“Wouldn’t use them again. Conveyancing work allocated to trainee solicitor who either had too heavy a caseload or was simply inexperienced. He seemed to think the work consisted of sending the other side’s questions to the appropriate people and then sitting back and waiting for answers. No chasing or follow up. Their client care is appalling. You spend 5 minutes waiting to talk to reception then another 5 waiting to speak to your contact, assuming he’s not in a meeting, not at his desk or on holiday for a week without letting you know. I complained to the alleged head of conveyancing but didn’t get even a reply. I notice that more recent 1 star reviews don’t get any answer either. We will use a solicitor recommended by our estate agent (who doesn’t get commission from them). Go elsewhere would be my advice.
UPDATE don’t believe the review from Danielle is real. My experience was that he was difficult to get hold of and moved slowly for most of the time”
“Should be ZERO start. They were £400 cheaper than the next quote but in the long run I lost more than that due to poor service. PLEASE DO NOT TRUST.
Made an official internal complaint in accordance to Acroyd Legal's procedure due to their poor service - radio silence its been over 8 weeks since I submitted. I have tried to separately speak (numerous calls not returned) and write to their Head of Conveyancing/ Sales Executive (Michael McHaffie). Its a common pattern - you make countless calls, write copious emails and this outfit seems to make their own rules. My property deal fell through as the buyer thought I was playing games in exchanging contracts - the delays were all attributable to Acroyd and its poor team. Reputable estate agent, my mortgage broker, the buyers solicitors and my personal experience of buying properties has led me to believe that this is the worst firm ever. I will be officially complaining to the Legal Ombudsman (The Law Society website). You will loose money and creditability if you use this outfit”
“I used Ackroyd Legal for the purchasing of my flat and it was the worst thing I could have done. It took a little over 6 months to complete on an empty property with no chain and no mortgage.
When is a completion statement not a completion statement, when it has been prepared by Ackroyd Legal!
I paid the ‘completion’ statement only to be presented with a further completion bill which I immediately paid so that I could get the keys to my new home.
They then failed to register the lease assignment with the freeholder within the contractual timescale, when I queried this I was advised that I had to pay an addition fee (which should have been included in the completion statement).
It then took them over 2 months to pay the stamp duty (which should be paid within 10 days of completion). What made it worse was that the demand letters were initially being sent to my previous address.
The so called solicitor who was dealing with my Conveyancing even lied in his emails to me.
Regrettably I also signed up for them to deal with the lease extension so 9 months on and I am still having to deal with their incompetence.
My advice, shop around, get recommendations, find someone who is easy to visit should the need arise.
In my view 1 star rating is too generous.”
“Ackroyd Legal is the worst conveyance firm, they lack respect and treat people unfairly, rude and to make matters worst they have a lackadaisical attitude. Don't bother lodging a complaint because they would justify the reason and give you excuses.
This firm ought to be reported to the regulators and do a proper investigation on unprofessionalism ethics practised at the firm.
We went through a difficult time using this firm, an extremely arrogant team who lack ethics in increasing the fee with two different completion statements prior to the day of the exchange. Two weeks after the exchange they came back saying there is an outstanding fee as a result they will not be paying the SDLT
This firm should be reported to regulators and the Ombudsman for all the shady and crook activities within the firm.
Their online complaint form will not send you any acknowledgement so they have done this trick to hide the complaint coming from customers. Even after following up on the complaints months afterwards, they won’t agree to any of their mistakes.
The BEST OPTIONS IS TO AVOID THIS CROOK FIRM ENTIRELY”
“Do not use this so called lawyers,
Took 5 months to complete Equity Release,we lost first Offer,and only just managed to complete 2nd,at last minute.
Complete amateurs,Rude , obstructive unprofessional Reception Staff.Never answer E-mails or phone calls,did not liais with Lender.5 months of stress.Would not recommend .Ackroyd Legal Hedge in.Do not use this Company.”
“Went with Ackroyd Legal for my flat purchase and it has been an absolute disaster. From the beginning, I recevied essentially 0 contact after paying the initial fee, following that it seemed that nothing would move/get resolved until I phoned up dozens of times. Emailing is pointless, as 99% of them go unanswered, promised call backs never materalise. It got to the point that the seller threatened to pull out of the sale unless things moved on. I finally completed on the purchase and I thought that would be the end of it.
Unfortunatly, a year and a half later the management company has still not received the post completion documents despite dozens of emails and phone calls to Ackroyd legal to do so, meaning that I am unable to deal with the management company/pay service charge putting me at legal and financial risk;
Additionally Ackroyd Legal have been ignoring communications from the land registry about the transfer application; and the land registry is now saying they will cancel the application unless Ackroyd legal responds.
