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@Greenbank
Even the simplest thing can be fucked up by conveyancing solicitors.
I bought a share in a flat from my brother (the other half of the flat was owned by my other brother). Brothers 1 & 2 -> Brothers 1 & 3.
We used solicitors at the same firm to make everything simple. Couldn't have been easier. Needed simple and quick conveyancing, legal minimum on searches/etc, and a declaration of trust. You'd think they wouldn't be able to fuck that up.
My brother's solicitor went on holiday for two weeks and gave all her work to someone else. No problem we thought, except that after a week or so of hassling for updates we find that she'd given the work to my solicitor, so she (my solicitor) couldn't work on it at all due to conflict.
Our solicitor was "A B" at firm "X&Y". Another two weeks were lost due to the mortgage company faxing through some important paperwork for "A B" to "A X" which just happened to be the name of the daughter of the X of "X&Y" and did do some stuff for them on and off. So the paperwork was duly placed in her pigeon-hole for no-one to see, every time they faxed it through. If I remember correctly the mortgage company and the solicitors office were actually just hundreds of yards away from each other, just to highlight the stupidity of the delay.
They then tried to claim some stupid amount for postage between solicitors (one of their standard charges they add to any conveyancing bill), despite the two solicitors sitting 10 yards apart.
Oh, and they told me stamp duty wouldn't be payable, then presented a final bill with it on (luckily I'd assumed it must be payable and had the money ready).
Bah. Thank fuck that's in the past.