“I have had a miserable experience with The Wilkes Partnership, 41 Church St, Birmingham (incorporating Coley & Tilley Solicitors).
We used them for probate in 2014-15. We asked for tax advice which their terms and conditions clearly stated they could give in relation to probate & wills. The solicitor rang us but didn't know that tax allowances were transferable describing them as personal, and subsequently as individual and a 'use it or lose it' allowance. But the law had been changed since 2007 to allow them to be transferred between spouses.
Later I was told that for a parent to give to children would incur capital gains tax. But that too is not correct. It would be a gift subject to a ‘7 year rule’.
Since I discovered these matters in 2019 onwards, The Wilkes Partnership have told us all sorts of things that just aren't true. Emails alluding to the bad advice disappeared following hacking of my private email account. But fortunately I discovered a recording of the first call and the advice which totally contradicts what they claim.
When I obtained a copy of the probate file I discovered that documents were missing. Also in relation to meetings there were two slightly different written records being made; Client Letters which we received and File Notes we wouldn’t see. The latter contain things that didn’t happen, weren’t said and which suggest attempts to cover up for the incorrect advise and failure to look after their clients’ interests with knowledge it would lose the family the chance to save £130,000 tax.
I now find myself turning to the LEGAL OMBUDSMAN to look at the firm. I was disappointed when Wilkes attempted to block the OMBUDSMAN from investigating through a legal challenge, claiming it was NOT IN THEIR REMIT to investigate them. Thankfully the Legal OMBUDSMAN rejected these attempts and agreed to look into their behaviour.
I also find myself turning to the SOLICITORS REGULATION AUTHORITY, the regulatory body set up to ‘police’ solicitors, to look at Wilkes' behaviour and what they claim to have happened, which I find to go against their own statements in the file, in their emails and in the recorded calls. But as the Trustpilot scores for the Solicitors Regulation Authority unequivocally suggest, they don't seem to be impartial enough from the solicitors who, in effect, actually fund them. So it appears difficult to get them to properly regulate.
Wilkes also sent me the private documentation of other clients which were embedded within our file and appear to have been used as a form of ‘crib’ sheets. This was worrying and rather upsetting, both for those persons concerned including a juvenile, and for me given my own knowledge of missing documents from my file. I just hope my paperwork hasn't similarly been sent to others by mistake. Use of older case documents does explain why they were initially unaware of the legislation change of 2007.
I hope Wilkes do not try to block this review given that it is a true and honest account of my own personal experience of using their services.”
