RMNJ Reviews 

Sincere thanks to RMNJ for a high quality conveyancing service. It must be extremely hard during the pandemic to deliver a seamless and professional product but you managed it and I’m delighted. Special mention to Jennifer Thompson and Louise Little. I’ll be using the firm again without reservation.

Louise Jones has been fantastic from start to finish. We had a fairly tight deadline, due to the property being bought via Auction, but Louise did everything she could to make sure everything went smoothly. This is the 3rd time I have used RMNJ for house purchase and I must say each time has been really well managed. Thanks again

Buying and Selling property is unfortunately a complex process with many moving parts and timescales that can become stretched through no fault of any particular party. This can be mitigated though with good business processes and good governance backed up by clear and timely communication, unfortunately this company has none of these traits.

This company needs to press the re set button as regards Customer Service and Communication, the DNA of the company is fundamentally flawed as regards dealing with Customers.
I believe that you have about a 50;50 chance of getting the service you deserve when using this company for your conveyancing needs.

I had this misfortune to deal with two of the partners ( Emma and Gareth ) one by e mail and one on the phone. I found them unhelpful, sarcastic, and to a point some what threatening. They were never rude they are far to cleaver for that but the shadow they cast tells you why so many people have problems with this company and why the staff have little direction or strategy for dealing with the problems when they do arise.

The partners and staff will no doubt be well qualified and have lots of nice pictures on the walls showing them at industry dinners picking up awards but it means nothing if you cant deal with problems, anyone can run a business when its all going smoothly its when the problems occur that you find out who can perform

As I pointed out at the start of the review the process can be complex but 20 weeks to complete a straight forward sale is not acceptable, I did not start chasing until week 12 which I think shows my patience and commitment.

Hopefully they will improve but I feel until they get the culture correct this will not happen

RMNJ solicitors appear to be holding the chain up because of their slowness (weeks until they have the time to look at a document!) and the lack of communication makes the situation very frustrating. Our experience is as follows:
In September 2020 we accepted an offer on our property we have no forward chain and our purchasers had accepted an offer on their property a month or two before and conveyancing was already underway. Their purchasers were 1st time buyers and using RMNJ solicitors. The expectation was that completion was possible before Christmas 2020 and this is what we were working towards.
At the beginning of December our solicitor informed us that we were now in a position to exchange and complete on the sale of our property and made enquires as to the position of the sale of our purchasers property this was the reply
“The delay is being caused by the speed in which our client purchasers solicitors have proceeded. As far as I am aware we have responded to all their enquiries. I have just rung them today and been told that as today and Monday will be the busiest days of the year they cannot review the file given that we have only responded recently to the last of their piecemeal enquiries. They have indicated that they will not be able to review the file and get back to us until the New Year.” 18/12/2020
A month later still none the wiser and this is what we have received after our solicitor enquired about setting a date for completion “I appreciate that there is pressure at the top of the chain, however, this needs to be managed accordingly given we have only recently been provided with the information required to progress matters. The Chain is not ready until we confirm that we are, and we politely request that we are now afforded the opportunity of reviewing our File accordingly.
Please communicate this accordingly with the chain. “ 22/1/2021
As part of accreditation to the Law Society Conveyancing Quality Scheme RMNJ solicitors should be dealing with things promptly and should ensure that they have managed and covered timing and other expectations and linked transactions such as chains appropriately. Unfortunately we can see no evidence of this thus the one star review.
I have complained to the firm and received a very detailed reply within a couple of days which was very efficient. I have been told going forward that things will be dealt with "as soon as possible". I will post up on what that means in practice hopefully it will be prompt and I can give evidence of a positive experience going forward.

Shocking communication, felt like nothing got touched until we were ready to exchange then the problems emerged delaying us further. Took nearly a month to receive our funds following our sale. They were one of the cheapest but in hindsight would have paid more to avoid RMNJ.

I used the services of RMNJ in September 2020 to purchase a house.
My case was assigned to Jennifer Thompson. My experience of dealing with her is negative. I found her manner to be off-hand, cold and dismissive. I also found her to be unprofessional and tardy in her responses. For example, being kept waiting an entire week for a reply to a straightforward query, eventually to be sent a reply devoid of the requested information (whilst all the while being quizzed by the estate agents over why matters are progressing so slowly). This was not appreciated with a transaction of this nature, where at one point I felt I was on a cliff edge and the vendor would ditch me for another buyer. Things started to move along more positively only because the complaint I made, was responded to in the nick of time by a more senior partner, who took over. Hope this helps

RMNJ's Conveyancing team was recommended to me by a family member and I decided to use them after doing my own research, I am pleased I did. They already had good online reviews and were one of the cheaper options I had found. Despite Covid sending the entire housing market into meltdown, RMNJ were able to meet every timescale they originally projected. As a whole, they were friendly and professional throughout. Jennifer Thompson in particular went above and beyond to ensure the process went smoothly after a long hold up caused by another party. She understood that we were a couple in separate lockdowns keen to be reunited for Xmas. She also knew that we were anxious first time buyers and took a little extra time to explain things to us, despite already putting in extra hours on evenings and weekends. I cannot recommend them highly enough.

