how do i complain?

sunflower_2

the solicitor i chose to deal with my house sale is infuriating me!

he has not once contacted me - I have had to do all the running.
he has told blatant lies about my partner not providing the correct information when I myself sent the info off well in time.

its been almost 3 months and there is no chain. he is just telling lie after lie

when asking for a completion date, he said he wouldnt arrange it without full payment off his fees (but tried to say it was the lender needing confirmation that all fees had been paid).

i reluctantly paid the £500 a week ago today (had already paid £200 apx 3 months ago for searches etc) and he is still stalling and wont return my calls.

now i am in a no win situation - because i have paid him and have got nothing in return.

having checked the contract - it says his fee is payable at least 24 hours prior to completion.

he refused to even arrange a completion date until i had paid ???

how can i complain about this? (obviously once its all gone through)

cheers

Bossyboots

When you first instructed your solicitor you would have received a "client care letter" or this might have been called retainer letter or something along those lines. On that letter, it will tell you who the complaints handling partner in the firm is. You need to contact that person and tell them of the difficulties you are having. If you cannot get to speak to them tomorrow, insist on speaking to another partner, failing that another fee earner but do not hang up until someone has taken details of your complaint.

Failing this, you have other remedies but you have to do the above first before you can instigate a complaint any higher.

rozeepozee

A few more suggestions:

Once you have found out who you need to complain to, put your complaint in writing and specify exactly what it is you want them to do in order to feel satisfied, e.g. take some specific action, refund your fee or part of it, compensation...? Can you quantify what you have lost, if anything, financially? If so, state this in the letter.

If your complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction, you can complain to the Law Society, the solicitors regulating body, see: http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/choosingandusing/redressscheme.law

Hope this helps

Bossyboots

rozeepozee wrote:

A few more suggestions:

Once you have found out who you need to complain to, put your complaint in writing and specify exactly what it is you want them to do in order to feel satisfied, e.g. take some specific action, refund your fee or part of it, compensation...? Can you quantify what you have lost, if anything, financially? If so, state this in the letter.

If your complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction, you can complain to the Law Society, the solicitors regulating body, see: http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/choosingandusing/redressscheme.law

Hope this helps

The trouble with this is that it is rather more urgent that correspondence will allow, unless the OP can hand deliver it. At this stage the aim seems to be to get the job done. A formal written complaint about service, setting out what you have put, is definitely something that should be done later.

I wonder whether the solicitor (not making excuses) is simply bombarded with more work than they can cope with while being under pressure to bring in costs.

rozeepozee

I agree with your comments entirely BB - and it's always better to resolve a complaint rather than have to escalate it. In my experience, however, the more senior lawyers in the office might not know about the problem so if it's put in writing and sent to someone responsible for dealing with complaints it might be dealt with rather than the case worker fobbing the OP off.

Bossyboots

I find that giving a partner, and most particularly the senior partner, a kick up the backside gets results.

I have just had a problem with the solicitor handling my PI claim who does not keep me in touch with what he is doing. I e-mailed him with a copy to the partner responsible and had a telephone call and an answer to my query within five minutes.

I have also had to chase up some unpaid bills from solicitors and speaking to a partner, over the head of the fee earner, ellicits far more cheques in the post the next day than anything else.

I certainly wouldn't expect the OP to raise this again with the fee earner, but to go over his head to a more senior member of staff.

hazeyj

On the other hand you could get a new solicitor as I did recently after 4 montsh of not getting anywhere. Why dont you call the Law Society to see what advice they can give?

Bossyboots

hazeyj wrote:

On the other hand you could get a new solicitor as I did recently after 4 montsh of not getting anywhere. Why dont you call the Law Society to see what advice they can give?

But the OP has paid the fees. This would mean finding a second set of fees while battlilng to get the first back and you can bet that wouldn't be in full.

hazeyj

I threatened the crap sols with reporting them to the law society and walked away with no fees to pay even though my bill had gone to £1,500 because they had taken so long to do any work!. Its worth calling them and complaining formally. I have never heard of sols taking fees up front for house purchases. It all gets sorted out on and completon day doesnt it and the fees are accounted for in the completion statement?
Good luck your sols sound even worse than mine were.

sunflower_2

thanks for all the replies

it eventually went through - and he had the nerve to send a letter wishing me luck in new home !

i will be drafting my letter of complaint to the partner as mentioned above and will take it from there.

there no lies another prob - the money from sale of my house is being held by solicitors as they havent received a correct redemption figure from the mortgage company !?!
do these people not want their money?
they seem to be dragging their heels and its me that is suffering as i need my money

am going to start new post on this to see if it triggers any help

thanks again

Bossyboots

I am the only one to reply so far and it might not be want you want to hear.

Basically, if the mortgage has not been redeemed the buyers cannot register ownership and you are in breach of contract. You need to push them to give this figure and warn them that you will hold them responsible if you buyers pursue you for breach because the mortgage was not redeemed.

I think your solicitor is party to this breach as well as he should never have completed without all the paperwork in place. I would add that to your complaint.