Complaints Procedure

Policy

  1. The purpose of this policy is to clarify how you may make a complaint and define the standard of service you can expect when you make a complaint.

  2. For the purposes of this policy a complaint is: “an expression of dissatisfaction with the standard of service provided by Bannister Bates Property Lawyers or with something a member of its workforce may or may not have done”

  3. If you are unable to sort out your complaint informally with the person who has been dealing with your matter then you may make a complaint in person, by phone, by email or by letter to our Managing Director, Peter Bates at our office providing the following information:

    -Name
    -Address
    -Contact details
    -The nature of the complaint
    -What you want Bannister Bates Property Lawyers to do about your complaint.

  4. Bannister Bates aim to deal with any complaint constructively and impartially, basing our decisions upon a reasonable investigation of the circumstances On receipt of a complaint Peter Bates will respond within 7 days. Where a full response to your complaint cannot be given in this time frame he will provide you with in 7 days notification of the reason for the delay and commit to responding fully within 28 days of the initial complaint to him.

    At this stage we will set out in full in our response our understanding of the nature of your complaint, our decision, the reasons for our decision and any offer of remedial action and/or redress where a complaint is upheld.

  5. If you are dissatisfied with any aspect of our handling of your complaint and wish to proceed with a Review, Peter Bates will either deal with the Review personally or in the event that he was directly involved in the original decision , he will appoint a senior member of the management team to review the decision. You will be notified of the outcome of the Review within 28 days of receipt of your written request for a Review. The Review decision is the final stage in our complaints procedure.
  6. If after following the process you remain dissatisfied with any aspect of our handling of your complaint, you may write direct to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of our full written response to your complaint (and either within 6 years of the problem happening or 3 years from when you found out about it ) to ask them to consider the complaint further. Their details are as follows:-
    Legal Ombudsman
    PO Box 6806
    Wolverhampton
    WV1 9WJ
    Telephone: 0300 555 0333
    Email: [email protected]
    Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk
  7. Unless it agrees there are good reasons not to do so the Council of Licensed Conveyancers will expect you to allow us to consider and respond to your complaint in accordance with the procedure set out above.