Ark Property Solicitors

Indierockhead

RE: ARC PROPERTY SOLICITORS
Their service was awful. Our property should have took around 7 weeks to complete. It actually took a few days short of 4 months to complete! After two months of hearing nothing we phoned up to find out how it was progressing and we were told the solicitor dealing with it was too busy to deal with it and they would have to put another one on it. Two months of them sitting on the paperwork and no progress. Unbelievable. After the sale went through we were then left a service charge debt of 150 pounds from the previous owner which ARC had not bothered to check for. Numerous calls were then made to the solicitor in charge; (Mathew Jowett). He ignored every one and never returned any. A complaint was made to the part owner; (Raj Ali), who promised a reply within 28 days; he never did. A complaint was then sent to the manager (Katie Allport), who promised a reply within 14 days; she never did. As a last resort I have now had to involve the Legal Ombudsman who are now in the process of investigating this company, in the meantime I have now owned this property for over 8 months and I am still owed this 150 pounds from them. They have also lost paperwork I have sent to them previously, which for a firm of UK solicitors is very worrying. Buying or selling houses is a very stressful time and you do not want to pile more misery on to your purchase by involving this company. The only thing I can say in this company's defence; (a very small consolation), is that their price was good.

aznlayer

Arc are currently 'dealing' with my purchase and are the worse company I have ever dealt with, and I honestly mean that! I am legally qualified and have had training on conveyancing however they have still managed to confuse me, very unhelpful, never keep me updated and incredibly slow.

My advice is please do not use them – buying/selling house is very stressful and you NEED a good solicitor to help you – it will be money well spent. AVOID this company.

YorkshireNailTech

I am currently trying to purchase a property with Arc solicitors! They were the cheapest and liked that i could do all the paperwork via email as i am in West Yorkshire they are in North Yorkshire.

They haven't currently done a single thing BECAUSE..they asked for 6months of deposits that the payment is coming from...ok i gave them it.

No! They wanted proof of deposit..so why didn't they say that in the first place? Had to pay bank £5 and wait 2 weeks for statements..sent the statements....

They want a letter for each amount of money that is not from our wage from whoever has given us it.

FOR GOD SAKE christmas has just gone and my birthday was 2 weeks ago!!!!!

Then i was told my bank the vendors estate agents and 2 other solicitors that they shouldn't be asking for my bank statements or proof of deposit.

Are there any other buyers who have been asked for this info from Arc? I've just emailed her AGAIN telling her how unhappy i am and I am contacting ramsdens who the estate agents have recommended for £200 more..

Arc said we would be moving into our house a month today...but they haven't done anything!!

Oh did i mention they asked for £200 upfront to cover the searches..even though its no completion no fee and payment upon completion! hmm

stoddy72

Saw the thread on this and really felt that i had to post on this subject and get the message out there. This company are the absolute WORST solicitors i have ever had to deal with and had a dreadful experience when trying to purchase a property last year. Emails/phonecalls were NEVER ever returned and the stress of not having a clue whether i would be moving at the appointed time was horrendous. In fact two days before i was supposed to be moving, i still had not signed anything, and was completely unaware whether i would actually have anywhere to live! Additionally, extra charges were added to my conveyancing of which i had no prior knowledge - mainly because the company took it upon themselves to decide that i would be willing to agree to their requests !

Yes they are cheap, but they do not have a clue about customer service and are happy to take your money whilst keeping you in the dark about everything. Following the conveyancing which did eventually go through i complained to the company, and although i was initially fobbed off, i did receive a monetary settlement which made me feel slightly better about the diabolical treatment i received. Six months on i'm just glad i don't have to deal with them again and would urge anyone to think very carefully before hiring them.

If you want an easy life, do NOT use this bunch of charlatans !!!

