ptember 2022 I spoke with the conveyancer on the phone and explained to her that I am a cash buyer. I asked her what she required from me in terms of proof of funds and she informed me that all I needed were my 6 monthly bank statements. After many weeks of no contact whatsoever from the conveyancer I emailed her for updates but did not receive a reply. On 17th of November I was rather frustrated with having to chase her for information and receiving no feedback so I felt I needed to find an alternative conveyancer. I emailed my original point of contact at Let’s Move Legal group, as this was the original company I chose as my solicitors and expressed my disappointment with the handling of my case. To which her response was ‘We are disappointed to receive your email and will chase the solicitors to provide you with an update and a progress report’.
It wasn’t until 3rd January when the conveyancor asked me for my proof of funds bank statements so I sent her the 6 month’s statements she asked for. She then replied: ‘ Is it possible for your husband to confirm in writing and signed that he provides said amount to you each month as a family allowance.’
To which I called her to ask she what format she needed this in (eg, email, photograph of a written and signed letter etc…) she said a photograph of a signed letter would be fine but then later that day informed me that this would not be enough. She then asked for my husbands bank statements (I provided her with 6 months of statements from his 3 bank accounts) and proof of ID and address to be certified by the embassy. To which I told her that would take weeks, possibly months to obtain from the embassy. She then said any solicitor would be able to do it. Had she told me this in September we could have prepared this well in advance while we were both in the UK, instead I needed to find a solicitor in the country I was currently staying and pay the additional cost of this. Finally, after providing an excessive amount of proof of funds and speaking with you on the phone explaining them even further, the contract and and all other necessary documents to be signed, which I did sign and posted them from overseas (paying the additional cost of this) on the 3rd February in preparation to transfer the funds and complete the process once I returned to UK on 15th (or a date close to that). I didn’t hear anything further from the conveyancer after that. Upon my return I completed the purchase of a different property on with another conveyancer who also works at David and McGraph and on this day I emailed my conveyancer to ask when our completion date would be to which she replied she needed more proof of funds. She required statements which were almost 2 years old. I was completely shocked by this extremely last minute request as I believed we were ready to complete.
She had my statements for over 6 weeks, and I couldn’t understand why she didn’t ask for this then. Why did it take me to contact her before she give me any information?
I was extremely frustrated and disappointed by this time with her ongoing lack of communication and misinformation.
The statement she was demanding were from my bank overseas As they were so old I could not access them from online banking so I emailed the bank and they informed me I needed to go into the bank to access them and pay a fee for each statement. As I had just returned to the UK 4 days previously this was not possible.
I then emailed the company's manager to inform him of these requests from this convayancer which had been made so late in the process and that her latest last minute demand was not possible for me to meet. Unfortunately he did not reply to my email. I then sent him a further email as I was now feeling completely unsupported by the company and needed to know if he could confirm that without these 2year old bank statement I could not proceed with the purchase which began over 6 months ago. Again he did not reply. Unfortunately I had to inform the vendor of this whole dilemma, to which they were extremely upset as they too believed we were ready to close.
I am utterly baffled by how 2 solicitors working in the same firm who were both instructed to support me buying 2 separate properties at exactly the same time under the exact same conditions could act it such different ways. The process with the first conveyancer was not hassle free but at least it was successful but with the convayancer in question it was just the opposite and clearly unsuccessful. I have now been forced into a position whereby I must pull out of the purchase, causing much distress to both myself and the vendor as we have been committed to this process for 6 months as well as a loss of all the requested fees which totaled over £600
