Owning your own home

Out of everyone I know (me included) who has purchased a house, not one would have anything positive to say about their solicitor.

not one would have anything positive to say about their solicitor

Shit cunts of the highest order. Estate agents get a bad rep, but property solicitors far surpass them.

Ha. With each purchase we are creeping marginally down the path of ‘oh we’ll go with someone who charges a bit more this time’ in the hope that their business model will actually allow them to pay attention, rather than just accept every piece of work that comes in to them and then drown and be useless.

So far, no good.

Definitely do this - complain about them, send in evidence to the ombudsman, and do it in advance of them trying to make a claim against you for ££.

Out of everyone I know (me included) who has purchased a house, not one would have anything positive to say about their solicitor.

Buy it cheap, buy it twice? Ours did the job well, I think, but they weren't the cheapest.

Our last but one conveyancers contacted us out of the blue 6 months after completion to say that they had revisited accounts and that we had £0.80 outstanding.

Farcical.

Our solicitor was genuinely good unlike the EA who went on holiday then paternity leave without telling us. Problem is she works for a large agency as as I know there isn't a way to request her to work on your case.

Last purchase our actually conveyancer was at least seemingly competent, but it was the middle of silly season, and it was hugely apparent that everything that went out had been drafted by an assistant/trainee and not properly supervised, which meant we had to proof read every line of everything, then forward it back to her (named conveyancer) for amendments. Anything that actually made it in front of her was dealt with expeditiously and sensibly, but only at the firefighting stage, which was annoying.

only at the firefighting stage

Conveyancers do seem to like the essay crisis model. Put a trainee / paralegal on the file to keep it warm / play tennis with the other side, then the experienced lawyer steps in a day before exchange to fix everything.

I get that I paid for a service and the service was provided and I understand that the broker gets paid too and will look to maximise their commission. That said, Mike was invaluable throughout our home-buying process and our recent remortgage. He answered many worried questions from me and I see the worth of paying for his services.

Solicitors are generally bad cunts, no one recommends their solicitor it seems.

I think it's a consequence of the nature of the market though isn't it? They get paid very little for legal work - really hard to see how it is profitable for resi conveyancers if they spend as long on each house as the buyer / seller would like. It's likely to be what - a couple of grand max? That doesn't buy a lot of legal hours to analyse and advise on stuff.

Fwiw I've used the same firm for two purchases and one sale and other than a couple of moments where they weren't available when we wanted, have no complaints

Solicitors are generally bad cunts, no one recommends their solicitor it seems.

I used to, but she's retired. Which is a damn shame as she was brilliant.

I understand that the broker gets paid too and will look to maximise their commission

It seems to be seen as some sort of smoking gun that brokers get paid for referrals. They also get paid by the lender they put you with...

You have to believe that it's not in their interest to recommend a shit firm can't close deals.

Solicitors are generally bad cunts

This isn't true at all.

The folks that operate conveyancing factories are probably cunts, in that they create a system that doesn't really work for anyone. But they sell a cheap service. Pays your money, takes your choice. They are largely responsible for the race to the bottom.

It's likely the broker - who basically just found you a product and filled in some digital forms - got paid more than the solicitor, who actually tries to protect you from the madness. If they are doing their job, anyway.

To buck the trend, our solicitor was absolutely brilliant from start to finish. She wasn’t local, but it made no difference. Wasn’t the cheapest, but wasn’t expensive and was worth every penny.

Would happily recommend

Very much this.

Compared to estate agents and mortgage brokers and also other aspects of legal work they charge way too little.

Most of the time they also get paid even if the sale/purchase doesn’t complete so their financial incentive is lower and ability to staff up properly lower too.

There are good ones out there, but it’s a definite minority.

What you usually find with firms recommended by brokers and agents is that they’re really keen at the start of the relationship then get complacent and/or too busy.

They will often pay a couple of hundred quid back to brokers and agents for recommendations but that’s not enough of an incentive if they’re shit and the agent loses a £10k commission because of it.

Taylor Rose handled my remortgage - they were good.

I'll take probably. :D

the agent loses a £10k commission because of it.

The agent always gets their commission, it's just a matter of time. They know a certain amount of agreed sales will fail, so they are happy to make £350 or so as a kick-back on recommendations because they know the sale might not make it this time anyway.

As long as each thing they do has some profit in it, they are happy to do it.

Shit system stacked with shit-cunts.

I’m being part antagonistic. We used a decent solicitor for our last purchase and they did help drive things forward from our side. That only went so far and you are always at the mercy of others in the chain. I don’t doubt you’re correct about nature of the market, but a sceptical/frustrated mind might put 2 and 2 together and think it is linked with hourly rate fees as opposed to EA’s who everyone knows are actively looking to drive things forward for their % fee. Much of the house buying process in England is wrong in general and promotes general shithousery behaviour from all.

From a re-mortgaging side, our current provider (Nationwide) insisted on the conveyancing solicitor we used and they were beyond painful, not much you can do in that situation other than grit your teeth and bemoan them to internet buddies.

Our solicitor was OK, our only complaint was he nearly wrecked the whole thing by telling our lender about a single brick that needed replacing in the attic between party walls (part of the survey we were negotiating some points for a price reduction). This led to a 2 week delay, nearly missing stamp duty holiday with the lender having to send their own surveyor round to inspect the house because the way the solicitor worded it was like the house was falling down.

Sounds like a crap system

ITYM

I'd rate the solicitors we used - they were diligent and responsive. Neves in Harpenden. We dealt with Jane Joseph there although we never met - it was all done over email and phone.

Jesus fucking Christ