Query on Law Society Conveyancy Commitee

grizzcol2

Folks

Question on above - solicitor has put in a query to the above in relation to a new house that we're buying. we're under pressure to sign contracts and this is holding it up. Anybody have any idea how long it takes the law society to come back - solicitor has told us that he's said the query is urgent.

Cheers

Grizz

Grolschevik

Probably means there's something that looks unusual or possibly could be deemed 'unfair' in the terms of the vendor's contract.

In the first instance, a query -- in this case, maybe on the recommended best practice for your solicitor or preferred alternative wording (the latter may mean the contracts might have to be redrafted) -- would go to the secretary of the committee, a full-time member of Law Society staff who would (a) check whether a similar query already has an answer among their guidance notes, and/or (b) pass on the query to the best expert on the area that is on the committee.

They will do their best to be quick about it because of the urgency, but the solicitor members of the committee are all volunteers who are busy practitioners with their own caseload, while the current committee secretary has, I believe, just retired or is about to.

I realise that this doesn't answer your question, but the above are the possible stages it might go through, and the answer is 'it depends': easy question with straightforward answer that can be dealt with immediately by a not-yet-retired secretary, versus the opposite of all that but with the added adventures of very busy expert solicitor who's currently away...

But if your solicitor had to raise queries, this is not a bad thing and she's doing her job right.