“I will try and keep this short and sweet.
Simply avoid Premier Property Lawyers, as most of the reviews say below they are beyond slow. Fortunately my conveyancer has been pretty good but my buyers conveyancer is simply the most inept solicitor I have come across over the last 10 years buying and selling houses.
If you use Premier Property Lawyers and get allocated “Dan/Daniel” run away! These guys sit on enquiries without doing anything with them, I’ve known chickens to sit on eggs for less time!
Anyway to keep this short just avoid this company! Even if Purplebricks recommend them simply avoid them at all costs!!”
“If you want solicitors that take so long to answer enquiries that your 3% Mortgage offer expires and you have to renew it at 6% , then Premier Properties are the ones for you! They will quite happily cost you thousands of pounds in the future due to their lack of urgency to get the job done.
I would not reccommend these to anyone if my life depended on it. It’s easy to look at the bad reviews and just think we are angry people and that it won’t happen to you, but trust me it will!
It’s not like they are cheap either, i would expect a poor service if i was paying around £1000 but they are charging us more than double that, which is not very ideal with the growing cost of living!
No chain on either end yet we still can’t purchase a property inside 6 months, and just to top it off they only reply to 1 out of every 10 emails, so we haven’t had a clue whats even been going on!
Honestly just look for a smaller company/independant solicitor that doesn’t take on too much work.”
“Currently going through their in-house complaints procedure before taking things further as they are totally incompetant!
Makes buying/selling houses ten times more stressful!!!”
“Completely useless lie after lie. A simple house sale first time buyer and me moving into partners house. Sold in march should of completed end of June still not completed and cost me a fortune. Will be lucky if done by end of December. They dont have a clue what they are doing. DO NOT USE THEM YOU WILL BE SORRY.”
“Poor customer service, we have been assigned to multiple solicitors, most of them incapable of doing their job. I would do everything to NOT recommend you. In particular Tracy Parker and Nolwazi Siziba. I hope the company would take serious actions against them as they are not been trained at all and caused delays and distress. The communication was poor if not existent and this was noted also by the other parties involved (we sold and bought and house). One of the worst experience in my life!”
“They were very helpful when we called to ask any questions however, I feel they could have had better communication with us and not waited for us to always call them. We are fairly new to the property ladder and needed slightly more guidance.”
“I could not fault this company. The service they provided was outstanding. I dealt with a gentleman called James Corbett & he was thorough, Professional & informative. I would highly recommend”
“Absolute joke ! 7 months down the line and four days away from completion they ask for the management pack ( should be asked for at the beginning ) so now I’m stuck in a house surrounded my boxes and my mortgage expires the day after the so completion day ! Save yourself a whole load of money and heartache ! They haven’t got a clue ! AVOID ! Should not be allowed to play Russian roulette with peoples futures ! Disgrace”
“Not sure whether to laugh or cry at these absolute jokers. They really are an incredibly inept, incompetent firm with no human touch. They've held our chain up for months, everybody is waiting on premier property lawyers. I have the unfortunate displeasure of having to work directly with Premier Property Lawyers (Sold to us via Strike Conveyancing).
9 months into an unchained sale, they're still fumbling over their own mistakes and asking repeats of questions covered months ago. They're completely useless and I cannot believe the regulators and banks trust this company to handle properties and money. Our chain is on the brink of collapsing due to this wretched firm and despite this being stressed to them again and again - they simply do not care.
I've never worked with a company as bad as the simplify group / premier property lawyers, they are truly awful. They have not got a clue what they're doing hence why their process takes intolerable and unacceptable lengths of time. Our third parties are made up of a management company, telford homes and a housing associations' legal team - none of them can believe PPL are still tripping over their own incompetence after this many months.
We have proposed to move to completion 5 times now, each time PPL have failed to comply and have subsequently raised pointless or repeated enquiries that serve no legal or lender benefit. We find ourselves answering enquiries already answered months ago.
They cannot even open an email without failing to read the whole thing, repeatedly saying they're waiting on other people however they then realised they missed wording or attachments in emails sat in their inbox.
