Simpson Millar LLP

I have used Simpson Milker twice now, both for property sale and purchase and i have been very impressed by their service. I see a lot of negativity on here, but honestly i will use them again should the need arise.

Started well but now cant access solicitors. Won't answer calls or Emails, yet quick to send monthly bills.
Divorce case has gone on for too long due to extremely slow response and recently no response at all

The process started well, but things quickly started going badly -- the solicitor dealing with my case would disappear at random, completely unannounced, with emails bouncing with "I am now on leave until xx/xx". This meant everything took WEEKS. It took 4 months to get to the point of almost completion, and then the solicitor stopped responding to all communication, from me or from the vendor's solicitors. It was IMPOSSIBLE to get through to anyone at Simpson Millar on the phone except for their reception staff, who were completely uninformed and unable to help. No one seems to respond to emails either. After more than 2 weeks of total silence, I had to find out via a LinkedIn search that the solicitor NO LONGER EVEN WORKS THERE! And no one seemed to know who the case was being assigned to. I am now having to try and switch to another firm, right at the point where I was hoping we would have completed.

Absolutely awful service and no communication whatsoever. Do not recommend, at all.

We have a property portfolio we are reducing by 50% Simpson Millar were undertaking the conveyancing but with the last three properties they have failed to respond. After five weeks waiting for two of the properties to be assigned to someone we asked for our money back! Hopefully the third property will complete but we are very concerned!!

When your estate agent is suggesting that you should get a different solicitor, there is obviously something wrong. We had an offer on our flat in London in January 2022 but had contacted Simpson Millar in November 2021 to ensure they had everything from us that they needed well in advance, so we could hit the ground running once we had an acceptable offer. The completion was in May 2022. Things started well with Jessica Davies, she called me and I was impressed. She was great to deal with and I sent her all the documents I had by post. However, Jessica left the company and things started to go downhill. What is more, nobody told me Jessica had left until after I had raised a complaint about the service we had received after completion. It started with the inability to ever get anyone on their mobile or desk phones. Every call went to voicemail and despite leaving messages I never got a call back. I was even told that I hadn't made any calls or left any voicemails. Nothing is done electronically so simple things I have done very quickly with other solicitors took an age and were always complicated. After we had an offer we thought things would speed up but they didn't. My estate agent told me one day that the buyer's solicitor hadn't received all of the documents from my solicitor and were therefore unable to ask questions about the property. I assured the estate agent that I had sent all the documents that I had in the post. However, as I lived in a flat with a management company I needed to purchase a 'management pack' from them to give to my solicitor. I immediately did this at a cost of about £500, downloaded it and tried to send it to Simpson Millar by email. Despite the files being small enough to go in one email I couldn't manage to send them so I called Simpson Millar by the number on their website and spoke to a receptionist. I explained the situation and suggested using a courier to send the documents but was advised against this for security reasons. This hadn't been an issue previously when I sent all of the deeds and other documents! I then received a call back from the solicitor's assistant and I said I would divide the documents into two emails so that they would send and was advised to send the emails to Jessica Davies. I said that if I couldn't send them I would contact the property management company and ask if they would send the documents to Simpson Millar directly themselves and call Simpson Millar back to let them know what I had done. Later that day, after dividing the documents into two emails I managed to send them to Jessica Davies. Four weeks later, I was asked by Simpson Millar, by the same solicitor's assistant I had spoken to on the phone, to buy the management pack and send it to them. I replied explaining that I had already done so but would send them again and did so. The files had lain in an email inbox at Simpson Millar for four weeks without anybody checking or asking me if I had sent them, despite me calling and explaining what I was doing. I raised the issue with the solicitor who replied obnoxiously that it was a 'He said, she said situation'. This meant that the completion was delayed because the buyers solicitors were not in possession of all the documents and therefore unable to ask relevant questions. When we asked what questions the buyer's solicitor had asked we were sent a list of numbers but not the questions. I proved that the emails had been sent by using screenshots but Simpson Millar refused to accept that they had been received as Jessica Davies had left the company by that point, despite me being told to email them to her and nobody thinking to ask if I had sent them.
When we asked questions we were continually ignored. My estate agent even sent emails which were ignored. My wife was constantly not copied into emails despite me asking for her to be copied in at all times. I also sent a list of all the furniture and asked Simpson Millar to find out what the buyers wanted me to leave. I was happy to leave everything as we were leaving the UK. This was ignored and weeks later I received an email asking if I had cleared the flat as they buyers only wanted the white goods. I was leaving the country less than a week later and had to give all of the items away on freecycle, including antiques and brand new items. I was leaving a job and preparing to emigrate at the same time so this was a particularly stressful experience. When we asked for an estimated completion date we were shot down and told they would not give one. When we enquired about how long certain documents were taking to obtain we were constantly told that they were 'chasing' them. The estate agent even offered to help, as did I but were told that we had no reason to do so. On one occasion I was so frustrated with the time it was taking to obtain a simple statement I did it myself and received the statement back by email in four minutes. The buyers solicitor asked for an EWS1 form, which explains the materials used in construction of the building and any cladding and is relevant only for buildings built anfer 2010. My flat was built in 1939 and despite myself and the estate agent pointing this out to Simpson Millar they continued to try and obtain a copy for the buyers solicitor, when all they had to do was show by the deeds when the building was built. We were also asked to make an allowance for ground rent and service charges. We obtained a statement from the property management company showing that we were actually in credit due to an overpayment. I pointed this out to our solicitor, more than once and asked for clarity on why we were being asked to pay a sum which we had already paid. The legalese we received in the replies did not clarify the situation and as we were in a rush to sell, we paid the sum and then asked for it to be reimbursed, in order to save time. This was not dealt with until I complained again just over a week ago even though the sale was completed. Simpson Millar also have offers on their website, such as £100 refund if the completion takes longer than three months. I tried to claim this money but was told that the offer ran out in 2021. After a time, they did concede and paid us the £100. However, they later went on to say that the completion was within eleven weeks, which is the national average. I can't see how they made the payment on the grounds that it took more than three months but then stated that it was not.
Every step of this sale was pure frustration, all centred around Simpson Millar. I made a complaint after the completion but as expected, it went nowhere. I have been offered a second level complaint but may bypass this and go straight to a legal ombudsman.
What made all of this worse was that I used Simpson Millar when I bought the flat and was impressed by the standards set by Oliver Cardenes. He was outstanding and I actually thought that this was the bench mark for the company. I was wrong and am sorely disappointed as a result.

I opened up a clinical negligence case on behalf of my daughter in 2011 with Simpson Millar. Had very good communication from the start and everything was always made very clear. Despite the case only closing recently, the level of care and support offered didn't falter during this time. I always felt included, updated and always had great interactions with the staff. I feel like my solicitor (and all those involved) handled my case in professional manner throughout, while also making me feel comfortable to speak openly with them. I am very happy with the commitment and hard work that was put into bringing my case to a successful end. I would definitely recommend using Simpson Millar.