“As a first buyer, I had a terrible experience with PPL, as they were delaying the whole process. The sellers were ready to exchange weeks ago, and they keep checking documents and asking the same questions again and again. As a result, the sellers have lost their new house to buy.
They usually take 3 days to check an email, and they never reply, you just see the updates on the online portal. If you are lucky, your conveyancer will answer the phone, if not, any other solicitor will randomly reply to your queries as they are not familiar with the case.
Imran Ali has been extremely rude with my Advisor and myself in several occasions, and we've never received one apology or an ounce of sympathy throughout the process.
Stay away from them if you want to buy your house on time.”
“If you are thinking of using Premier property lawyers as recommended by purple bricks then I urge you to reconsider.
I can't rate our experience any lower. I would not recommend Premier property lawyers to anyone. It has been mistake after mistake, delaying the process immeasurably. Contracts have been lost, important land registry documents missed and we are still being asked to produce information that was sent 4 months ago. Both our buyers and sellers' lawyers have commented on how hard they have been to deal with.
When we do actually get to speak to our conveyancer (Laura Swift) it is as though it's the first time she had even looked at our file. When questioned about the process she quickly became defensive, obstructive and rude.
There seems to be something deeply floored in their process and they treat their clients with utter contempt.”
“Had to click one star because ZERO wasn't an option.
Moving house is clearly very stressful and you want and need these people to take some of that stress away and do their job properly.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not use Premier Property Lawyers, absolutely shocking level of service, completely incompetent bunch, how on earth are they even in business.”
“Useless, do NOT use! You have to do the job for them, they never respond, and blame everyone else. When you do get through to them they will tell you anything just to get you off the line again. A complete waste of time and effort, pay for a qualified solicitor, don’t suffer as I have with this bunch of cowboys.”
“Absolutely incompetent. They should not be allowed to practise conveyancing law when it’s basically a call centre with people fielding calls because they have a handful of solicitors who are useless. They acted on behalf of my vendor and at every stage, my solicitor had to tell them how to do their job! The purchase nearly fell through so many times because they don’t know basic conveyancing. They lost documents (including signed contracts!) several times. Unfortunately estate agents seem to be recommending these halfwits because they get a big commission... one word: AVOID.”
“Significant delays with our selling due to our conveyancer seeking information very late in the process; lost control of the selling process; I had to do more work than they have in order to progress with our selling, however still not finalised........we went through hell for the lest few months:((”
“OMG please please please stay clear of these horrific lot.
It is almost a year from my completion date. These so called convayancers did not register my boundaries correctly with the land registry, sent me no paperworkk till august this year. I had an email from Sarah Evans conveyancer in Feb 20 asking me to confirm my boundaries she did nothing. In my complaint response they noted she was trying to seek help within the firm but then forgot to get it. Human error and all my fault because they are online conveyancers and I should be checking. What the hell are they charging for.
Have now escalated to the legal ombudsman. Idea being it allows me to build a case for court after the ombudsman who more often than not do very little”
“I have found this firm to be very unprofessional. Our buyers are using them to purchase our property and I can only say that they have caused untold stress and delays that are now causing the sale to be put in jeopardy. Their service level for their clients is non existent. They do not get back to them and after 14 weeks of conveyancing for the past six days our buyer does not know what position his purchase is in and for the past six working days he has been told that the file is with a senior conveyancer for sign off which makes you wonder who has been dealing with it for the past 12 weeks? There is absolutely no chain and should be a simple process. Unless you have a simple house purchase of a freehold property this company does not have the expertise to deal with anything that has more complexity with regards to a purchase. We have now got to the point after thinking for the past three weeks that we are ready to exchange that the file is still to be signed off with absolutely no regard for a time frame or any further information of when if at all this is going to be done. I have never ever experienced such an awful company and between oursleves and our purchaser we really are both at our wits end with understanding how and why a company in such a profession can treat their clients this way. Please if you are considering or have been recommended this firm, please read all reviews from other sites too. You should really beaware that they totally disregard their clients needs and make the whole process so difficult that it now looks like our sale after 3 months looks like it will fall through, totally down to this firm and their lack of knowledge and service.”
“Very poor communication and lack in sense of urgency has made selling an apartment extremely stressful. I have needed to follow/chase information on most occasions.
8 months to compete the sale of a property with no chain is unacceptable even with consideration to Covid. Approx 4 max t/c’s received from my solicitor in 8months.
The sale of my property was completed and I am yet to received the money owed from the accountants department. I am informed that money owed would be received on the working day following completion but still nothing and no clarity as to when this will be received.
