Conveyancing solicitors, poor service and rip off fees
My gripe is related to a firm of solicitors in Southport, who were recommended to us by the estate agent selling our house. The lack of communication and customer services was in my opinion quite astonishing!
Firstly, they were supposed to provide us with written quotations/breakdowns of the cost of the conveyancing for both the sale of our house and the purchase of the new property. These we never received despite making numerous requests. Seven days prior to completion I received a phone call saying they everything was in place for the set completion date, oh and by the way they needed 7,000 to do this! As you can imagine I was horrified at the sum and asked that they fax me a breakdown of the costs.
After my husband, our financial advisor and I had gone through this with a very fine-toothed comb, we couldnt reconcile this with the actual bill which should have been 1,600. Quite a difference wouldnt you say? At this point I decided to dig a little deeper and find out more information about this company. The director of the company sits on all manner of law councils, and the person dealing with our conveyancing, her job title is "fee earner", which I thought was quite apt.
After our financial advisor had spent some time going over the figures with them, one of which was for a mortgage arrangement fee, which our advisor actually dealt with and not the solicitors, they agreed on the 1,600 figure. I phoned them to make this payment with my credit card and was told that there would be and administrative charge of 70, which I thought was quite outrageous. I insisted on speaking to someone more senior as I wasnt very happy about this extra admin charge. I ended up speaking to the company director who eventually agreed to waive the fee.
However the saga continued right up to the day before we completed, when they rang to say we needed to sign a document. I took time out of a very hectic pre-moving day to go to the estate agents where this document had been faxed, to sign this paperwork so it could then be faxed back to them. I got home and just as I stepped through the door my mobile rang, it was the solicitors on the phone to say that they needed me to put in writing that we were happy to proceed with full knowledge of the contents of this document.
I asked why I hadnt been told this half an hour ago when I was signing the document and the reply I got was, that they do ask for the client to do something towards helping with the paperwork! Arrgh!
At this point I saw red and I am ashamed to say swore at the "fee earner" on the other end of the phone. As even our financial advisor said we were doing their jobs for them. So after yet another trip to the estate agents, and a bad fall injuring my leg (not recommended the day before a big house move), everything finally went ahead and we completed the next day.
So after nearly 2 weeks of no sleep, a great deal of worry wondering if we were ever going to get moved, and then finally having to move ourselves as we couldnt instruct a removals company because of all the uncertainty; I am pleased to say we are now moved in and very happy.
All in all the whole process has been one long nightmare that I urge anyone to avoid. I am also annoyed that the estate agents, who have themselves a good reputation, actually recommended these cowboys to us in the first place!
Comments from visitors
I couldn't agree more with the comments here. They dragged a simple sale out for months and months,and the sale nearly fell through.
PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS FIRM it seemed to me that the whole company was staffed by 16 year old girls for whom conversation does not exactly come easy.
They will fob you off at every opportunity and for the money you will save on phone bills alone it is worth going with a more professional solicitors. 'Just moved' offers very good advice. We were very naive and went with the solicitors (Barnetts) our mortgage company recommended...a massive mistake!
Those people who say that moving is the most stressful thing you can do, I can only assume, had the misfortune of dealing with Barnetts
PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS FIRM it seemed to me that the whole company was staffed by 16 year old girls for whom conversation does not exactly come easy.
They will fob you off at every opportunity and for the money you will save on phone bills alone it is worth going with a more professional solicitors. 'Just moved' offers very good advice. We were very naive and went with the solicitors (Barnetts) our mortgage company recommended...a massive mistake!
Those people who say that moving is the most stressful thing you can do, I can only assume, had the misfortune of dealing with Barnetts
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My house sale is going through with Barnetts at present. DO NOT USE THIS FIRM. They are a bunch of cowboys who have mismanaged the case from start to finish and delayed it completely unnecessarily. No-one seems to know what everyone else in their team is doing, other solicitors, financial advisors, banks and estate agents seem to find it impossible to get in touch with them and, whenever you try to make a complaint, they simply fob you off with more promises that things will happen tomorrow...and they never do, of course. I'm planning to launch a formal complaint against them with the Legal Ombudsman.
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Stressed and unhappy - 22-Mar-11 19:07
Yeah same here,our house sale been going through since november.barnetts wont do a thing to rectify there problem and costing our chain lots of money.we say stay away from them.and save money by going to your own solicitor where you live.
