“8 months into a conveyancing stretch, under the "Strike Conveyancing" brand. Still no confirmation of exchange. I've had to engage in a new mortgage offer costing me 10k over 5 years due to their ineptitude. Looking at just cancelling the whole thing and taking a breather as the stress is becoming a problem. There is nothing special about the place I'm selling. Because they don't respond to estate agents queries I've now become the central point of contact for the chain.
Only able to send one query and answer at a time via email, what's hilarious is my buyer and myself are both with "Strike Conveyancing" - zero interest in resolving quickly.”
“*****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!”
“My partner and I are first time buyers currently in the process of purchasing a chain free property. PPL's lack of efficiency and competency has caused us to lose our mortgage offer. Our original offer had an interest rate of 3.54%, a rate which is now impossible to get and the total amount payable would have been £404,468.58. However, we have now had to secure a new offer with an interest rate of 5.54% and the new total amount payable is £457,150.21. Of course we are aware that there will be an opportunity to remortgage but we are guaranteed to have to pay an extra £217.98 per month for the next 3 years which equates to an extra £7,847.28 over the course of that 3 year period. This is because our previous monthly payment would have been £730.44 and the new payment will now be £948.42.In the interests of transparency, the Land Registry is partially to blame as the issue that has caused us to lose our previous mortgage offer is a failure to register the leasehold title for the property we are purchasing. However, PPL have been aware of this issue since before Christmas and I was informed by our solicitor yesterday that they are yet to submit the application for the leasehold title to be registered. Our new offer is only valid until 3rd July and given how long it usually takes for the Land Registry to deal with enquiries, we are concerned that this will not be sorted prior to the expiry of our new mortgage offer. If this does happen, we will unfortunately be left with no choice but to pull out as we cannot afford to get 3rd mortgage offer for this property. Therefore, we are currently in a very worrying position all as a result of PPL.”
“Customer service was non existent. Our conveyancers didn't answer the phone or respond to emails. On the 2 occasions we managed to schedule a call they showed up late to the first call and didn't turn up at all to the second.
They don't include the full price on their initial quote. It looks like the first quote is to get you to sign up then they charge extra for virtually every service including ID checks.
We tried to complain and received a notification that our email had arrived then never heard of anything again.”
“Solicitors can not be any worse than that. They totally ignore clients and absolutely indifferent towards the success of conveyancing. It took them NINE months to make a simple flat exchange during which it took nearly a hundred of attepted phone calls to them because they ignore emails and phone line is mostly off. After purchase they forgot to register exchange in Land Registry which was only discovered during remortgage attempt. If you value your time and money, NEVER use these solicitors!”
“I would honestly choose a local solicitor firm over this company. I naively saw positive reviews and agreed to go ahead with Premier Property Lawyers (PPL) following my Estate Agent's recommendation. Positive reviews do not provide a full picture, you only have look on Twitter, or Reddit for a fuller picture. If you agree to go ahead with PPL, please note:
- You will hardly ever speak to the conveyancer assigned to you, most likely you will get through to a call centre with people not close to your case.
- There is a five-day turnaround for responses to enquiries to be dealt with (if you chase), this may seem fine at beginning and for more complex enquiries, but not when you are at the final stages and time is precious, quick responses are critical. Forwarding an email, reviewing two line enquiry responses shouldn't take days and weeks. Weeks can go by with no progress.
- The conveyancer provides no real legal advice and support, you will end up doing the leg work in getting the necessary work done to move your case forward. Be prepared to constantly chase.
- At no point, are desired exchange/completion dates discussed with you, you will end up working towards their timescales and when they can fit you in and not yours.
- Absolutely do not use PPL if one chain is already using them, both me (seller) and the buyers are with PPL.
No work goes to try to speed the process up in terms of trying to work together to meet a desired exchange/completion date, like an external conveyancer would do.
My neighbours have sold and used local firms and their processes have been fine, with the same management firm and freeholders of my property.
This is a factory style firm where your case is on a pile of other cases, and the process runs like a conveyor belt. I am six months in with no end in sight. Their business model doesnt work, they take on far more cases then they can handle, if you value your mental health and time, just avoid and go local. The whole process is draining me.”
