We are committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all our clients. When something goes wrong, we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards. We deal with all complaints fairly, promptly and at no extra cost to you.
1) WHAT IS A COMPLAINT?
A report by a client that their expectations of what they consider to be a good service have not been met.
A report or concerns by a client that their personal data has not been handled properly in accordance with the Data Protection legislation including the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (DUAA). The Information Commissioner’s website provides some examples of what a data protection complaint might look like.
2) MAKING A COMPLAINT
You can register a complaint with the person dealing with your matter, their Supervisor, details of which are given in your initial Client Care Letter and here:
| Client Care Manager Claire Dewhirst at our registered office address or by email claire@kingsguardlegal.co.uk
KingsGuard Legal, The Manse 33 New Road, Stourbridge, West Midlands, DY8 1PA Phone: 01384 918898 |
You can raise a complaint by phone, although in the first instance, we’d prefer if you write to us by email or letter with full details of your complaint so that we have a good understanding of the issues being highlighted.
3) INVESTIGATING THE COMPLAINT
- We will acknowledge the complaint within 7 days of receipt which allows for any postal delays and notify you who will be handling your complaint.
- We will record your complaint in our central register and open a file for your complaint. We will conduct a full investigation and an independent review of the matter.
- We deal with complaints fairly and within 28 days. We may also invite you to meet with the Client Care Manager or Director to gather more information and resolve the matter.
- We will reply to you, always in writing following the outcome of the review of the complaints investigated.
If you remain dissatisfied with the outcome, or the way the complaint has been handled, you may write to the Director James Hadley at our registered office address above or by email James Hadley james@kingsguardlegal.co.uk who will make such further investigations as are necessary.
We will generally aim to do this within 14 days of receipt of your notification and any further information you wish to be considered. This will happen in one of the following ways –
- The Supervisor will review his/her own decision.
- Client Care Manager will review your complaint.
- Depending on the matter, we may at this stage arrange for the Director of KingsGuard Legal James Hadley to review the decision
The Client Care Manager or Director will inform you of the conclusions and any alternative proposals to resolve the complaint.
If still unresolved at this stage, you may take the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman or, in accordance with the Alternative Dispute Resolution Regulations to an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Scheme Provider. We will always issue a final letter advising you of this.
Unresolved Data Protection complaints should be directed to the Information Commissioner whose contact details are provided in our Privacy Notice provided to you at the outset of instruction or a copy is available in our website. We will issue a final letter advising you of this.
4) LEGAL OMBUDSMAN
The Legal Ombudsman is the independent body established by the Office for Legal Complaints under the Legal Services Act 2007 to deal with complaints against Conveyancers.
The Legal Ombudsman may:
- Investigate the quality of professional service supplied by a conveyancer or licenced conveyancing firm to a client.
- Investigate allegations that a conveyancer or licenced conveyancing firm has breached rules of professional conduct.
- Investigate allegations that a conveyancer or licenced conveyancing firm has unreasonably refused to supply a professional service to a prospective client
- Investigate allegations that a conveyancer or licenced conveyancing firm has persistently or unreasonably offered a professional service that the client does not want
Before it will consider a complaint the Legal Ombudsman generally requires that the firm’s internal Complaints Procedure (outlined above) has been exhausted. If the Legal Ombudsman is satisfied that the firm’s proposals for resolving a complaint are reasonable, it may decline to investigate further. You will have to bring your complaint to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of receiving a final response from us about your complaint. The Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within a year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within a year of you realising there was a concern.
| The Legal Ombudsman’s address and contact details are:
PO Box 6167, Slough, SL1 0EH; telephone, 0300 555 0333; website, www.legalombudsman.org.uk; or email enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk |
- THE COUNCIL FOR LICENSED CONVEYANCERS
Our Regulator, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers can help you if you are concerned about our behaviour. This could be for things like dishonesty, taking or losing your money or treating you unfairly because of your age, a disability or other characteristic.
| You can raise your concerns with the Council for Licensed Conveyancers using the following contact details:
Contact Centre open Mon-Fri, 8am-5pm. Tel: 020 3859 0904 Email: clc@clc-uk.org Postal address: Council for Licensed Conveyancers WeWork 120 Moorgate London, EC2M 6UR |
- ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION SCHEMES
Alternative complaints bodies such as Ombudsman Services and ProMediate exist which are competent to deal with complaints about legal services should both you and our firm wish to use such a scheme.
However, we don’t currently agree to use this Alternative Dispute Resolution service in view of the availability of the independent Legal Ombudsman Service established under the Legal Services Act 2007. We are bound by our Regulatory Code to comply with the Legal Ombudsman and our Regulator.
- CONTRACTS ENTERED INTO ONLINE
If we are unable to resolve your complaint which relates to a contract entered into online, you may contact an Alternative Dispute Resolution Service.
July 2026