Blacks Solicitors LLP

Matter Type: Residential Conveyancing

it took 6 months for the sale of my flat. solicitor who was first dealing with it never informed me of anything I had to do all the calling then he was moved to another department and I had another solicitor never answered emails promised to call me never did I had a few charging orders through to divorce the figure kept going up but they didn't call to inform me I found out when I called them they lost forms I had signed and then I am waiting for a cheque not a large amount but they are saying there was a small shortfall yet I paid a fortune still waiting for them to pay MY MONEY into my bank. I have put a complaint in and seeking compensation for phone bill as I did all the calling and chasing settlement figures stress they caused me and not paying what is mine

Matter Type: Residential Conveyancing

I can say this has been one of the worse experiences of my life. Buying a property as a first time buyer with no chain as the property was from deceased estate, this straight forward purchase took 1 week short of 6 months, the main issue was the staff member Abbie Hall, who throughout the almost 6 month period could not even give an idea when the completion would take place, it was the day before completion when I was told, they said they needed payment in full to carry out the searches, I paid mid August and the searches took place at the end of October according to the dates on them. When my partner called for an update she said she was not willing to speak to her and hung up the call. My partner called to make a complaint about it and nobody ever got back to her. The fact is Abbie Hall is not a solicitor registered with the law society she was nothing but a case handler with an attitude problem, I think the issue is she is very jealous of peoples success and tries putting every problem in your way. Even the vendors estate agent who was also trying to get an idea of completion times, was getting frustrated and could not understand what the hold up was, she said in the 20 years of dealing with solicitors she had never come across and ignorant and unprofessional as Abbie Hall or blacks solicitors Leeds.

I have no words to describe Blacks Solicitors. From start to finish it was an utter mess. I am a first time buyer but I know people who have bought houses previously and they have not experienced a Solicitors like this before. The stress and hassle I experienced from beginning to end was unacceptable. They were incredibly difficult to speak to, all members of staff who work there are rude, unprofessional, abrupt and quick to get rid of you. Despite being overcharged for the appalling services I received, the expectations fell well below the standards that a solicitors should behave in. The claimed to have sent me important documents to which they had not! When I sent them important documents back they claimed they had not received them and then blamed me for not sending them! There was a clear lack of communication from their part, did not keep me updated, then claimed they had not received certain documents back from me which required to be signed even though they had not asked me for them!!!! They overcharged me at the end and added on random costs to my overall bill which should not have been there! On completion day I was waiting all day to get my keys, I had to keep chasing and chasing them to find out what was going on, no one was updating me and letting me know what was happening, I had to keep ringing them! I have paid them to do a job and there were not doing it! I didn't get my keys until one hour before they were due to close, it took me having a go at them to get my keys as they were not doing the job they were supposed to do! They are incompetent staff who have no idea what they are doing. I kept getting passed from person to person to person when I wanted to speak to someone, I also got emails from people I had never encountered before and not from my assigned solicitor. For an expensive solicitor like Blacks they lacked attention to detail and major mistakes were made. When I called to make an initial payment they kept passing me to different people then they said they would call be back but never did! They all appear to be young and inexperienced solicitors and I am utterly appalled with the service I have received. I will be taking this further as I have been unfairly treated by Blacks. They were frustrating solicitors and major mistakes were made which is unacceptable, the services and behavior of Blacks Solicitors fell well below the expectations I have for a Solicitors. If I have one regret in life it will be using Blacks Solicitors! Please avoid them at all costs!!!!

Matter Type: New home purchases and sales

Currently trying to purchase a house with blacks. First time buyer and also the end of the chain. it's been 3 months waiting and I still don't have a completion date. They're now putting me at risk as the seller needed a quick sale which was stated at the start. Sometimes I don't even get responses to emails. Would not recommend to anyone else.

Matter Type: Purchase and Sale

Shocking. I dealt with them when buying my property and it took months! Their communication was terrible and they didn’t answer any emails. I would rush to send all paperwork back then hear nothing for ages. It was so frustrating. Finally after 6 months I completed.... A year on my mortgage company and I got into a dispute because they had no idea my sister was living with me - even though she filled in all forms. The solicitor didn’t send anything through!! When contacted they said they lost them...

Matter Type: Remortgaging

We recently had the misfortune to use Blacks for a simple re-mortgage. Throughout the process from initial instruction (by the new lender - Blacks being one of their appointed panel of solicitors) to eventual completion, there was complete failure to communicate, even at a basic level, with us as clients.

All communications (other than the issue of the document pack on instruction) were initiated/driven by us and responses were either limited, tardy or non - existent. Extremely disappointing and wholly unprofessional leading to us having to contact both the outgoing and incoming mortgagees to confirm such simple - but crucial - matters as the actual completion of the re-mortgage. In summary, appalling customer service.