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Having finally just concluded our mortgage transfer to NatWest, I recommend anyone to avoid using Barnetts at all costs. We had no choice as they were appointed by NatWest, but after totally mis-managing what should have been a really simple transaction and, through their incompetence, delayed our completion by over a month, they have just put a seal on their apalling performance by sending me someone else's house deeds for safe keeping!!
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Victor, there is no way you can protect against that. Dun dun der!
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Can someone tell me how do solicitors handle your money during a house sale. Do they collect it from the buyer's bank and then put it in their own account to earn interest for a while before paying you. Worse still, how do I protect against such a solicitor from running away with my money after the sale - the worst nightmare scenario.
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As someone who works in the conveyancing industry in Southport I am well aware of Barnetts. They are looked down upon by some local firms and they dont seem to deal with an awful lot of local conveyancing work, often getting their work through contacts down south. They have a reputation for going through lots of staff and not seeming to value staff. Some of their staff (from personal experience) are not the most experienced in the first place and dont always listen to clients concerns (and possibly suffering from high work loads?) so this impacts upon quality of service. The lack of a supply of a written quotation seems like extremely poor service to me and perhaps should have been seen as a warning sign. You should have rung around for comparison quotes, I am positive you would have found a cheaper (and almost certainly better) service elsewhere locally. Sounds to me like the fee earner dealing with the matter was inexperienced and poorly organised. The term fee earner is given to non-solicitors who have care and control of their own caseload. A lot of legal work in solicitors firms is carried out by fee earners. Not all "fee earners" are bad, many are extremely good and have extensive experience, I count myself as one of the latter.
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good fee earner - 19-Aug-10 17:11
We just sold our old place and bought a new one and I know that it's easy for the unwary to get caught out by unscrupulous conveyancing solicitors. We were able to find a solicitor who put a lot of our fears at rest.
This is what we looked for to protect ourselves:
1. Insist on a fixed fee quote. Never, never hire a solicitor that charges by the hour - if you do there's no limit to the potential costs.
Equally importantly, never hire a solicitor that gives you a quote that is "fixed" as long as there are no "unforseen complications". Their promise is not worth the paper it's written on.
There are enough firms that offer genuine fixed fee quotes that you shouldn't have too much trouble finding one.
2. Make sure that quote is all inclusive. Ask the question does this include ALL disbursements (expenses)? And make sure VAT has been added on.
Beware super cheap quotes as usually they do not include these things and you can end up paying hundreds more than you expected.
3. Finally, don't allow the solicitor to take their fees from your completion monies as often happens. You should feel well within your rights to check and if their terms allow them to do this get them changed.
Otherwise you've nowhere to go if you're unhappy with the service or you feel like you've been overcharged as they can pay themselves from your money before it gets to you!
A decent solicitor will be happy to send you a bill once the work is done. If they're confident in the service they provide they should have no worries that they won't get paid.
This is the website where we found our solicitors: http://www.youmove.co.uk/property-resources/conveyancing-quote.asp
This is what we looked for to protect ourselves:
1. Insist on a fixed fee quote. Never, never hire a solicitor that charges by the hour - if you do there's no limit to the potential costs.
Equally importantly, never hire a solicitor that gives you a quote that is "fixed" as long as there are no "unforseen complications". Their promise is not worth the paper it's written on.
There are enough firms that offer genuine fixed fee quotes that you shouldn't have too much trouble finding one.
2. Make sure that quote is all inclusive. Ask the question does this include ALL disbursements (expenses)? And make sure VAT has been added on.
Beware super cheap quotes as usually they do not include these things and you can end up paying hundreds more than you expected.
3. Finally, don't allow the solicitor to take their fees from your completion monies as often happens. You should feel well within your rights to check and if their terms allow them to do this get them changed.
Otherwise you've nowhere to go if you're unhappy with the service or you feel like you've been overcharged as they can pay themselves from your money before it gets to you!
A decent solicitor will be happy to send you a bill once the work is done. If they're confident in the service they provide they should have no worries that they won't get paid.
