Anyone used Premier Property Lawyers?

msb5262

I can only echo the desperation above. If you are already unfortunate enough to be dealing with these people, get out. Find a local solicitor and GET OUT NOW. I won't go into detail but this is what I have had to do and I wish I'd done it sooner....

manub

In the end I managed to complete successfully, but the amount of stress that I had to deal with was massive. Will never go with them again. I had to call them to tell that I completed as the estate agent told me!!!

TLM_77

I'm posting simply to say that even though PPL are NOT acting on my behalf, they have been astonishingly poor.
They've repeatedly denied / lied about documents my buyers have sent them (my buyers have proof).
They've cost me personally and the vendors of the property we are buying hundreds of pounds because they've suddenly decided they can't exchange and therefore the completion date they agreed to has to be moved.
They've 'raised' inquiries last week that were all already answered by means of the searches, thus delaying things again.
The communication with them and estate agents and my solicitor has been shockingly poor.

They are basically a large office with masses of unqualified people case progressing (or not as it appears) with very few actually qualified solicitors who presumably sign files off.
Cheap way of doing mass business but appalling customer focus and fast ticket to many, many mistakes because the people handling cases are complete idiots and nowhere near qualified.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS

Flingingwings

I can only echo previous comments re PPL.


What a nightmare! They were recommended by my estate agent and have proven to be incompetent on a grand scale. They were only dealing with a chain of 3 properties. Two of whom had already exchanged!


Lost paperwork, lazy re enquiries, different stories to different people, poor file checking, questions unanswered at contract exchange (which still went ahead). Frankly I could have done the admin myself.


I've complained, disputing that they've not earnt their fees. Taking their FULL fee, even though in dispute was the quickest thing they did........


To top things off they also held my sale proceeds for 24 hours. No explanation given other than it is their standard practice if you aren't buying another property. Must be making a tidy profit from their customers monies.


Will never use PPL again. Their standards are low and I am referring them to the Legal Ombudsman.

responsible845

DONT USE THIS COMPANY AT ALL!!!




I selected this company for my sale and purchase and it's been 12 weeks and still waiting for contract to be signed.


Almost 9 weeks were passed but they never realised that they need to order leasehold from Management company. In total 12 weeks I have spoken to my conveyancer only once. Every time I try to call them either she is busy or not at desk. It's been a nightmare with this company. Please don't use them. No answer of my emails. Web portal is there to keep you updated but there is no update on that web portal except uploading initial documents.
Have tried to speak with team leader but almost 8 times I was promised that he would return my call by end of day but never happened like that. So far my conveyancer has not discussed anything with me in regards to any enquiries or search results or anything.


Overall they are not really cheap as well. Documents or answer never get uploaded on their web portal. I was always getting the update from both side of estate agents but PPL never informed me any update. AVOID THEM PLEASE.

Tigjeff

Worst decision I have made using ;completed 4 months ago and am still endeavouring to sort out miscalculated payment etc. I fully endorse the comments above, lying about actions, incompetence, delays - I'm hard pushed to think of any positive comments.

My advice is to pay a little more and go for an established local firm, one you can actually visit in person.

klinker100

House buying and selling is tricky enough, the one thing that would help would be to have confidence and assurance from your solicitor.

We didn't have either with PPL if anything it made the process more stressful and confusing.

We used them as recommended by our estate agent for our sale and purchase. Our case handler unfortunately was abrupt argumentative and didn't listen to questions, when something was asked the main answer we found was " I'm really not in a position to comment, please read your case file online"

To get hold of them was a nightmare too. It seems like they want to do everything through the internet and your online file. You get an email every time they upload a document saying check your file, however not being in the legal game its all a bit confusing and therefore i would have expected to be able to get an opinion or advise if a question was asked.

The best one i had was our flood report came back as a medium risk area so of course i wanted to get more information as to the impact if we bought the house - again shockingly the reply was i can't comment, you have to assess the report and make your own descision ! But thats what you pay a solicitor for isn't it ? To process and advise the transaction in your best interests.

