Not proactive at all. Avoid if you are selling a shared ownership property
Disappointing and slow service - this company was not efficient, as I regularly had to obtain information from third parties myself to speed up the process.
The sales call was very slick and he told me that most sales complete within 10 weeks, however my sale took 5.5 months. Perhaps if you are selling a house it is easy but if you are selling a shared ownership apartment - use a specialist, no matter how much pressure your estate agent puts on you about using this company.
The only reason I stuck it out was because the purchaser was also using SC and I hoped it would be quicker as we were both using the same firm. I realised nearing the end of the process that some mistakes had been made by them; perhaps because their staff are juniors who do not fully know what they are doing when the circumstances are unusual.
Important forms were sent to me in the final month, that should have been sent to me at the start because the purchaser and I were both using the same firm and the fact I needed a non-standard TR1, as I had power of attorney acting on behalf of beneficiaries to my late sister's estate.
When I signed up in May 2023, I was allocated one conveyancer and a week or two later, I was dealing with a different one. By the time the sale completed in November 2023, I was on my fourth conveyancer. The third person, V.P. was very poor. She just sent emails out to the managing agent and did not follow up or exhibit any proactive activity. She did not seem to want to make any phone calls to chase for any information.
Despite paying their premium fee - I had to chase up and obtain a large amount of information myself; such as details of fire reports, retrospective permission for the flooring, confirmation of water supply and chasing for the electrical test certificate and the Landlord Certificate.
SC emailed out long lists of requests for information to the management company and managing agent, however they did not provide reference to documents, so the person reading the email would not know what the question was in reference to, which cause more delays.
Each time answers were supplied to SC by the managing agent, more follow-up questions would be raised by SC on behalf of the purchasers; whereas detailed questions should have been asked to begin with to save time. I submitted a complaint to a senior manager there; who wanted to call me to discuss but I wanted their response in writing which of course they did not provide.
Dealing with SC was really stressful whilst grieving for my sister. Every week of delay cost the estate £155 in shared ownership rent and bills but there was no compassion; no attempt to speed up the process. The SC staff would simply compose an email and even if they had not heard back in 4-5 weeks, they did not want to follow-up with a phone call. The delays drained our funds and created extra stress because they were not proactive with my sale.
