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
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
Stressed and unhappy - 22-Mar-11 19:07
good fee earner - 19-Aug-10 17:11
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
the real athair_siochain, - 21-Jul-10 09:41
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.
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.
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!
mrs cheesed off - 7-Jun-09 17:25
angry and confused - 22-Feb-09 19:32
old fashioned conveyancer - 25-Sep-08 19:32
VeryStressedMover - 14-Jan-08 16:38
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.