Hartington

I can only reiterate what most others have said on this thread, the service we've received from Arc has been shockingly bad. I wish we had gone for a local solicitor and paid the extra few hundred quid. Our situation should be the simplest of all, we're not selling a property and our vendors aren't buying anything. It's taken us 4 months to get to a point of exchange and that's with almost daily emails and phone calls chasing them for progress. NEVER have we received communication from them unless one of us has chased for it. They are rude on the phone and as far as possible they won't let you talk to your actual solicitor. I've spoken to ours once during the whole process and that was because he called me after my numerous emails and vmails. Every time i ring i'm told he's busy or out of the office. I'm afraid the legal jargon emails i get sent mean nothing - i'm not a lawyer after all! - so it would have helped to speak to someone in laymans terms about things.
Anyway, i could add much much more on this but i would just encourage anyone thinking of going with Arc to reconsider. Seriously think about it. The other posts i've read on here are so similar to our story and i now know 1st hand exactly what everyone else has been talking about!

Littlemadam83

Hmmm, I agree with the not being able to speak to the actual person.

Maybe it is luck of the draw with who you get because I have found the vendors solicitors to be the nightmare!

I have exchanged, and have been so happy with the service I have recieved. She has always answered my emails and helped when i have needed it.

I hope they are reading this to maybe change some of their ways and take a leaf out of my ladies book as she was awesome!

x

Pkm123

Hi

Unfortunately I did not come across this website when we appointed Arc but I wish I had done so because everything posted here about their incompetance is true.

I have now opened a case with the law society as these people cannot be allowed to continue with their lack of service. The case reference is 201104601 and it would be useful for all of those who have had a grievance with this firm to contact the ombudsmen on 0300 555 0333, so that as a collective body of complainants our voice will be heard and this firm will be made to answer for its inadeqacies in customer service and hopefully no one else will have to go through what we have had to suffer.

Littlemadam83

Hey PKM

What exactly happened with them?

I completed with them not long ago. The lady I had was awesome, all was going smoothly. She did ask for proof of deposit, and as we were paying money into my dads account (just for ease really) she needed proof that we had been paying the money in. Which was fair enough as we sent the information over.

She however left and moved into a different department. Our case got passed to someone at the very last minute, 3 days before completion. This woman was incredibly helpful, but, the stress that was involved to get them the deposit. I pestered them for two weeks to have the details to send the deposit money over. I was ignored by the team leader, and told someone would be in touch with me shortly.

This came, we transferred the money by BACS, only to realise there was no way they were going to get the money in time. So my dad had to pay them twice, and do a CHAPS, he had had a massive op, and had to walk about 6 miles to ensure the money got there in time, or we would have been fined heavily.

I truely think this isn't a regular occurence and the staff I dealt with were very helpful, it was just the handover that wasn't.

Pkm123

Hi there,

We have had 2 case handlers both of whom have gone long term sick.

They never reply to e-mails and won't phone you back.

They have had our case for over 12 weeks and we have missed 1 deadline.

They tell me they are extremely busy but never anything gets done unless you jump up and down.

I have written to the 3 owners and still no response.

I have now lost patience with them.

In my business if I operated this way I would be out of business

chesneyoctopus

Littlemadam83 wrote: »

Hey PKM

What exactly happened with them?

I completed with them not long ago. The lady I had was awesome, all was going smoothly. She did ask for proof of deposit, and as we were paying money into my dads account (just for ease really) she needed proof that we had been paying the money in. Which was fair enough as we sent the information over.

She however left and moved into a different department. Our case got passed to someone at the very last minute, 3 days before completion. This woman was incredibly helpful, but, the stress that was involved to get them the deposit. I pestered them for two weeks to have the details to send the deposit money over. I was ignored by the team leader, and told someone would be in touch with me shortly.

This came, we transferred the money by BACS, only to realise there was no way they were going to get the money in time. So my dad had to pay them twice, and do a CHAPS, he had had a massive op, and had to walk about 6 miles to ensure the money got there in time, or we would have been fined heavily.

I truely think this isn't a regular occurence and the staff I dealt with were very helpful, it was just the handover that wasn't.

Hi Littlemadam83,

I think that your experience at completion sounds dreadful! Asking your father to walk that distance, because they did not tell you the difference between CHAPS and BACS payments. I would not be happy if this had happened to me.