A really awful experience as a FTBer for several reasons, key points being:
1. The business model appears to be to simply dump 20+ files on an online portal with zero explanation as to what they are, how they’re relevant and what they mean. Many of these files can be over 100 pages long and full of legal jargon. You are left on your own to figure them out by yourself. You can book a phone call but only in 30 minute slots and asked, ‘What do you want to know?’, then given abrupt answers. The files are not named logically and in my experience several of them were corrupt (could not open), or irrelevant/obscure. For example I opened more than one which was just a giant logo? It seems like the bare minimum effort is given. The files aren’t even named, they’re often just strings of numbers making it very stressful and time consuming to remember what you have/haven't read and to recall later on. I suspect the solicitor just copies/pastes bulk files into a shared folder and calls that a good service. As a FTBer I had no idea what a TR1, TR6, Section106 etc is, so it took a significant amount of time trying to learn all this, which is something the solicitor should be explaining.
2. The solicitor failed to detect a large planning submission for a block of shops/businesses on both sides of the road a literal stones throw from the property, making what is currently a quiet, low traffic area, a future nightmare for parking/noise/construction works etc. They insist that it ‘isn’t their job’ to find such applications (despite the application being submitted months before the planning search took place). The only evidence which gave me a hint as to these plans was a single line in one of the 20+ forms put on the portal. The true extent of the plans I found out myself by asking on a local Facebook group, in which multiple people were aware, and (thankfully) one member guided me to the district gov website where multiple files were found fully documenting the plans, even including a comments/objections section for the address of the property I was buying. Yet somehow the solicitor missed this. I found this out on the day of exchange and swiftly pulled out. Apparently planning searches/search pack is not designed to find things like this? Ridiculous.
3. Several requests/queries went ignored or unanswered. The ones that were, were once again uploaded to the portal without any notification to say they had been, and as usual were in an unreadable format with text in random parts of the page and the answers were to questions I never saw, so it made no sense. Multiple files had to be sent across in email and even then, some were corrupted. On one occasion when chasing a query up, I got a reply saying ‘sorry I must have got distracted’. PLS don’t, however, get distracted when sending you the invoice.
Overall just a needlessly stressful, complicated and confusing experience. A stark contrast to the experiences I have heard from friends/family. A good solicitor should carefully explain each and every document in full, and not miss something as crucial as a shopping complex by the property.
Go elsewhere, even if it means paying a bit more. I unfortunately got suckered into the ‘recommended solicitor’ by the seller. Lesson learned.
