Can solicitor insist on signature to say 500 page document contents digested and understood?

Myci85

Ask for a printed copy, then you can go through a page at a time and highlight anything you are unsure of, to then discuss with your solicitor. 
As already mentioned, they should also send you their report once they have received and worked through everything, and this should bring your attention to anything unusual or that they think could be a possible concern, with recommendations as to how you may address them. Whilst you shouldn't solely rely on their report, this should help you to pin point certain bits to focus extra attention on. 

AskAsk

Section62 said:

AskAsk said:

solicitors rely on you to read through the documents and understand them and raise queries where appropriate.  how is a lay man supposed to understand all the legal stuff.  most of the stuff are written in legal terminology, intentional to make solicitors sound important and necessary and to cause confusion unless you were a legal bod.

the law should be changed to make everything legal be written in clear english and none of this old english nonsense should be used at all.
...

The problem with 'clear english' is it can often be ambiguous - legal terminology and phrasing has evolved to avoid that, not to make solicitors sound important.

Also, if you legislate to ban words like "demesne" and insist on a plain language version instead then you'll probably end up with longer and less digestible legal documents which is pretty much the opposite of what (I think) you were setting out to achieve.

Given nearly everyone has access to the internet these days, it isn't difficult to tap the "old english nonsense" into google and discover what it really means.

IANAL

i have received emails from solicitors saying things "heretowith" (huh) what is all that about??? you think you were watching blackadder.

a lot of the words are simply old english.  the current english language serves well to be clear for terms and conditions so it obviously works.  there is nothing wrong with the current language as it stands and landlord contracts for example, are written in clear english these days as most other contracts.  yes, they can be long and painful to read but at least you don't have to have a decicated thesaurus to translate like you would if you read shakespeare!

AskAsk

incus432 said:

Section62 said:

The problem with 'clear english' is it can often be ambiguous - legal terminology and phrasing has evolved to avoid that, not to make solicitors sound important.

I challenge anyone to defend this verbiage. At least the meaning is reasonably clear in this case.

exactly, and if i could actually understand what the hell that actually means, it probably translates in simple english as "put the bloody hedge up", lol

fourmarks

incus432 said:

Section62 said:

The problem with 'clear english' is it can often be ambiguous - legal terminology and phrasing has evolved to avoid that, not to make solicitors sound important.

I challenge anyone to defend this verbiage. At least the meaning is reasonably clear in this case.

The literal translation is...

"That will be £250 +VAT"

incus432

AskAsk said:

i have received emails from solicitors saying things "heretowith" (huh) what is all that about??? you think you were watching blackadder.

a lot of the words are simply old english.  the current english language serves well to be clear for terms and conditions so it obviously works.  there is nothing wrong with the current language as it stands and landlord contracts for example, are written in clear english these days as most other contracts.  yes, they can be long and painful to read but at least you don't have to have a decicated thesaurus to translate like you would if you read shakespeare!

Sir Ernest Gowers demolished the arguments again the use of clear English in 1948/1954  in The Complete Plain words.  Thre is no reason legal language should be immune. So stick your hereditaments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Complete_Plain_Words

Apologies for going off topic. I hope the OP shames his solicitor into doing their job.

AskAsk

fourmarks said:

incus432 said:

Section62 said:

The problem with 'clear english' is it can often be ambiguous - legal terminology and phrasing has evolved to avoid that, not to make solicitors sound important.

I challenge anyone to defend this verbiage. At least the meaning is reasonably clear in this case.

The literal translation is...

"That will be £250 +VAT"

ha ha, if you are lucky to get a cheap rate solicitor, lol

Grumpy_chap

PlymBob said:

My solicitor has stated: “You cannot rely on myself to make sure everything is correct as you have stated below. Of course it is our job to advise you, but everyone has a subjective/different views on matters and that cannot be accounted for by myself when reporting to you. A clause in a lease that is satisfactory to one Client may not be to another for example.  

It is for that reason that we produce all of the relevant documents for you and then guide you through them with your actual report.”

That has some logic.

The Solicitor is there to advise you, but has not visited the property so cannot confirm all the facts as correct.

There have periodically been threads where people have purchased a house and, for example, the boundary on the plan not reflected what appears to be the actual boundary.  Some time after purchase there may be an issue arise because of the discrepancy and the comment might be made "well, shouldn't my Solicitor have advised..."  The Solicitor is not in a position to comment on accuracy of such matters, but can resolve if the discrepancy is brought to their attention.

It does seem reasonable that you mention to the Solicitor that there are 8 documents listed but seem to be far more in the pdf that has been created.  This might prompt the Solicitor to present documents better.  The Solicitor might charge your for their time to do this.

user1977

Grumpy_chap said:

PlymBob said:

My solicitor has stated: “You cannot rely on myself to make sure everything is correct as you have stated below. Of course it is our job to advise you, but everyone has a subjective/different views on matters and that cannot be accounted for by myself when reporting to you. A clause in a lease that is satisfactory to one Client may not be to another for example.  

It is for that reason that we produce all of the relevant documents for you and then guide you through them with your actual report.”

That has some logic.

Only to an extent. Yes, clients may have different views on some things, but this the solicitor's bread and butter - they can and should be providing guidance about which clauses are archaic or superseded, which ones are perfectly normal even if they sound a bit restrictive, which ones are weird, and which ones should be there but aren't.

It's possible that 100 of the 500 pages are archaic or relate to other parts of the estate and can be completely ignored. So advising the client to read everything could be nonsense.

And getting a client to sign a statement saying they've read and understood everything isn't going to get a negligent solicitor out of a hole, should it transpire that they failed to bring something important to the client's attention.

HobgoblinBT

I wonder how much your solicitor would add to your fees in order to read 500 pages at say £350 per hour?

Grumpy_chap

user1977 said:

Grumpy_chap said:

That has some logic.

Only to an extent. 

Yes, I agree, only "some logic" is similar in meaning but different terminology to "only to an extent".

The OP identified the documents that should be provided as:

PlymBob said:

These are the enclosures listed (by the vendors solicitor):

Draft contract, Office copies entries and filed plan, Lease, Leasehold information Form, Fittings and Contents Form, Property Information Form, EPC

The OP should be able to review the plan and verify that it matches what the OP expects based upon the viewing.

The OP should be able to review the F&C form and check that items the OP is expecting to be left are being left (and vice-versa).

Same for the PIF and the EPC.

The contract and lease are the documents where the Solicitor can add more value.

It seems harsh that the Solicitor has just provided 500 pages as one big document.  That seems unhelpful and more than the OP can easily print.  As the OP suggested, there may be some duplication in the scanned pages.  A better presentation / delivery would make it easier for all.

The thing is, the OP does not want to be awkward in the response (even if they feel they should be).  The Last thing I imagine the OP wants is the Solicitor making comment on every entry of every document.  It will add little but cost a lot of money.  The OP needs to try to read and understand as best as they can and then ask the Solicitor to explain the points that are less obvious.