Conveyancer (DC Law); all computer systems down

tryingmybest99

I've been trying to get in touch with my solicitor at DC Law for over a week. Their online portal has been down since Sunday. He wasn't picking up his phone so I called the main number. Apparently, all their systems are down following a security incident on Sunday night and they will not talk to you unless your completion date is yesterday or today. I am trying to organise a completion date for a few weeks time but there are several enquiries to close down first. Is anyone else in the same boat? Has anyone been told how long this will be going on for? It has been awful dealing with this company since day one of signing on. I really wish I had cut my losses early on and switched. 

johnny182

They use the same system (eway, cway, etc) for various conveyancers such as PPL and MHMC. Apparently the system has been hacked or infected with a ransomware - let's hope this is not the case as the average downtime a company experiences after a ransomware attack is 21 days.

DD99

Just imagine how much personal information is at risk - every document in their portal, all at risk because of their failure to ensure that they had sufficient cyber protection in place.  

eddddy

DD99 said:

.....all at risk because of their failure to ensure that they had sufficient cyber protection in place.  

That's probably an over simplified view of the situation.  Ransomware is a very big sophisticated criminal 'business'. 

Globally, hundreds of millions of pounds are paid each year in ransoms. And in total, companies spend billions of pounds each year trying to protect themselves against it.

It's a game of cat and mouse - companies put more and more sophisticated protection in place, and the criminals find more and more sophisticated ways of getting around it.

And since the criminals are earning hundreds of millions, they can afford to invest many millions into developing more and more sophisticated cyber attack strategies.


(But that's not to say that this particular law firm wasn't lax in their cyber protection.)

C0lin61

DD99 said:

Just imagine how much personal information is at risk - every document in their portal, all at risk because of their failure to ensure that they had sufficient cyber protection in place.  

I will be VERY wary of any emails from my conveyancer or from any company referred to in my case file!!!

[Deleted User]

apparently around 10% of current sales running in the UK have a solicitor in the chain who uses the system that was down.  The case handlers couldnt even access emails to tell people what was happening.   

As of yesterday everything was brought back up and they are prioritising files with urgent exchanges and completions and then will work backwards to cases near exchange, cases midway, and new files to be set up.   

Friend of mine is a conveyancer with one of the impacted companies and she is near broken by the clients who are taking it out on her. 

They have specifically stated taht client data and client funds were safe and unaffected.  One one hand that might be good PR but on the other hand I dont think they could say that if it wasnt true

AzzA101

I'm in the exact same boat. I'm with JS Law who is under the same umbrella, and they have been absolutely appalling since day one, well before any of the system outages. 

Me and my partner are first time buyers and we are purchasing an empty property. We were told by Express Estate Agents, who were advertising the house, that if we decide to go with their suggested solicitor then the sale would be completed sooner. I have since come to learn that this is a blatant lie that they spew out to first time buyers in order to earn themselves a nice commission.

We had the offer accepted at the start of August, like I said, hoping for a quick purchase. The solicitor has been next to impossible to get hold of. I have her work number aswell as the main contact number and majority of the time it goes to voicemail. On the off chance that someone answers they cannot put me through to who I want to speak to and can only pass on messages. Every small enquiry has taken weeks and weeks for us to get a reply from and we know that the replies have been sent by the sellers solicitors as the estate agents are CC'd into all correspondence and can confirm it has been sent.

We were hoping to have a completion date arranged last week but now the system down time has put a halt to that. The seller has informed us that they have had enough of waiting and want the sale completed by the end of this week, otherwise they are taking it off the market. Again, I've been trying to contact JS Law constantly but nothing. Our mortgage offer expires in 4 weeks as well so we really feel lost at this moment in time.

This is so frustrating because I feel like any other competent solicitor would have had the sale completed well before now, and the system outage wouldn't have mattered. 

Apologies for the rant but I need to vent. 

AzzA101

Any advice at all on what to do ag this moment in time would be appreciated. 

C0lin61

AzzA101 said:

Any advice at all on what to do ag this moment in time would be appreciated. 

We are at point of exchange to sell our property ( we do not have a property to purchase).

I am seriously considering engaging another solicitor to complete the process.

As our buyers are happy with searches, our response to their queries etc, there should be no need to repeat those.

The buyer's solicitor has already agreed the contract. 

I believe, but am open to correction, that the remaining work is "just" to exchange contracts, redeem our mortgage and to update land registry.

GoogleMeNow

C0lin61 said:

AzzA101 said:

Any advice at all on what to do ag this moment in time would be appreciated. 

We are at point of exchange to sell our property ( we do not have a property to purchase).

I am seriously considering engaging another solicitor to complete the process.

As our buyers are happy with searches, our response to their queries etc, there should be no need to repeat those.

The buyer's solicitor has already agreed the contract. 

I believe, but am open to correction, that the remaining work is "just" to exchange contracts, redeem our mortgage and to update land registry.

It's not that simple.  While I understand your frustration, it will most certainly delay matters by instructing a new solicitor who will need the existing solicitor to pass over the paperwork and, of course, they will not be up to speed with your file, so it will take some time to review before they are in a position to exchange.

A new solicitor will need your ID and do their AML checks - they won't accept the ID you provided to the existing solicitor.  It is also likely that they will expect you to complete and return new protocol documents, as the previous ones will have the existing solicitor's firm's name on them.  I doubt your existing solicitor will send them the redemption statement from your lender, so the new solicitor will want their own.  Similarly if there are any undertakings agreed, these will need approval from the new solicitor.  The buyer's solicitor sends 'Requisitions on Title' to be responded to by the seller's solicitor, by way of 'Replies to Requisitions' - these will need amending with the new solicitor's firm's name and signed by the solicitors again.

SDLT_Geek

Here is an update from the CLC today: https://www.clc-uk.org/information-for-clients-of-premier-property-lawyers-js-law-dc-law-and-advantage-property-lawyers/