Id have to guess that she was just a junior and didn't have the experience to do the job properly, hence the not listening, not answering questions and generally being obtuse.

Over all i felt no confidence in them and started to chase daily and push to gain some assurance that we were actually going to get it sorted.

The case handler then left and we weren't informed of who was our new point of contact we only found out when we called to check up on a completion date.

Only saving grace is the new lady is actually on the ball polite and seems to be helpful, i will say though if you do use PPL make sure you don't wait for them to remember what they need to do. I think they have so much going on all over the place theres too much room for error and thats the last thing you need when dealing with what is for most, the biggest purchase in your life.

Verdict - Stay local so you can visit face to face and get questions answered, get a recommended experience from a trusted family friend or business Person.

Im sure PPL can do the right job however not for us this time and we wouldn't use again or recommend unfortunately.

klinker100

No i was being too nice in my previous statement ! Incredible final !!!! up !

It turns out they had the wrong gifted from builder figure in our financial statement and now 3 days prior to completion are asking for another 6K ! Now what do we do as we have budgeted according to the financial statement OMG !

annalinabellina

I would NOT recommend this firm, especially if you are a first time buyer!

I decided to use this firm as they were recommended to me by my mortgage broker London&Country.

Although I was 100% satisfied with L&C services I would never recommend Premier Property Lawyer to any first time buyer.

First of all their service is very impersonal: you get assigned a case number and password to a website and all communication/documentation is sent to you through this website.

You do get assigned a solicitor, but you don't get their direct number.

Every time I called their main number, my solicitor was busy
And she rarely called me back.

When she did she was always in a hurry and wouldn't explain things properly and I was always left a bit confused about what I was supposed to do.

But the worst thing was that they almost jeopardized my exchange!
Two weeks before I was going on holiday I asked my solicitor if they had everything they needed for the exchange to happen while I was away.

They assured me it was, and sure enough when I was away I got frantic calls from them asking me to provide more documents.

In the end with several phone calls I was able to provide the missing documents (as I was abroad this costed me almost £50 phone bill)
I was furious and asked to speak to my solicitor boss.

All I was told is that she was too busy but they would discount £100 from the bill. To be honest I would have appreciated more a call to apologize about the stress caused.

They also didn't read the mortgage documents properly and told me I had to pay the lender £670 on completion. When I queried this with the lender they explained to me that all they wanted was that my credit card debt of £670 was to be cleared by completion date!

The other thing I was very annoyed with is that I gave them a big deposit a month and half before completion and they didn't put it in an interest earning account (or so they said) so I didn't get any interest out of it.

In the end the purchase went ahead, but buying my first home would have been a much less stressfull experience if I went to a different solicitor firm.

Sammy5

Returning to the property ladder, I thought I'd use them to speed the process up a bit (the seller was using them). I kept getting calls every day saying I needed to sign the forms, which I understood, but I said I wouldn't until I'd got the mortgage offer (this was a stretch, hence my reluctance). Perhaps that's not the right or correct thing to do, but that's what I wanted and felt comfortable with. But even though I asked them to stop calling, the calls kept coming, each day from a different kid at the call centre, reading the script word for word. And it got so stressful that I just started turning my phone off during the day!

I think the worst thing though was that they kept saying 'it's no move, no fee'. Just sign the form, you don't have to pay. Even if you do pay, you'll get the money back. No move; no fee! But when you press them on it (the call centre executive had to talk to their 'team leader' for ten minutes just to clarify), you discover it's actually 'no move, no LEGAL fee'. In other words, if they do searches etc. (and they will) then they don't intend to give you that money back at all.

So I don't know how the alternative to them will do by comparison, but I can definitely say, without doubt, that being lied to by your solicitor at the very start of the process isn't a good way to gain confidence when buying a property!