I would not recomend ackroyd legal to anyone, and advise anyone else to look elsewhere.”
“DO NOT USE – CROOKS! ALMOST LOST THE FLAT – 1 MONTH TO GET A RESPOSE TO AN EMAIL I am another unlucky person who came across this dodgy firm. I have paid them for searches and the memorandum of sale has been sent on MAY 10th. After probably close to 40 phone calls I got an response on 9th OF JUNE! Not one time I was able to speak with the solicitor (Tekan). The account manager who sold me the dream has also stopped answering. I tired the head of department to ABSOLUTELY NO RESPOSNE! Reception staff will also come up with excuses such as – ‘You can’t hold as we don not have the holding system’ – after me being on hold for 20 minutes! AND this is if you’re lucky enough that someone actually do answer the landline. Most of the time it just rings! At some point I was wondering if this firm even exist – never in my life I wasn’t able to get in touch with someone for a full month! While all this was happening, the seller (I am the buyer) understandably got upset and wanted to put the flat back on the market, I almost lost it! After over a month of this ordeal I finally managed to speak with the account manager who confirmed they will be refunding the £400 I paid them. I thought this nightmare is finally behind me and… you guessed it – THEY WENT QUIET AGAIN. Only after Ive emailed them that I will be complaining to the legal ombudsman I got an email within an hour and a half with… AN INVOICE! They have charged me £60 for the transfer. Last thing, not only I was told the full amount will be refunded, at the beginning they have sent me the breakdown of costs and the transfer fee they charge is £32+VAT…. I think I will leave it here with all the evidence attached. Buying home is a stressful process itself, please do not ever instruct those people, I will certainly do my best to highlight their dishonestly and unprofessionalism, starting with the Legal Ombudsman and small claim court for the money they stole from me. STAY AWAY!
PLEASE ALSO CHECK THE 5* REVIEWS, MOST OF THEM ARE FROM USERS WTH ONLY THIS ONE REVIEW... TELLS YOU SOMETHING….I WOULD ENCOURAGE OTHER PEOPLE WHO HAD EXPERIANCE WITH THIS COMPANY TO ALSO COMPLAIN TO LEGAL OMBUDSMAN to save other potential victims..”
“- Extremely arrogant team.
- Their work is done by trainee solicitors and not by qualified solicitors.
- They took 4.5 months for my conveyancing.
- They increased the fee on the day of exchange by £450.
- They did not even communicate if the completion is done or not on the scheduled day.
- They left the legal work half way and transferred the money to beneficiaries and called it completion.
- The property I bought has tenants with rent arrears, drug dealers etc and this company did not do any due diligence with the lender's solicitors.
- They did not collect tenancy deposit, any advance rent from the seller so that it can be deposited to buyer’s account.
- Their online complaint for will not send you any acknowledgement so they have done this trick to hid the complaint coming from customers. And then you need to send them by post and this way they can delay all incoming complaints.
- So ofcourse they won’t agree to any of their mistake and you go to Legal Ombudsman and that another useless organisation we have in this country. You can check the review for LeO on trustpilot.
- So the only next option will possibly have is a court claim.
- Imagine, a simple conveyancing will give you these kind of mental agony and distress if you hire ACROYD LEGAL.
Can you imagine such companies exists!!
I have only typed 50% of my troubles here.”
“Please spend few minutes to read this review will save your life and transaction. I did read the reviews in here and other places on the web and I CONSCIOUSLY avoided to pay attention because I wanted to save money, like everyone wants to. But please listen to me and the other people given 1 star to this company, it's what they really value based on the service provided. I wasn't guided from the beginning on the process and I had myself to actually ask for updates regularly, I wasn't explained what to expect when an offer prices was agreed and that there is a clearly difference between offer price and agreed sales prices, which in my case ended up in being different. I can't say in better words that this is the hardest lesson I learnt in life, my transaction after 3 months of horrible life fell through and although I can't say it's entirely their fault they definitively had a massive part on it. The result has been unhappy customer who has lost a transaction and money on legal fees and management pack and searches and identity checks which could have been avoided with the right legal guidance/advise. My conveyor was never reachable and I had to physically go to their office to get an update, discovering that actually they had moved and closed the previous office and no one had shared the information with their clients. If you are still thinking of selecting this conveyors to save you 200-300 pounds, please keep reading the other 1 start reviews and see if you can discover a pattern in here and think if those few hundreds of pounds are worth it or not... I wish I never appointed this firm and would have gone to someone more reliable than them. They even confirmed via email the sales price while I knew that was not the right one and was advised to send the further documents when the buyer solicitors thought I was a stupid person given the background I knew. Please refrain from using this firm. They are really good at sales and business development though, one of the ladies in charge was so great to convince me that I should select them, once I did it took very long to being able to speak with any of them, just after I couldn't cancel my contract. When I opened a formal complaint a lady recently joined tried to handle my case and guess what she was gone after 3 months she joined the firm. Please think before making a decision so important for your life.”
