Simply property lawyers Reviews 

AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!

Absolutely dreadful experience dealing with this company, they were the sellers solicitors in a house purchase I have been making
They are incompetent and evasive and always off sick or on holiday (as reasons for problems or avoidance) the conveyancer changed multiple times and they kept requesting the same information repeatedly, for instance I was a cash buyer yet they asked 4 times for my Mortgage lenders details, they also provided written confirmation of a change in the contract then 6 weeks later asked for it again resulting in absolutely no progress 3 months down the line - thankfully my seller became aware of the situation and changed solicitors otherwise the sale would have fallen through
DO NOT USE !

I purchased a property over 2 years ago and used Simply conveyancing and Simply property lawyers for the process. I have asked several times for the documents that were obtained during the process and Land registery documents which I paid for them to act on my behalf to submit and obtain these documents.
Despite several requests all I receive are token emails (when I push for a reply )that these things take time and we are doing all we can to actively chase for me. My neighbour who purchased 9 months ago has already received all the documents.They Didn’t use simply conveyancing. Seems like I am being taken for a fool. Never again!

How come on Simplys website they are rated 4.5 stars on trust pilot as they say? When on trust pilot website they are rated 2.2 stars?
We know from experience how bad they are. They are supposed to be solicitors but are they breaking the law?

They don't deserve 1 star.
DO NOT USE THIS FIRM
They failed to reply to us, failed to chase the buyer's solicitors and the freeholders. Failed to provide advice. Good job I'm a retired solicitor so I knew what the law was and what to do!
Their delays cost us hundreds of pounds in council tax, service charges, gas, electric, loss of interest on the sale proceeds, etc.
Then to add insult to injury they "invented" extra fees to charge us that were not anywhere on their quote! Simply horrendous

Be warned.
We were the purchasers of a property this firm was acting on behalf of the sellers.
The property was marketed as freehold but the documents arrived leasehold. Needed fixing by Simply Property.
The level of incompetence, reluctance to communicate, sheer inactivity and untruths told was truly mind boggling. The stress caused was huge, additional costs unpleasant. Thankfully we had real experts, ETLP Pontypool. This sale nearly collapsed. Please of selling do not appoint them and if buying and you see them mentioned as acting for the vendors ask for them to be removed. I did write to this company before posting this review, named the individual, suggested additional training. Did not get the courtesy of a reply.Our experience lasted months

Incredibly poor communication which causes unnecessary delays. Stay well clear unless you are happy for the transaction to take twice as long as it needs too and you don't mind them not replying to you.

Avoid this company as they were shockingly bad and caused me a lot of problems... and recommended by the agent... I wonder why??
Within a short space of time I was allocated 3 different conveyancers, none of which seemed to know what the previous ones had done... EXCEPT, when a huge problem arose 2 months down the line, the second one admitted, in writing, that the 1st one had messed up.
He had not applied for the local search which the second one had to do 6 weeks down the line. The result was the revelation of a non adopted road.
In a letter from the 1st one, 2 months down the line, this was his summary:
(Road name) is adopted by the local authority and is maintained at public expense.
Because I was not sure, I spoke to the local authority adoptions and they confirmed that the part of that road leading to that house was not adopted and did not match their standards so would not be adopted.
This should have been highlighted in the 1st 2 weeks. So 2 months down the line we had to pull out as the cost risk of works to that road was not viable.
By then we had our 3rd conveyancer so when I raised this negligent issue, she denied it even though I had it in writing. She also tried to make out that I had been told about the unadopted road. Their online system also confirmed when the search was applied for so she was definitely trying to cover up for their very poor service.
As I had to do their job for them I formally asked them to refund part of the costs that would not have been incurred if this issue had been dealt with properly but of course no response. They have no integrity at all.

I would give zero stars if that were possible. The communication throughout this process has been absolutely appalling — in fact, I would go as far as to say there has been no communication at all. I’ve had to relentlessly chase my solicitor, Aleks Zeglicki, for updates, yet he repeatedly ignores my calls, fails to return messages, and only responds to emails after being pressured multiple times. The customer support team has been equally useless, offering no real assistance whatsoever.