Our house move was difficult and very prolonged and we found everyone at RMNJ to be very professional at all times and helpful most of the time. Overall they were very good and we would probably use them again - but do watch out for their tendency to overcharge - and fail to respond to emails at times - which is why it is only three stars not the full five stars.

Follow on from RMNJ's reply. Costs arose as the deal progressed and they charged me an extra £390 because they said it was a newbuild. They did advise me and I disputed it but was charged anyway. The property had not been occupied but it had been registered with the LR and a loan secured by the vendor, for which all the new build work would have been completed, so technically it was NOT a new build first registration and I resent the overcharge. Twice they also tried to charge me £150 for non existent mortgage admin (once on this and once before on a failed purchase) they removed the charge without question when I queried it, but had I not checked I could easily have overpaid. They also charged me £830 for a Deed of Variation to which I did agree initially to expedite the sale but in the event the drafting of the deed and much of the work was carried out by the vendors solicitor. I accept that RMNJ did some fine tuning but in my view that was cosmetic and served only for them to justify their charge. I believe that a reduced charge should have applied but that, according to RMNJ, is not an option because I agreed to the full charge before events overtook us. As I say - watch out for overcharges.

I had a really positive experience of RMNJ. Sarah Reay and Sarah Carroll were extremely professional and personable. Sarah and her team were very thorough when raising enquiries and they really went out of their way to help reassure and support me when things got very complicated and stressful at exchange. I would definitely recommend.

Having been under immense pressure to exchange and complete within an extremely tight time frame, we were anxious that (Due to the demand on property market booming following Coivd-19 Lockdown period ) we would very possibly lose our deal on the house. It was through the absolute hard work and commitment to us through what we can only describe as a wonderful customer service experience that the team at RMNJ were able to successfully enable us to complete on the superbly unrealistic timeframe. The communication and reassurance along every step was just so reassuring and we cannot thank, nor recommend RMNJ enough to our family and friends and will be sure to continue to commit any future purchases to RMNJ. Thank you for making the whole stressful situation just that bit more pleasant. Sophie and John!

hi
My offer is accepted on 22 July, Searches completed at the end of August. Then RMNJ Took three weeks to Send the enquires to Seller Solicitor on 19 September. Seller solicitor replied to enquiries on 28 September and now(22 Oct 2020) when I chased them in last week they send me reply in this week that "We are aiming to review you case in this Week".

I was expecting the outcome but after three weeks they are aiming to review in this week.

At the moment they are taking 3 to 4 week to reply to every step.

Wouldn’t recommend

Unfortunately we did not have a good experience with RMNJ and the Conveyancing team. I completely understand there has been a delayed due to COVID, but strongly feel it could have been a much faster process had the team at RMNJ been more organised and proactive. 9 times out of 10 our calls and emails would go unanswered for days on end, even after we made a formal compliant nothing changed. I feel like I was constantly having to pester for news, and was meet with a frosty reply

I dont doubt they are capable, but if you are looking for a efficient, quick and friendly service I would recommend looking elsewhere.

Personally we found this company very poor.

We appointed these after our initial conveyancing company were closing, we were mindful that RMNJ would have to start both processes of sale and purchase so did not pester.

Sale was progressed ok but after 5/6 weeks we still had not heard anything about our purchase, not even any request for payments for searches. As per their initial correspondence, they asked clients email rather than call. We did this but our emails were never answered so we began to call. Within 2 weeks we had so many conflicting calls from various members of staff...ranging from a date being proposed and told it was something we could definitely aim for, to the next call being told we were minimum 4 weeks off even talking dates, with no purchase paperwork even being started. We were being informed by our buyers and vendors of our purchasing property that all their paperwork had been completed and our solicitors were holding up the chain and people were going to pull out of the chain.

We simply had enough and so raised a complaint with the complaints department....and yet again we were faced with no response. We resent the email 3 times and left 5 voice messages with members of staff with yet gain no reply.

After a week we finally received a reply acknowledging the complaint, advising they would look into complaint and also into why the voice messages had not been passed on the complaints department.

We acknowledge we had a thorough response with regards to our complaint were an apology was offered for failing to answer our emails but blamed other points on other solicitors in the chain. In this reply it spoke of a significant phone call were a date was suggested were we were told was possible something to be aimed for, to find out we’re were no where near it. The member of staff completely denied having the conversation and it was suggested that our recollection of it was incomplete. We were completely offended by this as it was their members of staff who were at fault, not us. If their members of staff had actually stuck to their own requests of keeping correspondence via email then maybe this would not have happened. This for us set the tone, that no matter how much you complain, they supported staff even though they were at fault. We just wanted our sale and purchase completed together without further delay.

