Category Archives: Lawyers

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Letters to my conveyancing lawyers

Dear Sirs,

I am sending this email to all the solicitors concerned with the sale of the above property to Mrs B.

The reason I decided to sell, rather than let out this property, was to effect a quick sale to a cash buyer with no mortgage. Had I chosen the letting route I would by now have received some £2,500 in rental income and the value of the property would have increased by perhaps a greater increment.

Mrs B’s offer to purchase was accepted on the 9th May 2014, over 10 weeks ago.

Why oh why are we not close to exchange / completion ?

The lease extension, I was told, would merely be a paper exercise and yet this appears stalled.

You are all very well financially rewarded for the work you do, at, it has to be said, a lamentable pace. Has it not crossed your minds that I, your client, might need the proceeds from this sale to ‘get on with his life’?  What if I was involved in another property development?  You have been shuffling papers for the same time as we took to up-grade this flat.  May I make you aware that as a consequence of your procrastinations I am paying searing charges on my bank overdraft and punishing interest on my credit card. I approach the end of my tether … the whole UK conveyancing process needs shaking-up,

Yours sincerely,

Jamie Summers


4 August 2014

Dear Sirs,

Once again, 3 weeks after my first badinage to you solicitors involved in the sale of the above property and now closing in on 13 weeks since the buyer’s verbal agreement to purchase, I am forced to vent my spleen at your collective deferrals. This time I am copying in the estate agent dealing with the sale and will be sending a copy of this and my previous email to Mrs B. who needs to be made aware of my fomenting frustration.

Harry Mount wrote in The Spectator (28.6.14) “ … conveyancing – a long word used by lawyers to conceal an extremely simple transaction.”

I signed my part of the contract one week ago at the offices of my London solicitors and informed them that I wished to complete at the earliest opportunity. Unless we ‘exchange’ by this coming Friday 8th August I fully intend to cancel this sale and re-advertise the property at a considerably raised price or rent it out as an interim arrangement. None of you lawyers will be involved in any subsequent sale.

I repeat my assertion that you have all contrived to make my life financially burdensome. You should be held to account for your ineffectiveness.

Yours sincerely,

Jamie Summers


4 August 2014

Dear Jamie,

I am surprised by the tone of your email which I find offensive.   I have already explained my position by email.  I have since met you and dealt with everything I was required to do expeditiously.  I will forward separately the emails since our meeting regarding the signed Lease Extensions.

I would appreciate an apology.

Kind Regards.


No apology ever granted

Letter to the President of the Law Society

Dear Lucy,

It was good to see you on television the other day once again sticking up for the poorer members of society – this time in terms of Legal Aid being withdrawn.  I just wanted to say many congratulations on becoming President of the Law Society.

You may not remember me  (Anno Domini gets us all doesn’t it ?!)  but I used to do my best in the mental health world initially for Springfield Patients Council and then for Consumer Forum, the user group at Hammersmith & Fulham MIND.  I must have referred people to you maybe via Steve at the Springfield Law Centre or through John Colquhoun at Penley’s in Dursley   – John and I shared a fine brother-in-law,  Andrew Ingram R.I.P. .  Adina Halpern may be a name you recall as well.

Anyway, you did/do valuable work in a field that few of your fellow solicitors would relish. I am so pleased that you have achieved such high status in your profession.

Funnily enough, back in April 1993,  I wrote a long letter to the Head of Professional Ethics at the Law Society (Redditch office) because an ex-Allen & Overy solicitor (now dead) , who was also my sole Trustee, had taken advantage of my own mental health problems to enrich himself . He even used some £12,000 of mine to pay one of his tax bills !  Because he was still registered with the Law Society and with the City of London Solicitors Company I thought the Law Society might at least strike him off their books. Sadly, my letter got passed to the Solicitors Complaints Bureau in Leamington Spa and came to naught.

I am sure that had you been in charge at the time this wouldn’t have happened !

All the best and many congratulations again,

Yours sincerely,

Jamie Summers

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