GOWEN & STEVENS LLP

Our buyer instructed this solicitor at the end of April, and unfortunately the experience was disappointing from start to finish.
The case was initially handled by a trainee who failed to contact our solicitors until they were chased. When documents were eventually sent across, they were incomplete, resulting in repeated requests for missing information and unnecessary back-and-forth communication. There were also frequent periods where the solicitor's office was difficult to contact or unresponsive.
The case was later transferred to the originally appointed solicitor, who was an improvement but still worked very slowly. On one occasion, they even complained about being chased for updates, despite the significant delays already experienced.
Matters became worse when the solicitor went on annual leave without arranging a handover to another team member. This left everyone without a point of contact for almost three weeks until management became involved.
Throughout the transaction, there also seemed to be a reluctance to acknowledge that certain legal documents were required, instead suggesting that we were simply insisting on them. In reality, these were standard legal requirements necessary to progress the sale.
Overall, the transaction took far longer than it should have due to poor communication, delays, lack of continuity, and inadequate case management, it happened so often there would be over a week without hearing from them we even started to joke they could only handle one task every 2 weeks and even went as far as hand delivery signed documents to the office.

On the day we had set to complete an exchange suprise suprise more issues, they recieved confimation the day before that the seller was happy to exchange and complete and didnt do anything about it, then chased her the morning of to ask!

Mortgage finally completed in 10 weeks which although this is within the "12 week guide" it was completely chain free so I dread to think how long a chain property would take.

We firmly believe the sale would have progressed much more efficiently had a different conveyancer been used.

Warm, Professional, and Highly Recommended

Gowen & Stevens were absolutely the right choice for us. It was easy to arrange an appointment that worked around our schedule, and the admin team were so friendly and accommodating right from the start.

Our solicitor, Esther Brown, was incredibly knowledgeable and efficient, but also warm, approachable, and easy to talk to. Esther made what could have been a daunting process feel simple and reassuring. She took the time to explain everything clearly and made sure we felt comfortable every step of the way.

We never felt rushed or overwhelmed—just genuinely supported. If we ever need to update our wills in the future, we wouldn’t think twice about going back to Esther. I couldn’t recommend her more highly.

I used Esther Janalli-Brown for a complex probate matter. Not only was she super knowledgeable but also really approachable and practical. Esther was a huge support during a really difficult time for me and has achieved a great outcome. Would 100% recommend Esther and her team!

Have used Esther Janalli-Brown on a really complicated, cross jurisdiction matter and she has been amazing!! Really good knowledge of the law but more importantly practical and sensitive. Thank you Esther, I wouldn’t have got through it without you. Can’t recommend Esther and her team highly enough.

I took them on (Esther Janalli-Brown) to provide Probate services for my Mother for a lump sum of £2,000.

They took a stance on my Mothers Probate with respect to the HMRC submission that was....unique, shall we say? Certainly everyone else I consulted with said they were wrong.

They wouldn't move from that stance and I made it clear that I wouldn't sign any documentation that had their version on it, so we parted ways.

That resulted in being sent a bill for an absurd amount of money (almost £850), even though they had effectively done nothing.

Charging £30+VAT, just to read an email, is obscene.

It's even more obscene when that e-mail is from me to them, pointing out a basic mistake that they had made in a calculation.

When I queried this, I was told that "it was part of the normal process".

So they can make as many mistakes as they want, you can correct them, and they will charge you at every step of the way.

They then refused to return any of my documentation (including my Mothers Will) until I paid their bill in full.

They called it a lien - normal people would call it extortion.

To really add insult to injury, when I tried to pay, they used a payment processor that said the balance was £0. Since they didn't include their bank account details on the invoice, I had to ask them to send them.

Quite frankly, I'm surprised they didn't try and charge me for that email too.

I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw the entire Company with one arm tied behind my back and the other broken in two places.

AVOID!!!!!!!