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Nicki
We instructed Ashtons Legal to act on our first house purchase. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the entire team (Janine, Kirsten and Andrew) for your help. I found the service provided thorough, professional and most importantly consistent. Being a first time buyer, I felt I could ask any queries, the communication was fantastic. The whole process was made as simple and easy as possible. Excellent service throughout, we would highly recommend *****!
A representative from Ashtons Legal LLP responded to this review on 01 March, 2022
Hi Nicki. Thank you very much for your review, it is greatly appreciated. I will pass your feedback on to the team. Best wishes. Vicki
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Pleasure to deal with
Many thanks Andrew. Once again you acted for us in a totally Professional, efficient and thorough way. Thank you - it’s great to know a Solicitor who you can trust totally.
Solicitor named in this review: Andrew Skuse
A representative from Ashtons Legal LLP responded to this review on 12 March, 2024
Thank you for your review. We appreciate the positive feedback you have given us and look forward to working with you in the future.
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Conveyancing services
Legal Conveyancing services required for the sale of a leasehold flat in the Greater London Area. Andrew Skuse was approchable and able to communicate effectively with the London Borough on our behalf when our own communication attempts with various departments within Redbridge Council were not successful. Andrew also displayed great empathy and good communication skills with all third parties during this legal process.
Solicitor named in this review: Andrew Skuse
A representative from Ashtons Legal LLP responded to this review on 04 March, 2024
Thank you for your review. We appreciate the positive feedback you have given us and look forward to working with you in the future.
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Fantastic work dealing with bridging loan
This year we have tried to purchase one house which fell through due to a bad survey and then successfully purchased a second one.
The house we did purchase was a bit more complex as we used bridging finance and chose to keep Andrew as our solicitor instead of just using the lender's solicitor. I believe we made the right decision there as Andrew was on top of everything, he has been the only solicitor I trust that when I don't hear anything thats because there is nothing to actually do.
Andrew turned things round his end within the day and pushed things back onto others which took days and days to get completed. He worked with a very difficult seller's solicitor who had poor communication and a seller's estate agent who kept adding pressure when there was nothing we could do due to the seller's solicitor.
He was more than willing to get on the phone with the lender to knock all the issues out and dealt well with their questions even when they were duplicates of already answered questions. He also dealt amazingly well with us as clients, I can imagine I was an irritating client wanting things to progress every day and he never failed to deal with us professionally.
We are going to be selling our current house shortly and will 100% request that Andrew handle it.
Solicitor named in this review: Andrew Skuse
A representative from Ashtons Legal LLP responded to this review on 10 January, 2024
Thank you for your review. We appreciate the positive feedback you have given us and look forward to working with you in the future.
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Calm and professional conveyancing
Thank you once again to Andrew Skuse and his team for handling our house sale in an efficient manner. Andrew’s clear and concise communication throughout was much appreciated.
Solicitor named in this review: Andrew Skuse
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Good experience with Ashtons, specifically Andrew Skuse
We were First Time Buyers for a rather complicated sale, which completed in February. Ashtons, and specifically Andrew Skuse, dealt with the entire buying process in a professional, approachable and efficient manner, including jumping on multiple personal phone calls when the sellers created sudden deadlines and we needed additional urgent support. We would recommend their services.
Solicitor named in this review: Andrew Skuse
A representative from Ashtons Legal LLP responded to this review on 15 August, 2023
Thank you for reviewing our services. We appreciate your positive feedback and hope to retain your custom in the future.
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Continuous support beyond the expected
We were recommended Ashtons Legal by our parents in law. We were lucky enough to have Andrew Skuse working with us on our first property purchase, which has been nothing but a pleasure. Despite the busy time of year, Andrew was nothing but attentive and supportive throughout our journey and was able to call us to talk through documentation and explain what was going on in accessible terms. Not only this but Andrew supported beyond the required, for example enabling us to liaise with Surveyors and estate agents to avoid confusion or delay. He was prompt and so was every aspect of the service, and always available even outside of hours to answer our queries and alleviate concerns as the completion date drew closer. Many thanks and would highly recommend.
Solicitor named in this review: Andrew Skuse
A representative from Ashtons Legal LLP responded to this review on 17 January, 2023
Thank you for your positive review. We appreciate your positive feedback and hope to retain your custom in the future.
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If Andrew gets allocated to you...walk away.
We appointed Ashtons as our solicitors on May 30th and Andrew Skuse was allocated to us. Our case should’ve been extremely simple, first time buyers with a 25% deposit buying from a couple going into rented, no chain on either side. Nothing overly complex and we set a tentative completion date for the 22nd August.
Throughout the process we’ve been chasing for updates and getting vague, almost automated responses from Andrew. His communication is SHOCKING.
By week 8 Andrew hadn’t raised any issues and we believed everything was okay although we were starting to worry. We emailed asking specific detailed questions (including about our completion date which had been previously raised and Andrew hadn’t ever raised an issue against) and got a bounce back that Andrew is now conveniently on holiday for three weeks but someone would be picking up in his absence.
