Buyer solicitor too slow?

housebuyer143

Does this seem unreasonably slow to you?

Almost 3 months into a chain free sale. The conveyancer for the buyer literally didn't do anything until the searches were back (took them 3 weeks to order them) and then proceeded to wait 3 weeks before raising any enquiries - at this point 2 months had gone by! 
The answers to the first round went back last week and now we are waiting for them to respond. It's been a week and nothing....

Is there anything I can do to speed this up? Feels like it takes weeks for the solicitor to come back to us and it is delaying what should be a quick sale.

Dusk1983

How quickly did you provide the draft contract? That’s needed before searches can ordered.

Otherwise yes they seem a little unresponsive.

housebuyer143

Dusk1983 said:

How quickly did you provide the draft contract? That’s needed before searches can ordered.

Otherwise yes they seem a little unresponsive.

My solicitor does everything in 24 hours and that was sent in the first week. 
Is there anything I can do to speed it along? I just worry at this rate we could still be doing enquiries in 3 months time! 

Tiglet2

How quickly did you, as the seller, send back the paperwork to your solicitor?  

Searches are not ordered until the buyer's solicitor has received the draft contract pack and mortgage offer.  They can order them before, but often advise the buyer not to order searches until the mortgage is approved.  Without a mortgage offer, the buyer cannot proceed.  Similarly most solicitors like to raise enquiries once all the paperwork has been received rather than doing them piecemeal.  

Your timeline doesn't seem that bad actually.  There is quite a lot of preliminary work involved before the legal work can begin.

housebuyer143

Tiglet2 said:

How quickly did you, as the seller, send back the paperwork to your solicitor?  

Searches are not ordered until the buyer's solicitor has received the draft contract pack and mortgage offer.  They can order them before, but often advise the buyer not to order searches until the mortgage is approved.  Without a mortgage offer, the buyer cannot proceed.  Similarly most solicitors like to raise enquiries once all the paperwork has been received rather than doing them piecemeal.  

Your timeline doesn't seem that bad actually.  There is quite a lot of preliminary work involved before the legal work can begin.

I sent everything back right away and the contracts were sent in the first week. The mortgage was approved early on, so I assumed it would be quick, but not if the solicitor sits on replies for weeks 🙄 

Hopefully they pick up speed soon. 🤞

MalMonroe

No, doesn't seem long to me. My friend's nephew was waiting 6 months for all paperwork to be done and dusted. Similar thing happened to my cousin. 

They will blame pressure of work, having to work for more than one client, etc. so on and so forth. They have to make their money somehow. They won't speed up if they don't want to. I really do think I went into the wrong profession, I should have been a solicitor. (But thought it would be boring. . . it is. But it's financially very rewarding.)

Slithery

MalMonroe said:

I really do think I went into the wrong profession, I should have been a solicitor. (But thought it would be boring. . . it is. But it's financially very rewarding.)

Not very financially rewarding at all per hour for conveyancing once disbursements, insurance and other business costs are taken into account for the number of hours of work needed (and that's without clients hassling them for updates all the time). The EA will make much more money and they don't even need any training.

Thrugelmir

MalMonroe said:

 But it's financially very rewarding.)

Probably because the nature of the job requires them to be more productive. 

Thrugelmir

housebuyer143 said:

Almost 3 months into a chain free sale. The conveyancer for the buyer literally didn't do anything until the searches were back (took them 3 weeks to order them) and then proceeded to wait 3 weeks before raising any enquiries - at this point 2 months had gone by! 

Buyer needs to obtain a mortgage. Solicitor cannot raise enquiries until they know what to ask. Standard proceedure.  

The buyers solicitor will also have other clients. Priority will be given to those closest to completion. 

housebuyer143

Thrugelmir said:

housebuyer143 said:

Almost 3 months into a chain free sale. The conveyancer for the buyer literally didn't do anything until the searches were back (took them 3 weeks to order them) and then proceeded to wait 3 weeks before raising any enquiries - at this point 2 months had gone by! 

Buyer needs to obtain a mortgage. Solicitor cannot raise enquiries until they know what to ask. Standard proceedure.  

The buyers solicitor will also have other clients. Priority will be given to those closest to completion. 

Thanks. I just wonder how long it takes hers to get to completion.... I sold a few houses over my life and never experienced a solicitor take over a week to email someone back. Just unlucky I suppose.

Noneforit999

The process is generally slow with conveyancing, its something that can frustrate you but there is little you can do as the vendor other than get your EA to chase.

We had a similar experience as a vendor recently, our solicitor sent the draft contract fairly quickly but searches were not ordered for another 2 weeks. Our EA then chased and they solicitor said they do not raise any enquiries until the searches come back. It felt slow to me and even our solicitor told us not to pay for the management pack yet as they had not heard a word from the buyers solicitor and we were 7 weeks in at this point.