This complete lack of responsiveness is beyond frustrating — it’s irresponsible and unacceptable. Because of these constant delays, I’m now facing the risk of incurring unnecessary stamp duty costs, despite the fact that the sale could have easily been finalized before the end of February. This entire experience has been incredibly stressful, and I’m extremely disappointed with how poorly this has been handled.

EDIT: 10 Jan
Simply did get in touch a few days after this post and allowed me to talk through the issues I described below. They came across as being disappointed that I had received a bad experience and were keen to put things right. It’s nice to see companies actually care and follow through with a proper investigation. Based on this I’m amend the review from 2 stars to 4 stars.

I sold and bought using this company. Diane Hampson was my conveyancer. On average the experience as ok. Would I use them again? Short answer is no. Here’s why:

My sale and purchase were separated and happened 5 months apart. During the sale, as we approached exchange, it became more difficult to get hold of Diane. Lots of absences and no one covering. When you’re about to exchange and your conveyancer is not available, the stress is unreal. Her Manager wasn’t much help either. Difficult to get hold of, would never call when she said she would, the usual tactics. Basically said there was nothing she could so I had to lump it. Not great customer services. I think Simply need to look at how they cover absences, especially at crucial times.

During the purchase - that’s when I got really pi$$ed off. Come to exchange, I get told we have exchanged and a letter outlining, send ALL your funds 2 days before completion. However, I’m thinking, you’ve not asked me for the deposit so have we really exchanged? So I email, asking about the deposit, Diane tells me it’s up to me, send the deposit or send the full funds. (A few weeks prior to this, I’d asked her specifically, what the exchange/completion process was and she told me about the fees for competing fast. I told her I did NOT want to do that, a week (the normal gap between exchange and complete) was fine).

I tell her, I don’t want to complete fast, I’ve told you this already, I don’t want to pay the extra fee. What really pi$$ed me off is that noting in her official letter or email communication even mentioned anything about the fees, she just assumed, without my verbal or written instruction that I would exchange and complete on same day - when we had ample time to do it in the standard way. When I tell her all this, her answer is that, ‘I told you about the deposit in early July (it was now early December!)’. Her view is that I should have known this? Excuse me? You’re the conveyancer, why am I paying you if not to make sure (amongst other things) that I send you the money as and when it’s due.

I have bought and sold before so I know roughly how it all works, but if I was a first time buyer, I’m relying on my conveyancer to tell me what the process is and tell me exactly what money I need to send and when. If I didn’t know any better, I would have just sent the full monies per HER instructions and suffered the extra fee.

As it happened I paid 50% of the extra fee because by that stage I’d had enough. To ensure I could exchange and complete with enough gap so the extra fee didn’t kick in, the mortgage funds would have had to be returned to bank, then requested again resulting in a delayed completion date. I just wanted it over by that stage.

What conveyancer isn’t explicit to the client about monies need to be paid and when? Total incompetence in my view. I did not provide verbal or written instruction to complete fast and Diane just went ahead, assumed that and communicated to me on that basis but without being clear about it either. Plus her telling me we had exchanged when actually we hadn’t as no deposit had been sent. Only because I know I thing or two, I was able to challenge her. Totally unprofessional. I think she messed up, but couldn’t admit she made a mistake.

We’re mid sale and this company is awful. Never the same person twice, don’t pass things along, don’t acknowledge emails, don’t keep track of what we’ve already sent them. We risk losing a sale because they’re so incompetent

My lawyer was told from the outset that we would be using power of attorney to enact a sale. At no point did she outline the additional cost of this. Also, it seemed to come as surprise to her, very late into proceedings, that a trustee needed to be appointed. More cost and a lot of stress born by us, the consumer. From an initial fee estimate of £1600, Simply Conveyancing helped themselves to £2,170. I would like to complain but fear I'd have legal jargon showered on me. It wouldn't be quite so unpalatable had the rest of the service been exemplary but it wasn't. Emails on the portal were ignored, telephone calls ignored (even to the Lawyers manager) or where clarity was sought, I'd get half the information supplied. Be very careful if you do a cost comparison for services supplied by any lawyers, especially Simply Conveyancing.

Answerphone service and don’t get back. Recommend using solicitors who are face to face. The security app Thirdfort that is used to confirm ID doesn’t send a code so unable to logon.