not updated me but things are actually happening. I have no wish to rush them I am just started to be chased myself so I need an update to give the seller. I have plenty of patience but please let me know what is actually happening! The EA is telling me its not normal but I have told them about the search issues and they had to look into it more which is why there is a delay. Hopefully I will get an update next week.

Absolutely agree that they should have updated you.  However, the big online conveyancing firms usually take on far too much work and offer fixed fees, so there is very little capacity for providing clients with updates on a regular basis.

Solicitors do the work according to priority.  This does not mean there are delays, but once they have sent an email/letter asking for something, they move on to the next file.  They will chase from time to time, but time is costly, so they work on files that need work on it, rather than continually chase a third party to provide a response quickly.

The EA tends to do the chasing, but they are not copied into correspondence and the legal work being done, so what's normal and what is not normal, is not really for them to say because no two transactions are alike.

Thanks for the explanation, perhaps the EA is trying to get me going so they get their fees quicker after sale. So far everyone has been reasonable but at the end of the day this property had been on the market for some time, another two months isn't going to kill them.

propertyhunter

Don't worry, my solicitor appeared to do nothing for 2 weeks, and then all of a sudden everything happened at once. Now I need to devote my entire day tomorrow to reading all of the paperwork so we can exchange and complete this month. 

Thrugelmir

propertyhunter said:

Don't worry, my solicitor appeared to do nothing for 2 weeks, and then all of a sudden everything happened at once. Now I need to devote my entire day tomorrow to reading all of the paperwork so we can exchange and complete this month. 

They deal with the file at the appropriate time not before. As it's an unproductive use of their time.