MP calls for official investigation into IT chaos at Simplify conveyancing group
After months of pain for many home movers and estate agents, MP Bob Blackman says probe is now due and that company should consider compensation for stranded customers.
Two leading MPs have called for an official investigation into the IT chaos at the Simplify Group, which includes several leading conveyancing platform including DC Law and Premier Property Lawyers.
The company has become the focus of online complaints that it has failed to keep many of its home-mover customers updated about their transactions after its IT systems were taken offline following a ‘criminal’ hack.
But after a huge backlash from its many stranded customers particularly on social media, MPs Bob Blackman and Brendan Clarke told The Sunday Express over the weekend that they were disappointed by the company’s response to the IT meltdown, with Blackman indicating he would welcome an investigation by parliament into how the company’s IT system came to be compromised so badly, and what steps should be taken to stop it happening again.
He also urged Simplify to offer its customers ‘some sort of compensation’.
Both the Tory MPs are members of the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities select committee which scrutinises the housing sector and its ministers.
A statement by the committee to the media says: “We expect Simplify Group to take all necessary steps to minimise the impact on customers of this cyber attack.”
The Simplify Group says it is not aware of any personal information being compromised by the attack and that it regretted any “uncertainty and disruption that our clients and others may have experienced over the past couple of weeks.
“Our team, supported by external experts, are working non-stop to get the remainder of our systems safely back up and running, with progress being made every day.”