James Graham
Firstly the purchase was with no chain and it took approximately 6 months; there didn’t appear to be much chasing the other party until the final week when the mortgage offer was due to expire. It appeared that the documentation we supplied was reviewed at the last minute, leading to errors and delays. There was an issue of ‘right of way’ which was discussed at length during the first few months of the purchase, it took MJP a few months to realise that the agreement written by the sellers solicitors (which also took a long time) would not provide the necessary easement of obligations and that MJP would need to draft a deed of easement instead. When the value of the property was reduced, only some of the documentation seemed to be updated. I had to chase repeatedly for the financial summary to be updated which when provided was miscalculated, and we overpaid. We were sent a cheque for this value; however when we asked if this refund could be made electronically we were initially told there would be a fee for this and secondly the incorrect amount was refunded to us. It was not until quite far into the purchase did MJP realise they had the wrong names for the purchase. When asked to sign personal guarantees MJP provided 1 form with 2 pencil crosses on each page. We completed this form as marked and we were informed it was signed incorrectly on the planned day of exchange. We were told the other solicitor we used ‘should have known better’, however we were following the instruction from MJP on the form provided. Everyone we spoke too seemed professional however with all the issues stated above we were not provided with an apology. Blaming other parties for these mistakes undermined MJP professional credibility. We chose to use a local firm as we believe it’s good to support local businesses and hoped to use MJP again for future purchases. However, due to delays and the amount of times we’ve had to ask for issues to be corrected, we will now look for a different solicitor elsewhere in the future. We also sent this review to MJP and asked for their feedback before issuing this review and we didn't receive a response.