Are all conveyancing solicitors crap?
Discussion
I spent several days gathering quotes and reading reviews, and no matter how much you pay or how good the overall score is, you'll still find poor reviews sprinkled in there. I couldn't find a single one with an unbreakable track record of consistent excellent service. Or is it just a case of people moaning about small hiccups along the way which were out of the solicitors hands?
I found one, small family run firm which offered a good price. But when I emailed to instruct I heard nothing, a few days pass and I call them up to be told they're too busy to take on any new clients. So the old adage of 'supporting local businesses' isn't something I could do if I tried!
In the end I've just gone with a mid priced one. No doubt it's likely another 'conveyancing mill' like most of them, with a scathing review for every 10 positive reviews. Lets just hope it's as stress free as possible.
I found one, small family run firm which offered a good price. But when I emailed to instruct I heard nothing, a few days pass and I call them up to be told they're too busy to take on any new clients. So the old adage of 'supporting local businesses' isn't something I could do if I tried!
In the end I've just gone with a mid priced one. No doubt it's likely another 'conveyancing mill' like most of them, with a scathing review for every 10 positive reviews. Lets just hope it's as stress free as possible.
Awful industry in my experience. Ended up reporting our last one to the Ombudsman as they were so bad.
Months of 'you're next on the list' and 'I can see the file on the desk'. Gave them the benefit of the doubt as I was in hospital for three months having chemo and my partner was heavily pregnant.
When it looked like their tardiness was going to cost us the house I put some pressure on and they made me feel like an awful person for asking them to do their job after four months of doing absolutely nothing.
If I hadn't been so persistent we wouldn't be living here now.
They also told me I couldn't contact any other parties who were involved. Not sure if that is correct legally but it exposed their outright lies about who was delaying things.
I just kept pushing and coordinating everyone after that and we just about managed to get things sorted.
Took them another 18 months to finally get the land registry documents done.
This was a large and apparently well respected local legal firm who apparently are OK with having a culture where lying is encouraged.
Months of 'you're next on the list' and 'I can see the file on the desk'. Gave them the benefit of the doubt as I was in hospital for three months having chemo and my partner was heavily pregnant.
When it looked like their tardiness was going to cost us the house I put some pressure on and they made me feel like an awful person for asking them to do their job after four months of doing absolutely nothing.
If I hadn't been so persistent we wouldn't be living here now.
They also told me I couldn't contact any other parties who were involved. Not sure if that is correct legally but it exposed their outright lies about who was delaying things.
I just kept pushing and coordinating everyone after that and we just about managed to get things sorted.
Took them another 18 months to finally get the land registry documents done.
This was a large and apparently well respected local legal firm who apparently are OK with having a culture where lying is encouraged.
I feel your pain.
Had a conveyancer recommended by my cousin. Excellent communication from the word go. Good quote. Instructed them and then got the message that they couldn't work on my case as they don't have the number of partners in the firm that my lender stipulates as a minimum.
Googled for conveyancers and found a website called Conveyancing Calculator. Put the prerequisite information in and got a load of quotes back. First two (cheapest) were companies I'd never heard of. Third, still a good quote, was a well known name so I thought I'd follow up with them. Conscious of the fact that I'd never heard of the website that provided the quotes I decided to use the solicitor's contact form to send a message, asking them to confirm that the quote was genuine. No response. Followed up the next day with an email to the branch named on the quotation. No response. I'll phone them on Monday to chase but I'm really not impressed. I want things to move as quickly as possible as I'm renting from an utter turd of a landlord and can't wait to hand him his notice.
Had a conveyancer recommended by my cousin. Excellent communication from the word go. Good quote. Instructed them and then got the message that they couldn't work on my case as they don't have the number of partners in the firm that my lender stipulates as a minimum.