This is the website where we found our solicitors: http://www.youmove.co.uk/property-resources/conveyancing-quote.asp
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bring back hanging or burning at the stake then maybe we will all be treated with respect
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the real athair_siochain, - 21-Jul-10 09:41
I read all your gripes with intrest and wish to put my side as a former employee of Barnetts.Barnetts is run by a bunch of overpaid underqualified amateurs.For the size of the company which I understand after the mass redundacies stands now at about 100 employees,there is only about 6 solicitors.There are more directors on massive salaries than solicitors.Pay cuts have taken place throughout the company bar the directors who dont actually do much anyway.All these fee earners are now being demoted to assistants with the pay reduction to go with it.These so called fee earners cant be very clever in the first place otherwise they would realise what Barnetts are doing is illegal and they would take them to an employment tribunal for breach of contract.So the moral is an unqualified,underpaid not very clever person is working on your house sale or purchase NOT A SOLICITOR.If things go wrong from time to time dont be suprised as someone else said you get what you pay for.
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I have also worked for Barnetts solicitors and my advice to anyone thinking of using them is DONT DO IT.
Not long ago an employee who I believe still works there was caught giving confidential information regarding a house sale to the other party in the sale who happened to be a member of their family.The result of this was to get a slap on the wrist by Barnetts useless management for a very serious breach of confidentiality.
So if you value your privacy go elsewhere,pay a bit more and get the job done properly by a qualified solicitor not an overworked unqualified fee earner.
Not long ago an employee who I believe still works there was caught giving confidential information regarding a house sale to the other party in the sale who happened to be a member of their family.The result of this was to get a slap on the wrist by Barnetts useless management for a very serious breach of confidentiality.
So if you value your privacy go elsewhere,pay a bit more and get the job done properly by a qualified solicitor not an overworked unqualified fee earner.
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I have recently completed a sale and purchase with Barnetts and can only reiterate what others have said - steer clear of this company which, as its website says, is run along commercial lines. I went with them because they were £400 cheaper than other quotes from local solicitors on my doorstep. The extra £400 would have been money well spent had I not opted to go with Barnetts. I won't go into all the details, as I have a complaint pending with them at the moment, but suffice to say, they are run along the lines of a callcentre and are staffed with inexperienced people who see you just as a number. Don't be fooled into thinking, as the website says, every client is their most important client. You won't be, you will be one person in the heap of cases on the fee earner's desk. Don't touch them with a bargepole.
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Barnetts solicitors is little more than a call centre staffed by minimum wage robots,very few of the staff have any recognised qualifications I should know I have worked there.Anyone using Barnetts should understand they are getting what they pay for i.e cheap price cheap service.
Anyone wishing to complain should address their complaint to MR RICHARD BARNETT in person but dont hold your breath the chances are he will never see your complaint it will be thrown straight in the bin.Better still send a copy of the complaint to the bank or building society you are dealing with because they get A LOT of complaints and they may do something.
Anyone wishing to complain should address their complaint to MR RICHARD BARNETT in person but dont hold your breath the chances are he will never see your complaint it will be thrown straight in the bin.Better still send a copy of the complaint to the bank or building society you are dealing with because they get A LOT of complaints and they may do something.
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our estate agents has an all inclusive deal but it costs .5% of the sale of the house costs - it is an expensive rip off and the solicitors involved are rubbish - I am complaining to the SRA once I have completed on my sale/purchse I am being robbed -and the SRA told me to wait until the work was all done before complaining so I am not penalised by the firm involved.
So people who are thinking os selling their home in NorthDevon BEWARE the all inclusive deal -you will get the services of a conveyancing clerk with no soocial skills who will charge you the hourly rate of a top drwaer lawyer. Shame ON THEM!
So people who are thinking os selling their home in NorthDevon BEWARE the all inclusive deal -you will get the services of a conveyancing clerk with no soocial skills who will charge you the hourly rate of a top drwaer lawyer. Shame ON THEM!
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mrs cheesed off - 7-Jun-09 17:25
barnetts solicitors made me sick. they were incompetent and loose me £15,000 in deposit. doctor confirmed my problem was stress cause through all the anguish and suffering. it still makes me so angry, like when reading you're website. sometimes it seemed there was no person working there just machines.
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angry and confused - 22-Feb-09 19:32
So what have you learned from your experience? Before allowing your agent to "recommend" a solicitor you should contact your local solicitor to ask for a quote and speak to the person who will be dealing with your matter throughout the transaction. Is it an office you can visit? Will you be able to meet the person dealing with your matter? Build a relationship with that person. Does the firm pay the estate agent for referring work to them? (a business relationship built on money passing hands and not on good old fashioned honest efficiency and hard work!) A good efficient service with someone who you speak to every time you call or need help is far less stressful than dealing with "teams" of "fee earners" who just see you as a file number and another bill to add to their target figures. If you have a next time try the old fashioned route, far less stressful.
