Conveyancing Services.........give this company a miss!

J and I obtained the services of Sydney Conveyancing Services situated on Old Northern Road, Baulkham Hills, in August 2012 for the purchase of a block of land. It was a very simple contract. 

 

Our first appointment was for them to go through our contract and advise if there was anything out of the ordinary we needed to know. Preet Kaur explained that it was straight forward and she would like to hold onto the contract until settlement. She informed us that we would be required to make the deposit at a later stage.

The deposit was provided in December 2012 when we exchanged contracts. From this time on, there was virtually no contact with Sydney Conveyancing. I made contact by email in April 2013 to find out about a sunset clause in the contract. Then I made contact again in February 2014 to request that the contract be amended to reflect our full names for financial purposes. 

We were expecting the land to register in March so I emailed Preet every now and then between February and late March, and when land was still not registered, throughout April. I found that I had to chase her for an answer to my enquires. I found her condescending at times, telling me that she wasn't updated on a step by step basis, when all I wanted to know was had she received any further information on registration.

Our Mortgage Broker was constantly leaving phone messages and sending emails which she never replied to. I found it difficult to get any information from her, and she seemed to be a step behind everyone else (other solicitors and conveyancers of other buyers in the same estate had updates from the Vendor's Solicitor days before ours).

When it came to settlement she was able to perform her duties without any problems. However, when we received her invoice it was for $200 more than she had quoted us in the beginning.

My biggest grievance was that there was a clause in the land contract that stated our deposit could be put into an interest bearing account and that interest would be earned and split between the purchaser and the Vendor. It was only once the land registered and other purchasers were receiving in the vicinity of $400 - $850 in interest that we were made aware. We never received contract until after settlement when it was emailed to us.

J and I have emailed and phoned Preet in regards to this and she accepts no responsibility. She is blaming the Vendor's solicitor for a) not asking her if we wanted to put the deposit into an interest bearing account, b) we did not supply our TFN's, therefore it wasn't an option for us. She has even gone as far as to say that she is sure she informed us of it at the beginning and was going to check her paperwork and get back to us. One week on, she hasn't given us a call or sent an email, and she refuses to return calls.

She did not read the contract and as a consequence we missed out on interest which was rightfully ours. Our deposit was paid 15 months prior to registration. The interest would have almost paid her fees.

I would not recommend Sydney Conveyancing Services. She is not thorough, she does not take responsibility for her errors, she avoids phone calls, takes too long to reply to emails and when she does it doesn't make much sense. There is very little professionalism in the way she conducts business. This experience was disappointing and disheartening and I hope that this can save other potential clients the dramas that we experienced.