Anyone used Premier Property Lawyers?

sja1980

PREMIER PROPERTY LAWYERS

Everything's premier but the service!

I used them to buy two properties. I found them obstructive, unhelpful, bad at communicating anything, and at points, bordering on negligent.

We nearly lost one of the properties because at the point of drawing down funds on the mortgage, the lendor refused to release any money as the contract, the deeds and the mortgage offer all had different variations of the address (35b versus first floor flat etc). This should have been spotted at the very start and rectified before that.

Getting information from them was like getting blood from a stone. Nothing is offered and whilst they answer the specific question you may have asked, you have to ask everything. they offer up nothing else.

Each time the sellers answered the list of queries, they suddenly had more queries which irritated the other side to the point that they nearly withdrew from the sale .

They have a good slick website that shows all the documents which is a positive, but aside from that they are nothing but trained monkeys who process forms and send out stock emails. If you actually want someone to add any value to the process I would use a solicitor.

I would never use them again.

FTB129

I havent had any issues with them up until now! Been waiting for a call back from ''my'' conveyancer and chased 2x and NO REPLY - so frustrating all i want is an update!!!!!

ging84

I used them for my sale a few years ago, it wasn't the quickest sale but there were a lot of complications, i have no complaints, they were reasonably expensive, but i was happy to pay for the convenience of the estate agent deal with the whole thing, because at the time i was not in a position to have much involvement.

ethank

Our buyer used them. It took us 78 days to exchange with just the sale and us purchasing! It took them 1 month just to raise the buyer's enquiries.

JMFD

I used them with 0 problems I was a ftb, but there was a long chain (which entirely collapsed at one point) with issues all the way throughout. They kept me up to date at ll times, sorted out the exchange date I wanted.

Price was fixed at the outset through my estate agent, and they did a lot of chasing on our behalf, always contacting me at a designated time.

MORE_DASH_THAN_CASH

Selling our house to a guy using Premier. It is a nightmare, first thing was they refused to accept my husbands signature saying it had been printed onto the document( with a laser printer?) and he must sign all docs again. Strange that as he has been signing like that for nearly 50 years! Then they wanted my two sons aged 22 and 11 to sign docs to say that they would be moving out with us..... well I wouldnt leave an 11 year old behind would I ? One day they have a document, the next they havent and this has been going on for 2 months. I have worked in the financial services industry for 15+ years and my husband in financial and legal services for over 30 and we have never seen anything like it.
They are incompetent and whatever they charge couldnt be cheap enough! My solicitor says that he has had sales fall through because of Premiers' poor service and I am praying that my purchase of a new build goes through.

lloydthetwiglet

Hi, me and my partner are FTB and looking to make our first steps on the property ladder. Being complete novices I have read through a few posts on here for some research and decided to give London and Country Mortgages a call for some free advice. I was recommended Premier Property Lawyers and was sent a few forms to fill in by email which I haven't yet done. I always like to research a company before going through with anything and have ended up here. I have to say there seems to be alot more negative reviews than positive and being FTB has really worried us about using them. I also received an email regarding fees which I thought seemed expensive although not being able to compare them with any other companies makes it hard to know if its a bad price or not, also all the hidden charges in the small print is very unsettling. Can anyone here advise on the fees? Based on a £160,000 property.

Lawyer's Fees:
Legal fee - 460.00
Mortgage fee - 75.00
Stamp Duty Land Tax fee - 55.00

Additional Costs:
Search Pack - 265.00
Land Registry fee -190.00
Stamp Duty Land Tax -1600.00
Land Registry Searches - 20.00

VAT on Lawyer's Fees and
Searches - 175.00
Total £2840.00

Now in the small print there are also these further charges:

The fee quoted above is for the Lawyer to do the legal work for your (sale/purchase). The additional costs are those the Lawyer may have to pay to other organisations to enable you to
move. These additional costs are estimates and may vary depending on the location of your property. They will keep you informed of any additional costs.
No Move No Fee – You will only be charged a fee if you move. If for any reason your sale or purchase falls through the Lawyer will not charge you anything for their time. If they have paid
out any of the additional costs listed above on your behalf they will still need payment for these. Any upfront payments are not refundable but will be credited against costs incurred.
The fee is GUARANTEED not to increase. As long as you instruct the Lawyer to carry out your conveyancing in the next 30 days, their fee will not increase unless your instructions change
(e.g. you wish to create a trust, the Lawyer is required to liaise with matrimonial lawyers, the property is new build, leasehold, shared ownership or there is a defect in the title).
Unregistered Land. Most houses sold in the last 5 years are already registered, however if a property is unregistered, additional work is involved which may incur a further charge.
Is all the information correct? The fee is based upon on the information which you have given us, so if this is wrong or changes you should let us know immediately.
On acceptance of this quotation you will be sent a Starter Pack by Premier Property Lawyers Ltd, who are regulated by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers.
Quotations are only valid for properties in England and Wales.
To comply with Money Laundering legislation, for each party there will be a money laundering ID verification fee of £12.50 + VAT.
The Lawyer's fees for each sum sent electronically are £39.00 plus VAT.
A charge of £34.00 will be made at completion to cover the cost of maintaining an archive of documents associated with your case. No further charge will be made should you require us to
retrieve these documents at a later date.
Our Search Pack includes the cost of Personal Local, Drainage/Water and Environmental searches and Chancel Insurance. However, our experience shows that additional searches are often
necessary due to the location of the property being bought. We therefore ask for an advance payment of £355.00 to avoid any delay in ordering these when necessary. We guarantee the
amount requested will adequately cover all search costs and any unused funds will be credited against other costs shown.

So looking at that would you say thats atleast another £500 in fees plus and additional costs? Any help is so much appreciated as this is such a big decision and have had to save for years to get a deposit and can't afford to make many mistakes with our choices.

Thanks in advance, Lloyd

Too_Hairy_Husky

We are currently in the process of trying to sue them and they can't even respond to that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DO NOT TOUCH WITH A BARGE POLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mls.s

I agree with "Too Hairy Husky" do not too premier property lawyers!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are awful. They have made selling my house a complete nightmare for a variety of reasons. I could list all the problems I have encountered, but it would take too long (currently my notes take up 3 sides of A4) And like the previous post, these are notes are being collated so that I can begin the process of suing them! I have also signed up with a solicitor in order to start the suing procedure, and they are currently investigating premier property lawyers. So DO NOT TOUCH THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Too_Hairy_Husky

Ooh mls.s - let me know how you get on! We're doing it on our own so far as they've cost us enough money as it is - but their replies are SO rude! I'm tempted to find a proper solicitor just to keep my blood pressure down!!!