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old fashioned conveyancer - 25-Sep-08 19:32
Barnetts are the worst company I have ever dealt with. Inefficient, incompetent, inaccurate. They failed to check paperwork; allowed errors to pass through which had to be corrected in a rush at the end of the process; left things until the last moment. The fees they charged turned out to be wrong and it was only in prising a statement out of them that the errors emerged. Some simple conveyancing became a complete hassle with Barnetts. We had to chase them and make sure things were done properly. You pay a solicitor to do this clerical work, not to stand over their shoulder to see if they do it correctly. Don't go near them. As a professional I was just embarrassed by how bad they were.
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Barnetts did a great job when I came to sell my property, they were so good and efficient that I used them for my purchase and will probably use them again in the future. In my experience it is not the solicitors who are doing things wrong its the estate agents who complicate things as all their after their 2% commission. This has been the case when I have used other solicitors aswell. People can be quick to point the finger at their lawyer but put yourself in their shoes, they are constantly harrassed by agents all of which are after their cut of the sale price (i might add that this can be up to 5 x normal solicitors fee's from my experience) and can be ruthless to ensure that this is guaranteed. My advice to all those who have had a "bad experience" with your lawyer is to look at the bigger picture as to who is actually to blame.
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I had a very bad experience with Barnetts. They were incredibly slow at doing the basics when it mattered. Don't be fooled by 'on-line tracking'. They were always reassuring when answering the phone, but when I really pressed them as to what had and had not been done I was told lies just to get me off the phone. Then documents didn't get sent onto to me - on one search I had to ask for 4 times. The stress that I went through was unbelievable as our buyer was on the point of giving up. Then regarding our purchase, they made irrelevant enquiries of their own, but didn't follow up on the questions of significance that I asked them to raise (repeatedly) with the vendor's solicitor. When eventually, I got all the searches through, I had already had to exchange on my sale (this was my choice in order not to lose my buyer, but a very bad choice) Ultimately I didn't have any time to make an informed decision about the property I was buying. I caved in under the pressure and went ahead despite some uncertainties, and with what I learned sunsequently in interpretating the information that came from the searches, I certainly paid too much for the property. All my worst fears came true and more, and the slow conveyancing certainly played a major part in this. I wish I had chosen a (more expensive) local solicitor, rather than a mid-range overloaded conveyancing factory whose staff seem to have little interest in their reputation. In hindsight, I would have gladly paid ten times the amount in fees to a competent helpful conveyancor who provided a reasonable service and who was able to provide advice. The staff at Barnetts certainly knew the processes of conveyancing and were pleasant enough, but they were overloaded, slow and seemed unable to provide any good service on anything that was non standard - eg anything that required interpetation or any words of advice.
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VeryStressedMover - 14-Jan-08 16:38
I have recentley used Barnetts for my house purchase and I must say how pleased I was with the service from start to finish.The staff were very polite and helpful,they went out of their way to explain everything in detail.
I think the people complaining about Barnetts should take a closer look at their estate agents and mortgage brokers because they are the people making the big money out of this not the solicitors,just take a look at the mortgage arrangement fee and estate agent fees this person paid.It is very easy to sit there and blame someone else for problems and twist things,something estate agents are expert at.The only problem I had when buying my house was when the estate agent tried to get me to arrange my mortgage through his broker friend who wanted to charge me £1200 for the privilage! Needless to say I declined his so generous offer and ended up paying a grand total of £250 by walking into my local building society,a process which took less than an hour and saved me £950.
I think the people complaining about Barnetts should take a closer look at their estate agents and mortgage brokers because they are the people making the big money out of this not the solicitors,just take a look at the mortgage arrangement fee and estate agent fees this person paid.It is very easy to sit there and blame someone else for problems and twist things,something estate agents are expert at.The only problem I had when buying my house was when the estate agent tried to get me to arrange my mortgage through his broker friend who wanted to charge me £1200 for the privilage! Needless to say I declined his so generous offer and ended up paying a grand total of £250 by walking into my local building society,a process which took less than an hour and saved me £950.
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