I am buying – or trying to buy – a flat. Got the money lined up, offer accepted, solicitor instructed, everything going fine. Then … nothing for a couple of weeks. Didn’t hear from my solicitor so just assumed that he was waiting for searches, responses to questions etc. Then I got a bit nervous and called him every day. No reply. Eventually I found out he’d been in hospital, but in fact only for 2 days. However, he now says that he has not received the answers to enquiries, lease documents etc, even though the seller’s solicitor says he’s sent them.

I can understand that if he has been ill then there was probably a period before the hospital that he wasn’t firing on all cylinders, and now he’s swamped with catch-up work, but at the same time, life goes on and he could at least give me an accurate status report, and/or pass on the files to a colleague if he is still suffering.

So I’m not sure if calling, mailing etc is being an annoying PITA (moi?) or if I should in fact be calling his boss instead? What’s normal in solicitor land?

Sadly, my experience is that they seem to play to their own rules and my fees seemed to jump up without good reason apart from their desire for your money. However with buying property they seemed better, I’d agreed a price before hand and everything seemed (as in your case) pretty straightforward. Keep phoning and/or ask for the senior partner. Does he not have a secretary or clerk who could tell you he was on the sick? All sounds a bit odd. One man outfit?