A Masterclass in Incompetence and Buck-Passing - AVOID AT ALL COSTS!
Oh, AVRillo, where do we even begin with this parade of ineptitude? You proudly tout your "excellent relationships with managing agents" and your supposed expertise in leasehold properties, but letâs be realâyour communication is so abysmal it could give a mime a run for their money.
If youâre hoping for anything to actually get done, prepare to roll up your sleeves and do it yourself, because AVRilloâs team is apparently just there for decorative purposes. Their structure is a farce: a solicitor âheads upâ your case while a revolving door of staff fumbles through the details, leaving you to wonder if anyone actually knows whatâs going on.
And then thereâs the joy of their correspondenceâor should we say, their cryptic interrogations. AVRillo will bombard you with queries about your sale laced with such dense legal jargon, youâd need a law degree and a Rosetta Stone to decipher them. Words like âincumbrancesâ and ârestrictive covenantsâ are flung at you without a hint of explanation (and theyâre the easy ones), leaving you frantically Googling for a translation into âstupidâ just to understand what theyâre asking. Itâs as if they expect you, the client, to be fluent in legalese while they sit back and sip tea, utterly unconcerned with making the process remotely accessible. Good luck getting a straight answer from themâitâs like asking a toddler to explain quantum physics.
Theyâll push their shiny âadvance searchesâ package on you, promising to catch any nasty surprises. Sounds great, right? Except in our case, these searches somehow missed a massive developmentâapproved before we even hired themâthat was literally 20 feet away. A development so obvious it was plastered across the local councilâs website, debated heatedly on the areaâs Facebook page, and objected to by neighbours near and far. Our estate agent, the agent for our onward purchase, and other conveyancers were utterly baffled at how AVRilloâs âpremiumâ searches failed to flag this. Even the sellerâs TA6, which AVRillo didnât bother to cross-check, claimed no developments. Rookie mistake or sheer laziness? You decide.
When we confronted them with our Facebook-sourced evidence (because apparently, weâre the ones who have to do their job), AVRillo had the audacity to turn it around on us. Buyer beware, they sneered, as if we shouldâve conducted their searches for them. They even demanded payment for their so-called âworkââwork that failed spectacularly at the most basic level and shouldâve been covered by their fancy local search and premium package. The nerve!
As for obtaining a mortgage redemption statement, AVRilloâs incompetence hit new lows. They repeatedly claimed theyâd requested it from our lender, but after weeks of nothing, I called the lender myself, reached the redemption team in 90 seconds, and had a statement in two minutes (addressed to me). I sent it to AVRillo, whoâcredit where itâs dueâreplied within an hour to say it needed to be addressed to them. Back to the lender I went (answered in under two minutes), who said AVRillo had to request it directly, ideally by phone. I handed AVRillo the phone number, menu options, and account details, practically begging them to make a simple call. Days later, they claimed the statement hadnât arrived. I checked with the lenderâanswered in secondsâwho confirmed AVRillo hadnât phoned or emailed. This infuriating ping-pong lasted two weeks. Finally, 2â3 days before exchange, I sorted it myself, and the lender sent the statement addressed to AVRillo, noting theyâd only received an email request days earlier. This debacle pushed our completion to the wire on 31 March, risking our buyer pulling out or demanding we cover their stamp duty from 1 April. Utterly pathetic.
Do yourself a favour (no matter what they or an Estate Agent tells you) and steer clear of AVRillo. Ignore their slick promises and opt for a local, independent conveyancer who actually knows the area and wonât leave you high and dry.
AVOID AT ALL COSTS!
