Poor conveyancing services
We hired Simply Conveyancing to help us with the purchase of our flat and were very disappointed. So much so that I am compelled to write this poor review. I normally do not like to do this as I feel everyone should be given benefit of doubt. But our experience in this case has been so unpleasant that I would like to share it if it can help anyone else...and prevent them from putting themselves in the same situation. Simply Conveyancing has fallen far short of the professional standards expected of a legal practice. The lack of communication, attention to detail and overall callousness and lack of empathy shown by their staff have caused significant inconvenience and distress. The day of completion should have been an exciting and joyous one for us as we got the keys of our first home in UK. But we could not enjoy it at all as we were under severe stress due to them. Some of the issues I would like to highlight are: - inaccessibility and lack of communication - The first solicitor who was assigned to us was impossible to get in touch with. Everything was remote, on email and impersonal. This would have been fine if things worked. But they didn't. They caused severe delays and the conveyancing took much longer than it should have. I understand some of the delays were due to the management company involved. However, we were not kept in the loop of what was causing these delays and if there were any other factors. It was tough to get in touch with the solicitor to understand what was going on and the status of things. - There was also no onboarding call or explaining to us how the process works especially since we requested for this being first time buyers in the UK. They assumed we knew how conveyancing works. They only answered some of our questions when we were finally able to speak but did not give us the whole picture. - There were errors and oversights on the completion sheet which we had to correct and point out. - We had to forego a deduction that the seller offered if we could complete the purchase within a certain timeframe which was achievable if not for the delays caused by Simply conveyancing. - Lack of Handover and Due Diligence: I am not sure what are the internal issues at Simply Conveyancing. But the solicitor who was initially assigned to us suddenly left. We were relieved when this happened since she was impossible to get in touch with. The new solicitor assigned to us was much more proactive. She was always available when we called her and took the time to answer our questions as well as give us a status of the case. She also helped to move the case along. However, we realised later that she had not taken a proper handover from the previous solicitor. We realised later that she did not check or do her due diligence to check if everything that had been done up to that point was correct. She just picked up what was left to do, so she could complete the process quickly. There was no continuity with some of the information transfer from first solictor to the second. So overall, the whole process was just unpleasant and took the joy out of purchasing a house. We were already under financial pressure with the house purchase and over and above that we experienced a further loss of almost £2000 due to their errors and oversights which added to our stress. So I would definitely not recommend their services for any first time buyers unless you are very clued into the whole conveyancing process and are able to hold them accountable at every stage and have the bandwidth to keep following up with them and double/tripple check everything they send you.