I went with Frettens as they seemed to have a good reputation and I wanted to support a local business. I was happy with the initial onboarding process, which was clear and streamlined.
My issues with the service I received was 75% around their dismissive attitude and 25% around them not doing agreed tasked on time which led to missing our completion date for a house sale. This was completely avoidable.
Several times I would be told I would receive an update, which never came. More than once my solicitor went on leave without a heads up and I would find out by getting their out of office response (of course I don’t resent them having leave, it was the lack of communication). When the searches came through I was told I could have a phone call on Friday morning if I had any questions. I said yes please, and this was ignored. More than once I sent an email that was just not responded to.
My ISA funds were not requested in time. Searches were not sent off in time. Despite them having the paperwork for 8 weeks. When it looked like we were going to miss the completion date, I mentioned something about the estate agent being concerned we were set to miss the completion date I received a dismissive, ‘oh they just have monthly targets’. Erm.. there’s a buyer (me) and a seller that have removals that need to be rebooked at short notice and other pretty major inconveniences. The attitude was just not ok.
Every day for over a week I was told we would exchange tomorrow and this was always me chasing them for an update because each day I was believing it was going to happen. I contained my irritation at the time as I feared it could delay everything even more.
I have gone elsewhere now to sort out my will and I would never use Frettens again. In short I found them apathetic, rude and incompetent. I spoke with the estate agent throughout the process and they commented that I had had a particularly bad experience and was unlucky with my allocation of solicitor.
