WATERSTONE CHAMBERS LLP

I would advise anyone needing legal representation to steer clear of this firm and its dishonest solicitor. We were assigned Jasmine Chaudry and she is thoroughly dishonest claiming that there was an issue with a pending application on the head lease which could affect our transfer of equity. Several months of back and forth emails and calls and nothing progressed only for her to later told us that the pending application won't affect us after all. She also had the cheek to try to charge us nearly 2000 pounds for this transfer of equity and demanding upfront payment before she submit the application to the lnad registry saying it is company policy despite the fact that we were only quoted £200 to do the transfer of equity and threatening us that the work won't go anyway unless we pay her this amount of which I secretly recorded her in a phone conversation doing this. It has taken me a while but I am compiling the evidence to submit a formal complaint with the Solicitors regulations authority and intend to pursue the matter. Please steer well clear if you do not want to get ripped off, threatened and blackmailed.

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.