Joyce Loynds hoped to be celebrating Christmas in her new home in Perth this year. But, like thousands of others, the 85-year-old has been left in limbo, unable to complete the sale because of a cyberattack that shut down the systems at one of Britain’s biggest conveyancing groups. Instead she is in tears, having lost out on her dream bungalow, and faces having to pay thousands of pounds in charges as a result.
The Simplify Group, which includes the conveyancing companies Premier Property Lawyers (PPL), JS Law and DC Law, became the victim of a breach in early November, halting all transactions.
A spokesman for the group, which oversaw an estimated 4.1 per cent (29,008) of the 707,514 residential property sales in England and Wales in 2020-21, said it is still investigating an “IT security incident” that it became aware of on November 7 during which it had “limited access” to some of its key IT systems. He confirmed that all client money, which is held in a separate system, is safe, and said that the company was “not aware at this stage of specific client personal data being compromised”. The spokesman said that the hack had been reported to the relevant authorities, including the police and the Information Commissioner’s Office.
The investigations may be ongoing, but the cyber attack has left clients with their lives on hold. Jason Greenwood, a breakfast show DJ for CVFM Radio in Teesside, posted on Twitter: “Life is in limbo and a back of a van, clocking up extra costs which will make me bankrupt.”
Henry Tribe, an editor at Times Radio, was unable to email or telephone his conveyancer at Strike Conveyancing (its service is provided by PPL) for more than three weeks. “It was only when I googled it that I realised they’d been hacked,” he says.
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Tribe’s mortgage adviser suggested that he switch to another company to complete his purchase, to avoid delays. “I’m now in the slightly complicated position of having one lawyer for my sale and a different one for my purchase — and I’m still not sure whether the Strike one is back up and running at full capacity,” he says. “It’s an inconvenience I could have done without at a stressful time.”
A month after the incident and with days to go before some conveyancers shut for Christmas on December 17, buyers are unsure when they will be moving. The Times understands that there are 66 companies that use the services of PPL, and that does not include the rest of the Simplify Group, which includes six of the largest conveyancing firms in the UK.
“It’s causing havoc in the supply chain and will effect all transactions aiming to exchange/complete prior to Christmas,” one property insider says. “It shows how vulnerable the system has become by allowing one company to have such a huge ownership of the transactions.”
The Conservative MP Bob Blackman, a member of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee, said it was likely that “most” property chains have been affected by the difficulties. He is one of two Conservative MPs on the select committee who have said that they would support an investigation by the committee into the incident, and the law firm Keller Lenkner UK has said that it is considering the possibility of a group action claim.
Loynds’s family only found about the attack several days later — from her buyer’s solicitor — after being unable to contact their conveyancer, PPL. The retired dog-groomer, who is deaf and has been in poor health, put her four-bedroom detached house in Blackpool on the market in June with the online estate agency Purple Bricks for £250,000, hoping to move to Scotland to be closer to her son and daughter. It was snapped up in less than a week and she was told it would take 12 weeks to complete the sale.
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In September she moved up to Scotland to stay with her daughter. She found the perfect property — a two-bedroom bungalow with a nice garden in a cul-de-sac near her to where her children lived. Believing that the sale of her old home would have been completed by the end of October, she made an offer on the bungalow, which was accepted. Yet throughout the conveyancing process the family had difficulties contacting PPL. Her daughter, Caroline Storey, says: “You were always told somebody would get back to you but they never did; emails went unanswered and we couldn’t get a definitive answer as to when exchange or completion would take place.”
The “date of entry” — the day on which a buyer pays the purchase price to the seller in the Scottish conveyancing process — passed, and the seller gave Loynds two weeks to come up with the money. Days after the cyber attack PPL assured the family that the system would be up and running by the next week and that the sale would complete.
“My husband has been ringing several times a day, filling in their forms, being told Mum’s case was a priority. But no one has got back to us with any information,” Storey says.
As a result Loynds has been unable to buy her new home, and under the Scottish law is in breach of contract. “My mum has lost her house and she is also looking at considerable damages and payment to remarket the seller’s house,” Storey says. “My mum has been in tears. I am worried about her mental health now as she is very withdrawn and doesn’t want to speak to anyone. I’ve never experienced stress like it.”
The family has instructed a solicitors’ company to start the conveyancing process from scratch. Loynds’s buyers still want to purchase her Blackpool property but have been left without a home after selling theirs, and the seller in Scotland has lost the house she was intending to buy.
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A spokesman for PPL confirmed that the company was acting in relation to the sale of Loynds’s Blackpool property in this “unfortunate case”. He said: “It appears the client made a binding offer to purchase a property in Scotland before exchange of contracts on the sale in England had taken place.” He warned that the sale “is sadly never guaranteed”, and said “there is always a risk that multiple factors can cause a delay or failure of the transaction” until the exchange of contracts.
For others wondering whether to stay with their conveyancer or switch, it depends how far along in the process they are, says Sarah Dwight, a sole practitioner in Birmingham and a member of the Law Society’s Conveyancing and Land Law Committee.
Dwight, who has picked up six new transactions in the past ten days from people who decided to jump ship, advises parties to try to get a sense of how others in the chain are feeling before making their decision. For those who have exchanged contracts and are about to complete, Dwight suggests it might be worth staying put to avoid adding further delay. For clients who have not yet exchanged contracts with their buyer or seller, it will be easier for a new company to get up to speed. The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC), which regulates the companies affected, suggests that they consider instructing another conveyancer. Guidance on the CLC’s website states: “Simplify have confirmed that its clients involved in the incident who move to another conveyancer will not be charged for the work already completed by Simplify.”
One pressing issue that may mean clients have to switch is if their mortgage lender will no longer allow Simplify to act, according to Wendy Hewstone, a solicitor at the law firm Access Law. Virgin Money confirmed that it has temporarily removed Simplify from its conveyancing panel; a spokeswoman said the company is allowing existing pipeline cases to continue, but is not accepting new cases.
Hewstone warns that clients should not be pressured by estate agents to stay put, because they may be in receipt of a referral fee for recommending the conveyancing company. If you do change, her advice is to use a local high street solicitor that you can visit in person if difficulties arise.
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Compensation is likely to be limited to those who have exchanged contracts, says Peter Rodd, a past chairman of the Law Society’s property section. Clients who have received a poor service in the wake of the attack should complain to the company they instructed, and if they do not get a satisfactory response make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman. But he warns that, because of a backlog of cases at the ombudsman, it will not be a quick process.
