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Ilia Litvinov
Paid £90, received no answer to the key question and no promised follow-up
We approached Huneewoth Solicitors for immigration advice. Before attending, we were expressly told by telephone that the initial consultation was free. However, when we attended the appointment, we were charged £90. The fee itself would not have been the main issue if we had received the professional advice we came for. We did not. The solicitor was unable to answer the material immigration question we had specifically sought advice about. We were told that clarification would need to be obtained from the Home Office and that the solicitor would contact them and get back to us. No follow-up was provided. We waited for approximately two weeks and repeatedly tried to obtain an update. Instead of receiving the promised answer, we were eventually spoken to in a manner we found extremely rude and dismissive and were told that we were “not clients” because there was no contract between us — despite having paid £90 for the consultation. We then submitted a formal written complaint and requested a refund. The firm ultimately refused to refund the £90 and stated in its final response that it had “provided answers to all your queries”. That does not reflect our experience: the material question was not answered, which was precisely why the solicitor had said that clarification from the Home Office was required. Even the complaint required chasing. The firm's own complaints procedure says that complaints will initially be acknowledged in writing within seven days; ours was not. Complaints Procedure We have now referred the matter to the Legal Ombudsman. For a paid immigration consultation, I reasonably expected either a professional answer to the question we came with or, if further research was genuinely necessary, the promised follow-up afterwards. We received neither. Based on our experience, I would not use Huneewoth Solicitors again and would not recommend the firm for immigration advice.
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