Slow and poor service conveyancer - complaint?

brainiack

First time buyer, now first time seller. Selling leasehold new build flat. No chain, selling to FTBs.

Offer accepted in May 2024, and selected a mid-range priced local conveyancer based on some recommendations of my estate agent (I did my own independent research too, before deciding).

Fast forward to today, still not exchanged contracts or completed. Over 4 months later. Throughout this time the conveyancer has appeared to have been both slow, ineffective and almost negligent at chasing down enquiries responses (or rather lack of), to the point that I've personally got involved to find the answers, and get responses usually within 24 hours from various parties. 

Begs the question, what am I really paying for, and is this usual, and if not should I complain?

Examples:

• Management company pack requested and paid for by me promptly upon buyers request, 3 week turnaround quoted by management company/agent. 3 weeks passed, I began chasing, turned out the conveyancer had not completed the request form correctly and therefore delayed by another week until released. Also delayed as conveyancer on holiday and no one was covering her for this week, despite my requests to others to just complete one simple form to keep this momentum, and despite this being their original error.

• Enquiries began, and I have ended up chasing and answering almost all of these myself. Enquiries with management company, outstanding for over 4-5 weeks, despite me chasing the conveyancer to chase the parties... I therefore called the management company myself, got through within minutes and they replied the next day. Conveyancer stated they did not have 'that contact number' for company, despite it being on their website!

• Final enquiries including regulations and planning permission remain outstanding, I am now directly chasing council, NHBC and others to get the answers. Conveyancer says feel free to get involved to help and we should get an answer quicker - this is their job not mine.

• Absolutely zero updates or communication at any point since instructing upon anything, unless I initiate a call or email (predominantly calls or turning up at the office) it seems nothing would happen at all or I would not have a clue where we are.

Is this normal or average service? Presently I am just desperate to exchange contracts and complete, and minded to submit a complaint after this to avoid potentially jeopardising and delaying the sale any further than it already is... thoughts?

I would like to request at least a partial refund of fees (several hundred) given the mid range price quoted, as I am sure going bargain basement with the online factories would have been the same or maybe better ironically than these local people!

FlorayG

I had a similar problem with a conveyancing solicitor and in the end i just sacked them ( vendor agreed to this) and started all over again and it then took just 8 weeks total starting from the beginning with a solicitor that was good. I did complain, got nowhere with the company, went to the legal ombudsman who got me a refund and £100 compensation ( not much, but in the end I didn't lose anything but time)

ButterCheese

I'm afraid this is very typical.  You have to make a nuisance of yourself.  Don't be afraid to ring them every day and ask what is being done and what the delay is.  They have the luxury of having people's lives in their hands so they don't feel any pressure until you start nagging them. 

theartfullodger

Conveyancer or solicitor??

brainiack

theartfullodger said:

Conveyancer or solicitor??

Conveyancer, part of a solicitors firm but the person I am dealing with is a conveyancer.

DrSpendingLittle

I understand completely - we had the same problem. It was a nightmare. Our second lot of buyers pulled out due to a title defect that only came to light when their solicitors inspected the titles. Our solicitor didn't notice. We lost our onward purchase and took the house off the market to fix the defect. Took 12 months. We complained to head office and got the defect resolved for free. We eventually sold the property earlier this year using a more expensive city centre legal firm and only had to chase them once throughout the whole sale, they were exceptional. We're using them again now to buy a house and to be honest, it's a job just to keep up with them! Costing us quite a bit (£3K for a leasehold purchase) but well worth the extra ££s for peace of mind.  

Difficult decision for you to make - depends on how close you are to exchange. Might be worth finding that out at least and if you sense that there is much more work to do, it might be worth cutting your losses as the previous poster suggests and switching conveyancers. These questions can actually be directed to the Head Office rather than the actual conveyancer on your case. That's what we did when we complained about the conveyancer and our title defect. 

Good luck. 

Busadeano

Our solicitor has been slow . Had an offer accepted on june. Still not exchanged. Weve thought about changing solicitor.  But after an update today things might be moving forward .

EssexHebridean

There are a lot of unrealistic timescales being bandied about on this thread. As a rough guideline we usually suggest the following as rough minimums to manage expectations.
leasehold sale/purchase - 16 - 20 weeks
freehold sale/purchase - 12 - 16 weeks.
the shorter end of those is pretty much the minimum most people should even roughly imagine - particularly with leaseholds where as well as all the other parties involved you also have a freeholder (and a managing agent quite often) and substantially more paperwork to read - all of which has to be read through.  In both cases long chains, issues around mortgage companies, local authorities being slow to respond and additional enquiries needing to be raised can slow things down - lots more too but those are common issues.

Strangely enough, it’s in your solicitor’s interest to get your transaction through as smoothly and swiftly as possible, because until that happens, they don’t get paid. The suggestion that they slow things down through some ludicrous sense of power is just beyond laughable. 

theartfullodger

Go through firm's complaints process.  I writing.. file everything

NervyBuyer

My solicitor (average-priced local high street firm) said 8-10 weeks for a freehold in their standard blurb (not proven as my vendor withdrew very early on).

People are not necessarily complaining about (valid) time taken, but about incompetence (solicitors filling in wrong forms, failing to source basic contact details, missing things etc), apparent laziness (expecting clients to do the chasing work they're paying for) and total lack of communication. 

brainiack

EssexHebridean said:

There are a lot of unrealistic timescales being bandied about on this thread. As a rough guideline we usually suggest the following as rough minimums to manage expectations.
leasehold sale/purchase - 16 - 20 weeks
freehold sale/purchase - 12 - 16 weeks.
the shorter end of those is pretty much the minimum most people should even roughly imagine - particularly with leaseholds where as well as all the other parties involved you also have a freeholder (and a managing agent quite often) and substantially more paperwork to read - all of which has to be read through.  In both cases long chains, issues around mortgage companies, local authorities being slow to respond and additional enquiries needing to be raised can slow things down - lots more too but those are common issues.

Strangely enough, it’s in your solicitor’s interest to get your transaction through as smoothly and swiftly as possible, because until that happens, they don’t get paid. The suggestion that they slow things down through some ludicrous sense of power is just beyond laughable. 

No one has suggested that, except you... My issue is I am doing parts of their core job for them finding rudimentary answers very quickly compared to their snails pace, so why should I pay the full fee. They fail to communicate any update whatsoever and have made mistakes in obtaining the management pack which led to at least 1-2 weeks unnecessary delay due to the wider company's failure to provide cover for them while on leave. Doesn't sound reasonable or competent to me in the slightest, unless I was paying peanuts - but I'm not!!