Please never use this company, they're an absolute shambles.”
“Avoid at all costs! Incompetent and a complete waste of time. They use under qualified solicitors for cheap until the final stage of completion, to which the under qualified haven’t had the correct training and records are incorrect and the process of buying a house has to start all over again.
DO NOT USE.
Although reading the rest of these reviews, I’m not the first to have a massive complaint against them.”
“My chain has just collapsed after 7 months due to this firm. Took them 7 months to realise that the last enquiry does not satisfy the mortgage lender. House is back on the market - back to square one. Feel like I’ve wasted 7 months of my life due to this stupid solicitor. Worst experience and time of my life”
“Currently trying to purchase a property for which these cowboys are acting on behalf of the vendors. We had a deadline to exchange three weeks ago.
After 20 weeks they suddenly tell the vendors they have failed identity checks due to a marriage certificate. Once that is sorted they then decide they are not happy with their proof of funds for their purchase (despite having initial proof 16 weeks ago).
Our deal is going to fall through tomorrow even though they promised the estate agent we would be exchanging 3 days ago.
Not returning calls/emails to either the estate agent, their own client or our own solicitor”
“Do not use this firm!! They are not able to conduct property conveyancing. My buyer is using this firm. My solicitor has responded to all their queries several weeks ago. Yet they keep asking the same questions! He has emailed all information again, yet they are UNABLE to even read an email. I would suggest nobody ever uses this firm. Your sale will NOT proceed.”
“Avoid at all costs. PPL's incompetence has caused my elderly grandmother months of anxiety and delayed her moving to the retirement property she needs.”
“I am 5 months in with a solicitor who is completely snowed under - too many cases is my guess and too many people trying to complete on mortgage offers expiring - it isn't that she doesn't know what she is doing... just not enough time in the day. Getting voicemails at 12:30 am is admirable but tells me she will be very tired working on my house deal.
However big problems for me are as follows:
They are a digital company so if they can't tick a box you get no progress - there is no one of seniority monitoring what is really important and what is noise on searches and findings
You can literally never get hold of anyone who can actually help you - the people who answer the phone are clueless and can never get back to you with an answer. They just make a note they spoke to you.
Basically - buyer be warned - you go digital - you get digital which is great (but not very efficient in the real world )
This is not just my opinion but several people I have spoken to”
“Please do not use this firm. The sheer incompetence is appalling. Our Buyers have been using this firm. We are unable to get past the enquiry stage as they continually ask the same questions. Despite receiving the answers (several times) they continue with this farce. We question the professionalism and qualifications they hold. They seem completely incapable of reading e mails, responding to them and allowing the sale to progress. They should not be allowed to operate in this way. Escalating to Senior members of staff also receives the same appalling outcome. Please question why Agents are continuing to recommend them when they cannot manage to complete a simple exchange. Sadly we fear it is too late for us to rectify their abysmal service. Please research the company before you proceed. I look forward to hearing a response from Premier.”
“Please if you are moving house do not touch this company- Premiere Property Lawyers. They are absolutely incompetent. Our house move is going to collapse and we will lose our mortgage offer. Do not touch them - have never heard of such an incompetent outfit.
@PremPropLawyers”
“You probably referred to them by estate agent BUT AVOID THIS FIRM AS PLAGUE! I got scammed by 3rd world street vendor; ripped off by backstreet garage, but this is my worst consumer experience. When your conveyancing start go wrong, to complain/escalate to their senior management WILL NOT WORK 'cos this is a corrupted firm as a whole,an unethical business model shouldn't exist, rather than you suffer from negligence of particular employee/s.
They are part of Simplify, claim as biggest conveyancing/property service in UK, they trade under many names, some source say 62. They are contractor used by Purplebricks and Strike, also as My Home Move. In 2021“Purplebricks apologises over conveyancing problem for customers” under pressure of Council for Licensed Conveyancers. They pay agents large Referral to get your business, but don’t worry you pay off all once you onboard. They are overcommitted n profit on prioritising cases and clients. Below is my detailed suffering, their negligence and delay in the sale of my property cause direct financial loss and distress of life, n now I can no longer afford my house move at this soaring interest rate,which should not happen if they performed their obligations. My conveyancer: CHLOE KING, Hartwell Team.
