Chadwick Lawrence LLP

Angela Thorpe was just amazing making the whole process easy and super professional and personal. I would recommend Angela and Chadwick Lawrence to anyone which a both personal and very professional service.

Awful service. Eleanor began ignoring emails as soon as the house buying process started getting serious. She was clearly frustrated when we asked any questions and would only speak to us on her terms when she needed to know something (usually answers to questions she should know as a solicitor)
She did not read information properly as several times sent us incorrect paperwork with incorrect details on that, had it of gone unnoticed would have caused a massive delay. On one occasion she incorrectly instructed the wrong mortgage company to release funds for us which has left us having arguments with them and having to prove we didn’t ask for her to request funds from them. We asked for a substantial amount of money from our equity to be kept out of the transaction for us to have on completion. On completion day I had nothing paid of this money paid into my account and I had to chase her for a payment. She then told me that as it was late in the day on a Friday I may have to wait until after the bank holiday for this money to clear. It was obvious she had not thought to send this to us and had to be reminded. Our transaction was a part exchange with a new build developer and the solicitors hold £500 back for 14 days as a retainer to ensure that there is no damage to the part Ex’d property… it’s coming up to 28 post completion as I write and the solicitor firm still have my £500 even after the developer has confirmed this can be released back to us. There is many other issues that may seem minor but looking at the overall picture become a big problem. House moving is a stressful time but I can wholeheartedly say this company caused the majority of my stress unnecessarily. I wrote to the customer service complaints manager who did not respond to me - Eleanor’s ‘line manager’ responded some 5 days later basically blaming me for constantly chasing for updates and saying I should wait for an update. My response suggesting that if I was updated regularly as promised in the beginning I wouldn’t need to chase daily - this was ignored along with all of the other issues put to them.

If you value your sanity and want to minimise any potential issues (that, may I add were unnecessary and have been down to utter incompetence) then you avoid this company.

I’ve seen other reviews since taking on the company saying similar and a partner will always reply to say get in touch and we can resolve - all I would say is - I have done this and nothing has been resolved at all. And they still have my £500.

Absolutely shambolic. Rude, unhelpful and definitely do not know how to treat their PAYING customers. The way they have managed and communicated throughout the house purchasing process is 100% unacceptable.
The government are trying to encourage first time buyers to invest in property and put in place funding to help them do so. To then get to this stage and have to deal with completely incompetent 'solicitors'.
If you're looking for a positive purchasing process and good communicators, I'd pay the extra ££ and get someone with a decent reputation - saving money is absolutely not worth the hassle these lot have caused!

This review is for a different branch.

Anyone looking for a conveyancing solicitor please please DO NOT use this company. If I could give no stars I would! There are not enough bad words in the world to describe this company properly. My conveyancing requirements couldn't have been much easier. I had buyers with no chain below them, and my onwards purchase had no chain above it. My move was enforced due to a marriage breakdown, so I was already under unbearable pressure, and CL just made that worse. I ended up going on sock leave from work as I couldn't deal with the pressure. The company was recommended to me by another solicitors and I foolishly took them on without looking into them too closely. I told them that I needed the move completed in 3 months, to which they said it wouldn't be an issue as that's the standard time the process takes. After 2 months of hearing nothing at all and every single form of communication being ignored repeatedly I took it upon myself to physically go to the office. I was told by the intercom at the door that personal visits are by appointment only, but how can you book an appointment with someone who ignores you completely? After refusing to leave until I spoke to someone, I got a phone call saying to searches had just been sent and it will now be 3 months from that point. At the same time I started to receive text messages, e-mails and app notifications, suggesting clearly someone had fished the file from the door it was propping open (or whatever) and started to action the case from that point. Too late at that point. More months of stress and tricky negotiating and I did move, but more by my own work than this anything this questionable company could produce. They clearly have no empathy at all and just hid behind the process and the laws on the couple of occasions when I did force comms out of them. Please save yourself a lot of pain and use someone else

This review is for a different branch.

We made the mistake of looking for a conveyancer on the cheap as our purchase was a straight-forward staircase with full cooperation from the Seller (Housing Association) and a mortgage offer and RICS valuation in place from the start. We went with SAM Conveyancing as they were more affordable than other conveyancing solicitors and initially were very helpful with decent reviews; however, it turns out SAM Conveyancing is a front end business (albeit legit) who farm out cases to conveyancers across the country. Our case was farmed out to Chadwick Lawrence in Bradford, who had less good reviews. When we expressed this concern to our contact at SAM, we were assured SAM would support us along the way, so we went ahead. What a mistake!

