Although my review may be disregarded as I wasn’t the direct client, I was actively involved in the purchase of a property where the seller used this firm. I believe it's important to share our experience, especially for others who might be in a similar situation.
If possible, we would strongly advise against using this company or proceeding with a sale where the other party is using them. Our purchase took 10 months to complete - largely due to their delayed responses and lack of communication. There were weeks with no replies to our solicitor, estate agents, or even the seller. We had to pursue multiple avenues to get any kind of response, including involving our own solicitor in escalating matters, and asking the seller to raise a formal complaint.
We were informed on one occasion they had ordered documents from the Land Registry to respond to our enquiries. However, after months of it being unanswered, we contacted the Land Registry ourselves in February - and received written confirmation of no orders from this firm since September. As a result, our solicitor had to place the order instead, and we received the documents within a week - to then be charged for it on our bill.
The communication between their assigned solicitor and our side (including our solicitor, estate agents, and mortgage broker) was diabolical. Calls went unanswered, emails ignored, and at one point they even hung up on our broker during an update request. We genuinely believe that, with reasonable communication and responsiveness, our purchase could have been completed in half the time.
Had we not recently completed after issuing a firm deadline, following their admission that they were still not quite ready even after nine months - we would have unfortunately pulled out of the sale due to the significant mental strain it was causing us.
If this was our firm and we were able too, we would 100% be taking it to the ombudsman.
