Kirklands Solicitors LLP

DO NOT USE.
Slade, their top conveyancer lies to clients about contract law. Slade should be struck off for telling me completing occurs when 'they' have the funds, not me, the seller. As I corrected you, Slade; the contract is between buyer and seller, not the conveyancers so the contract is NOT complete untill funds are cleared in the sellers bank, not yours matey. You are a devious liar, Slade, and your employee Michelle is incompetent at best, useless, I'd say. I had to answer questions from my buyer that's what I oay you for!! Refund my fee you differ not do yput work. Michelle 'found a letter in her pile' after a week, what a joke!
Funny though after standing my ground, refusing to vacate, the funds cleared in my bank 15 minutes later, so kirklands had MY MONEY all the time! Again Slade lied.
Michelle also ignores instructions and ploughs on regardless. I wanted complete and exchange on same day, requested this in almost every email to her; she replied, "Thank you for your instruction." lol then why was there a week in between?
Michelle is a liar, too.
This firm is dangerous, with no regard for clients instructions.
INCOMPETANT LIARS

These solicitors, specifically Peter Blake were acting on behalf of the buyers of our house. They uncommunicative, slow, archaic and played the classic "it's your solicitor" blame game. They didn't do anything for many weeks and then refused to take phone calls, insisted that solicitors acting for other buyers in the chain send responses in writing, rather than taking electronic responses. They continually blamed others for their unresponsiveness and slowness and in general were instrumental in slowing down the whole chain. They also insisted that our buyers physically visit them to conduct signing documents when it's perfectly possible to do this remotely and speed up the process - there are plenty of online only solicitors doing this. The conveyancing industry needs to be bought into the twenty first century and when it does, dinosaurs like these will fold. Avoid !

I have used Kirklands twice. The first time was for conveyancing, and everything went smoothly. The second time was for litigation, and the service was exceptionally poor. I had to chase two or three times to get replies to emails, and there were weeks of inaction by the solicitor. I eventually asked him whether he wished to continue to be instructed, or whether I should find another solicitor. I had paid £600 in advance, and at one point I received a letter requesting a further £750 to progress the action. I asked whether this would be recoverable through the litigation (if not, it would have been uneconomic to continue the action); my email about this was never answered, and I finally gave up on the company. However, on asking them for a receipt for the original £600 over a year later, I was surprised to be given an invoice for a further £528. I found this inexplicable, as the letter the previous year did not mention any outstanding amount, and they had undertaken no work since then. I received no reply to my email suggesting that asking for extra money after such a long period and without a clear rationale or prior notification was unacceptable. After more than a year again, rather than taking responsibility for what appeared to be an accounting error, they threatened legal action. In my view, this is an egregiously poor way to conduct affairs.