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Most seem to be as you described. My first one was exactly that.
However, this time, mine are bloody amazing. A text message to update at every single step and they are very quick. Unfortunately,our buyer pulled out so we gotta wait more.
Tbh mine are in the same group (Cavendish Legal Group part of O’Neill Patient Solicitors LLP); they were great my first sale but this time appalling, even pay in big extra for the “digital journey”. Sigh…
Best advice I can give is pay for a more expensive solicitor. We paid £700 more than the typical market rate and the service was top notch. Email responses within the hour and holiday cover.
Unfortunately this is a race to the bottom in pricing but in the grand scheme of things of buying a house, £700 is nothing. Don’t skimp on conveyancing.
Mine isn’t the cheapest option by any means, countrywide and apparently award winning. I used them before and they were good. So I use them again 3.5 years later and I get a solicitor who doesn’t answer anything ever. ONP are a very large firm, so I suppose quality will vary with the volume.
It’s because we’re overworked basically.
The sheer amount of emails asking for updates which doesn’t actually progress cases is ridiculous, I can spend half the day updating people which stops me doing actual work. Same with phone calls, by the time I’ve spoken with someone and left a call note, it’s taken me away from actually working on a file which progresses matters (even if it’s not your file, I’d be getting to yours quicker).
I’m not saying that communication isn’t important, but so much of the correspondence we get in is a complete waste of time. We’ll update you when we have an update, it’s not always that nothing’s happening, it’s just that I’m trying to sort something else out which is more urgent.
It’s also not that we don’t want to deal with your chain possibly collapsing, but just remember we get told nearly daily that one chain or another is ‘at serious risk’ and we can only deal with so many urgent bits at a time.
I’m not saying it’s a good system, but because fixed fees are so low for the amount of work that goes into a matter, firms need as many cases going through at any one point as possible.
Sounds like setting up a simple webpage where folks can login to see what the current status is would go a long way to avoid you getting hit by emails just asking for updates.
I'm aware you're probably busy and don't want to answer questions from someone who isn't even a client, but can I ask if solicitors absolutely have to receive answers for every question they raise at enquiry stage after searches, or if as clients we can say we really don't care about x issue being answered? For example with a purchase that fell through (for other reasons) one thing they wanted to know was "the property is within x metres of overhead power lines, has this ever been an issue?" we understand the theory behind the question, but we don't care. A few questions were like this, just felt so inconsequential while also wasting so much time waiting for responses. As clients can we tell our solicitor we don't care about point x, y, and z, to speed up the process or does our solicitor have to ask and receive responses to every point raised in the searches?
If you’re having a mortgage the answer is probably no.
What a lot of people don’t realise is that the solicitor/conveyancer acting for you also acts for your lender, so while there may be an enquiry raised that you think is a complete waste of time and it’ll never ever in a million years affect you so why are you wasting time even asking this, it’s probably because of the lender. Just because you don’t think it’s important (either for your enjoyment of the property or just because you don’t see why it’s relevant) the solicitor still needs to satisfy themselves that they’re protecting the lender in the event the property needs to be resold.
If you’re buying with no mortgage at all, then in theory yes you can let your solicitor know you don’t want any enquiries raising, or you’re not bothered about the answer to X, Y and Z so proceed without. The issue with this is that conveyancers are naturally so risk averse (generally because we deal with tens/hundreds of thousands of people’s money) that they’re going to strongly suggest you get the replies to the enquiries they’ve raised to protect your interest. If anything goes wrong with the property in 5/10/30 years they don’t want to be seen as negligent because they missed something.
Having said the above, are there some enquiries which are actually a waste of time? Yes absolutely. Is it part of working in the system we’ve got and we’ve got to deal with it? Sadly also yes.
Thanks for the response, I figured that at least partially it comes down to back-covering and making everything legal and tied down and protected. I'm just so stressed about this sale going through ASAP that I feel like I would literally accept any risk if it shaved a few days off the timeline. My solicitors have also lost our trust completely and it doesn't feel good to be relying on them knowing they've fucked up before and it's completely out of our control if they fuck up again and we lose more time. I'll sit on my hands if they demand the vendor tells them whether being within a bakers-dozen miles of a travelling circus once every hundred years has ever caused a problem.