Googled for conveyancers and found a website called Conveyancing Calculator. Put the prerequisite information in and got a load of quotes back. First two (cheapest) were companies I'd never heard of. Third, still a good quote, was a well known name so I thought I'd follow up with them. Conscious of the fact that I'd never heard of the website that provided the quotes I decided to use the solicitor's contact form to send a message, asking them to confirm that the quote was genuine. No response. Followed up the next day with an email to the branch named on the quotation. No response. I'll phone them on Monday to chase but I'm really not impressed. I want things to move as quickly as possible as I'm renting from an utter turd of a landlord and can't wait to hand him his notice.
Edited by MitchT on Thursday 17th July 20:16
Conveyancing should be straightforward. However,
70% of problems arise from people not being able to afford the house they are buying and therefore being borrowed up to the hilt - so the lender seeks reassurance about various legal or structural bits and pieces.
The other 30% is problems up or down the chain of buyers/sellers.
If you are actually a genuine cash buyer you can buy a house in 24 hours, no problem. So long as the seller is willing to move that fast.
70% of problems arise from people not being able to afford the house they are buying and therefore being borrowed up to the hilt - so the lender seeks reassurance about various legal or structural bits and pieces.
The other 30% is problems up or down the chain of buyers/sellers.
If you are actually a genuine cash buyer you can buy a house in 24 hours, no problem. So long as the seller is willing to move that fast.
You will find Poor reviews wherever you look, some will be fake, some real and justified and some are unreasonable.
Home buying can be stressful for some and that brings out the worst in people.
It can be a frustrating process and Conveyancers now have a huge duty of care to the lender and anti money laundering.
I am a mortgage broker and found “the partnership” in Guildford to be excellent. I am sure you can find other reviews though.
Home buying can be stressful for some and that brings out the worst in people.
It can be a frustrating process and Conveyancers now have a huge duty of care to the lender and anti money laundering.
I am a mortgage broker and found “the partnership” in Guildford to be excellent. I am sure you can find other reviews though.
Sheepshanks said:
You'd think the conveyancing factories would be good as they'd want to get paid as quickly as possible, but they seem to get the worst reviews.
My big take away from life in general is that quality of service is inverse to the amount you're paying. Houses and cars - the biggest purchases we make - seem to attract people who expect to be paid a lot in return for as little effort as they can possibly make.I think the trouble is half of them aren't properly qualified solicitors anymore.
My Dad is 76 and still works full time as a conveyancing solicitor. I am obviously biased but he is tip top and picks up on everything. I guess that's what 50 years experience brings you.
Try and find someone who is both fully qualified and suitably experienced and im sure you will be ok.
My Dad is 76 and still works full time as a conveyancing solicitor. I am obviously biased but he is tip top and picks up on everything. I guess that's what 50 years experience brings you.
Try and find someone who is both fully qualified and suitably experienced and im sure you will be ok.
Conveyancing is the sweatshop house of the legal world and they are all over worked. Like many industries it’s a race to the bottom to get the business by offering a service as cheaply as possible. Wifey used to be an conveyancer and would have more than 100 cases on the go at any one time.
She explained a typical case to me years ago, and there are lots of checks and enquiries that have to be made, some properties can be way more complicated than others, and you have to wait for answers to all enquiries you make. Sometimes those result in more checks being necessary elsewhere, which require time for answers.
And usually the other parties Conveyancer is in a similar boat - overloaded with cases, being chased for updates by all and sundry, which adds further delays.
And occasionally you (or they) get one who is a bit s
t - like all industries.
If you are fortunate enough to find one who has got the time the job requires to just focus on your case, the chances are the other party doesn’t, so it s still slow.
Not a great state of affairs. It’s a job where no one in the chain is ever satisfied. People are (understandably) impatient and want to buy their house like they buy a pack of sweets in a shop. But it’s not that simple and it takes time. No one likes to wait, but you have to, and those frustrations are reflected in the reviews you read.
She explained a typical case to me years ago, and there are lots of checks and enquiries that have to be made, some properties can be way more complicated than others, and you have to wait for answers to all enquiries you make. Sometimes those result in more checks being necessary elsewhere, which require time for answers.
