Readers of The Independent Landlord website and YouTube often contact me about their own personal situation, and ask me to give them individual support of advice.
I don’t provide consultancy services and cannot provide legal or financial advice. If your issue needs specialist legal or financial advice, then I can refer you to someone.
This post explains my approach to referrals, after explaining why I can’t give legal advice.
Why can’t you give me legal advice?
Although I’m an experienced solicitor, I’m unable to give legal advice to anyone. This is for many reasons. Not least because I’m no longer a practising solicitor. But also because I’m not insured, I’m not a housing law specialist and I’m not geared up for it.
If I were to set this up, I would need to employ specialists, register as a law firm, and would certainly need to charge. But the purpose of The Independent Landlord website is to make content freely available on the internet. Not to set up as a law firm. There’s more than enough law firms already!
My membership, The Independent Landlord Hub, isn’t a legal advice membership either, and the focus is very much on the practicalities.
As with anything you read on the internet, just take my blog posts as a starting point at best, and with a pinch of salt at worst. If it’s an important issue or something that might have serious consequences, you should get specialist advice from a suitably qualified solicitor.
Whilst we’re on the subject, I’m also unable to give advice on how anyone should invest their money, how much they should borrow, whether they should sell, what type of insurance they should get, whether they should set up a limited company etc etc. I am simply unqualified to do this.
I need specialist advice – can you recommend someone?
Yes.
I’m very well networked in the property industry and have a good “Rolodex” of contacts. This is my “phone a friend” list of who I contact if I need advice on different subjects.
I regularly refer people to specialist solicitors, mortgage brokers, and insurance brokers to help them with their issues.
If I do refer you to a specialist, do assume that they will pay me a referral fee or commission. This will not cost you more, as this instead reduces the net fee that the service provider receives from you.
For instance, I often refer people to solicitors at law firms such as Woodstock Legal and Spector Constant & Williams, if I believe they have the relevant experience to advise you. Should you decide to go ahead and instruct them after I refer you, they will pay me for the referral. They will provide information to you about the referral fee or commission in writing. Your file will remain confidential and they won’t tell me anything about the case unless you ask them to.
I put any referral fees, affiliate fees and commission I receive towards the running costs of The Independent Landlord website and YouTube channel. They help make this resource available to everyone on a free of charge basis.
I recommend specialists in good faith, and this is where my responsibility ends. I do not remain involved in the matter referred, and it’s up to you whether or not you decide to instruct them to help you.
If you do decide to instruct a specialist after a referral from me, please do give me feedback on the level of service they provide, so that I can decide whether or not to keep recommending them.
To ask me to refer you to a specialist, please send me a message through my contact form.
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