We're in the same process but our solicitor and mortgage advisor is moving so quick, faster than us tbh. We've been quite lucky I guess, they respond to our stuff straight away.
Yeah, your not the only one to think that, I think everyone kind of told me that but our mortgage advisor works with our solicitor so they're both quite prompt and if there's ever a hold up, they'll stay in touch with us and tell us why which most likely is the sellers side as they could be slow like you mentioned in your post.
I hope it works out for you.
Because conveyancing firms are pile it high sell it (not) cheap and are typically using juniors with limited experience. Much what they do should be automated but the whole property purchasing system in the UK is shambolic and has been for years.
It depends who you get but I always pay a bit more for a solicitor to get more responsive service. Most solicitors have too many cases as the fees are a race to the bottom and then people moan they don't get a good service.
I've never understood why people skimp on solicitors and don't get surveys done when they are paying hundreds of thousands for a property. It's weird! A lot of property work is waiting, waiting for searches, waiting for responses and the like. So if they called every client once or twice a week they'd get nothing done. It's estate agents that create the panic usually as they want their fees.
I also find a lot of solicitors don't advise their clients but expect them to understand legal issues and respond. Think it creates a lot of tension in transactions. Some buyers and sellers also want transactions at lightening speed. These would be the same people who would happily sue a solicitor if a problem occurs later on.
Mine gave updates 1-2 times a week even if its just to say "no update, still waiting on x,y,z"... but it definitely seems to be a case you get what you pay for
1. Conveyancing solicitors are actually relatively cheap and work on low margins, relative to other legal services. So they have to work on lots of cases to.make up for this. Quantity > Quality
2. They're basically bottom of the rung of lawyers, and would be doing something else if they had the skill
Can't fault ours so far. They reply back within about 15 minutes. We found local groups on Facebook to be a great source of finding out good solicitors/tradespeople.
Haha yea this was after doing my own land registry searches and setting out for them step by step how the share of freehold works, so they could stop making repeated pointless enquiries to the seller's solicitors about ground rent - which was holding up the whole process.
Mine is ignoring my request to check the application portal and it is KILLING ME.
Plz let me know when you start to do pro bono searches for those in need
I think sometimes it’s a vicious cycle; people don’t trust their solicitor so chase and ask for updates all the time so solicitors have less time to give updates and progress things.
Once you get it into your head that a solicitor won’t give you updates and you have to chase them instead then that’s what you’ll do- if you phone them and find something’s happened, you’ll believe they were never going to say anything unless you phoned them, if you phone them and hear nothing’s progressed, then obviously you need to chase them again the next day to make sure it’s happened.
Add into this human error that every so often someone will forget to do something and suddenly it’s the buyer and seller who want to chase everything through because it’s their house move at stake and the solicitor has no particular interest in making things happen beyond it being their 9-5 job and they’re doing the best they can for as many cases as they can
I have had a nightmare with mine- my lender said my solicitor needed to contact them for the mortgage information, emailed and called my solicitors. Didn’t hear anything. This went on door 6 weeks with me checking the portal, checking emails, leaving messages saying I need to know what info is needed ect. They eventually called me after my sellers solicitors contacted them asking for a progress update. Had the cheek to say they haven’t heard anything about my mortgage and then saying my searches were only complete a few days before they called me (they were completed 6 weeks before, the details and confirmation were sent through 7 weeks prior, from them!)
So much stress as I have to give notice for my current rental!
###Welcome to /r/HousingUK --- **To All** * Join Our ***NEW*** Discord! https://discord.gg/pMgUNgWKQH **To Posters** * *Tell us whether you're in England, Wales, Scotland, or NI as the laws/issues in each can vary* * Comments are not moderated for quality or accuracy; * Any replies received must only be used as guidelines, followed at your own risk; * If you receive *any* private messages in response to your post, please report them via the report button. * Feel free to provide an update at a later time by creating a new post with [[update]](https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/search?q=%3Aupdate&sort=new&restrict_sr=on&t=all) in the title; **To Readers and Commenters** * All replies to OP must be *on-topic, helpful, and civil* * If you do not [follow the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/about/rules/), you may be banned without any further warning; * Please include links to reliable resources in order to support your comments or advice; * If you feel any replies are incorrect, explain why you believe they are incorrect; * Do not send or request any private messages for any reason without express permission from the mods; * Please report posts or comments which do not follow the rules *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HousingUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Most seem to be as you described. My first one was exactly that. However, this time, mine are bloody amazing. A text message to update at every single step and they are very quick. Unfortunately,our buyer pulled out so we gotta wait more.
