We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards. We deal with all complaints fairly, promptly and at no extra cost to you.

1) WHAT IS A COMPLAINT?
A report by a client that their expectations of what they consider to be a good service have not been met.

2) MAKING A COMPLAINT
You can register a complaint with the person dealing with your matter, details of which are given in your initial Client Care Letter, or the Client Care Director named in your initial Client Care Letter and here:

Client Care Director Claire Williams
First Floor
Leanne House
Avon Close
Granby Industrial Estate
Weymouth
DT4 9UX
Tel: 01305 778271

In the first instance, we’d prefer if you write to us with full details of your complaint so that we have a good understanding of the issues being highlighted.

3) INVESTIGATING THE COMPLAINT

a).  We will acknowledge the complaint within 5 days of receipt which allows for any postal delays and notify you who will be handling your complaint.
b.  We will record your complaint in our central register and open a file for your complaint. We will conduct a full investigation and an independent review of the matter.
c.  Claire Williams will then invite you to a meeting to discuss to gather more information and it is hoped, to resolve the matter. She will do this within 14 days of sending the acknowledgement letter. Within 3 days of the meeting,  Claire will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions she has agreed with you.
d.  If you do not want a meeting, or if this is not possible, Claire Williams will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including suggestions for resolving the matter, within 21 days of sending you the acknowledgment letter. However, that may not always be possible, particularly where the complaint is of a more complex nature, We may require more time, but we will let you know the reason for the delay in responding fully and when you will receive a full response.
e.  We will reply to you, always in writing following the outcome of the review of the complaints investigated.

If you remain dissatisfied with the outcome, or the way the complaint has been handled, you may write to the Client Care Director at the address above, who will make such further investigations as are necessary.

We will generally aim to do this within 14 days of receipt of your notification and any further information you wish to be considered. This will happen in one of the following ways –

• Client Care Director will review your comments
• Depending on the matter, we may at this stage arrange for another Director to review the decision

The Client Care Director will inform you of the conclusions, confirming our final position on your complaint, explaining our reasons and any alternative proposals to resolve the complaint.

If still unresolved at this stage, you may take the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman or, in accordance with the Alternative Dispute Resolution Regulations to an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Scheme Provider. We will always issue a final letter advising you of this.

4) LEGAL OMBUDSMAN
The Legal Ombudsman is the independent body established by the Office for Legal Complaints under the Legal Services Act 2007 to deal with complaints against Solicitors.

The Legal Ombudsman may:

• Investigate the quality of professional service supplied by a conveyancer or licenced conveyancing firm to a client.
• Investigate allegations that a conveyancer or licenced conveyancing firm has breached rules of professional conduct.
• Investigate allegations that a conveyancer or licenced conveyancing firm has unreasonably refused to supply a professional service to a prospective client
• Investigate allegations that a conveyancer or licenced conveyancing firm has persistently or unreasonably offered a professional service that the client does not want

Before it will consider a complaint the Legal Ombudsman generally requires that the firm’s internal Complaints Procedure (outlined above) has been exhausted. If the Legal Ombudsman is satisfied that the firm’s proposals for resolving a complaint are reasonable, it may decline to investigate further.

The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within one year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within one year of you realising there was a concern. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within six months of our final response to you.

The Legal Ombudsman’s address and contact details are:
Legal Ombudsman, PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH
Telephone, 0300 555 0333;
website, www.legalombudsman.org.uk
or email enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

5) THE COUNCIL FOR LICENCED CONVEYANCERS
Our Regulator, the Council for Licenced Conveyancers can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic.
You can raise your concerns with the Council for Licenced Conveyancers using the following contact details:
Contact Centre open Mon-Fri, 8am-5pm.
Tel: 020 3859 0904
Email: clc@clc-uk.org

Postal address:
Council for Licensed Conveyancers
WeWork
120 Moorgate
London
EC2M 6UR

If you make a valid claim against us for a loss arising out of work for which we are legally responsible, and we are unable to meet our liability in full, you may be entitled to claim from the Compensation Fund administered by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (from whom details can be obtained).

ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION SCHEMES
Alternative complaints bodies such as ProMediate exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme.
However, we don’t currently agree to use this Alternative Dispute Resolution service in view of the availability of the independent Legal Ombudsman Service established under the Legal Services Act 2007. We are bound by our Regulatory Code to comply with the Legal Ombudsman and our Regulator.

February 2024