To think that this was unacceptable from solicitors

[princessposy]

DH doesn’t think this is a hugely big deal but I am really irritated by it.

I am selling a property. Estate agents recommended a solicitor so got a quote, paid them, sent some paperwork off then heard nothing for a few weeks. Probably should have chased it but there has been an awful lot on.

It transpires the solicitors have been sending forms and so on to an incorrect email address. It’s just my name at gmail dot com but my name is similar to a more common one. So as well as not getting the emails, they’ve been going to someone with a similar name to mine.

The solicitors didn’t seem bothered at all and just forwarded the emails to the correct email address.

AIBU to think that’s not acceptable? Or am I overreacting?

Never use the solicitors recommended by the estate agent, find your own independently.

You can report them to the Solicitors' Regulation Authority to be investigated for breach of client confidentiality ... though I would remove my business from them first!

This is it; I don’t think I can face starting the process again - or afford to lose the £250 I paid!

I would feel the same, I take my data privacy seriously, as should they. You could
out in an official complaint. You would then likely get the response you wanted and they will better understand data security is important to customers.

Indeed. I was Divorcing. Abusive exH. Agreed house would be transferred to my sole name. They sent him papers to sign transferring it to his sole name. I became aware (he turned up at my door saying I was a 'mad bitch'). They then did the same thing, 2 weeks later & to top it off, accidentally copied me in to an Internal email saying: 'has she stopped complaining yet?'. Bloody cowboys.

Its a breach of gdlr. Send them an email asking what their policy is in such an instance. Send it to the head partner in the practice.

Sorry to vent OP. Yes, it's both frustrating & affects confidence in them going forward that they've not apologised & reassured you they're on the ball.
Best of luck with it x

YABU - you haven’t bothered to chase once, you presumably gave your email address across expecting an email and didn’t bother to chase.

People make mistakes. Given they didn’t hear from you pointing out that you weren’t getting emails, how were they meant to know?

An apology to acknowledge their mistake would be the normal and professional thing to do. Even if the docs weren’t confidential, they’re still pretty important and the other person could’ve replied saying anything and they’d have thought it was you. Buying and selling takes ages so I would be annoyed at the delay. If they don’t pay attention to details, didn’t think it was weird that you weren’t replying, and weren’t bothered about their mistake then I would not have a huge amount of faith in them

@iveseenthefilms i didn’t ’give my email address expecting to receive an email.’ I filled in a long form with lots of information on it about both me and the property and amongst hundreds of other pieces of information (such as how many light switches are in the property!) my email address was there.

Sorry you went through that @FortnamsTea

Thanks all. I don’t doubt I should have chased them before now but honestly assumed they had the necessary info to be getting on with things at their end.

I’ve changed solicitors before due to their lack of attention to detail. If they can’t get my name right, I don’t trust them to deal with my affairs correctly.

Very true, and yet again minimised rather than apologised for in my case.

Mistakes happen.

It won't have been without consequences at their end.They'll have to fill in a risk management report at their firm and make a GDPR report.

The firm will take it very seriously and they will do something, but they won't necessarily tell you what that something is.

Also, why didn't you chase them? It's your purchase.

That constitutes a data breach and they are obliged to report it to the ICO. If they haven't done so then you can report it yourself.

I’m selling - it isn’t actually my purchase. I have explained why: I thought I’d filled in everything I’d needed to fill in and didn’t think I needed to ring them to check they weren’t sending emails I didn’t know they were sending.

Didn’t your buyer chase you about the lack of progress with the sale?

I worked as an estate agent for a few years in the early 80s.

Every firm I worked for had at least a couple of firms of solicitors that they would recommend to clients. None of them took an actual "cut".

However, every one of those solicitors would recommend that agent for anyone who had to sell a property, eg in probate cases and divorces. Funny, that...

I'd have thought that the lack of any response might have made them think that something may be amiss, tbh.

Wtf are you on?

Its not like OP can use her work email to send personal stuff, that would be deeply inappropriate.

Public sector doesnt equal "work for MI5" we use gmail, vodafone and tesco like everyone else 😄

What super special secure email account do you use to send all your emails?

There are some posters on here who are either just trolling or just bonkers....

Nope. Clients ignore emails all the time. Then, that sort to the first to complain they haven't heard from us quickly enough when they finally reply to us

I’d be emailing them complaining and pointing out if their attention to detail is so shit they can’t write an email address that is literally the name of their client, how the fuck can you expect them to ensure all the details of the sale are accurate. Add to that sending details of the sale to someone else or ignoring a failed to deliver message. How are you meant to know that they sent you something you didn’t receive and why didn’t they call you if they weren’t getting a response? Sounds fairly shoddy.