Went with Ackroyd Legal for my flat purchase and it has been an absolute disaster. From the beginning, I recevied essentially 0 contact after paying the initial fee, following that it seemed that nothing would move/get resolved until I phoned up dozens of times. Emailing is pointless, as 99% of them go unanswered, promised call backs never materalise. It got to the point that the seller threatened to pull out of the sale unless things moved on. I finally completed on the purchase and I thought that would be the end of it.

Unfortunatly, a year and a half later the management company has still not received the post completion documents despite dozens of emails and phone calls to Ackroyd legal to do so, meaning that I am unable to deal with the management company/pay service charge putting me at legal and financial risk;

Additionally Ackroyd Legal have been ignoring communications from the land registry about the transfer application; and the land registry is now saying they will cancel the application unless Ackroyd legal responds.

I would not recomend ackroyd legal to anyone, and advise anyone else to look elsewhere.

We were looking to sell and buy a house at the end of 2021 and found Ackroyd Legal online. I admit that I was a bit concerned about some of the reviews I read about them but the price was good and incorrectly believed that it didn’t matter too much who ‘conveyed’ the move. That was my biggest mistake. The whole process was a faff from start to finish which resulted in them ‘forgetting’ to pay off our old mortgage and also forgetting to register our ownership with land registry (among many other shortcomings)

I am not into naming and shaming but our case handler, Chirag Chopra, was at best not experienced and at worst intentionally obstructive. He was unresponsive to emails and request from myself and from conveyancers from the buyers of our house. In the end the conveyancers for the buyers and the estate agents ran everything through me to ensure that it was followed up on. It was far from a smooth and easy going process.

To be fair Chirag came under a solicitor Peter Benjamin who literally was missing in action on all and any communications. If he was setting an example then I am not surprised that Chirag was so poor.

Once we had dragged ourselves through about 4 months of absolutely shoddy conveyancing we moved into the house. By this point I had made a number of complaints to Ackroyd legal including the non existent complaints department, the CEO, the accounts team and the solicitor. None of which were followed up on.

After we moved in we found that Ackroyd legal had not paid off the old mortgage in full! So we spent another number of stressful days getting them to sort this payment out!!

I made a complaint to the Legal Ombudsman as I felt it was my duty to inform them of Stirling Ackroyd legals many shoddy practices hoping to draw a line under everything.

Unfortunately it was not to be. By April 2022, 5 months after moving into our house we were looking to have some insulation installed via the government warm homes scheme. In order to do this we needed to show our proof of land registry. It turns out that Sterling Ackroyd legal had not bothered to register our ownership. So again we make contact with them and they slowly start the process. We just about lose the opportunity to get the work done because it is taking so long. Chirag finally gets the registration done and then we receive a fine from land registry as ‘we’ aka our shoddy solicitors, have taken over 4 months to register. So begins another series of emails with Chirag at Ackroyd legal and thankfully they get the fine sorted at their cost.

The saga of selling and buying with Stirling Ackroyd Legal was a horrible experience. I don’t believe it was only Peter and Chirag who were responsible but the whole company. They were not present or communicative and were not conducive to making it pleasant or smooth. In fact they put the whole deal in jeopardy!!

Use these guys at your own risk. The sales pitch was ok but once you sign with them that’s when it went downhill for us. Pay a little more and check the reviews and go with someone else. At the very least avoid those individuals mentioned.

Rey Caliskan was my Conveyancer – very unprofessional. I lost my first house because of her, after 6 months of praying to her to answer back or to do anything, I was almost kneeling on my emails for an answer. Then I discovered that the seller sold to someone else because of lack of communication and was unhappy with my Solicitor.

My Solicitor was greedy, was overloaded with cases and was unable to manage the pressure from all the clients. She was also admitted to hospital as a result.

Shame on you, you ruined everything, was my first dream that you turned into a nightmare. Till today I'm still on rent because of Ackroyd Legal. I'm wasting all my savings on rent instead of spending on my house, it's Karma.

Only two things needed for this review-
1. There should be a ZERO STAR option.
2. STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY.

If you want zero communication and complete in-competent conveyancers then go ahead and sign up.

We had an awful conveyancing experience. We felt like the firm is absolutely not interested in our case. Our solicitor (Peter Benjamin) was almost impossible to contact, forcing me to do hourly phone calls throughout the day to try to get hold of him when I had an urgent enquiry. Every time the secretary was saying he is at the meeting or on another line. He didn't respond to emails either form me or other solicitors for days causing many unnecessary delays. The firm did not have a system in place for anyone else to answer my questions or deal with urgent matters when he was not in the office. To add to the communication issues, the solicitor did not fight our case with other solicitors, did not show any initiative and did not give any useful advice. Next time I would pay double for a different solicitor.

I used Stirling Ackroyd between July and December for a property sale and purchase. In the entire 5 months I did not receive ONE proactive update on progress or next steps. I didn’t have any contact whatsoever from my actual solicitor (Peter Benjamin) nor did he return one email or phone call during the entire process. I dealt entirely with the paralegal (Chirag Chopra) who whilst tried to help was clearly over worked and never returned calls or emails when promised. I had complaints from both my buyer and seller that Stirling Ackroyd were the sole reason the process took so long. They also didn’t return calls or emails from other parties. To top it all, one month after completion I received an unpaid stamp duty bill (still have not heard back about this) and complaints from my estate agent that their bill was not paid, as expected from the proceeds, nor was I advised to pay it. Unbelievably shocking service. Do not use!!

Worst company I've ever dealt with in my 20+ years as a property owner. I have had to postpone selling my property due to the total incompetence of the firm. Peter Benjamin does not reply to any calls or emails. AVOID!!