*****BEST ADVICE CHANGE SOLICITORS IMMEDIATELY***** No matter where you are in the process with them don't be afraid to bite the bullet and change. Go local to a trustworthy firm where you can actually go into the office and speak to real people. I had the right to acquire my property from the housing association, this was granted in August 2020. I have lived in the property since April 2016. The property has solar panels, and I was offered the option of buying the solar panels on my property, along with the property. The cost of this was offered at an additional £13,100 on top of the purchase price. Purchasing them was really not an option as we didnt have this amout spare. The only alternative option was to enter into a roof top lease agreement which we agreed to do. We successfully managed to get a mortgage of NatWest in December 2021. The NatWest mortgage offer was valid for 6 months, £125,000 was taken over 28 years at 2.73% with monthly repayments of £532.56, totalling £192,305.74 to be repaid. Initially in the first 4 months PPL didn't do much work at all, there was little to no activity on my account and little contact. I wasn't sure the pace of such things as I'm a first time buyer, so I trusted all was as it should be. But the back end of the initial 6 month period seemed to bring with it many issues which the conveyancer picked out, and there was a lot of back and forth with the housing association requesting amendments etc apparently due to the roof top lease agreement. I believed this to be normal and went with it, thinking that of course this would all be sorted in the 6 months. However, it was not. I was panicking and so stressed. I had no reassurance from my conveyancer, he just talked loads of conveyancing jargon if I managed to speak to him, in a monotone voice with zero empathy or urgency. We then applied for a 1 month extension as this was the maximum allowed, meaning we would have had the offer for 7 months. I was getting extremely nervous as I knew interest rates were rising, and also, I knew the stress of applying for a mortgage, and was hoping we would not have to do that again. All the while I was attempting to be in contact with the conveyancer. I had to chase him a lot for updates, a handful of times he offered me an update of his own accord. I found it extremely difficult to get in touch with him, or the team. At this point I was unaware that there were other phone numbers I could call, and I infact had been given a rarely used ‘police mutual’ number for Premier property Lawyers on my eway, was not the main one. I left voice mails and very few (if any) were replied to. I also sent emails. When I did speak to the conveyancer, he was very reserved in giving me any real time scale, just passing the blame to the housing association for the time it was taking. Any reply required by them for anything took them weeks to address. It was the most frustrating experience of my life. An absolute snails pace. At 7 months the mortgage expired, THEY DIDNT CARE ONE BIT. I then had to go through the stress of reapplying for a mortgage. Sadly, interest rates had risen and the mortgage I was offered was at 3.79% taken over 31 years, paying £562.51 a month, with a total repayment of £233,172.51. As you can see, I had to put more money down as a deposit to try and keep the monthly repayment down, and took it over a longer period. From then I attempted to ring the conveyancer weekly. Looking at my phone records I had attempted 60 calls since July to nov. Most of those I had been unable to speak to anyone and any messages went unresponded to. When I did managed to speak to the conveyancer, he has maintained that the delay was not with him. The conveyancer advised that within the lease agreement for the solar panels a map is mentioned with colours on it. He said the map that was sent with the solar panel lease agreement does not match the map mentioned within it, due to differing colours, and does not meet the land registry requirements. The housing association said that the map they sent to him in the beginning is the map they use as standard, they have used it on every single sale of right to acquire properties with solar panels. They said there has never once been an issue with it until my case. The housing association maintained they were not at fault and the delay solely lies with PPL. I repeatedly requested to speak to managers on telephone calls to premier Property Lawyers (when I’ve managed to get through) and been told no-one is available. I had asked for the complaints procedure to be sent and it wasn’t i had to find this myself. Someone has cost me a lot of money. If we go off the initial estimated completion of December 2021 then I have lost around £5500 in rent alone that could have been made in payments towards the mortgage. In terms of the actual over all repayment, it works out £40,866.77 higher than the original total repayment. This situation has caused me not only financial implications and loss, but the stress and anxiety I have had is immense,I have also spent a lot of time and effort trying to make contact. I eventually managed to speak to a team leader and also sent a formal complaint. The team leader was soooo bloody rude I'm annoyed just thinking about it. This was at 15 months in with them and I basically got told its tough. Despite crying and begging him to see it through the eyes of an empathetic human. My complaint requested them to 'investigate whether there has been any incompetence from Premier Property Lawyers, whether time scales were acceptable, enquiries raised appropriate and sufficient contact and updates' The response took weeks and basically said 'we're sorry you feel that way, but it's tough you can have £300 off your fees but take it and that's you accepting we're not to blame and you can't sue' At breaking point with no completion date in sight and now 4 months into our new offer I had to do something as I had zero faith and absolutely no reassurance it would go through. They also suggested there was a new enquiry to be raised. It was like they could only look at one thing at a time. I rang up a trusted local solicitor, sent him everything from PPL that I had and he said wow this should have been 6 months MAX. He took on my case, ordered the searches and it was completed within 6 weeks. I honestly think I'd have been sitting here with a second lost mortgage offer if I stuck with PPL. It should NEVER take 17 months for us to buy the house we were living in. No chain, nothing. Absolute sheer incompetence from PPL. My advice to you is run while you can. Oh and 1 star is too good but won't let me do a 0!