I’m sometimes noted as being downbeat and irritated – apologies if that is how my diary musings come across. It’s just the frustrations of every day conveyancing which sometimes wear me down.
So, with this in mind, I thought I would give you six examples of when I’m really irritated and annoyed. Please feel free to add your own daily irritations in the comments.
6. Do not leave your initial ID and AML checks until just before exchange of contracts. I know that many of us redo some checks when we receive deposit monies but don’t just start those checks when you know everyone is keen to exchange contracts .
5. When I call you to discuss a transaction, please speak to me or call me back. I have to admit that one of my biggest irritations is when a receptionist or secretary comes back and says: “Mr Smith has told me to tell you that…”. How do you know why I’m calling? Why am I not worthy of a conversation? Why am I told to put my query in an email when I know that it could be handled so much quicker with a conversation?
4. And then following on from number five, a big annoyance is the email sent to the firm where the conveyancer has better things to do than discuss an urgent transaction with you and you get a return email telling me that the turnaround time for responding to emails is three to five working days. JUST TALK TO ME!
3. When you email me to say that you want me to review my answers to enquiries 5(a) and 6(f). Just tell me what those enquires are rather than expecting me to waste my time trawling back through all of the emails to try and find the initial enquiries and my responses.
2. When I send you my initial letter asking you for your clients’ full names and addresses, please don’t just send me back your initial letter, confirming that you act for the seller or buyer with no further detail. I will assume that you have not read my letter and I then know that when I send you the contract, you are going to ask for it to be amended to show your clients’ full names. I have asked you for that detail – read my letter and give me that detail. Even better, just put the detail in your initial letter.
And at number one…
1. When you call me to exchange contracts and we’re going through the contract (sub-category irritation: I still don’t understand why we need to read every part of the contract. Just names, price, property and completion date will suffice, not all the detail about incumbrances), don’t tell me when we get to the deposit, that you are only holding a small deposit or that the deposit is being held by another firm in the chain and you don’t know which firm.
Whoever is holding that deposit will be holding it to my order and I would quite like to know who I have to contact should completion not take place. And why did you not tell me before that you were only going to offer me a smaller deposit? I now have to explain to my clients about the risks involved to see if they are prepared to proceed on that basis and everyone will start shouting at me, alleging that I’m holding up exchange of contracts.
What irritates you?
4 responses
Genuine question.
Would the lower amount not already have been declared to you in the contract you were sent?
If not, why not? This sounds, to a lay person like me. To be quite serious misconduct.
This is normal behaviour?
Because it sounds like acting in bad faith, with dishonest intent.
Would the conveyancer not have already had all the required information to determine existence, legitimacy, availability and amount of deposit, way, way earlier.
I find this grotesquely concerning. As a member of the public.
1. The draft contract is prepared by the seller’s solicitors and during the course of drafting, a 10% figure is normally inserted in the “Deposit” section of the contract. It is extremely uncommon for the amount of the exchange deposit (if less than 10%) to be immediately known to seller’s solicitors at the outset and hence not usual for a sum smaller than 10% to be “declared” in the draft contract when it is first drafted.
2. The buyer’s solicitors approve the draft contract and returns the same to the seller’s solicitors with their comments or any amendments for the seller’s solicitors’ consideration. It is usually at this point the amount of the deposit is negotiated if the buyer is only able to pay a deposit that is less than 10% of the purchase price. The agreed deposit amount is confirmed in writing and usually penned in at the point of exchange of contracts.
3. More often than not, after many weeks into the transaction when all parties solicitors have been busy dealing with umpteen issues – Who is going to be responsible for the cost of the premium of an indemnity policy? Do you want the fridge or not? etc etc – it is easy to forget to focus on the deposit amount, buyers’ solicitors forget to mention to sellers’ solicitors sooner or someone along the chain offers a deposit that is less than 10% of the price that the immediate buyer is paying and this is not known until the very last moment! I fully agree that this can be a major irritation. However, there is no misconduct at any level here and certainly nothing to be grotesquely concerned with.
I agree with all of the above, plus those firms that refuse to exchange until the lender has confirmed that funds will be released in time for completion.
What is the point of wasting everyone’s time submitting the COT then ringing (I assume; I have never done this) the lender to check the COT has been received, approved and processed?
Just exchange, then submit your COT, like normal firms do (yes, conveyancing factories, I am looking at you)
Completely agree and this is becoming a major issue. The majority of lenders are on Lender Exchange and LMS so I do not see the problem. If you have a valid mortgage offer and the COT is accepted what is the problem? If completion is in 1-5 working days then maybe I can understand (however why we are having so many short completion dates from exchange I do not know) but I have one file we are waiting to exchange on but the buyers conveyancer is awaiting confirmation of funds release with completion nearly 4 weeks away. It is very frustrating.