Where there's no way there's no will.

Some time ago I decided to update my will. I organise for someone to visit me and do it. On the day of the meeting they rang to apologise but they had broken down on the route and could not make it. A second visit was re-scheduled and confirmed in writing. The day of the visit, the will writer rang to say he was just on his way and would be with me in an hour. The only problem was that was when our meeting was due to end. I could not give him more time, so had to cancel. The company did not reschedule. So when a Will company rang me in response to something that I had foolishly said to one of those cold calling market researchers I thought actually I will go for that, that will solve my problem. The good news is that the solicitor rang me on the day due and talked me through the process. I was not struck by him, so decided to go with the single will deal rather than their mega deal with signed me up at a very reasonable rate for multiple updates to my will. I decided to wait and see how they managed my first will. It was very simple all the details were given, all they had to do was type it up and get me to check it and sign it. Which would have been fine, only the lovely copy they sent me had information I had not requested added to it. So far I have not got a re-draft despite four phone calls and three emails. Today was the deadline I gave them for getting back to me or give me a refund. I seem to be in dispute with yet another inefficient company

Those niggling little errors that made a sale and made me very sad.

" their mortgage offer will run out in December, she has had a baby they are desperate to move in and have their first Christmas together" Bull shit, they spent 6 months emptying the place out, destroying my beautiful garden and only then moved in. "I just do not get it, why does the place look so tatty, old, it is supposed to be modern." " It is just because it has been rented out." Bull shit... the property had been redeveloped year ago, it was not modern, but that is what you told me. YOu stood in that kitchen and said nothing needed doing to it, yet the gas cooker was illegal and the cooker hood useless. YOu advertised my property as needing modernisation, but all these things worked in my now gutted kitchen. The boiler is not modern, the floor not concrete, and what happened to the fridge I was promised, all the deep clean and the beautifully prepared flat. You said he has spent so much money sorting it out making sure it is well sound proofed and has good fire doors, that he will scarcely make any money out of the sale. Crap. The fire doors are only partially fitted correctly. They do not swing shut automatically and everyone visiting my property comment on how much noise I get from downstairs. The property is sound proofed but only to a standard level, not the super high standards you promised. And sadly all the land I thought was mine at the front, well you made sure I did not see the plans till after the sale went through the plans that showed I only owned half the land. And the promise that the freehold would be through in weeks,and the piece of paper I insisted be attached to my acceptance, as it made it clear, that the sale was only going through on that basis, well both disappeared. The solicitor never got the paper that you assured me would reach them and as for the freehold that took over a year to arrive. Moving here traumatized me. I am having to work longer and harder to afford it than my old house. There was no point what so ever of me moving, all I did was throw away £10000 in removal fees, I would not have done that had I been misinformed. I just pray that the Property Ombudsman rules in my favour, because so far W.H Brown have not apologised for their duplicity and their manager has not fallen on his sword. I just urge anyone living in the Broxbourne area to avoid them like the plague.

The truth about building regs: more cruddy information three.

A week before the purchase went ahead I had yet to have had the survey done, but I still planned to go ahead with it. Felt it was vital in fact, when the Manager at W. H Brown told me that as the flat would have had to have gone through building regulations they would have checked everything that a survey did so I could save money and time, which was crucial, by foregoing that part of the purchase. Like an idiot I believed him. When I moved in and found all the problems with the flat, I spoke with building works, they tell me that they do not cover nearly as much as a survey, they just get the gas and electric certificates and provided all that is okay, sign off the work. However, as I know to my cost, the electric certificate on my new property was inaccurate: it claimed things were in place re electricity safety that were not. It was to my mind illegal, fraudulent. And I have never seen a gas certificate, but I now know that either there never could have been a gas certificate on the property, or again if there was, that it too would be fraudulent.

Cruddy information: two

Before I bought the property I am now in I almost pulled out. The seller's solicitor was causing a lot of grief and asking me to pay for the freehold, which was not in line with the original agreement. The stress was so great, I was becoming more and more stressed and ill. I pulled out. I could not talk with anyone about it. It was only absolute assurance by the Manager at W.H Brown that although the solicitor was an "XCIGIIui;jdaj!!!" they knew the seller and that I could rely on him and he would be perfectly good as a co-freeholder. I not only believed the manager, I trusted him. What a shame.... The day I moved in and found that the promised deep clean had not happened, and I electrocuted myself on the "modern kitchen" I knew not only had I made a serious, serious error in moving, but that I had been totally misinformed about the man I am now a co-owner of the property with. The seller, has not moved stuff out of the flat, he has refused to help with all the problems with the meters, all of which were mislabelled, in fact if I had not twigged I would have been paying not just for my water board bill,but for his. So much for him being totally reliable. I am still getting threatening letters from TV licensing, from EOn, so heaven knows. It makes me feel totally insecure about the property and either staying or trying to sell it on. Trading Standards tell me it was totally inappropriate for the Estate Agents to in effect act as guarantors for the seller.

Issue one.

I wanted to downsize because my income was very low and I was having serious concerns about maintaining the property I was in. I knew that property required new windows, new floors and from what I could find out that seemed to cost what I had in savings, so I knew if I stayed put, I would have to deal with lots of services, disrupt the whole house, and have no money at the end. My one foray into buying double glazing for the house had resulted in a major dash across country to try and find the company who had disappeared with my cheque. So trying to upgrade my house seemed a major challenge, so I figured if instead I could downsize to a property that did not need any work, then that would be easier. And even better if I downgraded to a property that I could subsequently rent out I could actually work less. I explained all this to W. H Brown, that there was no point in moving, if the new property could not deliver. W.H Brown said I could rent the property out the minute I moved in. A year on, I am working longer hours than before to try and pay for the work that needs doing on the new property before I can rent it out!

The background to my complaint against W.H Brown.

Trading Standards have "talked to" W.H Brown about my complaint, getting them to do that is a major success, but if I want compensation they say I have to take W H Brown to court. I have decided to wait instead in the hope that my complaint to the Property Ombudsman will come through instead. Weirdly as someone who tends to moan and record everything, everything that W.H Brown told me about the property I was about to buy and everything I told them was not recorded in the main. I wish I had blogged about the process and everything that has happened since, but I found it all so stressful and depressing that I could not get my act together. So I am going to try and put that right, by writing something now. There are so many people complaining to the property ombudsman that they are way behind with the cases. As that has taken over a year I decided to ask W.H Brown to compensate me. They have said that they will wait for the PO's response. as if they cannot see for themselves that their behaviour in this instance was completely wrong. I thought when I bought the property that I would be covered by laws like the Sale of Good Acts, I have found instead that there is virtually no protection for someone making what is normally the biggest purchase of their life. Estate Agents do have a Duty of Care and it was because of this that I was able to persuade Trading Standards to investigate, but even when I feel I have evidenced their faults, it does not seem to count against them, so I feel it is time to remind W H Brown and Trading Standards why I bought this complaint against them.