I have never in all my years dealt with a less professional law firm than Ackroyd Legal and their solicitor Gozde Tanis.
I hired them to do my purchase and sale in November last year.
First, it took days to weeks to get responses from Gozde from the outset. It got so bad that at different times, I had to start sending messages through the agents in order to get the deals over the line as relying on Gozde meant nothing happened.
During the preparation of documents she at different times included the incorrect sale price, the incorrect mortgage amount and the incorrect mortgage rate. Please note that this means had I not noticed that they had the incorrect sale price, I would have been agreeing to pay £4750 over the agreed amount.
On the day of completion (24/11/23) I have endless emails from the agents saying that no one can get hold of her and I was sitting outside the new property with the movers incurring hundreds if pounds in late fees.
In order to mitigate my losses I went to the agents office and waited so that I could get the key as fast as possible. I completed at 15:03, took the keys and started to move in. I only received an email at 15:47 from Gozde telling me that I had completed. Had I waited for her before getting the keys, I would have been down another £150.
I thought I was done with Ackroyd Legal and Gozde and could put this all behind me until nearly two weeks after completion, the agent contacts me and says they have not been paid. I contact Gozde and apparently, they only pay the agents if we request it (despite my experience being the opposite) and at not point asked if they should include the agents fee in their bills. Ok, so I pay the agents separately despite having already based my budgeting on the numbers provided my Ackroyd which have now been thrown out.
Thinking the nightmare was finally over, I got on with my life. On Friday, nearly a month and a half after completion, I get copied in to an email chain from Gozde where I am informed that I owe over £500 to the management company for various Notices and Charges.
Apparently, according to them, the management company were never sent the required deeds and notices and were unaware that I had bought the property. Gozde only sent it to them on Friday once they have realised something was up and chased her.
During the purchase process I was told that there may be fees with regard to restrictive covenants, I was fine with that. I was not given a bill or given an indication of costs during the purchasing process by my solicitors. I imagine this would have been best practice but that is not what I received from Ackroyd Legal.
When queried on any of these points, I get the cookie cutter, you signed the document thus we are not responsible. At no point have I gotten an apology or in fact any one taking any responsibility for any of the multitude of problems that occurred.
Hiring Ackroyd Legal was in my opinion on of the worst decisions of my life.