COMPLAINTS POLICY
We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. If you have a problem or complaint you need to tell us about it. This will help to improve our service to you.
A complaint is an oral or written expression of dissatisfaction which alleges that the complainant has suffered (or may suffer) financial loss, distress, inconvenience, or detriment.
If you have a complaint, please contact the person handling your case in the first instance. If you feel you do not wish to speak to them directly please telephone either Mr Christopher G Mowat or Mrs Sara Horne on 015394 88901.
What will happen next?
1. We will write to you acknowledging receipt of your complaint within 7 days enclosing details of our complaints procedure and advise you of the name of the person dealing with your complaint and provide you with an indication of how long it will take to respond to your complaint
2. We will then investigate your complaint. This will normally involve reviewing your file and gathering information from the person dealing with, or who dealt with, your matter. It may also involve retrieving your file from our Document Store Facility and speaking with members of staff.
3. Within 28 days of our acknowledgement letter we will send you a detailed written reply to your complaint, including our suggestions for resolving the matter.
4. If you have made the complaint verbally, either by telephone or at a meeting, we will write to you setting out in our full response our understanding of the nature of your complaint.
5. If we require more time to gather information we will write to you within 28 days from our acknowledgement letter confirming our investigations are still ongoing and giving you a timescale for a response.
6. The assessment of the complaint will be based upon a full and impartial investigation. We will explain our findings to you in writing and, where the complaint is upheld, we will offer remedial action or redress, which will be dealt with promptly.
7. After receiving our written reply to your complaint if you are dissatisfied, you can ask for a meeting to discuss the matter further and hopefully resolve your complaint. If you require, you can, or we can, arrange for an independent party to attend the meeting to mediate and review the decision. The review will take place within 28 days of the request.
8. We will write to you within 14 days of receiving your request for a review with an appointment to attend our offices.
9. After the appointment we will send a detailed summary of the meeting for your approval.
10. We will write to you within 21 days of the review meeting confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
11. If we have to change any of the above timescales, we will let you know in writing and explain the reasons why.
12. If after following the review process you remain dissatisfied, you may contact the Legal Ombudsman to ask them to consider the complaint further. Their details are as follows-
Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Tel no: 0300 555 0333
E-mail: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk
Address
Legal Ombudsman
PO Box 6806
Wolverhampton
WV1 9WJ
Unless they agree there are good reasons not to do so, the Legal Ombudsman will expect you in the first instance to allow us to consider and respond to your complaint in accordance with the procedure set out above.
The time limits for referring a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman are as follows:
(a) six years from the date of the act/omission;
(b) three years from the date you should reasonably have known there were grounds for complaint; and
(c) within six months of you receiving a final response from us.
You can also refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman if we have not resolved your complaint within 8 weeks after we received your complaint.
The Legal Ombudsman deals with service-related complaints only; it will refer any conduct related complaint to the Council for Licensed Conveyancers.
13. Our firm does not use an alternative complaints body
14. 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.)