Lack of communication from conveyancer for house purchase!

MrBounce

Hi

After having a house purchase fall through in September '22, I have agreed a deal on another in November and had the mortgage offer extended to March' 23.

I made a mistake to go with the mortgage advisors recommended solicitors...

The conveyancer has changed after the first few weeks... However the person that has taken over, is very slow to respond, if at all! 

We received the contracts mid December, which he raised a few queries, which the sellers responded by 1st week in January.. The conveyancer said he will send me the responses once he has reviewed them... Still not received!

We then received the search results mid January, which I was sent, and again the conveyancer raised some questions... 

I chased him up last week to see if he had a chance to review their responses to questions related to the contract, and if they responded to his queries from the searches... No response... 

I tried his direct number, always goes to voicemail...

I ended up calling his team manager on Friday explaining wanting an update and if she could help... She put me on hold and put me through to him.. He said sorry not been responding, been extremely busy, still catching up from the Xmas break, but not ignoring you, received all your emails!

Anyway he mentioned, yep received everything, all seems straightforward, I can send your file to be checked, just to make sure not missed anything and that we have everything, and can look at possibly completing mid February... (I thought that's great!)...

But still not received a completion statement, or not received their responses for contract questions and searches questions... I have chased again yesterday, still not heard anything...

I am getting a bit on edge that time is going by quite quickly, and don't want to be chasing things until the last minute... 

The conveyancer seemed a bit sketchy on the phone, but if he thinks we have received everything we need and its all fine, surely he should forward it to me!

Is it normal, for long replies or no replies.. I don't think I should need to keep chasing, but it is getting frustrating that I don't have the confidence this will go through smoothly... I don't want to have to keep ringing his Team Leader to have to get through to him... Although, I also feel, he was just saying everything is fine (without sending me anything to show me), to get me off the phone!

Anybody else had ang experience like this? 

eddddy

MrBounce said:

The conveyancer has changed after the first few weeks... However the person that has taken over, is very slow to respond, if at all! 

My guess would be that the first conveyancer left the company - so their workload was 'dumped' on others. So your new conveyancer is overloaded and struggling to keep up.

I guess that if you keep making a fuss, the new conveyancer might prioritise your case to get you off their back.

But on the other hand, the more time the new conveyancer spends on the phone making excuses (to you and to others who hassle them), the less time they have to do their 'proper' work.

I'm not sure there's an easy answer.

Jaybee_16

Sounds so familiar to me. I was a cash buyer as I had sold my flat months earlier and moved into rental and when my offer on a property was accepted I used a conveyancer suggested by the EA.

During the purchasing process I phoned them three times but the conveyancer was not at her desk/on another call/out of the office so I stopped bothering to progress the purchase as she never returned my call. Emails were unanswered and the online portal wasn't kept up to date so I left them to it.

Seller was getting a bit frustrated but nothing I could really do about it.

First communication was a phone call asking if I was prepared to exchange and complete that day. My reply was that the questions I asked two months earlier were still unanswered so no.

That got her moving.

NameUnavailable

I had a similar issue, person dealing with my initially left and then my case seemed to fall into a black hole.

The only advice I can give is to keep pestering them - not too often but maybe weekly if you're expecting a reponse. It's the squeeky wheel that gets the oil!!

MikeJXE

Getting a bit on edge is part and parcel of buying/selling a home

All very stressful until it comes to completion and you forget all about it 

MrBounce

NameUnavailable said:

I had a similar issue, person dealing with my initially left and then my case seemed to fall into a black hole.

The only advice I can give is to keep pestering them - not too often but maybe weekly if you're expecting a reponse. It's the squeeky wheel that gets the oil!!

On the phone he mentioned exchanging mid Feb, I know that's not going to happen to the lack of communication... 

EssexHebridean

This has all the hallmarks of a "conveyancing factory" firm of conveyancers - I appreciate that I'm now preaching to the converted as far as the OP is concerned but for anyone else reading who is about to instruct on legals for a purchase you are likely to get a far better, more personal service from a local firm - preferably one recommended to you by family or friends nearby. This also doesn't mean that this firm would not be able to act for your lender too - the question to ask when enquiring is whether they are on the panel for your lender of choice. 

OP - I'd suggest emailing again - and copying in the team leader you spoke with as well. 
Give a clear list of the information you are waiting for - what is outstanding as far as you are concerned.
State that if that information is now available it should be forwarded to you by return, or at the very latest by end of business on Friday, as you have time set aside in your own schedule to review everything in order to get back to them with any further queries you have ready for open of business on Monday. 
Ask them to confirm why, if this is not able to happen, there is a delay, and when they anticipate having this information for you. 

If you don't yet have a specific target date for exchange then it's not unusual for you not to have had a completion statement yet - this will be particularly true if there are any variables that cannot be accurately accounted until closer to the time of exchange. You could ask for a draft completion statement though in order for you to begin to get an idea of the financials - if you need to make preparations to move any money around ahead of time then this would be a perfectly reasonable request.  

tooldle

You've been told the file was ready to be checked (on Friday). Once checked, the conveyancer will report to you on all matters.  This report can be bulky and run to a good number of pages, with many attached documents for you to review. 
Probably too early for a completion statement, assuming you currently have a mortgage. 

theartfullodger

NEVER go with mortgage advisers recommendation:  Too much of a risk of conflict of interest from them (as mortgage adviser a large source of income (compared to little old you) , guess who they'll care about 1st..)

MrBounce

EssexHebridean said:

This has all the hallmarks of a "conveyancing factory" firm of conveyancers - I appreciate that I'm now preaching to the converted as far as the OP is concerned but for anyone else reading who is about to instruct on legals for a purchase you are likely to get a far better, more personal service from a local firm - preferably one recommended to you by family or friends nearby. This also doesn't mean that this firm would not be able to act for your lender too - the question to ask when enquiring is whether they are on the panel for your lender of choice. 

OP - I'd suggest emailing again - and copying in the team leader you spoke with as well. 
Give a clear list of the information you are waiting for - what is outstanding as far as you are concerned.
State that if that information is now available it should be forwarded to you by return, or at the very latest by end of business on Friday, as you have time set aside in your own schedule to review everything in order to get back to them with any further queries you have ready for open of business on Monday. 
Ask them to confirm why, if this is not able to happen, there is a delay, and when they anticipate having this information for you. 

If you don't yet have a specific target date for exchange then it's not unusual for you not to have had a completion statement yet - this will be particularly true if there are any variables that cannot be accurately accounted until closer to the time of exchange. You could ask for a draft completion statement though in order for you to begin to get an idea of the financials - if you need to make preparations to move any money around ahead of time then this would be a perfectly reasonable request.  

I ended up emailing his team leader, and guess what I received a call within 30 minutes of her responding to me... 

Still not really confident he is going to get anything done anytime soon... 

I will have to keep chasing I think! 

MrBounce

The conveyancer sent me a draft completion statement and the list of the original queries they raised in Mid December with the sellers (which he already sent to me around that time!), he was supposed to send me the replies to his queries, about 12 questions, which he did tell me they sent back early January!

On the phone he mentioned paying 10% deposit so they can exchange...

In the email he has requested the full amount of monies ASAP so they can exchange even though they haven't told me a date they plan to exchange...!