“I have the unfortunate experience of having my buyer (I am selling a property) choose this company for their conveyancing. The 'case handler' (not sure what legal qualifications these people have - may be worth checking should you take the risk of using them) has consistently misled us about what they are doing. It has taken email upon email from both my Solicitor and the estate agent to get any response whatsoever and then it has been 'you'll get the enquiries Friday' then Monday, then today, then Friday, then Monday again...but wait, now I'm on leave for a week, you'll get them when I return. I have come to the point of instructing the Estate agent to remarket the property if enquiries aren't received this time. This may effect our buyer who has obviously spent money on Mortgage surveys, searches etc. and I genuinely feel sorry for their position but this can't continue.
Please think twice about using these. I understand they may be cheaper than a 'proper' solicitor but that extra couple of hundred is money well spent for the difference in service.”
“Absolutely rubbish. They were quick to charge me but 48hours passed with no follow up. James Shepherd who was assigned my case never replied to my emails so I decided to seek help elsewhere. Two weeks on and I'm still chasing a refund. Stay away.”
“Dealing with Ackroyd Legal was the one of the worst experiences of my life. The conveyancing process took 7 months before the sale fell through, due to negligence on the part of Ackroyd Legal.
Ackroyd Legal consistently did not show up to meetings between solicitors, and were completely unreachable. After 6 months of conveyancing with only a few enquiries to deal with, the case should have been prioritised. It is clear that the company have no concept of time management, and lack any form of professionalism.
I would 100% recommend that nobody use Ackroyd Legal for any legal process!”
“Since March I’ve trying to contact our solicitors for exchange of contract for a property, he doesn’t respond to emails and you have to call in order to get him to respond and Then have not been responding, the receptionist are rude and feel it’s ok to shut the phone or tell you to call at 5.30pm it’s a completely joke don’t go here.”
“Do yourself a favour and find someone else! Instructed Ackroyd to act on my behalf, was provided a case handler, Natasha with Peter Benjamin overseeing things, sent over all the paperwork needed along with initial payment. One week passed, didn’t hear anything, chased to ask what was happening, got ignored, phoned got told they would call back but didn’t. Second week nothing, third week, fourth week still nothing. Tried to email 10+ times without a response, called only to get put in hold and have the phone put down numerous times! Ended up having to find someone else to use after a month of not even having the decency to respond to let me know what was happening with my case! They are a complete shambles from start to finish. I urge you to look elsewhere, they are cheap for a reason, they are useless! Still chasing to get any money back!”
“This firm are a complete disgrace to the profession and completely incompetent. No matter how much cheaper they seem to other firms on the market do not engage them, or with them, under any circumstances!! It is simply not worth the trouble you will create for yourself. Your money will be lost and your deal will likely fall through. There is nobody working there that you will ever get to speak to other than a hapless receptionist who will never be able to connect you to anyone else.”
“Terrible experience I would avoid. I used this firm for the sale and purchase of my property, they were keen to get my business but once signed up they were unresponsive, difficult to contact, lied to me which I consider to be dishonest and made it a really stressful experience. They never returned calls and failed to deal with my subsequent complaint.”
“AVOID at all costs, awful correspondence, worse customer service, and it seems I'm not the only one....To date its taken over a year for a simple property and STILL going on. vague answers and lying. The stress they have caused along with constant worry about what will happen next is something i wouldn't wish on anybody. Management take note and complete CPD with your staff about customer service. You make us feel like you look down on us. some of your customers are also educated with multiple degree's. Treat us like human beings and learn empathy. Please note for all readers i have literally never complained on any platform before about any firm so that will explain the frustration and helplessness i feel about this company. when will it end?”
“I used this firm for conveyancing. I've never encountered such an incompetent, unprofessional firm. They failed to take the most basic actions to progress my sale, they let emails from the buyer's solicitors go unanswered for weeks, and my sale is at risk of falling through because of their incompetence. They just ignore my emails and phone calls asking for updates. The estate agents and the buyer's solicitors have both told me that they've never had to deal with such an unprofessional firm. Avoid at all costs.”
