www.conveyancing-warehouse.com Good/Bad?

horny_kez

I have today completed on my purchase but will never again use Roberts and will not be recommending them to anyone! Yes they are very promt at sending out the initial paperwork and yes they did have the searches back to me very quickly. But I was quoted approx £450 the final invoice was £1150, I am aware that it can go up if things are not standard and £265 was for an indemnity policy so I was aware of that. It was a complete shock when I got the invoice & I had to transfer money from my savings I don't know why they can't give you a running total every so often or advise you when things are not as standard?
Also they never reply to emails, I have even set my email account to send "read receipts", I have got the receipts but never a reply. I did get through on the phone normally and didn't seem to get fobbed off that way.
My online case tracker only seemed to get updated once and the SMS progress updates didn't exist...other that one after instructing them to say thanks.
I have had delays since 1st Sept when my offer was accepted, I don't blame Roberts completely for the delays as I had to cancel my mortgage application and start a new one which did take a long time but once my mortgage offer was back Roberts still had to sort out various problems regarding unadopted roads, imdemnity policies and insolvency....surely all of this could have been done whilst we were waiting for my mortgage offer???
Anyway as I said, I will never use them again, they seem to have worked out more expensive than using a "normal" solicitor and their customer serice is not good.
I did send a small complaint via email regarding the unexpected amount of the invoice but I didn't want to moan too much as I hadn't completed and didn't want it to delay things futher.

englishrob

I would be very very wary of their "no sale-no fee" promise as it doesn't work out that way.
I instructed them on a sale and purchase in September 2007 and paid the £230 deposit required. However, through no fault of mine,(the buyer's solicitor advised him to withdraw) the sale fell through. I kept the account open and found another buyer, but yet again through no fault of mine (the buyer's lender refused him a mortgage even though it had previously been agreed) and the sale fell through again. That was in April 2008.

I kept getting emails from CW (Roberts) asking what the status was and I kept replying saying that there had been no change.
However, in answer to their status request e-mail in October, I said that we may as well forget it as the market was so bad and could they return all relevent documents to me.
They then sent me an invoice for £682 of which £452 was outstanding. Their original quote was nothing like this!
I called and asked them that if I was on a "no sale- no fee" contract, why was I being charged for this? and they asked me to put my dispute into writing which I did by email.
I emailed my dispute with them at least 3 times and "mysteriously" my emails were not getting through. I eventually faxed my dispute with them a few days ago and recieved notification that they had received it.

I started up a thread on the forum to seek some advice, but didn't name the company.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1268201&highlight

I then received an email from them saying that they still require the outstanding money because "it was my decision to close the files with the firm".
So I called them and told them to leave the file open indefinately.

Apart from this, I found them ok and as someone else has stated, they do seem to have a turnover of staff.
Hope this helps someone before making the decision to use them.

Richard_Webster

I then received an email from them saying that they still require the outstanding money because "it was my decision to close the files with the firm".

This is very close to the "no sale, no fee" scheme only being applicable if it is the seller's fault that the transaction did not proceed and that leaves it all wide open for long and tedious arguments about whose fault it is.

Although up north they charge advertising expenses separately, apart from that, estate agents do not normally charge if you take your property off the market for any reason. Unless there was a clear explanation from the solicitors about this at the beginning (read their small print carefully!) I would expect them not be bale to make this charge. It is quite unreasonable.

englishrob

Hi Richard, thanks for replying.

They refer me to point 5 of their general terms of business which they say is applicable in this case.
Point 5 is.....


5. ABORTIVE FEES If for any reason the matter fails to complete we will assess the value of the work carried out and will charge our fees together with third party expenses already incurred although you will be credited for sums paid on account. Such fees and expenses are for immediate settlement unless otherwise agreed in writing. If unpaid after seven days interest as set out in term 13 may be applied.

So it appears that not only can they pick and choose what applies to the "no sale - no fee" scam, but can they also charge me interest if I keep the file open?

TheColonel_3

What you appear to be saying is that you instructed them on the sale of your property. They did the work and the service was "OK". Your sale to one buyer fell through so you decided to take your property off the market and cancel your instructions. Obviously this was your decision and within your control. They have now asked you to make a contribution to their fees.

To try to avoid paying them you are pretending that your house is still on the market and asking them to keep the file open indefinitely.

In view of the above is it not you that is running the "scam", not them?