We finally completed and moved weeks later...but for the last 4weeks we have been trying to speak with someone regarding our fees we have a query regarding the fact final amount..and guess what no response again! We will escalating this further as it’s simply awful.

We appreciate there is a pandemic and a stamp duty holiday, but it is affecting everyone, businesses, trades, professions etc not just conveyancing.

DO NOT HIRE THIS COMPANY. 1 Star is one to many.

It's a crap service and massively delay every step of the paperwork. 4 months into the property purchase and have not seen the contract yet. Now the seller is threatening to withdraw from the sale.

I instructed them with my property purchase 4 months ago. It took them 4 weeks to send me a form for searches after they received the mortgage offer. They need 10 days to review the contract after the searches come in. Why have you not reviewed the contract while the searches were undergoing? "We don't want to raise several enquiries." Well, you don't have to raise them yet, do you? 10 days is now 4 weeks ago, and still haven't seen a contract.
They tend to blame 3rd parties and Corona for the delay. "It's normal." No, it's not.
Also hidden costs that make the initial quote much more expensive.
I genuinely regret to have hired these people. They do not deserve one penny for their 'service'. They genuinely do not care.

Absolutely awful. Can't speak for the firm as a whole but we dealt with a woman called Jennifer Thompson. Trying to get responses to even the most basic enquiries was like pulling teeth, taking days or even a week +. Whenever she did respond she did not have the decency to offer a simple apology for the delays. Also a very abrupt and rude manner by phone. She took three weeks to even carry out ID checks, the first bit of work she had to do.

There were also extremely frustrating inconsistencies in what she told us, which caused, or certainly would have caused, even further unnecessary delay.

We ended up asking if the file could be dealt with by another solicitor at the firm but she said this wasn't possible, so we cancelled the instruction rather than having to continue dealing with her.

To emphasise the point, the next firm that we've been dealing with have been everything she wasn't: quick, helpful, courteous and so on.

Also shows that, contrary to RMNJ's line, a pandemic isn't a catch all excuse for terrible service. If you're too busy, either take on more staff or fewer clients.

Excellent service from them, they dealt with a sale and purchase for us. Our seller unfortunately died during the process requiring Probate to get involved via her son. Our sale had to progress and we nearly ended up storing our furniture and moving in with relative's due to probate delays. Sarah Reay and Sarah Carroll both went to exceptional levels of customer service by working into the evening and phoning and emailing 3rd parties to ensure our purchase and sale both happened so we had somewhere to live. Very impressed and all done during a pandemic. Would definitely recommend this solicitors and should we need one in the future we'll definitely be contacting them.

These guys are the pits. I had a no chain, cash purchase house that they still managed to fumble around and take 16 weeks to complete. There were no unusual issues with the property. They just put your file at the bottom of their tray - and it stays there if you don't ring them up and hassle them. Of course, they blame the sellers conveyancer. One time, I emailed the snotty joker who was my rep. Heard nothing. Rang up a week later to find out that she had buggered off on holiday, but hadn't passed the file or email access onto a colleague. I suspect that what we have here is ONE qualified solicitor, signing the paperwork off and 100 minimum wage school leavers/interns doing all the work. So everything backs up at this pinch point. Maybe my rep was the stinker - but I wouldn't give them another go to find out. So, no, I would not recommend at all.

Avoid - Slow, rude and communication is terrible. Only when prompted would any work on our purchase of our property get done (still not completed on a chain free property, 9 weeks in and have been advised that the target date for the searches will be at least another 4 weeks). It took 6 weeks to get the sellers fitting and contents form to us and then it was badly photocopied and you couldn’t read any of the headings, we ended up going online to find out what they were.

Understandably things maybe slower due to COVID-19, but their inability to provide you with a purchase process update or target date for completion without being rude and quoting their T&C at you is not good enough.

My advice would be go with a company which shows the progression of you purchase/sale online.

Contact was horrible, my questions were never answered, couldn't ever reach them either via mail or by calling. They were recommended by my mortgage adviser and I wish I never trusted either of them.
When I gave them an instruction that I am moving away from purchase, they answered that the lender will respond re a query I asked weeks before - completely not what I asked in the email.
When I fired them I couldn't even get a confirmation they received my instruction!

RMNJ came recommended by a friend who had a positive experience with them. We instructed them just before lock down (March 2020) so naturally things were going to be a bit chaotic. That said, the whole process was shambolic. It is not an exaggeration to say that Grainne and her team never replied to emails (over 20 went unanswered). We were kept in the dark throughout the entire process, with no updates unless we called and asked. They were perfectly nice on the phone but difficult to get hold of. Their work was sloppy with many glaring typos and several incorrect invoices. They managed to get the sale over the line but it all nearly fell through because of their lack of communication both to us and to the seller's solicitors. The estate agent described them to us as "seriously inept and incompetent". It is totally understandable that COVID-19 would hold things up, but we felt as though this should have been communicated to us better, rather than no communication at all.