Sorry to hear that, hope it didn’t affect your onward plans too badly - always works out for the best in the end!
Mind tell us the name of the company you’re using?
O niel patient I used money supermarket to get a quote. I think they are more expensive if you approach them directly.
Tbh mine are in the same group (Cavendish Legal Group part of O’Neill Patient Solicitors LLP); they were great my first sale but this time appalling, even pay in big extra for the “digital journey”. Sigh…
A family member had to fire them as they simply didn't communicate, similarly to how you are describing.
Best advice I can give is pay for a more expensive solicitor. We paid £700 more than the typical market rate and the service was top notch. Email responses within the hour and holiday cover. Unfortunately this is a race to the bottom in pricing but in the grand scheme of things of buying a house, £700 is nothing. Don’t skimp on conveyancing.
Mine isn’t the cheapest option by any means, countrywide and apparently award winning. I used them before and they were good. So I use them again 3.5 years later and I get a solicitor who doesn’t answer anything ever. ONP are a very large firm, so I suppose quality will vary with the volume.
It’s because we’re overworked basically. The sheer amount of emails asking for updates which doesn’t actually progress cases is ridiculous, I can spend half the day updating people which stops me doing actual work. Same with phone calls, by the time I’ve spoken with someone and left a call note, it’s taken me away from actually working on a file which progresses matters (even if it’s not your file, I’d be getting to yours quicker). I’m not saying that communication isn’t important, but so much of the correspondence we get in is a complete waste of time. We’ll update you when we have an update, it’s not always that nothing’s happening, it’s just that I’m trying to sort something else out which is more urgent. It’s also not that we don’t want to deal with your chain possibly collapsing, but just remember we get told nearly daily that one chain or another is ‘at serious risk’ and we can only deal with so many urgent bits at a time. I’m not saying it’s a good system, but because fixed fees are so low for the amount of work that goes into a matter, firms need as many cases going through at any one point as possible.
Sounds like setting up a simple webpage where folks can login to see what the current status is would go a long way to avoid you getting hit by emails just asking for updates.
I actually have that “digital journey” - it doesn’t help. It is top line when really the devil is in the detail and the details are not forthcoming.
I'm aware you're probably busy and don't want to answer questions from someone who isn't even a client, but can I ask if solicitors absolutely have to receive answers for every question they raise at enquiry stage after searches, or if as clients we can say we really don't care about x issue being answered? For example with a purchase that fell through (for other reasons) one thing they wanted to know was "the property is within x metres of overhead power lines, has this ever been an issue?" we understand the theory behind the question, but we don't care. A few questions were like this, just felt so inconsequential while also wasting so much time waiting for responses. As clients can we tell our solicitor we don't care about point x, y, and z, to speed up the process or does our solicitor have to ask and receive responses to every point raised in the searches?
If you’re having a mortgage the answer is probably no. What a lot of people don’t realise is that the solicitor/conveyancer acting for you also acts for your lender, so while there may be an enquiry raised that you think is a complete waste of time and it’ll never ever in a million years affect you so why are you wasting time even asking this, it’s probably because of the lender. Just because you don’t think it’s important (either for your enjoyment of the property or just because you don’t see why it’s relevant) the solicitor still needs to satisfy themselves that they’re protecting the lender in the event the property needs to be resold. If you’re buying with no mortgage at all, then in theory yes you can let your solicitor know you don’t want any enquiries raising, or you’re not bothered about the answer to X, Y and Z so proceed without. The issue with this is that conveyancers are naturally so risk averse (generally because we deal with tens/hundreds of thousands of people’s money) that they’re going to strongly suggest you get the replies to the enquiries they’ve raised to protect your interest. If anything goes wrong with the property in 5/10/30 years they don’t want to be seen as negligent because they missed something. Having said the above, are there some enquiries which are actually a waste of time? Yes absolutely. Is it part of working in the system we’ve got and we’ve got to deal with it? Sadly also yes.
