Should I find another solicitor or am I being impatient?

pjs493

I'm selling a rental property in the role of executor to the current tenants. They've been really keen to buy the property but it took them a while to solidify their finances in order to buy. A few weeks ago I got quotes from local solicitors to do the conveyancing needed for the sale, found one that seemed to give me a comprehensive quote, and told them I'd be back in touch once the buyer had sorted out their side of things.

The buyer is now in a position to move forward so I contacted the solicitor again at the beginning of the week, they emailed me a form which I completed and sent back within an hour. They said they've also send me forms in order to open a file and a list of documents they'd need, etc. I've then heard nothing since Tuesday. I sent a chaser email today after the postman had been asking if they'd sent the forms in the post because I didn't receive them on Wednesday or Thursday, and mentioned that I'd be in the area tomorrow so can call in if that would make things easier.

It's now 1500 and I've not heard from them.

I need the memorandum of sale ASAP and I'm worried that delays at this stage, before I've even formally become their client, could be a red flag. Previously their correspondence by email was super quick. When I've used solicitors recently for both a house purchase and to write a Will I've had stuff really quickly.

Should I move on and find a different solicitor or am I being impatient? With the wait I've had from the tenants I want to get things moving quickly now and by tomorrow it'll be yet another week where nothing has progressed.

BarelySentientAI

I think you're being extremely impatient and would be in a similar situation with almost every other solicitor.

pjs493

BarelySentientAI said:

I think you're being extremely impatient and would be in a similar situation with almost every other solicitor.

Every other solicitor I've ever dealt with has sent stuff to me as soon as they've promised to and I've had documents arrive in the mail the day after they've said they sent them. 

With the solicitor I'm using to purchase a property for example, they sent documents on a Monday, received and completed on the Tuesday, initial fee paid on the Tuesday, sent back on the Tuesday, received on the Wednesday, searches ordered on the Wednesday.

So far with this firm They promised to send something on Monday and no progress has been made by Thursday.

So I get that you say I'm being impatient, but as a comparison other firms I've used have been quicker.

housebuyer143

If this is how they are before you start I would be worried, but generally a solicitor doesn't draw a memo of sale, they receive them so they know who to contact. 
You are best of asking your tenants who they are using and exchange the details and then pass it to your solicitor. You don't need a memo of sale to proceed. 

gwynlas

The only way to get a solicitors firm  to expedite a sale would be to make it a condition of the contract at time of engagement and negotiate a suitable price for conveyancing. If it is a  standard sale most of the time they will be waiting for things to come in on each of the contracts they are pursueing and dealing with all on rotation.

pjs493

housebuyer143 said:

If this is how they are before you start I would be worried, but generally a solicitor doesn't draw a memo of sale, they receive them so they know who to contact. 
You are best of asking your tenants who they are using and exchange the details and then pass it to your solicitor. You don't need a memo of sale to proceed. 

The solicitor I am trying to instruct already has the details of the tenant/buyer and their solicitor.

I need the memo of sale for other purposes. If it isn't drawn up by the solicitor, where does it come from? There is no estate agent involved in the sale because it is a private sale. The tenants were given first refusal before I planned to market the property, but they wanted to buy it so no estate agent is involved. 

Can the tenants and I write a letter of agreement and sign it? Would that work in lieu of something from an estate agent?

loubel

There won't be a memorandum of sale as there's no agent. What do you need one for?

pjs493

loubel said:

There won't be a memorandum of sale as there's no agent. What do you need one for?

As proof of funds towards the purchase of a property. I'm selling the rental under Probate, I'm executor and a beneficiary of the Will so once the property is sold the proceeds come to me as an inheritance. The estate agent for the property I'm buying has asked for it. But hopefully they'll be happy with the details of the buyer's solicitor as proof that the sale is happening.

housebuyer143

pjs493 said:

housebuyer143 said:

If this is how they are before you start I would be worried, but generally a solicitor doesn't draw a memo of sale, they receive them so they know who to contact. 
You are best of asking your tenants who they are using and exchange the details and then pass it to your solicitor. You don't need a memo of sale to proceed. 

The solicitor I am trying to instruct already has the details of the tenant/buyer and their solicitor.

I need the memo of sale for other purposes. If it isn't drawn up by the solicitor, where does it come from? There is no estate agent involved in the sale because it is a private sale. The tenants were given first refusal before I planned to market the property, but they wanted to buy it so no estate agent is involved. 

Can the tenants and I write a letter of agreement and sign it? Would that work in lieu of something from an estate agent?

You can just make your own, it just needs the buyers name and your name, the sale price and the solicitor details. 
Whether it's suitable for your intended purposes I do not know.

BarelySentientAI

pjs493 said:

BarelySentientAI said:

I think you're being extremely impatient and would be in a similar situation with almost every other solicitor.

Every other solicitor I've ever dealt with has sent stuff to me as soon as they've promised to and I've had documents arrive in the mail the day after they've said they sent them. 

With the solicitor I'm using to purchase a property for example, they sent documents on a Monday, received and completed on the Tuesday, initial fee paid on the Tuesday, sent back on the Tuesday, received on the Wednesday, searches ordered on the Wednesday.

So far with this firm They promised to send something on Monday and no progress has been made by Thursday.

So I get that you say I'm being impatient, but as a comparison other firms I've used have been quicker.

Then you've been extremely lucky, and probably dealing with someone over-staffed or under-utilised.

I'm not a solicitor, but work in a similar way with multiple overlapping cases.

If an email comes in, it goes to the bottom of the pile.  I don't stop working on my current case to deal with the new work, as that wouldn't be fair on other clients.  I might, if it's marked as important or urgent, at least read it to assess whether it is those things and needs to be dealt with faster, but someone marking things as urgent when they actually aren't loses that service very quickly.

If someone needs documents sending, when I get to it I'll pass that across to the support staff (because you don't want to be paying higher rates for printing/sticking in envelopes etc), and it will go to the bottom of their queue.  Sometimes stuff gets sent out in batches, once or twice a week.

If someone pays a fee, it goes to the bottom of the finance people's queue for processing.  When they've done that, I'll get a note to say the fee is cleared and I can proceed with whatever it covers, which I will do at the appropriate time in my queue.

If all I did was re-prioritise work based on the latest person to ask for something, nobody would ever get anything out.

thegreenone

Is there a reason as to why you're not using the same solicitor for purchase and sale?