Complaints procedure for clients
Legal work for Landlord-Law members is done either by me, Tessa Shepperson via my firm TJ Shepperson Solicitors, or by a solicitor from another firm acting as agent for TJ Shepperson.
I am committed to providing a high-quality legal service to all my clients. When something goes wrong I need you to tell me about it. This will help me to maintain and improve my standards, and also help me put in place measures to prevent it happening again.
What to do if you have a complaint
If you have a complaint please contact me with the details. You can either write to me at
TJ Shepperson Solicitors
PO Box 3502
Norwich, Norfolk UK
NR7 7QH
Or email me at tessa@tjshepperson.co.uk
What will happen then
I will then send you a letter or email acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain the details (if you have not already done this). I will aim to do this within five days of your letter or email to me.
I will at the same time, record your complaint in my central register and open a file.
Once I have received the full details of your complaint, I will acknowledge your letter or email, and consider your complaint. If you are local we can arrange a time for you to come and see me to discuss your complaint, if you wish.
Otherwise I will send you a detailed letter within 21 days, giving my reply to your complaint and any suggestions to resolve the problem. Note that if you do not receive anything from me within eight weeks, you have the right to go to the Legal Ombudsman (see further on this below).
If you are unhappy with my response
If you are dissatisfied with the response sent to you, I can if you wish arrange for an independent solicitor from my local Law Society to review your complaint. If you would like me to arrange this please let me know. I would hope that the solicitor would be able to complete the review within 21 days but if the process is likely to take any longer I will write and let you know.
I will let you know the result of the review within 5 days of receipt of the solicitors report. At this time I will write to you with a final response to your complaint.
If I have to change any of the timescales set out above I will let you know and explain why.
The Legal Ombudsman
If you are not satisfied with my response and/or if you do not wish an independent solicitor to review the file, you have the right to make a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman.
If you decide to do this, the following time limits will apply:
- Your complaint must be made to the Legal Ombudsman not less than 12 months after the thing you are complaining about happened, or not less than 12 months after the time you first found out about it, or ought to have known about it.
- We then have eight weeks to respond to your complaint, during which time the Ombudsman will expect you to wait until we have responded.
- If we do not respond or if you are unhappy with our response you can then make a complaint to the Ombudsman
- Your compliant to the Ombudsman must be made within six months of my final response to you, or if you do not receive any response from me or anyone else at my firm, then within the six months plus the eight week period we had to respond.
The Legal Ombudmsan’s contact details are as follows:
Address : PO Box 6806, Wolverhampton, WV1 9WJ
Telephone : 0300 555 0333
Website : www.legalombudsman.org.uk
Note that you should not send any original documentation to the Legal Ombudsman as they scan and then destroy all paperwork sent to them.
Tessa Shepperson
