Bishopsgate Law Ltd

My experience with Bishopsgate Law during the sale of my property was extremely disappointing. My matter was handled by Kelly Archer and Carolyn Fernandes, and unfortunately the service I received fell well below the standard I expected from a professional conveyancing firm. Throughout the transaction, there were repeated errors in important legal documents and responses to enquiries. Despite providing clear and detailed information by email, incorrect information was repeatedly included in documents prepared by the firm. One enquiry response even stated that my property had been unoccupied for 15 years, which was completely false and directly contradicted the information I had supplied. Errors of this nature had the potential to jeopardise the sale and caused unnecessary delays while they were corrected. There were also financial errors during the transaction. After completion, I was informed that I owed an additional £841 because of a miscalculation on the completion statement. This is a fundamental part of the conveyancing process and should have been identified before completion. Communication throughout was extremely frustrating. Calls were regularly not returned, updates were difficult to obtain, and I spent weeks chasing Bishopsgate Law simply to keep my sale progressing. I was repeatedly asked for information I had already provided, had to explain the same issues to different members of staff, and even had to obtain enquiry responses from the property management company myself because these were not being progressed by the firm. Following a frustrating complaints process, Bishopsgate Law accepted responsibility for some of the mistakes that had been made. They refunded the £841 relating to the completion statement error. After I expressed my dissatisfaction that this did not adequately address the wider issues with the service I had received, they offered me £200 as a "goodwill" gesture, which I was told was the maximum they were prepared to offer. While I acknowledge that they eventually accepted some responsibility, I do not believe this reflected the overall level of service I received or the considerable time, effort, and stress caused by having to manage problems that should never have arisen. I believed the matter had finally been resolved, but my experience did not end there. After posting honest reviews about my experience, Bishopsgate Law sought to have them removed because I had identified the individuals who handled my matter. I found this particularly disappointing because positive reviews on the same platform also identify members of staff, yet those reviews remain published. From my perspective, this created the impression that naming staff only became an issue when the review was critical. Rather than allowing customers to see a balanced account of my experience, I felt the focus shifted towards challenging the review itself. I believe customers should be able to make informed decisions based on genuine experiences, including negative ones, as long as those reviews are truthful and based on the customer's own dealings with the firm. Overall, I found Bishopsgate Law's service disorganised, reactive, and lacking the attention to detail I expected from a professional conveyancing firm. Although they eventually acknowledged some mistakes and provided partial compensation, my overall experience, including the handling of my feedback afterwards, means I would not recommend Bishopsgate Law.

Slow, 7 months and counting to exchange

Carolin & Kelly were exemplary, always avaiblable and reactive if we had questions or needed to talk to them, and pro-active in moving our sale forward. Thank you to both of you !

