Anyone used Ross Coates for conveyancing?

robatwork

It's up to youuuuuuuuuu Rosss Coatesssssss Ross Coatesssssssssssssss

tamsworld

Hi all,

We have just enlisted Ross Coates Conveyancing for the purchase of our house. I am very reassured by the prompt and informative responses to my emails and they have not hesitated in answering ALL of my questions (not just the ones they want to answer!).

They are much cheaper than other conveyancing firms. We live in Crawley and as others have mentioned they are based in Norwich - I'm not particularly worried that they are not local to me. From previous experience of conveyancing firms, being able to go in in person when there is a problem does not make that much difference (in my case, not everyone's!).

We will let everyone know how it goes. I'm feeling pretty confident that we have made the right choice

Updates to follow over the next few weeks, hopefully they will help people!
Tams

Cardboardbox

I feel I should add some balance to the positive reviews, as my current experience is not a good one. I am going through a house purchase and decided to use Ross Coates for conveyancing, as the reviews I could find seemed reasonable. However, their communication is extremely poor: emails are not answered, phones are never answered when phoning the conveyancer directly, their first communication to me by mail never arrived and had to be send again a week later. Their communication issues are not restricted to me, as they also don't communicate properly with the vendor's conveyancer, resulting in considerable delays.

Ross Coates are now waiting on some papers from the vendor's solicitor, while the vendor's solicitor claim this has been sent twice so far, and everybody is sitting around twiddling their thumbs waiting for the other side to make a move. This is hugely frustrating and entirely unnecessary.

This should be a very straightforward purchase which is being delayed by sheer incompetence. I will recommend my friends to avoid Ross Coates and will certainly find a different conveyancer when I have to sell again in a few years time.

willow_catkin

I have just used Ross Coates and they have been utterly fantastic and exceptional value for money. Limited communication when not needed but spot on in the stressful days up to exchange. Return of email promptly and phoned when necessary. Cannot rate them highly enough - so glad I chose them over the local firms I have used in the past

tamsworld

Here is my update to my initial review post in August regarding RC.....

My house sale has just fallen through - through no fault of the solicitors I hasten to add - however our experience with RC throughout the last couple of months was not totally positive.

Excellent communication at first, very detailed quote etc. Our questions were answered in detail and quickly (by the IT manager?!?!).

However, since the initial positive feelings, we have had problems with our main contact going on holiday without telling us (twice) in two months. The out of office reply was the first thing we knew about it the first time it happened, and when we tried to phone the the two people it said to contact in her absence, we found that they were also out of the office on holiday at the same time!!!

She has just gone away again without telling us, and considering the purchase was on emtremely rocky ground last Thursday when we spoke to her, we feel she could/should have told us that she wouldnt be in this week, and given us a contact for during her absence.

We found that we had to chase her quite a lot, and she didnt often return voicemails. We had impressed upon her the urgency of a couple of things, and she had not treated them as urgent (we became literally homeless because of things not being chased enough, and the situation not being communicated back to us to put us in the picture, when she was very aware of our timescales).

We had to chase the deposit to be returned to us (which in fairness, she apologised for).

We were quite prepared to use Ross Coates for our purchase on the new house we are currently putting an offer in on, but since finding out that she has gone away again without telling us we have lost a little of our faith in RC, and dont think that the couple of hundred pounds we will save actually makes up for the stress we encountered.

Perhaps this was just a problem with our contact and not all of the partners they have working for them, as lots of people seem to have had very good and positive experiences.

Now I'm not saying dont use Ross Coates, as I have had much much much worse experiences with solicitors previously. However, I hope this has added an objective point of view into the reviews. I do believe that everyone should speak as they find.

I hope this has been useful.

Edward_Derby

tamsworld wrote: »

Here is my update to my initial review post in August regarding RC.....

My house sale has just fallen through - through no fault of the solicitors I hasten to add - however our experience with RC throughout the last couple of months was not totally positive.

Excellent communication at first, very detailed quote etc. Our questions were answered in detail and quickly (by the IT manager?!?!).

However, since the initial positive feelings, we have had problems with our main contact going on holiday without telling us (twice) in two months. The out of office reply was the first thing we knew about it the first time it happened, and when we tried to phone the the two people it said to contact in her absence, we found that they were also out of the office on holiday at the same time!!!

She has just gone away again without telling us, and considering the purchase was on emtremely rocky ground last Thursday when we spoke to her, we feel she could/should have told us that she wouldnt be in this week, and given us a contact for during her absence.

We found that we had to chase her quite a lot, and she didnt often return voicemails. We had impressed upon her the urgency of a couple of things, and she had not treated them as urgent (we became literally homeless because of things not being chased enough, and the situation not being communicated back to us to put us in the picture, when she was very aware of our timescales).

We had to chase the deposit to be returned to us (which in fairness, she apologised for).

We were quite prepared to use Ross Coates for our purchase on the new house we are currently putting an offer in on, but since finding out that she has gone away again without telling us we have lost a little of our faith in RC, and dont think that the couple of hundred pounds we will save actually makes up for the stress we encountered.

Perhaps this was just a problem with our contact and not all of the partners they have working for them, as lots of people seem to have had very good and positive experiences.

Now I'm not saying dont use Ross Coates, as I have had much much much worse experiences with solicitors previously. However, I hope this has added an objective point of view into the reviews. I do believe that everyone should speak as they find.

I hope this has been useful.

I nearly had exactly the same experience, It was mostly caused by the branch i was using, and have to say I fear we were a few weeks away from loosing our new house (this is in-spite of, at ever opportunity mentioning how important a speedy transaction was), It was a complete break down in procedure in the process of our sale, Documents not ordered, emails not answered even thought they were chased. All in all a very stressful situation. But we did eventually complete with a lot of push!!!

There complaints procedure once started was mostly quick and painless as I had written proof of all my grievances (about 100 emails/letters back and forth) and got the desired outcome.

My advice good company Just make sure you use the main office!!

Grant_Goulding

I have used Ross Coates twice now and never again. Not worth the savings sadly. Poor communication and never respond to my calls or emails. It has taken six months to get a land transfer done - not good by any stretch of the imagination.

Bagpu5s

I'm currently using Ross Coates for my conveyancing.
It's been over one month since I enlisted their services. I haven't had one email or phone call returned by the lady that is dealing with my property purchase. The only reason that I know my paperwork was received is due to the fact they cashed the enclosed cheque.
There is no chain, my mortgage is agreed, I know the vendors and they are asking about potential dates for moving. I feel embarrassed that the individual I have paid cant take 30 secs out of their day to respond and at the very least let me know that they exist.

Similar to a previous post when I did speak to a member of the team at the solicitors I was informed that the person in question had just been away on holiday for 2 weeks. I hope to get a job at Ross Coates as their holiday entitlement is incredible and it seems it doesn't matter if you're completely inept at your job.

AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID

kellyt86

Currently dealing with RC,

They have been great with me, I can never get hold of them so leave a msg and rehearse return the call that day without fail.

Hoping to exchange contracts this week.

They are local to me so its great to drop things off rather than post them etc

DelilahFP

We are using RC at this very moment - a nightmare from the start. We are in real danger of losing the house we are trying to complete on. They have lied, lost files, lost letters, failed to inform us that the person dealing with us 'left' suddenly - the list of complaints is never ending.
We are local and have been in to the office several times - fobbed off, given confirmation 'things are going ahead' then find nothing has been done.
It is soul-destroying. They do not even know when money has been paid directly to them. They are a mess and I am so very angry with them. We have 2 weeks left - then the chain breaks. They have not even chased up the searches, done (so they said) weeks ago.