The service is shockingly poor and I would never recommend Premier Property. I would advise to pay the extra money to access an efficient service.”
“Same as everyone else, my buyer is using them, they keep asking for same documents over and over again. I could lose my property purchase due to them.”
“Absolutely shocking, disapointing and disgusting service. Very unprofessional and slow, it's taken nearly a year! You get what you pay for. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!”
“Terrible experience with Premier Property. Used them for a simple remortgage of a property I already own. It’s taken 13 weeks so far and we’re still waiting for completion. Very unresponsive, never had a phone call answered. Stay away!!!”
“I used Premier Property Lawyers for a simple reportage of a property I already owned outright and it took over ten weeks to be completed.
On the plus side they have a good online system for uploading documents and keeping track of progress, however that is really the only positive and I think they rely on this system too much.
I tried to contact my conveyancer directly multiple times and not once was she available, in fact I only spoke to my actual conveyancer once throughout the whole process.
They waited for eight weeks to request documents which took over a week to find and this could have been done at the start to avoid the delay.
We had and issue with the freeholder trying to charge a fee of £300 which wasn’t applicable as there was a specific clause in the lease terms and conditions but the staff at Premier Properties tried to tell me that it was valid and I would have to pay it. It was only when I made a formal complaint that they acknowledged that the fee wasn’t valid and I shouldn’t have to pay it which I didn’t. So if I hadn’t read my lease and complained I would have been charged and extra £300. They were aware of the clause in the terms but didn’t highlight it to me.
Additional transfer fees were added to my account incorrectly so again I challenged them and was told they would be removed. Two weeks later they hadn’t been removed so I again challenged them and was initially told they were correct but they weren’t.
I definitely wouldn’t recommend Premier Property Lawyers and I certainly wouldn’t use them again.”
“10 weeks and we are still waiting for contracts to be issued on our Purchase and no sign they will turn up anytime soon. our sale is about to complete and we started the process at the same time. Please Please Please read the comments and stay away from PPL you will live to regret ever picking them.
they will just keep asking for the same documents over and over even when they have confirmed they have what they need. One day the board will read the poor reviews any take action to sort out the rubbish service they provide. if I could give PPL negative stars I would.”
“PLEASE Do NOT use them. No integrity and no care at all. Had all the same issues as the entries below. Lost contracts, took money and did not start work on actions. Conveyancer on leave and no resources to cover our work. Said chased up with 3rd parties when not even requested the packs. When flagged as major issue their part did not care and still did not started the work when pack arrived.Managers dont call you back when you flag major issues on their side. We should have exchanged and completed today now tonight left homeless as we moved out of our main residence on 24 july (ppl nearly lost us our buyer when they did not work on contracts for new house sat in their inbox unopened for 6 weeks)and have been lodging in tents&hotels for last 3 weeks. Im disabled and have had recent hospital to come home today to no address and ppl not called back. We are now living in a tent with myself needing to be connected to a medical machine monitored. We should of been in our new house 31 july so already delayed but everything was scoped for completion today then last night some further enquiries on the buyers conveyancing side raised and they hadnt requested final mortgage statement or sorted what they said previously was completed. Please please everyone stay well clear. Do your research before signing up with any conveyancer. The distress my family have had by Premier property lawyers continuous failings is unbearable and we dont want others to go through the same ordeal.”
“13/08 - STILL NO CONTACT FROM THEIR COMPLAINTS DEPARTMENT. Received my financial letter today with costs. It is of course incorrect and shows things that have already been paid for. I tried to speak to my Conveyancer and surprise surprise he is on holiday for the rest of the week (No notice given prior. Incorrect fees letter sent AFTER he went on holiday though). I am trying to get through to Bhakti Jadav who said she would be available when he is on holiday. Her phone number just goes to a team number and I am STILL on hold after calling twice and no on hold for over 5mins. Why does the manage have no direct dial number? Of course she is NOT available as most aren't. Got through to another team member who seems confused about it all and I am on hold again. Of course, Aimee took a message and said she would pass it on. Last time this was promised it didn't happen!
10/08 - Today I was told that the searches are in and there was an issue. They have asked the sellers Conveyancer for documents that they already had which luckily, as I figured out what a mess they were at communications, stored on my computer and reminded them about. If I had not done this there would possibly have been yet more delays. I have asked them to do a FULL review of all documents and correspondence and to confirm by email that everything is OK as I am concerned about what else they have missed. Tried to call Bhakti Jadav, the manager on the phone number provided. Just found out that Bhakti is not available today, her manager has just got back from annual leave and will TRY to get back to me and the next level manager is also not available today.