“Diabolical service. They are just a paper processing firm. They wash their hands of anything that takes a bit of knowledge and skill, probably because they haven't got any themselves. Awful communication. Solicitors off sick Don't touch them with a barge pole. They are rubbish.”
“Awful communication, delays and stress!
They are very slow to respond to emails, can't speak to anyone on the phone. They have been nitpicking on unnecessary queries causing a big delay. There is no chain on my new house, the buyers of my current house have been ready to move for 7 weeks and I am still waiting for a completion date, over 4 months in! I am in danger of losing my sale and they know this!”
“One of the worst services you could ever use, do not use PPL if you want a stress free move. I am 5 months into a sale which has NO CHAIN and they are still that useless we don’t even have a date to exchange, they make enquiries about irrelevant topics, they ignore messages from the sellers solicitors and ask the same thing repeatedly. I can’t wait to take them to court if my sale falls through due to there awful lack of communication and actual hard work. Disgraceful company DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY”
“Before retiring I enjoyed 40 plus years working in the residential and commercial property sector, so I am reasonably qualified to comment.
Selling a vacant property via PurpleBricks they stipulated that I must use Premier for my conveyance and assured me they were a capable and competent firm who just happens to pay substantial introduction fees to agents.
To describe Premier PL as abysmal is in my humble opinion praise to which they are not entitled.
Whether you are buying or selling please, please, please go elsewhere for your legal services and save yourself one hell of a lot of grief and stress.
You have been warned ignore me at your own peril.”
“We had a fantastic solicitor called Amita. We bought our property in November and moved in by January. This wouldn’t of happened with her hard work and attentiveness to get it pushed through. There was a hiccup along the way through miscommunication from other colleagues in the busniess but never the less Amita got the job done and in amazing time too. Thank you again”
“Extremely poor service by strike conveyancing they have caused significant delay in sale of my property which has resulted in financial loss and extreme mental distress.
I highly recommend not to use their service.”
“We have just sold our property through this company property lawyers , we dealt with Hayley Dunham , I would like to say she was very professional and on the ball with every conversation we had , very polite a pleasure to deal with the selling of the property.”
“My sale was an empty property, no chain, and was a cash buyer......6 MONTHS!! In comparison at the same time I sold 2 other properties within 2 months with another more capable solicitor. If you want constant stress, incompetent conveyors, lies, and to do most of the work yourself then by all means use PPL.”
“Shockingly awful… not our solicitors but our buyers. No responses to our estate agents calls/emails for weeks. We’ve been ready to exchange for 5 weeks, but several outstanding enquiries and issues for our buyers. Now needing to complete on our new property without completing our sale, so will face horrendously tight weeks/months until our buyers are ready.
Cannot believe this company is still in business.”
“They were not our solicitors but our sellers’. We have been ready and waiting to exchange for 6 weeks because of PPL’s incompetencies and let’s just say everyone has had enough.”
“Just before Xmas we felt we had no choice but to pull out due to PPLs lack of urgency, lack of response to emails and phone calls. We were told we could move on the 17th October by our estate agent. They had been told by PPL that the bottom of the chain who was a 1st time buyer had paid his deposit meaning they are ready to exchange contracts.
My wife, my son and I had all finished work as were moving out of area to start a new life !!! We have lost 24k between us in lost earning and paid out 2k in fees. They wanted us to arrange early funding from the bank so we could move before xmas but if they failed to do their jobs we would have to pay the money back to the bank with a 10% fee. Thank God we said no as we had zero trust in PPL due to the long line of lies and let downs.
The entire chain agreed to move on the 4th Jan but we stipulated the contracts had to be signed before xmas as we were living in a house that we had already moved 80% of our belonging out of. No place to spend xmas !!!
SURPRISE SURPRISE they failed to achieve this. Because of the unemployment for 3 months we had now run out of money so had no choices left.
They spread lies about us going bankrupt to the chain which we found amusing as the only financial difficulties we were facing was due to their complete and utter incompetence.
We are in the process of making a heavy complaint to the Ombudsman and we are also going to be contacting our MP to demand the government introduce regulations which are hugely outdated as these online unprofessional companies now exist.
It has taken us this long to start this process due to the pure rage we feel about this company due to the un-necessary extra stress and anxiety to our family.”
