Paul
Recommended for remortgaging - with caution!
We recently remortgaged our house. Having obtained several quotations from solicitors for the conveyancing, I provisionally accepted the quotation from Thomas (TBD) Legal based on a recommendation to them and their sister company, Equilaw, from a professional in the business whom I trust. The fees quoted were average. Early pre-contract dealings with the firm were unimpressive. In the introductory letter from the Head of Remortgaging we were asked to hand over nearly £400 for searches, even though these searches were not necessary, and were misguided regarding the whereabouts of the deeds to the property. Worse than this, despite the statement from this person that we should not hesitate to contact them with any queries or concerns, when I did raise a concern I received no reply. The reason for mentioning these things is that if you do not have a good understanding of the remortgaging process or do not have a competent person looking after your affairs I would recommend considering an alternative to Thomas Legal. However, my wife and I both having professional backgrounds in law and the legal process (though not conveyancing), I was sure I would be able to manage this kind of problem and we trusted the recommendation previously noted. So once we had received our mortgage offer I formally went to contract with Thomas Legal. I'm glad that I did. Our affairs were immediately placed in the hands of a brilliant Senior Legal Assistant (Mia), and throughout the process she was superb in efficiency, professionalism, accuracy and speed of response. Another plus point is that when we received the final bill from Thomas Legal it was within a gnat's whisker of the quotation we were originally given. This is a real headache when choosing your solicitor, because in many cases you cannot be sure what has been included in the quotation and what has been left out.
