How to avoid using a bad solicitor – Part One

When buying property, everyone on your team plays an important role but often buyers overlook the pivotal contribution their solicitor or conveyancer makes to a successful sale or purchase.

Solicitors usually get a better position on the team when you’re selling property because they’re required at the start of the process to prepare your sales contract.

Unfortunately, most buyers leave the selection of their solicitor to the very last minute, or will focus on trying to find the cheapest possible service.

Whether buying or selling – but more crucially when you’re buying – a skilled solicitor or conveyancer can make or break a successful sale or purchase.

Before I launch into the examples of appalling service, It’s important to remember there’s many more good service providers than there are bad ones.  Your job though is to make sure you select the great solicitors and avoid the bad – even if you’re half way through your purchase.

I have been buying property for over 25 years, and it still shocks me when I come across crappy solicitors who are either too incompetent or have egos so huge that it seems they’re happy to see their clients’ deals fall through

Throughout my career I’ve bought a lot of property, so I’ve seen a wild range of crazy behaviour – once when I was buying a property of my own, the solicitor asked me why I would want a copy of the purchase contract (!!).  But that’s a story for another time and hopefully that guy has now left the profession.

I have just completed two purchases where the solicitors involved did everything possible to kill the deal for their clients. Their actions cost my clients thousands of dollars in money they didn’t need to spend, caused considerable amount of stress, and wasted time for everyone involved in the purchase.  Warning . .this is a long post, but the lessons will be worth it.

Situation one

In this case, the solicitor was incredibly my client’s (I’ll call her Mandy) solicitor.   Even though the dud had recently handled the sale of Mandy’s home, he couldn’t be bothered to actually respond to her calls so Mandy only ever spoke to the support team who had no authority to take action without the dud’s approval.

When I came into the picture as a Buyers Agent to help Mandy buy her next property, I was put straight through to the dud.  The first thing he said was “So you’re a Buyers Agent?  I’m expanding into the property area so please send your clients through to me.” 

He initially gave Mandy the gold treatment . . . we needed a contract reviewed within 24 hours so we could be in a position to negotiate on a property Mandy liked.  After that, though things spiralled down fast.

Just summarising here . . .

1. The dud’s practice involved shutting the office down during lunch time and promptly at 5pm with no way to contact anyone in the office ‘outside office hours’.  Ah . . if you’re buying a property you’re no doubt working so it’s pretty hard to speak to your solicitor if you can’t reach them at lunchtime or a little after 5. 
2. We were in a very tight negotiation and needed a 66W (which means we would take the property without a cooling period) to be submitted with our offer to get the ‘nice’ price we had agreed with the vendor.  The dud – when we finally got hold of him THE NEXT DAY – said he didn’t believe the 66W “was in the best interests of the client” and caused us to miss out on a very well priced property Mandy really wanted.  I should have pulled Mandy out right then an there, but the dud was holding some funds from the sale of Mandy’s property and she wanted to use the funds for the next purchase.
3. After a detailed search we found another option for Mandy.  This time we were able to get the dud to take action but it wasn’t really helpful.  The dud suggested contract amendments . .but the list he sent through to the vendors’ solicitor included duplicate items and ridiculous template questions.  For example – does the property have solar . . we had inspected the property and if the guy had taken the time to bloody go through the amendments with Mandy she would have told him solar panels weren’t there and she didn’t care.  This wasted time with the agent, and put the vendor’s solicitor offside – we clearly looked like idiots and they pushed back on any special requests we made.
4. As if it wasn’t bad enough that we couldn’t speak to anyone outside office hours, when we needed to make contact during work hours we couldn’t reach the dud because he was “in court”.  Please take note –  if you’re a solicitor and you want to “move into the property space” you have to be AVAILABLE during the day and often in the evening as well.  At the very least, have a bloody system that allows your admin staff to keep things moving and doesn’t revolve around you signing off on every piece of information.
5. When we did catch the dud, he made everything about him and not about what Mandy wanted or needed [“I will get to this tomorrow”], he wasn’t focussed on the deal and seemed to have no idea what it was like to have to compete for a popular property = basically zero negotiation skills and exceptionally poor communication skills . . verbal and written.
6. To add to the misery . . he had showed no respect to the vendors’ solicitor.  He pushed them to ‘expedite this request’ (when he was the cause of delays), made pedantic stupid extra requests [please re-word to be clear > microwave, not micro-wave], and waited to very last minute to respond to their requests when they set deadlines (even though he already knew what our response would be). 
7. Finally, just when I thought we were through the worst of it all, the time came to prepare for settlement.  As it turned out the vendors needed a simultaneous settlement (they were moving to their new property on the same day they moved out of the property Mandy was buying).  In my experience this is a big red flag for potential problems, so I advised the dud about this and suggested we request a bond to be kept by the vendors solicitor.  This bond would cover Mandy if the vendors weren’t able to move their items from the property by the time of settlement or if we found damage after the vendors moved out.  Of course, the dud thought this was a joke . .and you can guess what happened.  The vendors moved out THREE hours after settlement was scheduled to occur . .which really suited them.  At least the dud held off on settling until we confirmed the truck had left, but it meant Mandy was waiting around all afternoon when the vendors should have been gone.  Hopeless service on the dud’s behalf.

There’s another radical story I will share in another post, but for now I will stop the story telling and leave you with the practical steps for how you can choose a good solicitor . . see below.

I would love more than anything to tell you the names of the very unprofessional professional involved in the scenario outlined above, but if they’re reading this story they’ll know exactly who I’m referring to.  They’ve got my name, and more importantly I have theirs.  Let me know if you want me to give you the names of at least two solicitors you should avoid . . like the plague.

How to choose a good solicitor

1. Make sure they have experience in property sales and purchases – at least two years of experience would be an absolute bare minimum.
2. Get their mobile number or ensure they have someone who will respond to your calls at any time of the day – within reason of course, you’re not going to be their only client.
3. Ask them what will happen if you have to take action at short notice – because that’s the reality of the property market at the moment – do they have the capacity to help you if a deal presents itself at short notice.
4. What is their process for submitting requests – can you speak to their admin person or does everything have to be signed off by the solicitor.
5. Will they work as a team with your other service providers like your buyers agent, broker and accountant.
6. This tip is more of an observation than a question you can ask – Are they focused on making the deal happen for you or do they give the impression they just want to churn through as many deals as possible and fob you off to ‘the assistant’.
7. Ask about their fees – as a guide . . anyone charging less than around $2,000 is probably not going to give you the time and support you really need so expect to pay for a good professional’s time, but if you read the above examples you’ll know finding a good solicitor will absolutely be worth it.

About the author

Debra Beck-Mewing is the Editor of the Property Portfolio Magazine and CEO of The Property Frontline.  She has more than 20 years’ experience in buying property Australia-wide and has extensive experience in helping buyers use a range of strategies including renovating, granny flats, sub-division and development. Debra is a skilled property strategist, and a master in identifying tailored opportunities, homes and sourcing properties that have multiple uses.  She is a Qualified Property Investment Advisor, licensed real estate agent and also holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Business. As a passionate advocate for increasing transparency in the property and wealth industries, Debra is a popular speaker on these topics.  She is also an author, podcast host, and participates on numerous committees including the Property Owners’ Association.

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Disclaimer – This information is of a general nature only and does not constitute professional advice.  We strongly recommend you seek your own professional advice in relation to your particular circumstances.