“Absolutely hopeless. Disorganised, poor communication and at times plain dishonesty. Our buyer pulled out a month ago and we are still waiting for PPL to inform us. Phone calls and e-mails not returned for weeks on end, forms that were supposedly checked sent back months later for corrections and the leasehold documents that we had paid a fee to release were never forwarded on.
Very disappointing and a level of stress I wouldn't wish on anyone.”
“Do not use them! There delays cost us £10,000+. We only 3 people in our chain, all freehold properties and they have still managed to make all involved miss the stamp duty deadline (completion by June 30th). Even though they were instructed at the beginning of April!
They did nothing with the case for month and half after being instructed then their search processes and enquiries were shambolic. Asking for non industry standard fee to speed up the process. They were also obstructive when dealing with the other parties.
After speaking to some accredited property solicitors it seems they have a bad reputation within the industry and no one ever uses them twice. As most get stung the 1st time.
If anyone in your chain uses them it could compromise the whole thing. Beware!”
“**** Update the process gets no better...my house was sold over a week ago and have not received the money for the sale of my property , or been able to get hold of anyone by phone or email.....so I have no house or money. This is appalling ***
Like the majority of larger companies they have an online portal where you complete your forms online and upload your documents, which is easy enough.
But that doesn't then stop you getting emails and phone calls saying you have not completed your forms...and you have x number of outstanding tasks, even though you have completed everything..not a great start.
The second is don't expect to speak to anyone when you try and call them, and don't expect a phone call back either. If you are lucky enough to get through to someone the answer will be, sorry you will need to speak to your representative to answer that question and guess what they never answer!
Premier Property Lawyers have added stress into selling a property, due to poor communications.
Used as part of Purple Bricks, who were great.
Advice for Purple Bricks, get rid of Premier Property Lawyers and for anyone else , I would highly recommend you do not choose Premier Property Lawyers”
“Absolutely useless. Shocking in fact. I waited 5 weeks thinking that things were moving, when in fact they had done absolutely nothing at all! I’ve made endless calls only to be given misinformation and fobbed off with false times; it’s always the same answer ‘it could take another month’ this has been going on for 3 months and I’m still no nearer, in fact I’ve only just been told that I need to request permission to live at my chosen property when, obviously that should have been done 3 months ago. If they decline my request now I’ve wasted mine and my buyer’s time. BEWARE they don’t know what they’re doing and they don’t care about the customer!”
“They keep asking me for documents they have already returned to me by recoded delivery. The last phone call I had they said completion would take between 17 and 34 weeks Wtf?”
“This company has been recommended by Purple Bricks to represent the buyer in the sale of my partner’s property. We are moving in together and are currently on the verge of losing our purchase which is ready for completion but we can’t proceed until this sale is complete first. My partner has sent all final requested documentation through a week ago and asked for a completion date. This company is now ignoring calls and emails from my partner’s conveyancer, from Purple Bricks, and also from their client who is also desperate to complete on this purchase. All we are waiting for is a date to be agreed, but they seem to have disappeared into thin air, and the sellers of the property we are supposed to be purchasing are getting edgy because we can’t give them a date. If you’re looking for a conveyancer who actually works for their money, then I’d avoid these at all costs!!”
“Avoid at all costs.
I have just completed on the sale of our house and the purchase of our new house and I can honestly say that dealing with Premier Property Lawyers has made it the most stressful process of my life.
Initially, our conveyancer explained that things would take longer than normal due to the COVID pandemic, this I understand and have no issue with, but he seemed disinterested from the outset and was very negative about getting anything done quickly. We went with them anyway due to the purple bricks option to postpone their payment until after sale if you used Premier.
Throughout the process, we started to notice that things didn’t quite seem right. We were sending numerous emails that weren’t being replied to, if we emailed through two or three questions then on the times he did reply he would only reply to the first question, ignoring the rest. This led to more emails being sent and us getting frustrated.
This carried on throughout the whole process, it was a horrible, stressful process from start to finish.
We also found that mistakes were made all the way through, some of these only came to light towards the end causing a delay in exchange. A few of these mistakes are as follows;
My partner was a first time buyer and had a LISA, I was not and was selling my first house so couldn’t have a LIsA. We told our conveyancer about this right at the start, he did nothing about sorting it. We had to contact the LISA company and start the process of releasing the funds. In the end, we found out that our conveyancer hadn’t even sent off the paperwork and had ignored their emails months ago. We found this out three days before were hoping to complete, leading to some very stressful phone calls and a mad rush to try and get the funds released on time.
Time and time again I was asked to complete a LISA declaration, the first line of which states “I confirm I am a first time buyer.” Clearly I was not but my conveyancer couldn’t understand that It wasn’t my account...
When our contracts first came through, the contracts for the new house were in one name instead of both. When we rang to see what had happened we were told we must had done the starter forms wrong, this wasn’t the case and the mistake was solely on their part. We never received any apology. The lady we spoke to on this occasion (our conveyancer was off on leave without mentioning it to us) was very rude and dismissive saying this must be our fault without even looking at the file.
Enquiries that were sent to our vendors took 6 and a half weeks to come back, and these were simple enquiries. Whilst I appreciate this isn’t our solicitors fault, he only ever chased up the enquiries when we asked him to, never did he email them off his own back.
In the end, I was in contact with my buyers, and the estate agents that we were buying from. When my solicitor would contact me to say “we are still waiting their replies” I felt like I was giving him more of an update as to what was happening! Our estate agents were a god send in putting pressure on their solicitors and I genuinely feel that if it was left to our solicitor, then god knows when we would have moved.