Within a week of instruction, we got a bounced back email from our contact at SAM. Attempts to reach her or a manager at the office were met with ‘no one available to speak’ and no response to emails. Our case handler at Chadwick Lawrence turned out to be worse. Although our staircase was initially set up on the firm's online system/app and the process started, there was no further movement. They sat on a letter from the Seller’s solicitor for over a month and then said we needed to pay an associated fee before we could progress (one month wasted). We couldn’t reach our case handler (conveyancer in this case, not a qualified solicitor) by phone at the office; no response to voicemails or emails on valid requests for a quick update. It was particularly stressful when our valuation was expiring and we needed an urgent update. In over 12-weeks, the only time our case handler contacted us was by email on four occasions to ask for additional fees in relation to the purchase - fees, which it turns out were not required (eg, a Deed of Variation from the lender in relation to the leasehold - our lender was happy to go ahead as is).

After over 12 weeks and no progress, we issued a formal complaint. Their response (issued quickly for once) took no responsibility for the lack of communication or progress on our case, and again asked for additional fees before the case could be progressed (the Deed of Variation again - no response when we challenged them on this with a letter from the lender stating they were happy to proceed as is).

We ended up terminating Chadwick Lawrence services, but lost 13-weeks in the process - valuable time in a flat purchase with expiring mortgage offers and valuations. Word to the wise - pay for a decent solicitor for your conveyancing services - one who is available to explain the process to you and provides confidence that the sale is progressing. The stress otherwise is not worth it. What should have been an exciting and fulfilling milestone for us was joyless and unduly stressful thanks to Chadwick Lawrence. Avoid.

This review is for a different branch.

Was blindly recommended these guys by our mortgage broker - in retrospect I didn't look them up or read a single review, just trusted the mortgage broker (he obviously gets a kick back, v naive of me)

Seemed to start ok and pretty smooth, the app is fairly easy to use and you have a fairly long tick list of forms and letters to sign and fill out. All fine with that to be fair.

We had a chain sale/purchase with a few moving parts, we signed on with CL in May 2024 and over that time I think had 4 or 5 case handlers. At one stage I needed an urgent update on something and had to email our handler 4 times and leave 2 voicemails. The response I got was actually from a new person to say that our handler was now off the case. They simply do not return phone calls and answer complex emails with short one liners.

I received zero actual advice on what was happening or should happen at any stage of the sale/purchase. Towards the end of the sale they noticed that we'd signed a form incorrectly, i think i'd posted it a month before this, so caused stress and delays. On the day of completion we were called at 11.30 as they had miss-priced our property and we had to pay an additional £2,000 before we could collect our keys. After 4 months of stress and uncertainty this was the last thing we needed.

To be fair to them Neil Doherty - the final case handler - did pick up the phone and responded to emails promptly at times towards the end. He certainly knows what he's talking about but he was the ONLY one out of a full team of people.

Maybe it's just the way solicitors are, but they will not respond to anything if there isn't an update. I think they could do well to send even holding emails to say they've not heard anything yet but will do x, y and z rather than waiting for clients to email and call multiple times.

Did they get my house sale and purchase done, yes. Was it mind bendingly frustrating and stressful, yes. Would I use them again? no - I'd rather study law myself.

This review is for a different branch.

Started off fine, downloaded an app and filled out everything the solicitor would need myself, then a massive lack of comms until I mentioned using the Ombudsman, then comms dropped massively and they were slow in sending my money across to my account which took multiple phone calls, emails and messages left in voice mail and with reception until last minute on a Friday leaving me very anxious that something that had gone wrong. Go elsewhere

This review is for a different branch.

I was referred to Chadwick Lawrence, via Joe's Conveyancing, to handle the sale of one house and purchase of another. I had such a bad experience and wouldn't use them again even ic their services were free of that paid me.
Issues include:
1. at least 4 different case handlers - 1 handler went off sick (yes this can happen) but no one was able to access her files so all paperwork completed to date was effectively lost and had to be redone
2. they never returned phone calls
3. basic errors were made ie. my title, the names of the buyers - this took an age to rectify despite me telling them numerous times
4. they did not listen to instructions and carried out checks that I did not require
5. I sent numerous emails asking questions - I even put the questions in bullet points and they may answer one point but ignore the rest
6. they were meant to reply to emails either 24 hours but rarely did

What should have been a relatively straightforward forward process turned into a stressful nightmare fraught with complications.

The final kicks in the teeth that they failed to exchange when I instructed them to and they didn't even have the courtesy to let me know that I had completed.

Avoid this firm at all costs - they are not capable on any level.