This review is for a different branch.
I am very unhappy with Taylor Rose in Wimbledon who handled the conveyancing for a flat I was hoping to buy. First of all, I was provided with a fixed quote through Simply Conveyancing who introduced me to the Taylor Rose solicitor. Taylor Rose then requested that I make a down-payment of GBP 500,- which I of course did, as well as uploading all necessary documentation so they could start the process to the Taylor Rose portal. This was in October 2021.
In February 2022 I chased on the enquiries that had been raised, specifically pertaining to a garden plot that was supposed to be part of the purchase as well as a pending purchase of a share of freehold for the property. In return I was informed that they hadn’t received the answers, but that they had found out that there was Japanese Knotweed on the property. I was advised to have a survey carried out to ascertain what the treatment could be. Of course, I couldn’t hire someone to do a survey as I was a prospective seller and not the owner. This then took weeks of emails going back and forth until the solicitor finally conceded that there was indeed a treatment plan in place.
My queries as to the garden plot and the pending purchase of a share of freehold remained unanswered despite my repeated requests to look into these. The only further info I received was that the Ground Rent was due to increase.
In mid of April I chased to receive the Legal Report, being constantly chased by the estate agents who couldn’t understand why the purchase on our side was taking so long, and also to let us know that the seller was considering pulling out of the purchase.
At the end of April we finally received an email containing a huge file with attachments (some of which were uploaded twice), none of which were in an order that made sense. It all looked quite unorganised. Not only were some of the contents double, but we also received the contract without our names on it, as well as finally some hint as to the existence of a pending purchase of the share of freehold, albeit for more than double the price that the estate agents told us some 5 months ago when we started the process with Taylor Rose. 5 months for Taylor Rose to get that rather important piece of information despite my persistent chasing on this point.
We also received the report, the last page of which was supposed to be signed by us. The top of the page contained advice for the solicitor in red, bold print, stating that this was not to be shared with the client. I had to send a screen shot as proof before I could receive the document without the internal notification.
On the 5th of May the solicitor sent an email advising us to not continue with the purchase.
A couple of weeks later we were then informed that the pending share of freehold was going to tribunal.
Suffice to say, after a tedious and hugely stressful 6 months we took the advice and rescinded our offer.
It took them almost 2 months to then send an invoice, that simply stated ‘abortive fee’ and contained an arbitrary sum that had very little to do with the agreed fix-price. The down-payment of GBP 500,- was also not mentioned anywhere.
My request for a detailed invoice was denied, and as for the down-payment, they said that was a fee for the searches.
In other words, I’m supposed to pay more than quoted (66% of some arbitrary end-price only they know) on top of the GBP 500 for the searches, without having received much of anything in return.
I’m hugely disappointed with the service and pricing of Taylor Rose and would not recommend them to anyone I know.
In the meantime, I’ve secured another property, and am of course using a different solicitor, and the difference in terms of professionalism, transparency and responsiveness is astonishing.