Abode and Beaumont Legal

albo2002

I used Beaumont Legal in 2007 and they were terrible.

V poor comms and after the sale went through they demanded another £200 for things they admitted they had missed and threatened to have my mortgage cancelled if I didnt pay!

ABCDE12345_2

I am buying a house where the seller is using Beaumont.
We have so far taken 4 months and are nowhere near signing the contracts let alone completing!
They seem unable to be able to cope with anything more complicated than a very simple transaction and are constantly blaming any delay on myself/my solicitor when we are chasing them almost daily.

I'd suggest, for peace of mind of the other party too, never to use Beaumont!

caitcam

Very interesting thread, I am currently using BL and my sol is the above named AM, I agree with everything that has been said about him, we've been trying to exchange since 1st June and everyday (barr bank hols) I've either emailed or phoned for an update and just get told by one of his team that we are awaiting info from the sellers sols!!

So today I send a complain email to the senior partner (listed on t&c's as the person who deals with complaints) and what do you know. Mr M himself calls within approx 5 mins to say I hear you've lodged a complaint against me. I agree and tell him exactly why, his response "Well you've now got me getting it in the neck from the senior partners as I now have to chase your sellers solicitors by phone!!!! even though I emailed them on 24th May" God forbid he has to PHONE someone to get us to exchange of contracts 14 days later than we should have exchanged.

DO NOT USE THEM AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!

TraysNZ

My buyers are using beaumont legal as they are tied into them via there HSBC mortgage. Im selling our home in Milton keynes which has been rented since we moved to New Zealand. Legal process started in May when we accepted the offer. Buyers are first time and we have no chain .. simple hey ? ..... clearly not.
Having struggled for 2 months to get to exchange they've now got the wrong paperwork signed by the buyers and have to go back and get it redone. In the meantime the house stands empty losing money for me as I'm still paying the mortgage, insurances and not getting any rental income since 1st June when I moved the tennants out .. we'd planned for a 30th June completion while I was on a trip to the UK.

The buyer is also incurring expenses as they are living in digs until the purchase completes .. ho hum.

My question is that can I sue Beaumont legal to seek recovery of my costs through their incompetence. The buyers have paid for a conveyencing service and there must be 'reasonable' time allowed for this.

Its strikes me that many people have had a problem with this firm. Perhaps we should get together and got to watchdog or some other fair trade programme.. they are providing a shoddy or nonexistent service and getting away with it.

Im very pleased to say that house purchase/selling in NZ is far simpler, but managing the UK sale from 12000 miles away is contributing to my grey hair significantly !

I fear the answer though is pay peanuts .. get monkeys :mad:

Bootsy

I am currently in the process of a claim of professional negligence against beaumont legal so yes it is possible to sue them.

I am one of many of their previous customers who have learnt the very hard way by instructing a very poor conveyancing company at a low cost. I hope that my case is successful so that they can hopefully learn from their mistakes but at the moment they are disputing liability totally.

somefriendly_2

Hi all,

I'd just like to add to my previous post on Beaumont Legal. My upstairs neighbour recently sold her flat and discovered that BL had put the whole freehold for the house - which was shared between three flats - into my name. Another example of incompetence to add to the list - costly for my neighbour (who kindly paid to get her solicitor to correct the freehold), and embarassing for me.

I have already complained to the Solicitors Complaints Authority about BL, and secured a grudging refund from them, but they have come back to haunt me again. One word: incompetent. Please, please don't listen to those who say 'it was alright for me', and find someone else.

TheTowers

We used them back in June 2012 for a buy to let purchase. Everything went fine, communication was good, and contracts were exchanged in the tight deadline that we gave.

Having previously used Harrowells LLP in York twice before, who also gave an excellent service, we were looking for a cheaper option. Although a little nervous at first, Beaumont proved to be a good choice.

Now in the process of buying another repossession, we have decided to use the services of Beaumont again. Communication so far has been quick, which is exactly what I need.

Personally I would recommend Beaumont.

adam--j_2

Never again.

We only used them because the firm we had used previously and had been very happy with were not on the panel for the mortgage company we were using.

They failed to flag restrictive covenants in the lease, failed to respond to emails in a timely fashion and when I complained to the partner about this, received a phone call saying he was "very offended". Who tells their clients they are offended by them when they complain that they don't feel valued?!

We really had to push hard to get an exchange to happen on the day we wanted and also had issues with part time staff, the case handler changing twice and going on annual leave for the week of completion and not handing over to anyone else or telling us about it until I received an out of office message informing me of this, four days prior to completion!

Not only will the senior partner be receiving a complaint about this, but I will also be writing to the mortgage company to ask them to consider striking them off their panel since I do not feel that they act in the best interests of anyone other than themselves.

I'll never use them again and I hope others think twice before making the same mistake that we did.

ey143

Someone is going to shoot me for saying this, but I am thinking about using BL for our first house purchase.

I used the compare and convey web site and having looked at all the negative comments here, they appear (mainly to be from 2009 and 2010). The C&C web site now have a review and feedback section and they have some 800 reviews of BL with some 95%+ positive reviews. I am slighly concerned that quite a few of those who are criticising BL are either newbies or have made less than 2 or 3 posts, which makes me very suspicious as to their real motives.

The cost of my conveyancing is some £1,500 for a property price of £750k. I will research some more and was otherwise thinking of using Chadwick Lawrence otherwise, if anyone else has used them or heard of them?

I am actually quite demanding and do a lot of pushing around of service providers (inc. my SIPP provider who probably dislikes me as I cannot stand delays). The next real price (my employer, a bank, is asking me to use London Surveyors and Valuers Ltd but they are looking for nearly £3k.

Any comments (other than dont use BL!?)

vl2588

BL are cheapest for me by £250 but I'm close to being scared off by this thread. From what I've heard all conveyancing solicitors are very slow and difficult to get heard of though, so do the people criticising BL have any experience of other conveyancing solicitors with which to compare BL?