Well after four phone calls and multiple emails and no response it made sense why we were being ignored. It was the 18th AUGUST (yes AUGUST. 12 weeks later) that someone finally responded. His assistant informed us that Andrew was missing a document (that we had all along and he only bothered to chase at the end of JULY). Because of this document NOTHING has been done.
We had WASTED 12 weeks trusting that the solicitor we were paying was actually doing his job. NO SEARCHES, NO MORTGAGE, NO CONTRACTS. We’re 3 months in and haven’t even left the start line, although maybe this was our misunderstanding as after all the Ashtons website does state the process would take 10-12 weeks. We just thought this meant from appointment to completion, it didn’t occur to us that this was their timeline to actually start anything.
Meanwhile our seller is obviously getting concerned and we’re reassuring her that everything is fine.. because Andrew hasn’t flagged any concerns … makes sense I suppose. You need to actually be doing your job to spot any problems.
So thank you to Ashtons and the complete and utter incompetence of Andrew for making a stressful process TEN TIMES WORSE (and almost costing us our house in the process)
We did raise a formal complaint through the official channels and they did waive their fees.. which given the headache and stress they gave us was the bare minimum (why would we pay for a service they haven’t provided ?) but we did also accept there wasn’t really much more they could do. After all they couldn't make us complete any quicker. We just had to accept the process starting 12 weeks late.
We also got allocated a new solicitor who started off extremely helpful and pushed things through as fast as she could (and if we had her from the start this would probably be a 4 star review given that she also gave us a date to complete at the end of September which sailed past as well) but ultimately our purchase still took almost DOUBLE the advertised time without a valid or acceptable reason as to why.
I seriously suggest (for the sake of your own sanity and mental health) that you avoid Ashtons at all cost. Find a solicitor that actually does something in 12 WEEKS and is prepared to communicate with you through the process. Ashtons will just cause stress and push to you a breakdown. There is simply no reason it should've taken from the 30th MAY- 26th OCTOBER for us to complete.
The impact of Andrew doing NOTHING for so long has now meant we've had to pay more for
-New Carpets (Costs went up in September)
-New appliances (went up 15% in September)
-Additional months rent
-Tradesmen (labour costs went up in October)
If we can spare at least one person the stress and heartache we went through (plus all the additional money we need to spend as prices and labour costs have increased )then it will be worth it.
Solicitor named in this review: Andrew Skuse
A representative from Ashtons Legal LLP responded to this review on 30 November, 2022
Thank you for your comments; we value all feedback. During the early weeks of your matter, meaningful and proactive work was carried out on your file. However, we acknowledge that it didn’t progress as quickly as it should have. As mentioned in your review, we did waive our fees to reflect our regret regarding your experience, as we take any complaint about our services very seriously. At Ashtons Legal, we seek to provide an excellent service to our clients at all times, and as you can see from the other reviews on this page and website, your experience certainly isn’t typical of the feedback we receive from clients. We are glad you were satisfied with the service you received post-complaint; the solicitor who took over your matter did her best to push your transaction through as quickly as possible. While your target move date at the end of September wasn’t met, we must highlight that many elements outside our control can slow down the conveyancing process. As a side note concerning the information we publish on our website, the 10 – 12 weeks is stated as the usual length of time for the conveyancing process from start to finish, and that ‘this is only a general guide as each transaction will be different.’ If you wish to discuss your matter further, please do not hesitate to contact our Client Care Partner, Tom Bailey. Once again, please accept our sincere apologies, and we wish you well in your new home.
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Sale of rental property
I have dealt with Ashtons and its precedessors for over 20 years, involving trusts, probate and recently the sale of an inherited property and I have always been very pleased with their help, advice and end results. Andrew Skuse and his team have just successfully processed the property sale in three months despite the inevitable issues that arise. Email was the main communication method and three way links between myself, the estate agent and Andrew worked well.
Solicitor named in this review: Andrew Skuse
A representative from Ashtons Legal LLP responded to this review on 30 June, 2022
Thank you for your review. We appreciate the positive feedback you have given us and look forward to working with you in the future.
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Professional and hugely efficient
Ashtons conveyancing team were fantastic throughout our process. We had a few complications along the way which Ashtons dealt with in a prompt professional way. Email communication was all that was required throughout. I only had to speak to them on the phone to appoint and then on the day of completion which is testament to there speedy responses. Being a client of Ashtons legal certainly gave us piece of mind that we were being looked after throughout our sale and purchase.
Solicitor named in this review: Andrew Skuse
A representative from Ashtons Legal LLP responded to this review on 30 June, 2022
Thank you for your review. We appreciate the positive feedback you have given us and look forward to working with you in the future.
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Speedy and Efficient Conveyancing
We have to thank Andrew Skuse for the sterling job he did getting our sale and purchase completed in good time. We snuck into the reduced Stamp Duty deadline for our purchase which was astonishing considering we entered the fray quite late.
Thank You Andrew.
John and Manuela Young
Solicitor named in this review: Andrew Skuse
A representative from Ashtons Legal LLP responded to this review on 24 November, 2021
Thank you for your positive feedback. We're proud to have provided you with excellent service!
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