How to avoid being scammed by fraudulent solicitors

Hi all,

Below is a list of notes I've made for myself to hopefully minimise the risk of being caught out again by dodgy solicitors. In my particular case, the vendors solicitor was in fact a fraud who had copied the details of a ligitimate solicitor (who didn't have a website of their own), setup their own website (by plaigarising another) and used email (which there was no reference of on the SRA website) as the only way to successfully communicate with my conveyancing solicitor, and proceeded to steal the entire purchase price of the flat I thought I was buying (funds I might add I had borrowed from family and friends)!

I hope my tips help others. I am happy to add to it (by request/if I think of additional things).

DISCLAIMER: I take no liability if having followed my advice you still fall victim to fraud (or some other unfortunate mishap - including but not limited to a purchase falling through), these steps will hopefully minimise your risk, but they are unfortunately not perfect or 100% complete. Please be super cautious. By following any tips/advice in this thread you agree to not hold me responsible for any and all actions which may or may not occur/have occured as a result. See a professional legal adviser before following any of the tips/advice outlined in this thread - so you have no reason in future to sue me/anyone in this thread if you feel any of the tips/advice that have been given here have negatively affected you in some manner!

1.Your solicitor:
Ideally use a conveyancing solicitor (CS) who has been personally recommended to you from people you trust.
But even then, before appointing:

1. Ideally go with a local CS who you can drop by and visit if the need arises (it's easier to be ignored on the phone than it is in person)! You can find local conveyancing solicitors via the law society website (search by postcode via the 'find a solicitor' page: http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/find-a-solicitor - choose conveyancing residential)
2. You've heard this before: Buying a house is a huge thing, don't skimp - prioritise recommendations over price. Don't necessarily go with the cheapest, you have been warned!
3. Advice from the SRA is to "Find a solicitor who's a member of the Conveyancing Quality Scheme" - I don't know if this helps, but I thought I'd add it anyway (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b039rwck).
4. Ensure the CS is SRA regulated (get their SRA number)
5. Check the solicitors record via the SRA website ('Consumers', 'Check a solicitor's record') http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/solicitor-check.page
6. Read through any disciplinary findings in full
7. If the solicitor is 'trading as' something other then their official name, ask yourself why? Are they possibly trying to hide from negative reviews? This is just a thought but think about it.
8. Google the CS (including official name) for reviews.
9. Find out how the CS will communicate with you and if there will be any limited hours (our CS didn't take calls until after 11am and after 5pm their telephone system refused to accept new calls).

2.After appointing:

1. Insist CS gets the client bank account details which money will be paid into for the VS early on and insist they do a lawyerchecker check on it (£10 + VAT).
2. If VS sends you a 'search pack' ensure CS completely ignores any land registry titles contained within.
3. Do not exchange contracts unless the property is empty (if you want vacant possession).
4. This is especially important: if you have any conversation with your CS over the phone, summarise the conversation in an email so there is a record of it (ask your CS to correct anything which is inaccurate, if they don't then they are essentially confirming it). My CS was awful, she only ever communicated by telephone and never replied by email so I actually ended up installing an app on my phone to automatically record all calls, this helped me summarise any long/detailed phone calls.

3.In terms of the vendors solicitor (VS):

1. Insist the estate agent gives VS details to you as well as to your CS.
2. Check the VS record via the SRA website like you did for yours.
3. Confirm the contact details given match that on the SRA website (NOTE: just because it appears doesn't unfortunately guarantee much IMHO, but they should at least appear). If an email address is not listed (this happened to us) do at least the following:
4. If the VS email address is a free one (e.g. yahoo, hotmail, outlook, gmail etc) then I would suggest extreme caution and raise this with your CS. *alarm*
5. Ensure your CS speaks to the VS when your CS calls them (not via a call back - with what we've experienced we'd certainly be doing our own investigating on the VS ourselves - on the quiet).
6. If possible, go visit the VS (mystery shopper style).
7. Visit the VS's website (it will be www. the bit after the @ symbol of their email address), just because it may look legit doesn't mean it is, also, just because it's under construction doesn't mean it isn't legit. Look at the website all the same - you're doing this to see if anything doesn't fit right.
8. Copy elements of text from the VS's website and paste it into Google to see if it's been plagiarised from some other website (this was apparent in our case with the VS)
9. Do a whois search on the domain name to see when the website was setup ( http://www.nominet.org.uk/uk-domain-names/about-domain-names/domain-lookup-whois/whois-tool - look at registered on date). If it was setup recently maybe need to investigate this firm more (inform your CS). Also check the registrants address, this doesn't have to match the firms address however, if it doesn't again more investigating is required (inform your CS).
10. Put the 'official' (and trading if different) VS name into the SRA search box and check the scam warning. (If a result appears, however old, you need to inform your CS immediately and be on super high alert).
11. Google the VS address and contact numbers if another company name comes up... *alarm*
12. If anything doesn't feel right at all I'd also suggest calling neighbours of the VS and confirming the VS does still exist and finding out how long they've been there (call a few). Maybe even visit!
13. This deserves a second mention: have your CS do a http://www.lawyerchecker.co.uk check on the VS's bank account (where they want your funds transferred into. This check will tell you if the bank account in question has been used for conveyancing purposes in the past and when. If it comes back as 'no history of conveyancing transactions in this account' then *alarm* and DO NOT ALLOW YOUR CS TO TRANSFER YOUR FUNDS WITHOUT BEING 100% CERTAIN THIS IS A LEGIT SOLICITOR.

4.Misc

1. If completion fails due to problems on the vendors side (for whatever reason), DO NOT allow your CS to transfer your funds and place a hold on it (the most likely advice they will give to avoid you also being in breach of contract) - instead instruct your CS to inform the VS (also in writing) that you are 'ready, willing and able' to complete, however will not do so until all terms stated in the contract (of exchange) are met by the vendor (this should be sufficient enough to mitigate your risk of being in breach of contract - speak to your CS).
2. Avoid any and all contact with the vendor directly (that's not face-to-face with EA present) - it should always be via your CS or EA. In other words do not allow the vendor to be given your contact numbers/email. [updated]
3. Never communicate or interact with anyone other than your CS or Estate Agent (EA). Never interact with any third parties claiming to be representing the vendor.

I will also say that fraudsters use increasingly complex methods to go about stealing from the likes of you and me, so above all be super cautious. Okay that's all for now. Please feel free to comment and also to add anything I may have missed in the comments below. I will try and keep this top post updated (if I think a point deserves adding).

Thanks,

mi5tery