On the rare and regretful occasion this may happen with us, we want you to know that the Partners and all members of PCS Legal’s staff are committed to ensuring your complaint is dealt with fairly, honestly, transparently, impartially and without discrimination. We are committed to providing a quality service and satisfactory outcome to your matter.

Our complaints procedure is free of charge and designed to try and resolve any issues you may have with us. If your allocated Case Handler cannot resolve your complaint in the first instance, we will have one of our Client Care Team investigate your complaint and revert to you. If you are still dissatisfied with the outcome of our investigation, you can refer the matter to the Legal Ombudsman or other mediation agency.

What is a complaint?

A complaint is “an oral or written expression of dissatisfaction which alleges that the you have suffered (or may suffer) financial loss, distress, inconvenience, or detriment”.

Who Can Complain?

We will only respond to complaints from our own clients. Where our clients are considered ‘vulnerable’, we will accept complaints from a person acting on their behalf.

Who should I complain to?

We ask that you first contact your Case Handler responsible for your matter, shown in the ‘Contact Sheet’ you were sent at the beginning of your transaction. They will be familiar with your matter and are the best person to resolve any problems you are experiencing.

If you do not have access to the contact sheet, please contact us and we will be happy to send another copy to you.

If the matter is still not resolved by your Case Handler then please contact one of our Client Care Team, Matthew Wells (Client Care Manager), Wendy Heron-Warne (Assistant Manager), Daniel Dutu, and Gemma Cadby, who will respond to you within 7 days to explain how your complaint will be investigated. We aim to provide a full response to your complaint within 28 days. If you have made the complaint verbally, either at a meeting or on the telephone, we will set out in our full response our understanding of the nature of your complaint.

• Tel: 01268 590003

• Email: clientcare@pcslegal.co.uk

• Website: www.pcslegal.co.uk

• Address: 5 The Capricorn Centre, Cranes Farm Road, Basildon, Essex SS14 3JA

• Please note that our regulators, The Council for Licenced Conveyancers (CLC) do not operate a general complaints service about CLC regulated persons (us).

When should I complain?

We ask that you complain as soon as possible if you feel that our services are not meeting your expectations. Please do not delay, as we want to resolve any issues before they become too serious and get your matter back on track as fast as possible.

How do I complain?

You can complain by post, email or telephone as detailed above. It would be helpful if you would include the following:

• Your full name, address and the matter to which your complaint

• The name of the person dealing with your matter and our reference number that you will find in our correspondence to

• List all the points you wish to raise as clearly as

• Use numbered paragraphs to enable us to respond quickly to addressing the listed issue(s).

• The solution you are looking for. This may be asking for another one of our Case Handlers to deal with your file, or a simple explanation of something you may have misunderstood or had not been properly informed about or are unhappy

What if I am still not satisfied with the outcome of the complaint or the way it has been handled?

If after following the review process, you remain dissatisfied with any aspect of our handling of your complaint, you may in the first instance contact Stuart Forsdike or Kate Forsdike who will conduct a separate review of your complaint.

If after following the review process you remain dissatisfied with any aspect of our handling of your complaint you may contact directly the Legal Ombudsman to ask them to consider the complaint further:

Contact details for the legal Ombudsman are as follows; -

• Tel no: 0300 555 0333

• Email: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk

• Website: http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/

• Address: Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6167 Slough SL1 0EH

The Legal Ombudsman powers and time frames

As discussed above, unless the Legal Ombudsman agrees there are good reasons not to do so, they will expect you to allow us to consider and respond to your complaint in accordance with the procedure set out above in the first instance. You can refer your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman up to 6 months after you have received our final written response to your complaint. You can also use the Legal Ombudsman service if we have not resolved your complaint within 8 weeks of us receiving it. A complaint can be referred to the Legal Ombudsman up to 1 year from the date of the act or omission or up to 1 year from when you would have reasonably known you could have complained. The Legal Ombudsman deals with service related complaints however any conduct related complaints will be referred to the Council for Licensed Conveyancers who are our regulators.

Other Complaint Bodies.

There are alternative complaints bodies such as ADR and ProMediate which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme.

We may agree to use an alternative complaint scheme provided it is independent. Please contact us if you wish to use such a scheme.

Your ongoing relationship with us during the process.

Making a complaint will not affect how we handle any ongoing matter for you, as long as we have your instructions and are still able to proceed.

The General Data Protection Regulations

We process your data when a complaint is made and are obliged by our regulators the Council for Licensed Conveyancers to keep records of complaints lodged. For more information on our Data Protection Policy and your rights visit our website.