Thankful, our solicitor went off a week before we eventually completed and a female called Sabine took over. She was extremely helpful and apologetic for everything that happened, she seemed to genuinely care and she really did get us over the finish line. If we had had her from the outset I feel like this would have been a very different review.
In the end, we moved in. But this was around 6 weeks later than we wanted. We only found out on the Friday that we were moving on the Monday. Premier were a nightmare to deal with, at times we were ready to pull out because we just didn’t want the stress.
I will never use Premier Property Lawyers again, they were rude, horrendous customer service and sloppy work. There are so many better firms out there and I would strongly advise you to keep on searching.”
“They kept untying back completion because of missing documents that they had already received nearly lost me the sale of my house and some searches which should have been done in the initial searches they waited till near completion. Totally and utterly disgusting”
“since 2 months my case is with them, already lost a 1 buyer because each time I tried to call the conveyancer is not available, unable to leave voicemail, unable to get any advice. Their service is below any expectation. Strongly advice to avoid. Update- 3 days after leaving this review all my sale files has disappeared of their system, discovered after phone call from estate agent. They clearly don't know what they're doing”
“Avoid at all costs. They are acting on behalf of my buyer and they are by far the worst service you can ever use. They don't respond to emails, every time my solicitor calls they get a different answer. They don't understand the process. I started the process in first of February and till now, we haven't exchanged yet and there is no chain.”
“Terrible law firm. Avoid at all costs. Negligent, unresponsive and lawyers that are completely incompetent. My partner had them stall his property purchase for over 5 months with Lola acting for him who is honestly the worst lawyer we’ve encountered, for them to tell us 5 months into a lease extension that they cannot act for him. Honestly the worst experience. AVOID.”
“A absolute waste of time film avoid unless you want lots of stress from them losing things or saying they didnt recieve it and you having to chase everything up and do they work for them.It took nearly a year to settle everything and then they didnt release the money i had to tell them a aweful firm.”
“AVOID AVOID AVOID!!!! I wasn't using them but the buyer of my flat was. The entire process ended up taking 8 months due to their sheer incompetence and inability to understand the urgency of matters. The onward purchase of my house was very nearly derailed thanks to them. Point blank refused to reply to emails from my solicitors for several weeks and when they did they lied about having not received anything from them (I know exactly when they received the information as my solicitor cc'ed me in to all emails to them). Certainly don't appoint them and think very carefully before accepting an offer from a buyer that has instructed them. I will be selling another house in the next few months and will be refusing offers from any potential buyer that has PPL anywhere in the chain. Disgraceful firm. No other professional I dealt with had a single good word to say about them. I'm guessing they're cheap but whatever deal they offer you, it isn't worth it trust me!!!”
“What a shower of sh*te
Month after month of poor communication, no reason for the delay just incompetent so called professional people who continue to ask for the same piece of information and when it’s supplied they ask for it again.
I will never sell to anyone using this outfit again”
“We purchased our house in late 2019 with the sale finalising in early 2020. During the process our conveyancer Victoria Armstrong provid d an fairly average service. Unfortunately our marriage certificate (which was signed for and received by the company) has been lost in the process of returning it. Premier Property Lawyers accept no responsibility for this and state that it is a Royal Mail problem and that I should raise it with Royal Mail. I am unable to raise any complaint with Royal Mail as Premier Property Lawyers are their customer not myself. Premier property lawyers have provided me a tracking number and a document that has been altered by hand as proof of postage (even without the document being altered by hand it doesn’t actually prove postage) and over 12 months later Premier Property Lawyers refuse to rectify their mishh to Lenin losing the certificate. I have been offered a replacement certificate paid for by Premier Property Lawyers on numerous occasions and am yet to receive one.... AVOID USING THIS APPALLING COMPANY!!!”
“Utterly awful company. Ridiculously slow, never answer the phones quickly, never ever reply to emails (Ive had an email to cancel their services in their system for 14 days now and still no response, but they still keep spamming me with their eway appointment requests). 3 phone calls and 8 emails so far to get them to remove my data and stop harassing me. Avoid.”
“I used Purplebricks for my sale, I didn’t have a solicitor to instruct so I went with their recommendation to use Premier Property Lawyers. I am selling a shared-ownership flat so I knew it would be more complicated. I agreed the sale in December 2020. I signed up with PPL and I was given an estimated completion date of 28/02/21 - 14/03/21. The named lawyer changed twice in the first 2 weeks. As I write this review on the 27th April I am still waiting for completion. I am not in a position to purchase another property and I am planning to rent. I need a completion date in order to find a place to live. I have already lost 2 suitable properties due the delays by PPL. I have found the customer service from PPL appalling! My leasehold property required my solicitor to obtain a Management Pack from the Management company. This took 8 weeks due to errors made by my named solicitor or one of her staff. I tried to make a complaint to a manager after obtaining their direct email. I received no acknowledgment or reply to my concerns. Please, if you want your property transaction to run smoothly, do not use this company! I rue the day I instructed Premier Property Lawyers.”
“ID department (?!) insists on using an app. Thirdfort, that is rubbish. This caused unnecessary delays, especially as no problem was raised until just before exchange, ten weeks after first using it. Conveyancers are not too bad, except they NEVER answer the phone and sometimes take days to respond to emails if at all.”
