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Has anyone ever had a good experience with a Solcitior? (self.askuk)

submitted 1 year ago by peter to c/askuk

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Currently trying to buy a house and it's a nightmare, solicitors putting in minimal effort and getting things wrong, then taking forever to fix things. Any time I mention this to someone it seems they have a similar story.

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[–] wingsfortheirsmiles 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wouldn't say my conveyancer was bad but I had to chase him to check he was chasing down whatever was needed at that stage as everything took so long: I waited a few months for the pack from the seller but that was mainly as his solicitors were useless, my local council was slow returning searches, etc. Right at the end when I was getting close to completion, he went off sick and a colleague had to take over. She was more stressed than I was I think, but managed to get it over the line (just as well, wouldn't have fancied reapplying for a mortgage now!).

So whilst my experience wasn't terrible, whoever you go with have no qualms about checking in weekly (if not more!). It might not be that your solicitor is bad, but other parties they're relying on are slow!

[–] Emperor 2 points 1 year ago

It might not be that your solicitor is bad, but other parties they’re relying on are slow!

That's part of the problem. I had a nightmare selling a family home and it came down to the water board saying they didn't have the property on their books despite supplying water there for decades. Turns out they never had the number on their records and I had a nervous time when I basically had 30 minutes to do a 15 minute drive and find the relevant documents or a relative's sale could have fallen through. So one of the simplest steps could have torpedoed the whole thing.

That sale wasn't helped by the solicitor (a specialist in property law) not registering the house with the Land Registry decades earlier, despite this being discover a dozen years ago and him being instructed to sort it out, which he never did. Coincidentally, he was acting for the people buying the house and was issuing letters hassling us because this hadn't already been done. I was able to find paperwork demonstrating that it was all his fault and it all got sorted.