Use their services if you want a non-hassle free experience! I used Bishopsgate Law because of the good reviews in Trustpilot; however, dealing with them is a complete nightmare. The lack of care for their clients, the insufficiency of communication between their own internal departments and their disorganisation is just appalling. I am trying to buy a property and they have delayed the day for exchanging of contracts three times until now, and the completion day (which should have happened on the 28th, did not happen, then on the 5th, but it did not happen either). My mortgage offer ends on the 20th and I still don’t know when we will be exchanging. I should be on holidays abroad with my family right now but because I know they are a complete mess and a team I cannot trust, I cancelled them, so I could be more accessible and reply to their emails quickly, without causing any further delay. For the same reason, I also asked to be off work on the day we should first exchange contracts. As with most flats in the UK, there is an issue with the ground rent. The seller had to start a lease extension and pass it to me. Emma Allchurch informed me that the seller would have to negotiate the premium, that there would be additional legal fees and that I will get a quote (29th of November), almost two months later, on the 17th of January, I got a quote which turned out to be over £3,000!! Also, it seems these solicitors never confirmed with the lender whether they would accept a 5 years revision of the ground rent. I found out just a few days ago. I got a legal advisor for the lease extension, Petra Jestribkova, who informed me that it is not the seller’s responsibility to negotiate the premium but the buyer, and that I am also responsible for the landlord’s legal fees. So, why did these solicitors keep me waiting for three months, thinking that the seller and landlord were negotiating the premium? At this point I contacted other solicitors, but then I got a bit concerned thinking that I could go from bad to worse, so I decided to proceed with Bishopsgate Law. A big mistake. However, I got some information in regards to the landlord’s legal fees, and it seems the seller should be liable for these costs. I asked Petra, but she replied I am liable for these fees and the valuation costs. She also mentioned that we can explore an informal extension, and I agreed, but she never did. These additional costs were never mentioned by Emma A. either, so it is obvious she never checked with the lease extension team. I don’t know what happened but then I was appointed a new solicitor, Amanda Turco. I asked questions about the service charge which I never got an answer for, I neither got any reply for some questions in regards to the correspondence with the lender, nor for questions regarding the retention from the seller (in case the lease extension takes longer than expected) On the 27th of March, the day before we should be completing (which did not happen, but we were trying to, at least, exchange), I received an email from Petra informing solicitors insisted in completing on the 28th - but they had agreed something different with Amanda-, and I was also informed the “Deed of assignment” was missing. Really? Do they realise the day before exchanging? I had to rush to a post office to print it out, find a witness to sign and post the document, so they could get it the following day. The same day (28th) we should be exchanging, I got an email from Petra asking me for instructions sent the day before, which I had already replied 20 minutes after getting her email, with some questions which were never answered. Beside all these issues, they overcharged me (not much, I must say), but I am still waiting to get this difference back; however, the firm expects you to pay upfront for the lease extension legal fees, even when hardly any disbursement has been made, and we are just at the very first stages of this process, and they don't care if you are left with less than £200 for the rest of the month. So after a few cancellations to exchange of contracts and a couple to complete, I am still waiting… And, of course, they won’t admit any error on their side and won’t apologise at all for all these inconveniences. Unfortunately, I still have to deal with them in regards to the lease extension, but I do hope this can be done as soon as possible because the level of uncertainty, stress and anxiety that I got from these solicitors is unbearable.

Carolyn Fernandes and her team were super patient, professional and thorough throughout the buying process. I stuck with this firm despite the other houses had fallen through, as I just wanted a peace of mind to ensure everything is done properly. Thanks Carolyn and team!

Olivia Bernham and Jasmin Hornsby were recommended to me by a friend. From day one, they have been quick and efficient in replying to any questions that I had and helped me kickstart the process. Once we started receiving the searches reports and replies from the seller, they immediately put together an extensive list of enquiries that needed to be addressed. The seller turned out to be very difficult and uncooperative, but I felt supported by Olivia and Jasmin and they worked in my best interest. They definitely went above and beyond to make sure that everything is correct and done in a timely manner. I would strongly recommend them to anyone!!

Solicitors tagged in
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Jasmin May Hornsby

We instructed Bishopgate law for the sale of our property and we we're given Marianna and Abdulrazig to deal with the conveyancing which I have to say we're amazing there communication was first rate and would have no problem recommending them.

Fantastic service. Marianna Fratello was my assigned Conveyancer and she was prompt, professional and diligent with communication. I never felt out of the loop due to her. Highly recommend and will definately be my go to in the future.

Absolutely shocking experience with these solicitors. Communication was extremely poor throughout the entire process. I was initially assigned two different solicitors, neither of whom responded to my emails or calls until I made a formal complaint. Communication improved briefly for a day or two, but then I was once again unable to get hold of anyone, even when my calls were marked as urgent. On the day of completion, no one would take our calls, despite the importance of the situation. I also didn’t receive my completion statement until around a week after completion, and the funds owed to me were delayed as well. I genuinely felt sorry for the receptionist, who repeatedly tried to get the solicitors to take my calls, only to be ignored. On one occasion, I waited on hold for over 30 minutes without anyone answering, only to receive an email seconds after I had given up and hung up the phone. I would strongly advise others to avoid this firm.