And what an ending!
I was assigned a Conveyancer (Minnie Waite) but told reassuringly I could contact Vincent directly whenever needed. Sadly (as detailed below) I needed to on a couple of occasions but Vincent failed to reply.
Numerous times I was contacted for documents and information already sent and which had previously been confirmed as received.
Original documents, sent by post, were not confirmed as received unless I chased repeatedly, sometimes over a period of 2-3 weeks.
I was told I would need to pay for a duplicate of one document, which has been sent together with others noted as received (but subsequently clearly mislaid).
On one occasion the Buyers solicitors was copied on an email I received. When I ‘Replied All’ I received quite a ticking off for doing so!
And although technically impossible I was told attachments I had sent had caused her printer to breakdown.
Everything was done or requested at the last possible moment. There appeared to be no schedule or timetabling and, as collating documents, filling in forms, emailing information and of course posting takes time, this led to a series of delays. When we were 3 weeks past the date both the Buyer and I had requested for completion I was asked when I would like to exchange!
But in addition to the communication being unpleasant it was also often missing. Not once did I receive clear instruction without first asking or chasing. Nor did I receive any updates and on many occasions direct questions went unanswered.
I was lucky in that I had a good Estate Agent and they willingly bore this extra workload and relayed information at each stage.
The work was at best was sloppy, lazy, rude and time wasting, at worst obstructive.
So I breathed a sigh of relief the day I completed only to hear the following day that a significant mistake had been made…
A mistake made in the payment made to my account (£27000), would I repay it immediately please? No easy task when you have already started the process of moving the money out of the UK to my country of residence. Still, extracting an apology from Vincent Hambleton-Grey was like squeezing blood from a stone.
Never again.