Matter Type: Purchase and Sale

I am shocked that there are any star ratings higher than 1*, if I could've given 0* I would've. Blacks were awful from start to finish, they made a chain free first time house purchase a lot more stressful than it needed to be. Throughout our lengthy process we were passed around 6 different people, half of them being conveyancing assistants who had no idea what they were doing, were argumentative and slow. We had to literally tell them how to do their job at every stage. Our mortgage offer was faxed over to them, 3 weeks later we were told they still hadn't received it which was a lie, they hadn't checked their fax machine! (luckily we had a patient seller). We were given conflicting information and forced to pay for a search we were previously told we didn't need. We were forced to pay for them to set up policies we weren't even taking out. They kept making silly spelling mistakes on contracts and legal documents, regardless of the fact we called and emailed to get the mistakes corrected (they even had the correct address on file). We had to tell them to pick up the phone to communicate with our sellers solicitor to agree on an exchange date. On the day of completing we had to ask them 3 times to chase the sellers solicitors to make sure funds had been received - eventually they did and they had been received hours before. We were given a bill and then when it came to them paying us the money were were owed from the government from out HTP ISA's, Blacks took it upon themselves to take an additional £422 - blaming it on an 'error' on their behalf, an 'error' we have had to pay for. We have tried contacting them regarding the money they took, surprise surprise, no response!
They are slow, unprofessional, rude, argumentative and will take money that isn't owed to them. My advise is you look at any solicitors apart from them, I have and will be continuing to tell anyone who asks not to use them!

Matter Type: Purchase and Sale

We are selling our empty property and the buyers, when they made their offer, had a mortgage offer and were living in rented accommodation. My research shows that it should take no more than 6 to 8 weeks to complete a sale based on this information. 13 weeks in we are still no closer as this company seem to have absolutely no idea of urgency. Unfortunately it is not my solicitors but the buyers so I have little control over this. From what I can ascertain they seem to be extremely slow in responding orb returning paperwork. Luckily I didn’t use them but would certainly not recommend anyone else does

Matter Type: Purchase and Sale

Absolutely awful experience buying our property using Blacks Conveyancing department.
The case handler seemed to be inexperienced in the process. During the purchase Blacks discounted our bill because the service was poor.
Documents were missing from the paperwork. Questions about parking remained unanswered. Due to the rush to move we agreed to transfer. Nearly 12months on there is now a dispute over parking. Blacks have not even kept a full copy of the file. Currently they are just ignoring correspondence rather than providing the documents and answers they should have done during the process.
Our advice would be to choose a different conveyancer. It should not be your own conveyancer that causes most of the headaches during the purchase/selling process.
We are now complaining to the Law Society.

Matter Type: Purchase and Sale Of Commercial Property

I wrote a review a month ago, things just get worse with this solicitor. 21 weeks ago I sold my house 19 weeks I had offer accepted. A little over 4 weeks ago we signed contracts. I have had no correspondence from my solicitor s nothing! Chased up through purple bricks who recommended them, they have been informing me of what's going on, not the solicitor I'm paying . So I have been told by my buyers and by the estate agents that I'm buying off that I'm completing in 4 days. My buyer was told two weeks ago, I have not. I have yet to be informed, but apparently they have confirmed with everyone involved. (Clearly the ones that are paying then don't matter). I'm appalled with every step. I can't begin to explain how disgusted I'm am with this solicitor. Never would I recommend, never would I use again.

Couldn’t say a bad word about our experience with blacks, Clare had been reassuring all the way through the process of buying our first house, she replies to emails nearly straight away and has been so helpful.
Would 100% recommend blacks and would definitely use them again myself.
Made the stressful time of buying a house so much easier and put myself and my partner at ease through it all. 10/10 service.

Chloe

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We recently used Black's for the purchase of our new house and Jack Parkinson was absolutely brilliant. To be honest I was dreading the conveyancing part after a rubbish experience with another large Leeds based law firm who would win awards for dragging everything out and making it as slow and tedious as possible. Jack however, was the the complete opposite. His responses to all our queries were absolutely instant and there were quite a few due to our very complicated purchase, sale and remortgaging situation. He was always at the end of the phone and very accommodating if there were any issues and he managed to turn our purchase around in just under 6 weeks!

I would highly recommend using Jack Parkinson for conveyancing, he is an asset to the firm and I would definitely use these again.

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Eleanor and Sarah did a fantastic job, proffessional, prompt and great value! Would definitely use them again, made the vendors solicitors look like an embarrassment.

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This on behalf of a client called James Jackson: Very good service and were very patient in handling equity release of my house. Excellent communication. Would highly recommend to other people.

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five star all the way. Megan Neethling has been a blessing dealing with our first house. She always answers emailed and always answers calls quickly when she's there. And when she's not at her desk her colleagues are also very helpful. Thanks Blacks!

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