Will, P.O.A,s and Honey Legal

caninepal2

I'm new here and could really do with some help/advice please. I lost my husband and needed to renew my Will and set up Power of Attorneys but solicitors are not local and so I went with a firm called Honey Legal. Total disaster! The man that came was here for 3 hrs, made it all sound wonderful, told me I had to pay up front and not knowing better like a fool I did so, but on a credit card. 
As requested I gave him all the information required for the Will and POAs, both very simple and easy to do! About 6 weeks later I received all in the post, all 3 were incorrect. The person I dealt with was very apologetic, to start with. I explained I was extremely unhappy and wanted the money returned, some £1250 as I had no faith in Honey Legal and couldn't believe they sent out a draft without making sure all was correct.
Needless to say, he's no longer answering, neither is the company and they still have my money!
I noticed they were on a forum here but several years back, so they are still at it and getting away with it!
Any advice or help would be gratefully received as I am on a pension and really need this back to set up things with an honest solicitor. 
Who should I report them to and why are they still getting away with what is basically theft ?

Emmia

Do they have a SRA (solicitors regulation authority) number? I'd report them via that route if they do. 

https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/

eskbanker

caninepal2 said:

I explained I was extremely unhappy and wanted the money returned, some £1250 as I had no faith in Honey Legal and couldn't believe they sent out a draft without making sure all was correct.

Surely that's the whole point of sharing drafts of documents, to allow verification of correctness?  Obviously if there were basic errors that would be different though.

However, why specifically are you hoping for a full refund?  If it's just buyer's remorse, and you feel that you could have had the job done cheaper, then that's not grounds, but if there's a demonstrable breach of contract, e.g. the work not being done in accordance with specifications or industry standards and practices, then that would be different....

caninepal2

Thank you both for your comments and I do accept your answer. 

The errors made by the company were on all 3 separate documents. The name of one specific  person bore no relationship to the one that was given.  Also I wished to make a donation to a charity. I explained to the agent that the wording was very specific and gave him All the written details which were direct from the charity. All the information he forwarded to the company was in black and white, not verbal.
I do agree that a draft is made in case of change, change not errors made by the company. Any draft should be checked by the sending company to be sure all the details are correct prior to sending it to a client, regardless of what it might be. 

Regardless of the charges high or low this has not been executed to a standard I would expect from a large legal based company. 

I only took this route as the solicitors used by both my late husband and myself for some years had moved office. This appeared to be an easy answer to have it all dealt with at home. Massive error!

eskbanker

I'm certainly not trying to defend the company here but mistakes can and do happen, and don't necessarily justify an expectation of a full refund, especially if rectification is straightforward, e.g. changing a name within a draft document takes a matter of seconds, even though it obviously should have been right first time.

It remains difficult to identify exactly what it is that leads to such a strong reaction of accusing the company of 'theft' and seeking a full refund in order to deal with 'an honest solicitor' instead, but there must presumably have been something more serious than what you've shared so far?

caninepal2

I would have been happy to discuss it but was not given the opportunity. I was told to sign the draft as acceptable and then it would be corrected. If I was to do that I’m just agreeing to wrong documents.
I have sent several emails to this “agent”,shoulders shrugged as far he is concerned he forwarded everything to the company, end of. Phone the company, speak to people to ask what they are going about all this. Get promises of call backs, don’t receive any. I’ve been given names of the people I’ve spoken to, call back they are in different department, transferred, number cuts off. One man in particular appeared very helpful in their “legal dept, maybe, promised to sort it out in 2 days a week ago, surprise, nobody seems to know his name. I’ve gone round in circles and have had no help and no answers. So far I have been polite and patient now I’m looking at small claims court and trading standards. 

I have also found posts about them on this site in 2016 and on others seems this sort of thing is not uncommon, so I’m not alone. We all make errors but honest people admit it and put them right, I can’t say these have even made an attempt
This why I am reacting. If you make a mistake, apologise and put it right, don’t ignore and keep money paid in good faith and not produce the item/goods paid for

eskbanker

Were you provided with any documentation regarding terms and conditions, etc?  A quick look at their website suggests a network of different companies, and their use of agents may complicate this, but if you were to go as far as court then you'd need to ensure that you were pursuing the correct legal entity, as well as being able to evidence breach of contract.

Trading Standards aren't relevant here (even if they were to pursue the company, they wouldn't get you your money back), but the regulatory authority mentioned above may be - you also have the option of seeking reimbursement from your credit card provider under section 75.

However, I'd suggest that the starting point would be to complain formally in writing....

caninepal2

Thank you, yes I intend to do that tomorrow. It was CAB suggestion for Trading Standards, I was just looking for some help/advice.
Regarding “terms” no not as you’d expect, no identification of who would be handling the work.I did receive on 19th Dec a ”Notification”
it confirms the “order” and my payment and the amount payed. There is also an order number to quote on correspondence with either The Will Associates Ltd t/a Honey Legal or Opayo, that is all I received. There is no mention of the lawyer dealing.
I do have the name of David Barker legal@honeylegal.co.U.K. on the letter with the documents dated 15th Jan 2025, also I was given 21 days to let them know about amendments or they will go ahead with what they have sent.This I did through their agent

caninepal2

Further to the above company they have told me they will refund an amount of £141 out of the £1275 they have as per the contract. I have told them I am not happy with that and do not agree. I was told if I didn’t agree to them putting things right that the money would be transferred and the case closed.
I had never received or seen any contract, as I explained by email and asked for the copy. This was sent by email with no problem. When it arrived I was surprised to see it had been drawn up on exactly the same day the agent came to the house, he left mid evening. It was also signed with a digital signature, not by me, stated the 14 day cancellation was from the 19th December, which I been led to believe the 14 days were from the time I received the actual paperwork and that was some 6 weeks later. 

I have contacted my bank as this was paid by credit card. The Will they are dealing with but are looking into the POAs  
I have since found various reports of this company especially on Trust Pilot  not something I use and there are much worse cases than mine! 

How do they get away with this? 

Valli

caninepal2 said:

How do they get away with this? 

because people don't do their due diligence BEFORE entering into these agreements.

I'm currently completing Powers Of Attorney for myself.  I'm using the .gov.uk website to do this.  I'll pay £82 for each PoA.  When I googled it (out of interest) the .gov.uk website was the 4th on the list.  As with passport renewals, driving licence renewals etc etc there are companies who'll do it for you and which will charge (much) more than you need to pay.

caninepal2

Thank you I appreciate your reply and have looked into this, also the offer from the Trust for a free Will.  Unfortunately, like many my husband organised most of this side of things and sadly having lost him, live in a relatively new area and no family in the U.K. what should have been a simple thing has backfired. i did check them out as far as I knew, but they are clever these type of people and well practiced, I listened to a person who I believed was a professional, huge error! One thing is very certain, it will never happen again!