Bulgaria Property Action Group

This is my completely true horror story about Legal Independence Bulgaria. This comes from someone who is a solicitor himself so if even I got imbrolied in this then the average newbie probably had very little chance of escaping their clutches:
 
I was introduced to them at the event in Bansko and they quoted me 1,800 Euros for all of the legal work involved in the purchase of my property. It seemed rather excessive and their agent only sat with me for two minutes so I thought I would chew it over before I decided whether to use them or not. However, this same rep took hold away copies of all of the paperwork I had signed with him. When I got back, I basically got MRI saying I had to transfer 3,000 Euros to him to secure the property I wanted, so I did so. However, I had not given him any instructions and considered him to be MRI's lawyer, not my own.
 
Considering it more, I wanted more information, specifically what the 1,800 Euros was for. After all, a property purchase has a number of distinct elements. Under UK law, a solicitor is obliged to set this all out to a buyer - i.e. there'll be £20.00 for a Flood Search, etc, etc - and, being as Bulgaria is generally a cheapish country, I thought 1,800 Euros was probably excessive. I was also unsure about the VAT position, that is, was it 1,800 Euros inclusive of VAT or 1,800 Euros PLUS VAT. So I emailed the same rep and asked him to send me a client care letter, basically stating all of the fees in writing, and what he was going to do for this money, so there would be no disagreement later. Such a letter is standard practice when dealing with a UK solicitor.
 
The response I got was an e-mail that stated "I am very professional in my job and it is not my practice to send client care letters." I immediately rang him and said that was not good enough and I would not be using him and would seek out an independent lawyer. He then sent me an e-mail saying "Surely you will want to reconsider this because we have all the paperwork in your case?" I declined the offer and instructed another firm, which asked for 1,000 Euros VAT inclusive to cover all elements of the purchase.
 
The new firm, not surprisingly, wrote to him to ask for the 'paperwork' and to confirm that the 3,000 Euros had been transferred on to the developers as part of the deposit. He then wrote a very rude email to me - not to them, natch, as a professional should have done - and said that before releasing the paperwork, I would have to pay for time already spent on the case, which he estimated at 450 Euros for preliminary searches and attending me in Bansko. Sigh, I was caught so I paid up. But, surprise surprise, he did not send any paperwork on to them. So I wrote to him again and I asked him where it was. He wrote back and now said that there was "no paperwork. And as for the searches, your new solicitors can pay for their own searches as the results of ours are our intellectual property." As a lawyer myself I knew this was absolute rubbish and I thanked God I had extracated myself from this firm. Any searches were legally mine, done as part of my cases and which he had billed me for! So I never actually gave instructions to this man, and he ripped me off to the tune of 450 Euros. Unbelievable or what? Now I understand why he doesn't send you a client care letter...!
 
All of the evidence to support all of this is safely stowed. I even passed the sequence of events by the new lawyers to ask whether there was any redress to get the 450 Euros back but they advised that the only way would be to sue him in a personal capacity through the Bulgarian Courts and fear of throwing good money after bad meant I decided to just take it on the chin and learn from it. What did I learn? Well, if any lawyer approaches you recommended by a developer you should scream "Get away from me!" at the earliest opportunity. And if they tell you then won't send your paperwork on without you paying them well they are probably not professional enough to actually send it on even if you do actually pay.
 
I rang around a few places and was quoted approx 1,000 Euros for negotiation of purchase contract and exchange. In the end it did cost slightly more, but it ended up much cheaper than 1,800 Euros.
 
However, the epilogue. A little later I spoke to the developers when transferring some more money to them. To my astonishment and horror they revealed that Legal Independence Bulgaria only transferred HALF of the 3,000 Euros to them. They had only received 1,500 Euros. This was despite the fact I had settled their 'bill' in full and that they had emailed me "confirming [my] 3,000 Euros had been transferred to the developer" at the time. I dashed off an absolutely furious email to them saying if they did not transfer the 1,500 Euros immediately, I would immediately make out an action against them in a UK court for misrepresentation and fraud (Welcome to Europe!) - and the money was immediately transferred. Did I get an apology though? Not a bit of it. Their same rep wrote simply "The rest of the money has been transferred. This was an administrative error. Now please stop with your behaviour against our law firm."
 
You can probably guess my opinions of Legal Independence Bulgaria and I would never recommend anyone use this firm.
 
If there are a number of stories like this - and I'm pretty sure there must be - then it might be possible for people to club together, write statements, append e-mails and actually make some sort of action against them stick. I'll be willing to assist in any way possible, although I'm not interested in really suing for the 450 Euros back unless it's gonna cost only a very small amount. I do believe this firm has to be stopped, in the interests of the legal profession generally if not only in reference to the way they behaved in Bulgaria.