Trends in Residential Conveyancing
During the course of the last 18 months
- we have considered 4709 complaints arising from residential conveyancing matters
- this represents almost a quarter (23%) of all complaints received during that period
- in 845 (18%) of those complaints the quality of the costs information provided by the firm was listed as one of the main complaints
The majority of complaints in conveyancing matters arise when a solicitor renders a bill that is substantially higher than the client was expecting. In many cases the client was under the impression that they were being charged a fixed amount, only to discover that there were additional charges on top of a quoted fee.
In most cases the firm had provided very thorough costs information. However, we found that this could often not be easily understood by the client. Solicitors should think beyond just providing costs information. You should also consider whether it was provided in a way that could be reasonably understood by the individual customer. A failure to provide costs information in this way may amount to a finding of poor service.
Detailed below are examples of some of the complaints we have received where we have decided that the client received an unreasonable level of service
- Inadequate initial costs advice
- Costs information in an inappropriate format
- Charging for undertakings
- Charging for overheads