At the same time you are complaining about the fact that they reserve the right to charge interest when you are attempting to put off paying them indefinitely!

englishrob

TheColonel wrote: »

What you appear to be saying is that you instructed them on the sale of your property. They did the work and the service was "OK". Your sale to one buyer fell through so you decided to take your property off the market and cancel your instructions. Obviously this was your decision and within your control. They have now asked you to make a contribution to their fees.

To try to avoid paying them you are pretending that your house is still on the market and asking them to keep the file open indefinitely.

In view of the above is it not you that is running the "scam", not them?


At the same time you are complaining about the fact that they reserve the right to charge interest when you are attempting to put off paying them indefinitely!

No, you obviously misunderstand the situation, which incidently has been solved recently.
The sale to the buyer fell through and the property remained on the market and then there was another prospective sale which also fell through. At no time was the property taken off the market at my request
My point is that they should not advertise a "no sale, no fee" policy when in fact that is not the case.

As I said above, the case has been closed amicably.

Thanks for accusing me of "running a scam"...nice! :mad:

TheColonel_3

I think I understand the situation perfectly well.

The fact of the matter is that you were not entirely honest with this firm about whether or not your property was taken off the market, telling them to keep the file open indefinitely etc. It is therefore a little unfair for you to be claiming that they are running a scam.

You now tell us that “At no time was the property taken off the market at my request”. In which case presumably there was some external factor (outside of your control) which forced you to take the property off the market. However you do not appear to have made them aware of it or mentioned it earlier on this thread.

Finally, it now transpires that the situation has been resolved, which presumably means that you did not pay them anyway, or paid disbursements only.

dfarry

I think the most appropriate thing would be for Roberts to advertise as "No Sale - No Fee *subject to an abortive clause, see t&c's"

OrangeSofa

My experience of CW is quite appalling. The final bill was nearly double that of the initial quote. I was told I would be assigned a solicitor who would deal with all enquiries promptly and instead I was given a trainee who was so overloaded, emails were being sent at 06:00 and 21:00. Each enquiry took 3-4 days to process. My estate agent and the agent handling the house we bought were critical of CW and the people we bought from said their solicitor had never seen anything quite like the enquiries he had received from CW.

All-in-all, we consider that CW were shockingly bad. When I called to speak to a partner I was told they don't speak to clients about complaints - I would have to write. As this was in the final throws of exchange we abandoned that idea as it would only serve to delay an already extremely slow firm down even more. In times when house moves are apparently not at their peak - this firm were struggling to cope which is a poor sign.

When you pay the figures you pay for conveyancing you'd at least expect some prompt action and a personal service - neither of which we got from CW. Their instant quote tool is way off the mark and within days of starting the process, new charges started to creep in. Our trainee didn't listen to instruction and missed important information; kept pushing services we didn't need or want; was very slow; sent important documents for signature so late special journeys were required to ensure they were delivered back in time; irritated all other parties in the transaction and as such, we would never use them again nor would we recommend them. To be honest - we would go as far as to say we'd recommend specifically AGAINST using them. You have been warned.......

TheColonel_3

As a retired Conveyancer I do feel compelled to comment on the experience that you appear to have had with this firm which would appear indicative of the type of criticism we are all required to put up with.

Increasing Bills - Sadly the fact of the matter is that very few clients are upfront about complications with their transactions. Instead they do their best to obtain a low fixed fee from you and then after signing the retainer we hear: “By the way you need to rush this. I need to exchange contracts next week“ or “Its actually an unregistered leasehold title”. Solicitors can not double their bills without valid reason.

Unnecessary Enquires – It would never cease to amaze us how a typical lay client with no conveyancing knowledge whatsoever suddenly becomes better able than a conveyancing solicitor with 30 years experience to raise enquires. The other problem we have is that when buying a property for a client we often raise enquiries whith the Vendor’s Solicitors that were not raised at the time they purchased the property for their client. Rather than look incompetent the Vendor’s Solicitor when asked by his client why they did not pick up on it doesn’t usually say “Yes I should have done, I have been negligent.” Instead they say “the enquiry is completely unnecessary.”

Emails Outside of Office Hours – The person dealing with your file has emailed you at 6.00am and 9.00pm. It really is incompressible how this can be considered a complaint. It shows that they are committed to progressing your transaction. Solicitors are in a no win situation. Had the solicitor only emailed you between 9-5 then no doubt you would have had something to say about it!

The Partners would not speak to me – When my train to the office was delayed Richard Branson wouldn’t take my call.

I am pleased to say that I am now out of the rat race but pity anybody trying to make a living as a Conveyancer.