And usually the other parties Conveyancer is in a similar boat - overloaded with cases, being chased for updates by all and sundry, which adds further delays.
And occasionally you (or they) get one who is a bit s
t - like all industries.If you are fortunate enough to find one who has got the time the job requires to just focus on your case, the chances are the other party doesn’t, so it s still slow.
Not a great state of affairs. It’s a job where no one in the chain is ever satisfied. People are (understandably) impatient and want to buy their house like they buy a pack of sweets in a shop. But it’s not that simple and it takes time. No one likes to wait, but you have to, and those frustrations are reflected in the reviews you read.
Edited by Cloudy147 on Friday 18th July 07:59
Time was, charges were based on a values, the idea being that dealing with a large and expensive property required more time and carried more risk than dealing with a two up, two down terrace.
Someone then decided that this was unfair and that the conveyancing market should be de-regulated to some extent and made more competitive. This simple, well meaning action has given us the situation where, now, it can cost less to buy a house than it did forty years ago.
Someone then decided that this was unfair and that the conveyancing market should be de-regulated to some extent and made more competitive. This simple, well meaning action has given us the situation where, now, it can cost less to buy a house than it did forty years ago.
We're selling/buying atm, I did a lot of research and picked one that was highly rated and responsive to initial queries. Week 1 and i'm getting no response to emails and eventually find out she's gone on annual leave. Every time I call her tone is very much 'why are you calling me?'. She has actually been ok since, hold ups have come from the other sides. That's part of the problem, your solicitor can only work at the speed of the other, they don't have time to spend all day chasing the other solicitor if they are ignoring requests. Helpful if you've got a good EA who will check in with buyer and seller to try and push things forward
I'm currently 5 months into selling/buying and I can say without a doubt the solicitors are responsible for the slow progress.
Absolutely no urgency to deal with anything faster than a snails pace, very frustrating.
Issues occurring 3 months in that must have been evident much sooner, which are now leading to weeks of delays when everything else is sorted.
If anyone else treated their customers this way they would soon not have aany customers!!
Absolutely no urgency to deal with anything faster than a snails pace, very frustrating.
Issues occurring 3 months in that must have been evident much sooner, which are now leading to weeks of delays when everything else is sorted.
If anyone else treated their customers this way they would soon not have aany customers!!
On balance ours were not great during our recent move. The communication was so poor from the paralegal that I complained and ended up, fortunately, dealing with the overseeing solicitor...which was much better.
Ours were not as bad as the conveyancers at the bottom of the chain who were based 250 miles from the property in question; had no experience of dealing with rural/small holding properties; only worked 3 days a week; and never passed work over for the other 2 days. They added a good 5-6 weeks to the whole process as they were also pretty poor at their job.
The conveyancers for the second in the chain - the ones who bought off us - just wanted an indemnity policy for everything they could think of. We just kept saying no and moved on.
Ours were not as bad as the conveyancers at the bottom of the chain who were based 250 miles from the property in question; had no experience of dealing with rural/small holding properties; only worked 3 days a week; and never passed work over for the other 2 days. They added a good 5-6 weeks to the whole process as they were also pretty poor at their job.
The conveyancers for the second in the chain - the ones who bought off us - just wanted an indemnity policy for everything they could think of. We just kept saying no and moved on.
Using "Premier Property Lawyers" for a sale of a BTL they have been brilliant.
Allocated a conveyancer in 24 hours along with all documents provided for completion. Within 72 hours everything on our side was completed and now await the buyers responses.
They have a really good user portal to track progress to.
Obviously selling is easier than buying with these things but I've been very impressed so far...
Allocated a conveyancer in 24 hours along with all documents provided for completion. Within 72 hours everything on our side was completed and now await the buyers responses.
They have a really good user portal to track progress to.
Obviously selling is easier than buying with these things but I've been very impressed so far...
Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff