253 reviews (4/5) and information for Conveyancing Direct Ltd Property Lawyers T/A Be Legal or B E Legal, St.Leonards-On-Sea

09/07/24 - Reviewed by Anonymous

I had the misfortune of being assigned Latham Gadd as my conveyancing solicitor - a person who, to this day, I'm not convinced actually exists as he was so elusive to actually contact.

Latham regularly took a minimum of one week to reply to emails. Even if it was to check I'd signed a document in the correct place before posting - surely a one second job to open a PDF and reply yes/no.

There were times when I did not hear from Latham at all for three weeks and even four weeks on one occasion.

I began to be seriously concerned that there was a problem with my emails, that Latham was sick, or that he'd been given the sack. I called up the office regularly throughout the six month process and only successfully got a hold of him once. On other occasions, I asked for a call back and never received one.

When I brought up these communication problems with his line manager, she replied, "Well, I can ask him to reply to you but obviously I can't make him do anything." Who can then?

I asked if there was a communication policy, e.g. a minimum number of working days in which a solicitor should reply to their client. The call centre staff said this didn't exist. I asked if they thought a week was acceptable - they said no. How about a month? Also not acceptable, yet it happened with regularity with Latham Gadd.

The reason why this review is 2 stars is because Latham went on holiday at the end of the process. We were then appointed Mary Lord who had good communication and got us over the line. I was so thankful not to have Latham at the end or we'd probably still be waiting on a reply right now.

This shows Countrywide is luck of the draw. You might get someone decent, or you might get Latham. Either way, the company needs to put in place a clear communication policy and line managers ought to take responsibility for whipping their team into shape - isn't that what their role is meant to be?

Overall, disappointing and frustrating. I can't believe that professionals can ignore clients for a month despite repeated follow-ups. In no other industry would this be acceptable.

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28/03/22 - Reviewed by Jon Bick

Very disappointed with these Conveyancers. Provided the Solicitors with the funds they required before leaving on holiday as calculated by them. 2 weeks later on completion day told by them that they had miscalculated the figures for Stamp duty they and required a further £3k to complete the sale. Very unprofessional and could have stopped a property chain. Received my final statement which was also miscalculated.

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15/06/20 - Reviewed by Anonymous

Very poor customer service. Got moved between solicitors, first one was totally irrespectful, never replied to a single email (I sent him about 10 emails over about two weeks time and Never got any reply!) and never informed about any progress on our case (there was no progress at all). Finally got moved to another solicitor only after complaining and saying that we will move our business somewhere else, and the second solicitor did better job although still not as good as you would expect spending thousands of pounds of your money you have been working hard to earn in the first place.
Very poor care of the customer, they don't seem to care.
Will definitely not use this company again and will not recommend to anyone.

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16/11/14 - Reviewed by Anonymous

Chose them as a colleague recommended them, their 'fixed fee' quote was lowest, and I thought my purchase was a straightforward case. However, they charged me extra later for items they had mentioned in the original quote. Their letters were rushed cut-and-paste jobs. One had two different sets of fees for the same items, on different pages. In their final invoice they charged me extra again.

One letter asked me to study the fixtures and fittings form and the Seller's Property Information Form which were not enclosed. When I chased, they said they did not exist as it was a probate sale.

When the building society asked for a particular document, an impasse occurred and they said 'In all my years of conveyancing I've never been asked for this... I can't see what else we can do!' and I had to try to get them to speak to each other.

In sum, I would gladly pay a local solicitor a higher fee to be relieved of the high degree of stress I experienced over several months. Thankfully they did manage to complete in the end.

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