Is it normal for solicitor's to be so uncommunicative?

hdh74

We're in the process of buying a house and selling another. We are almost at the point of setting a date - we think. There have been all kinds of minor complications and so far we haven't been able to get a single straight answer to anything. We phone the office and there are two girls - one talks at you about anything and everything except the thing you rang to ask, the other barely responds at all. We have never spoken to the solicitor - we've been told several times he has a strong preference for emails. 
He emails us documents to fill in, asks us questions, but never answers ours. eg today He asked us if we'd had the surveys and related checks done on the house we're buying and forwarded a letter from our buyer's solicitor asking if we're ready to propose a date.
We asked if our searches were complete, confirmed the surveys had been done and asked for clarification on the legal implications of one item, suggested some dates, asked if the seller was ready. He answered none of that but asked something else. This happens every single time. We're answering questions blind as to where we're at or if we're doing what we're supposed to be doing. We end up guessing, googling, and hoping for the best. Is this normal?

t1redmonkey

I’m no expert but just from my experience, solicitors will usually be quite formal and mainly just communicate with you when they have to.  

However - the firm I am using at the moment for buying my next house is great for any ad hoc questions I have.  If I phone, yes I go through to a receptionist initially, but she always puts me directly through to the solicitor and she is happy to answer anything I ask.  I think I’ve phoned “out of the blue” 5 or 6 times and she has always been available and taken my call.  I did check their reviews on Google first and they had lots of 5 star reviews so felt confident choosing them.  

Having said that, I used a different solicitor for selling my house a few months ago and they were terrible, I only got to speak to the actual solicitor once through the whole process.  Every other time I was put through to assistants who didn’t know the answer to my questions a lot of the time and they ended up having to call me back after speaking with the solicitor (and sometimes they’d just not call me back at all).  This sounds similar to your experience.

So I’ve kind of had both ends of the spectrum this year but that is just based on two firms.  When I bought my previous house 8 years ago, that solicitor firm was quite good as well though and I had a direct line for the solicitor (he’s retired now though).

[Deleted User]

In all my, many, house buying and selling years it is absolutely normal for the legal transactions and communications to be carried out at their own timeframe.

The solicitors/conveyancers are handling hundreds of cases, just like yours, all week long and they contact you when there's something positive to report - they're not going to keep you updated of the minutiae.

Try and take the emotion out of your transaction (not easy until you've done your 10th house move)  and that way you'll retain some sanity through the months long agonising ordeal of buying and selling. 

housebuyer143

As above. Solicitors work to their own timeframe and very little can be done. They also tend to have "we are waiting on the other side" as their stock response when its not the case and they haven't done anything they are meant to. 
Next time you will use someone else and hopefully they are better. 

hdh74

It's not about the timeframe. It's about being asked to make a decision and needing information to make that decision and not getting it. eg there are some complications regarding planning permission issues, we have to make a decision for things to move forward but need to clarify a legal issue - the solicitor isn't answering the questions we need to make the decision. There are also repairs needed doing to the house in a timely manner - we'll do them when we move in if the end is in sight, if not we'll need to ask the seller to look at getting them done - so we need a ball park time to make the decision. Our solicitor tells us our buyer is pushing for a date, but hasn't answered our queries regarding the purchase for us to move on. 

housebuyer143

hdh74 said:

It's not about the timeframe. It's about being asked to make a decision and needing information to make that decision and not getting it. eg there are some complications regarding planning permission issues, we have to make a decision for things to move forward but need to clarify a legal issue - the solicitor isn't answering the questions we need to make the decision. There are also repairs needed doing to the house in a timely manner - we'll do them when we move in if the end is in sight, if not we'll need to ask the seller to look at getting them done - so we need a ball park time to make the decision. Our solicitor tells us our buyer is pushing for a date, but hasn't answered our queries regarding the purchase for us to move on. 

That's frustrating.. Mine used to say she couldn't give legal advice 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ like seriously. 

Can you explicitly state " please reply to these points as I have written them" and if you don't get a reply then escalate it to someone higher in the company? 

hdh74

housebuyer143 said:

hdh74 said:

It's not about the timeframe. It's about being asked to make a decision and needing information to make that decision and not getting it. eg there are some complications regarding planning permission issues, we have to make a decision for things to move forward but need to clarify a legal issue - the solicitor isn't answering the questions we need to make the decision. There are also repairs needed doing to the house in a timely manner - we'll do them when we move in if the end is in sight, if not we'll need to ask the seller to look at getting them done - so we need a ball park time to make the decision. Our solicitor tells us our buyer is pushing for a date, but hasn't answered our queries regarding the purchase for us to move on. 

That's frustrating.. Mine used to say she couldn't give legal advice 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ like seriously. 

Can you explicitly state " please reply to these points as I have written them" and if you don't get a reply then escalate it to someone higher in the company? 

I'm not sure there is anyone higher in the company. It's a small local firm. We picked them because they had the best reviews and a fair price. Then, after we instructed them we discovered they stopped conveyancing for 6 months and had just started up again, with some new systems in place, when they took us on. The trouble is they do other work, and that was still getting them reviews so we didn't know. The office girls don't seem to understand the new system which isn't helping.  I think I will have to go with your suggestion of pushing and pushing for specific answers, but what we do if that doesn't work, I don't know.

housebuyer143

hdh74 said:

housebuyer143 said:

hdh74 said:

It's not about the timeframe. It's about being asked to make a decision and needing information to make that decision and not getting it. eg there are some complications regarding planning permission issues, we have to make a decision for things to move forward but need to clarify a legal issue - the solicitor isn't answering the questions we need to make the decision. There are also repairs needed doing to the house in a timely manner - we'll do them when we move in if the end is in sight, if not we'll need to ask the seller to look at getting them done - so we need a ball park time to make the decision. Our solicitor tells us our buyer is pushing for a date, but hasn't answered our queries regarding the purchase for us to move on. 

That's frustrating.. Mine used to say she couldn't give legal advice 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ like seriously. 

Can you explicitly state " please reply to these points as I have written them" and if you don't get a reply then escalate it to someone higher in the company? 

I'm not sure there is anyone higher in the company. It's a small local firm. We picked them because they had the best reviews and a fair price. Then, after we instructed them we discovered they stopped conveyancing for 6 months and had just started up again, with some new systems in place, when they took us on. The trouble is they do other work, and that was still getting them reviews so we didn't know. The office girls don't seem to understand the new system which isn't helping.  I think I will have to go with your suggestion of pushing and pushing for specific answers, but what we do if that doesn't work, I don't know.

When people ignore my questions, I tend to literally forward on the email and just write, please reply as per below. Then if they reply and have not answered it, forward it back and say " you have not replied as per my email".
Eventually they will get the message and hopefully you will get answers. 
We have all had crap lawyers or dealt with crap ones at some point. There seem to be more bad ones (probably due to work load) than good. 

newsgroupmonkey_

In a word? Yes

MrCarrot

I generally don't hear anything positive about conveyancers when it comes to communication.

However, I have to add that so far our conveyancer has been great. They have applied for searches, made their enquiries, created the draft contract and sent it on, etc all in the first week.  If I email, she replies within 10 minutes.

The "other side" however seems to take a week inbetween emails to reply.

macman

Unless he a sole practitioner, there is always 'someone higher'. This would normally be the senior or managing partner, but the info pack you were supplied with when you engaged him will state exactly that the complaints procedure is.