PLEASE AVOID - read our experience
I would have given no stars if it were possible. I am shocked at the reviews on here already and felt it necessary to review my experience honestly on here.
My problems with St Helens Law happened almost 2yrs ago. However, it has taken almost that long for the legal ombudsman to review my case and uphold many of the aspects I complained about. SO I didn't want to jeopardise anything. I have been given permission to review STH by the legal ombudsman has the case is now finished. A tiny amount of compensation has been paid and they have washed their hands of it. Firstly, I want to warn people it takes around 18mths for the ombudsman to hear your case. They are so snowed under with cases right now. Also, there is only a certain amount of compensation that can be awarded and it is minimal, not acceptable at all. So please be aware before appointing a solicitor. We had an awful time.
We originally appointed a team of solicitors in Warrington to deal with both the sale of our house and the purchase of a bungalow. However, one left the firm and they were struggling for suitably qualified staff so we reluctantly moved the purchase of the bungalow to St Helens Law and left the sale of our house with the Warrington solicitors.
We explained how this had caused delay and we're reassured by St Helens Law it would be dealt with quickly. From then on it was almost impossible to contact St Helens Law. The other solicitors couldn't get them to reply. Every time we did get to speak to them, nothing was any further on. Our buyers grew restless and we told STH this. They kept saying they were waiting for one thing or another but were never specific. Our other solicitor was frantic. After STH dragged their feet for weeks, just before Christmas, our buyer pulled out.
I was furious. I sent an email to St Helens Law asking them just where we were with progress and that the buyer had pulled out due to the delay. I was firm but polite. I asked to be referred to the complaints procedure. By return I was told they were not dealing with us any more due to 'client relationship breakdown'! I'd hardly had chance to speak to them! They told us we had to pay in full -price set as if the whole sale had been completed - or they wouldn't release all the documents. They held us to ransom.
We needed a bungalow for my husband's increasing ill health, we already had other potential buyers viewing. We had no choice but to pay them. When I paid I told them it was under duress and we were very unhappy with the service. I got a letter by return saying that they were closing the complaint as I must have been happy or I wouldn't have paid!
All through this there was a level of rudeness from management I wouldn't expect from solicitors.
The stress they put us through was unbelievable. The Legal Ombudsman let us start a case straight away due to their dismissing the complaints procedure but it was 18mths later before we even heard from them. They found the level of service far beneath what should be expected and awarded us around 20% of what we had lost to this firm. We had to pay another solicitor to basically start from scratch and received no discount as little work was done! It cost us dearly. I reported STH to the SolicitorsRegulationAuthority but just received a letter saying they only look at more serious breaches of the rules....so basically, fraud and not quality of service. So they wouldn't deal with this. So I am saying PLEASE BE AWARE YOU HAVE LITTLE OR NO REDRESS IF A SOLICITOR TREATS YOU BADLY. Dealing with St Helens Law was a horrific experience for us. AVOID
1 de diciembre de 2022
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