Chris
Terrible! Might as well hire a second lawyer for the other side...
Sold my property very much despite, than with, this firm. All the usual conveyancing headaches - but so much more! Three particular highlights were: - Threatened to cease acting for me on exchange day. Storm two tiles off a communal roof (not even my roof) and they wanted to do another round of faffing or give buyer some money off. A family lawyer had a quick squizz at some consumer legislation and decided their firm was at risk, despite not being able to articulate this in any legal (or common-sense) way. Estate agent and chill buyer saved the day. Not often you hear that, but I came out of this with way more respect for estate agents than solicitors. - Sale was heading for buffers, this firm did not seem at all bothered. Firm’s paralegal inexplicably decided to refuse to send estate agent any documents they needed to try to unblock the sale (which solicitors should have been doing, instead of whining endlessly). But paralegal openly refused to send agent stuff, jeopardising my sale and everyone’s fees. I had to listen to this paralegal drone on and beg her to share stuff so the estate agent could rescue the sale. This firm also sought several times to withhold key sale documents from me, even when I’d specifically requested to be copied on them. I had to push really hard to see stuff relating to my own sale. - This firm repeatedly ignored my strong advice to progress key freehold documents in parallel, which injected a sizeable and very avoidable delay into a sale. So lost that buyer which, with lower sale price, higher buying, financing and building costs, has probably left me 150-200k worse off than if it’d gone through… Seriously, with this firm, I felt like I’d hired a second lawyer for the other side. They’re not just a bit rubbish, at times they seem to be working really actively against you! With friends like Roger Brooker & Co, who needs enemies?
