Extremely unfair and impatient
We recently were accepted on an offer we made for a property via a sealed bid, we were immediately pressed for our personal details including bank statements, identification, solicitors details etc. All of this was to be sent via email in an unsecured fashion which breaches GDPR, potentially leaving us open to identity fraud. We went along with this regardless and contacted solicitors immediately for conveyancing quotes.
A week into the process, having called the office to attempt to speak to Georgina regarding the situation with the chain (which we later found out was extensive), we were given an ultimatum of only hours to provide solicitors details or the property would be offered forward.
This was completely out of the blue and we were both at work at the time, it required us to take the afternoon off work to frantically obtain quotes in order to forward the solicitors details.
We enquired with Percival regarding their conveyancing service advertised, they promptly forwarded a quote. This quote as it turns out was via Teams which is an intermediate company whom take a commission from the allocated solicitors which we were unaware of previously. The quote stipulated that it was strictly ‘no move, no fee’ and that under no circumstances other than change of instruction would we pay more money.
We trusted and were happy with this, however when we were transferred to the solicitors, we realised we were completely mis-sold this service. The paperwork made very clear that there were extortionate added charges, the quote provided was not remotely tailored, also that we would in fact have to pay the solicitor for all work conducted in the event that the sale did not go through.
I spent a whole day off work calling around trying to establish why our quote did not match the terms of business stated in the paperwork which we were asked to sign. I contacted Georgina whom informed me I must speak to the solicitor she had allocated, the solicitor was unavailable and so I eventually found the contact details for Teams and discussed the matter with them.
Teams advised me that although it was clear the paperwork did not match our quote, that the terms regarding the charges did not apply and to just sign regardless. Obviously we were not happy to do this and found it to be very unprofessional. Teams advised me that unfortunately they had not yet created appropriate paperwork for the quotes being sold and we therefore informed them we were going to instruct another solicitor ourselves.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that this set back had arisen through no fault of our own and to the contrary due to Percival’s lack of due diligence with whom they do business, we were again immediately met with threats and deadlines to provide alternative solicitors details within 3 hours.
Both at work, we advised Georgina that we would take a day to provide this after sorting out the quotes we already had and checking that the company was a reputable one. This apparently was not acceptable and we were not entitled to 24hrs to provide instructions. This despite the fact that Georgina agreed that the paperwork was unacceptable from the company they themselves had referred us to.
We called by the deadline of the morning to provide solicitors details, apparently by 8am that morning, they had already offered the property to alternative purchasers and it was no longer acceptable to provide these details to them within the strict deadline they had provided us.
All the above was despite the fact that the vendors had entered an extensive split chain which was open ended, with absolutely no sign of them being remotely ready to move.
We found them to be abrasive, rude and impatient. It is our opinion that they had potentially received rival bids which were in the pipeline already as it was simply an impossibility that within hours and before the start of business they had already accepted another offer otherwise.
Extremely unfair and inpatient, especially as we were purchasers without a chain and had to be patient with the vendors regarding their situation.