07/08 - I was originally supposed to have completed my house move by Friday 14 August but due to delays and miscommunications with PPL it is now Friday 4 September and we are still missing a search that was due a week ago. Exchange has not been done and I do not know when it will be even though they agreed on today being the deadline date.
I am on my 3rd conveyancer now (One of them actually took 3 weeks holiday while working on my case and never bothered to tell me or update me, I only found out each time when I called to complain). I was told they do not assign another specific person to take responsibility for your case..they just expect someone else in the team to do it.
Of course, the Team is not checked to make sure they are doing these actions or if they are doing them correctly. They are not chased to make sure the actions are done unless you call to complain. They stick your actions in a queue and get to it when they can (Can take 2 days just for them to get back to you). They have informed me that they are short staffed but they still seem to be taking on cases
They tell you they are chasing time critical items but then you find out that they simply sent an email or made one phone call. They do not provide direct dial phone numbers and emails. They always seem to be unavailable when you chase them by the phone.
The earliest we will complete now is the first Friday in September but because they never bothered to update me with details they have been provided BEFORE they left for the weekend I do not know when they will receive the search that was due a full week ago and therefore when we can even exchange! I tried to call at 17:11 today to find out the status of the deadline and the phones had already done onto auto reply.
I spoke to the Survey provider. She gave me information that contradicted the information given by my Conveyancer. She tried to call him to deal with the issue and of course, his phone was unavailable!
I have put Bhakti Jadav as the Conveyancer as she is the manager involved with the 3 that I have currently had and she was the one that promised better updated details, more thorough chasing of outstanding items and exchange by Friday 7 Aug. Of course, on her emails she does no leave a direct email address to send to and you call her number and she is "Unavailable"”
“DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY, or Hunters Estate Agents who recommended them! I wish I had seen these reviews before 'choosing' them, as we are having all the same problems. Eway / Premier Property Lawyers (and Hunters) ...... you should all be deeply ashamed of yourselves and embarrassed by your incompetence and poor customer service!”
“DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY, or Hunters Estate Agents who recommended them! I wish I had seen these reviews before 'choosing' them, as we are having all the same problems. Eway / Premier Property Lawyers (and Hunters) ...... you should all be deeply ashamed of yourselves and embarrassed by your incompetence and poor customer service!”
“We initially instructed Premier Property Lawyers on the sale of our purchase back in October and were allocated Rob Whittle. Whilst acting on our behalf Rob didn't seem to know the answers to - or be prepared to research - some of the questions that we raised to him, he came across as very passive throughout our dealings and we ended up having to find out and research a lot of things ourselves that we would have expected to fall within his role.
One of the main issues that we faced was the need for indemnity insurance for an extension on the property we were selling. Rob was extremely unhelpful and even when presented with a quote from a company that were happy to provide cover, didn't pass information of this cover on to our buyer. After a painful few weeks getting nowhere with Rob, we contacted our buyer ourselves who appeared to be equally annoyed with the lack of communication from our solicitor. We were informed that her solicitor had made several requests for information/documents from Rob, many of which had gone unanswered.
With our Buyer pulling out due to information not being provided, we only found out a week later when we contacted our buyer directly. Rob at no point passed this information on to us.
With a new buyer found for our property and a new solicitor; Josh, handling the case, he was then furloughed. Whilst we completely understand the difficulties that COVID 19 has placed on businesses, when Josh was furloughed with our sale/purchase so close to completion, there was again no communication to advise that he had been furloughed and no other advisor taking ownership of our file.
We were having to make contact daily to find out what was happening with the case and what was needed from us. Every time I called there had been an update and at no point were these being passed on without us being the ones to make contact and ask for it. Again, we were having to be in direct contact with the buyer ourselves in order to know what was happening with the sale of our property.Seemingly, you were not making contact on the side of our purchase either as we were having constant messages from our seller asking us for updates.
Given how much we paid them to handle the cases, it seems absolutely ridiculous how much of the communication we had to do for ourselves.
With the exception of Josh, communication from the team has been absolutely unacceptable throughout our sale and purchase - contributing to us not only losing our first buyer but also almost losing the house we were buying and now being £2000 out of pocket for funds not returned to us.
After raising a complaint, we did get £250 compensation but it definitely doesn't make up for the 8 months of headaches caused by the company.”
