Waterstone Legal

Oliverta is in a league of her own

When it comes to legal matters — especially immigration — there’s only one person I trust: Oliverta at Waterstone Solicitors.

I’ve used her services before and I’ll continue to use her for anything I need in the future. Once you experience the way Oliverta works, there’s no going anywhere else.

She fights for your case like it’s her own. Her dedication, knowledge, and confidence are unmatched. She doesn’t just handle your case — she owns it, guiding you through every step with clarity and calm.

If you want someone who genuinely cares and gets real results, Oliverta is the one. A true professional and a powerful ally.

Waterstone Legal handled our conveyancing, but the process was made far more stressful than necessary. Communication was consistently poor – emails went unanswered at critical moments, and neither our solicitor Mahmut Aksanoglu nor the Managing Partner Shah Ali were reachable by phone.

I lodged two formal complaints via email, both ignored. While the transaction did eventually complete, the lack of client care and disregard for their own service standards was deeply disappointing. Look elsewhere if you want to feel supported during your purchase.

We had an awful experience with our simple, chain-free purchase with Waterstone Legal acting as conveyancers.

This included filing a formal complaint, with several follow-ups and broken promises, and having to find and pay another legal firm £600 on short notice due a mistake by Waterstone Legal (which they did not reimburse). These delays put our purchase at risk, and made the entire process incredibly stressful.

We'd recommend against choosing Waterstone Legal as a conveyancer.

Full details:

Our initial solicitor, Karina, disappeared for several weeks and when she did appear, she failed to answer basic direct questions. We eventually learned from the estate agent that the seller's side had sent the draft contract pack two weeks prior, but it hadn't even been acknowledged. After raising this with the firm, nothing improved. We ended up having to raise a formal complaint.

Jasmine handled the complaint, apologised for delays she attributed to staff sickness (which we were never told about), and reassigned us to Mahmut. She promised proactive weekly updates and a 3-day response time. This never happened. We received no weekly updates and were again left in the dark, forcing us to follow up on our complaint just a few weeks later. Their "Perfect Portal" app was completely pointless, with milestones being updated months late or showing contradictory information.

During enquiries Waterstone Legal asked the sellers pointless questions which we did not want, dragging out the process. For example, repeatedly demanding a gas safety certificate for a property that has no gas supply!

Just before exchange, Mahmut incorrectly insisted we obtain Independent Legal Advice. Despite us explaining his mistake to him, he insisted on this. This forced us to frantically find and pay another law firm £600, who also confirmed it was unnecessary. Waterstone Legal never acknowledged their mistake or offered to reimburse us for this cost.

And then on what we expected to be exchange day (which had already been delayed multiple times) we had a frantic scramble and it got moved because Waterstone Legal failed to send required documents. Even after exchange, we had to chase a month post-completion to confirm our Stamp Duty was paid.

If you value clear communication, proactive service, and a stress-free process, I would strongly advise you to look elsewhere.

Much like the review below, my overall experience with this firm was far from great, from the start and beyond the end (which I'll get to).

First off, this was a simple chain free purchase and sale. I chose Waterstone on the back of the seemingly endless 5 star reviews, which is confusing in itself. Initial instructed at the end of January on the sale, followed swiftly by the purchase a week around 10 days later. The SDLT deadline was end of March and I was filling aware this was unlikely to hit that deadline. Whilst Shah (the Partner) was very quick to request the initial £600, this was not allocated to a solicitor until a week later (as she was off sick). Fine, I accept that.
Following this, the next 2 months seemed to go fairly smoothly once this was allocated to Nithi Kumar, however this was short lived. Upon their. Realisation that this will not meet the SDLT deadline and therefore, no longer fit for expedition, the foot was firmly taken off the gas. Admittedly some issues were beyond their control, however basic things were continuously missed . The firm rarely offer advice, guidance or just pick up the phone to speak to you.
Nithi required constant chasing from my agent and myself, to the point where weeks would often fly by with nothing. Also, when a solicitor at this firm is on annual leave, the file is not passed or looked at by anyone. This occured during the final, very stressful weeks leading to me having to email Shah with an email of dissatisfaction. Usually, firms treat these as complaints and respond swiftly, unfortunately not in this case as there was no response after a week, which prompted me to constantly need to call and chase their office.
As a positive, on Nithi's return, the final week of completion was as smooth as can be expected, but by then the damage had already been done.
I had planned on writing a review but left it be, as the job was done and it's a firm I wouldn't use again.
However, 3 weeks after completing, my agent called stating they had not received their (well deserved) fee. Waterstone had simply failed to send it on, despite the agent issuing the invoice. Not only is is embarrassing for me but simply unacceptable as the T&Cs stipulated by my agent stated an 8% fee will be charged if the fee is not transferred within 7 days. Thankfully, my agent was well aware of this firms lack of attention and did not charge an additional fee. If the fee had been charged, I certainly would have billed it to Waterstone! No explanation was provided to me but my agent advised this was sorted.

As you can tell, this probably deserved a one star, however as the matter did eventually conclude, I feel this is harsh. With that said, if you are looking to instruct them for a property purchase/sale and if you are looking to complete within a reasonable time, do not instruct Waterstone Legal. Property also appears to be a small part of that they do, which possibly explains why no one else can deal with queries when someone is absent.

Oh and they have an app which is completely pointless as it is never updated.

I regret using Waterstone legal. Working with Mahmut has been incredibly painful. A very simple house purchase (no chain) which should have been easy has been inexplicably difficult.
For over 6 weeks Mahmut did not respond to emails or calls from us or the sellers. Paperwork has been issued riddled with sloppy errors and material inaccuracies.

I strongly recommend finding another solicitor your conveyancing needs.