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It started since the issue of ground rent doubling raised by buyer at end of May, a complete 2-month's wasted without any progress, all I got told is“waiting for response”. The fact is you didn’t even manage to reach freeholder or their rightful representative for this matter. Or it wouldn’t be me to notice freeholder’s voluntary offer to fix ground rent on 12 Jul.
After I forwarded you freeholders offer, which also include contribution toward my legal cost. I made numerous enquiries of how to proceed, such as on 21 Jul;23 Aug;7 Sept;6 Oct. But never get the answer. Part of your responsibility but you requested buyer solicitor to draft deed of variation to the managing agent, at my cost of £300. This is without my acknowledgement! This deed was later sent to managing agent for review, I was also charged of £130 for it. Freeholder now responded: “The deed of variation was offered by Landlord as per agreement...Therefore,managing agent cannot grant the deed… The deed you have entered into does not include the Landlord as a party and is therefore incorrect” and refused to cover me any cost. That was 26 Oct, since then you have not responded to either party, nor any attempt to fix your mistake.
Further delay between 13/09 and 20/09 at close of exchange, made by Chloe KIng's negligence.While she insisted that my payment of review of deed is not received. After my hrs over phone with bank, followed by days investigation, my bank concluded the transfer has no fault, n had already completed. Then I had no choice but to make another payment in order to move on. It was eventually clarified during phone call with Chloe King on 07/10 that she couldn’t locate the payment ‘cos she was looking at wrong ref, while screenshot of transfer provided to her include payment ref on 13 Sept.
At date of completion,Chloe King ask"I am on hold to (your lender) trying to get a final redemption figure calculated for today but am struggling…” despite I sent at least 2 notice I've paid off mortgage n in full title of property, on 26 Jul;6 Oct,ALL ignored. Again like many other day in past I had to give up work,spent whole morning over phone to get my previous lender to provide her confirmation/evidence of redemption.
Despite all I was forced pay expedition fee £175 to completion Monday 10th Oct, or you would do by Friday.Buyers Mortgage offer expiring,sale'd fall through by then. You were fully aware the deadline long before,urged over and over.
Apportionment statement drafted/executed without my acknowledgement/consent.Till I was charged n noticed:apart from service charge/ground rent,my reserve fund in advance £806.64 was wrongly included in. Chloe King apologise over the phone on 14 Oct,admit error was due to her rush to exchange, but later after completion she announce:“will not look to get involved in this”!?her exact words on 20 Oct.
At 2nd half of sale,very common my emails don’t get replied, my calls no answered. All other parties experienced/complained same: Buyer wrote on 2 Sep"Main reason was your solicitors were not really communicating with my solicitors on almost anything”; Freeholder wrote on 25 Oct“I've tried to call your solicitor to discuss the case but have found it impossible get through to Chloe King. She has still not responded to my letter”.The conveyancing became self catering,whatever buyer requested, they’d notice me,I'd work between,anything I could to provide/meet demand.I cant recall how many times had to give up work/life commitments to put myself in this distress.
Other negligences include:
Buyer’s solicitors sent you enquiry if you agree with their fee of drawing deed variation after you requested, in mid of July, followed by few of reminders. But no response until 10th of August;
Managing agent emailed you the property sale pack on 28th of July, which you mean to forward to buyer, but again complete 3 weeks inaction, until I had to requested it from Managing agent myself on 18th of August, and forwarded to the buyer;
Managing agent requested you their fee of review of deed of variation on 29th of June, but just couldn’t get your reply. Till to the point that I contacted Managing agent to find out what’s stuck, while all the time I was lied “we’re waiting for response”. That was already 5th of September, merely a month away from deadline. All these can be verified by clear timeline of emails and communication.”
