[email protected]

Complaints

At Your Conveyancer, we strive to provide our clients with the very best service. However, if something goes wrong or you are dissatisfied with the service you have received from us, you should tell us about it immediately.

In the first instance, please raise any concerns with the person undertaking the work for you or the person with overall responsibility. If, after doing so, you remain concerned about any issues then please contact our Client Care Director as follows:

Nicola Elliott
Your Conveyancer,
East Port House
12 East Port
Dunfermline
KY12 7JB

Email: [email protected]
Telephone: (01383) 667555

What will happen to your complaint?

For Scottish work:

Step 1: We aim to resolve a complaint at the first point of contact.

If the Customer is dissatisfied with the service they have received or are receiving, we actively encourage our Customers to discuss their concerns with the relevant Case Manager or Departmental Head. In the majority of situations, we aim to resolve complaints that are brought to our attention in this way.

If we are unable to resolve the complaint, we would ask the Customer to put their concerns in writing and the following timetable must be adhered to;

Step 2: Written complaint received to be dealt with by relevant Departmental Head.

Within 2 business days – If we are unable to resolve a complaint by the end of the following business day after we have received it, we must;

  • Write to the Customer with an acknowledgement letter including details of our Complaints procedure and tell the Customer who is dealing with their complaint.
  • Record the complaint in our central Complaints Register.
  • Start to investigate the complaint.

Within 7 business days – In the majority of cases, we will be able to send a written response to the Customer’s complaint within 7 business days of receiving it. If we are unable to respond to the Customer within 7 business days, we must write to the Customer again, to update them with our progress and tell them how much longer it will take to provide a response.

In the unlikely event that the Customer is still not satisfied with the response the Customer can follow the next steps in the Internal Complaints procedure

Step 3: If the Customer is not satisfied, they can write to the Chief Executive who will then arrange to review the complaint. This will happen in one of the following ways;
  • The Chief Executive will review the complaint within 7 business days.
  • The Chief Executive will arrange for someone in the firm who has not been involved in the complaint to review it within 7 business days.
  • If the Chief Executive has initially reviewed the complaint, another Director will review the complaint within 7 business days.
  • The Customer will be invited to agree to independent mediation. The Customer will be advised of how long this process takes.

We will confirm the outcome of our review to the Customer within 7 business days. We will advise the Customer of our final decision with an explanation of our reasons for reaching this decision. We will provide the Customer with the contact details of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission so that they can contact them should they not be satisfied with the outcome.

The Customer has the right to refer their complaint to the SLCC at any time. In all circumstances, we should encourage the Customer to exhaust our internal complaints procedure.

What happens if we cannot reach an agreement with the Customer

If we cannot reach an agreement with the Customer, we will send a “Final Response” letter. This will clearly set out our position with regard to the Customer’s complaint and will advise the Customer how to contact the SLCC if they are not satisfied with the “Final Response”

For English & Welsh work:

Step 1: You can register the complaint with the person dealing with your matter or the Client Care Director. He is responsible for ensuring that complaints are handled effectively and in accordance with this procedure. This procedure will also apply to prospective clients to whom we have refused to provide a service or persistently or unreasonably offered an unwanted service to but only if the complainant has evidence to show that we did not have reasonable grounds to do so.

Step 2: Investigating the complaint

  1. We will acknowledge the complaint within 7 days.
  2. We will conduct a full investigation and an independent review of the matter.
  3. Where a full response cannot be given in 7 days we will acknowledge receipt of the complaint in that timescale, give the reason for the delay and commit to responding fully within 28 days of receipt of the initial complaint.
  4. Our response to the complainant will include:
    • A clear explanation of assessment of the complaint;
    • Our decision on it;
    • Any offer of remedial action and/or redress where a complaint is upheld;
    • Information on our complaint-handling review procedure (if applicable), its timeframes and how it can be accessed;
    • Information on the complainant’s right to refer the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, its time frames and contact details.
  5. If the complainant is dissatisfied with the outcome, or the way the complaint has been handled, the complainant may write to the Client Care Director who will make such further investigations as are necessary.
  6. The Client Care Director will inform the complainant of the conclusions and any alternative proposals to resolve the complaint, usually within 28 days of this being referred to him.
  7. If still unresolved at this stage, the complainant may take their complaint to the Legal Ombudsman. A complaint to the Legal Ombudsman must be brought within 6 months of receiving a final response from us about your complaint and 6 years from the date of the act or omission giving rise to the complaint or alternatively 3 years from the date you should reasonably have known there are grounds for complaint (if the act/omission took place before 6 October 2010 or was more than 6 years ago).
  8. We will record and report centrally all complaints received from clients.
  9. We will identify the cause of any problems of which the client has complained offering appropriate redress and correcting any unsatisfactory procedures.

Legal Ombudsman

The Legal Ombudsman is an independent body established by the Office for Legal Complaints under the Legal Services Act 2007 to deal with complaints against Licensed Conveyancers.

The Legal Ombudsman may:

  • Investigate the quality of professional service supplied by a Licensed Conveyancer to a client.
  • Investigate allegations that a Licensed Conveyancer has breached rules of professional conduct.
  • Investigate allegations that a Licensed Conveyancer has unreasonably refused to supply a professional service to a prospective client.
  • Investigate allegations that a Licensed Conveyancer 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 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’s address is:

PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ;

Telephone, 0300 555 0333;

website, www.legalombudsman.org.uk; or

email [email protected]

Online Dispute Resolution:

The European Commission has established an Online Dispute Resolution Platform (ODR Platform).  It is specifically designed to help customers resident in the European Union (EU) who have a complaint about goods or services bought online from traders established in the EU.

The ODR Platform can be found here: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/.