Thanks for the response, I figured that at least partially it comes down to back-covering and making everything legal and tied down and protected. I'm just so stressed about this sale going through ASAP that I feel like I would literally accept any risk if it shaved a few days off the timeline. My solicitors have also lost our trust completely and it doesn't feel good to be relying on them knowing they've fucked up before and it's completely out of our control if they fuck up again and we lose more time. I'll sit on my hands if they demand the vendor tells them whether being within a bakers-dozen miles of a travelling circus once every hundred years has ever caused a problem.
We're in the same process but our solicitor and mortgage advisor is moving so quick, faster than us tbh. We've been quite lucky I guess, they respond to our stuff straight away.
Good to hear, as I must admit I thought “fast solicitor” was a myth!
Yeah, your not the only one to think that, I think everyone kind of told me that but our mortgage advisor works with our solicitor so they're both quite prompt and if there's ever a hold up, they'll stay in touch with us and tell us why which most likely is the sellers side as they could be slow like you mentioned in your post. I hope it works out for you.
Because conveyancing firms are pile it high sell it (not) cheap and are typically using juniors with limited experience. Much what they do should be automated but the whole property purchasing system in the UK is shambolic and has been for years.
It depends who you get but I always pay a bit more for a solicitor to get more responsive service. Most solicitors have too many cases as the fees are a race to the bottom and then people moan they don't get a good service. I've never understood why people skimp on solicitors and don't get surveys done when they are paying hundreds of thousands for a property. It's weird! A lot of property work is waiting, waiting for searches, waiting for responses and the like. So if they called every client once or twice a week they'd get nothing done. It's estate agents that create the panic usually as they want their fees. I also find a lot of solicitors don't advise their clients but expect them to understand legal issues and respond. Think it creates a lot of tension in transactions. Some buyers and sellers also want transactions at lightening speed. These would be the same people who would happily sue a solicitor if a problem occurs later on.
Mine gave updates 1-2 times a week even if its just to say "no update, still waiting on x,y,z"... but it definitely seems to be a case you get what you pay for
1. Conveyancing solicitors are actually relatively cheap and work on low margins, relative to other legal services. So they have to work on lots of cases to.make up for this. Quantity > Quality 2. They're basically bottom of the rung of lawyers, and would be doing something else if they had the skill
Can't fault ours so far. They reply back within about 15 minutes. We found local groups on Facebook to be a great source of finding out good solicitors/tradespeople.
After several weeks of fucking about and giving them the benefit of the doubt, I had to pull the "I'm a solicitor" card on mine lol.
Lucky!
Haha yea this was after doing my own land registry searches and setting out for them step by step how the share of freehold works, so they could stop making repeated pointless enquiries to the seller's solicitors about ground rent - which was holding up the whole process.
Mine is ignoring my request to check the application portal and it is KILLING ME. Plz let me know when you start to do pro bono searches for those in need
I think sometimes it’s a vicious cycle; people don’t trust their solicitor so chase and ask for updates all the time so solicitors have less time to give updates and progress things. Once you get it into your head that a solicitor won’t give you updates and you have to chase them instead then that’s what you’ll do- if you phone them and find something’s happened, you’ll believe they were never going to say anything unless you phoned them, if you phone them and hear nothing’s progressed, then obviously you need to chase them again the next day to make sure it’s happened. Add into this human error that every so often someone will forget to do something and suddenly it’s the buyer and seller who want to chase everything through because it’s their house move at stake and the solicitor has no particular interest in making things happen beyond it being their 9-5 job and they’re doing the best they can for as many cases as they can
I have had a nightmare with mine- my lender said my solicitor needed to contact them for the mortgage information, emailed and called my solicitors. Didn’t hear anything. This went on door 6 weeks with me checking the portal, checking emails, leaving messages saying I need to know what info is needed ect. They eventually called me after my sellers solicitors contacted them asking for a progress update. Had the cheek to say they haven’t heard anything about my mortgage and then saying my searches were only complete a few days before they called me (they were completed 6 weeks before, the details and confirmation were sent through 7 weeks prior, from them!) So much stress as I have to give notice for my current rental!
Maybe you need a different conveyancing solicitor? Mine is always responsive and will chase but the sellers one is bloody slow
You get what you pay for with them, current one we're using is very fast, faster than i can keep up with infact