OURY CLARK

I engaged Oury Clark following a written assurance from Richard Oury that the first meeting would be free of charge. I was subsequently billed for that meeting, along with an onboarding fee of £250 that did not appear in my Letter of Engagement, was never communicated to me as a chargeable item, and has never been explained despite repeated requests.

To put this in context: I received an invoice of over £800 for advice alone. My tax return was never filed through the firm.

When I raised these concerns, I received the same response from both the partner and the manager: "Your dissatisfaction was dealt with at the time and two credit notes were issued, so I am not prepared to enter into further dialogue about this matter." Neither addressed the substance of my queries.

I later discovered I had been removed as a client without any prior notice or communication. I only found out when I contacted the firm myself. Having paid for onboarding into a client relationship that was then withdrawn without my knowledge, I found this difficult to reconcile.

I would caution anyone considering this firm to get every fee confirmed in writing before engaging. In my experience, Oury Clark failed to honour a written commitment, charged for services without prior disclosure, refused to answer straightforward billing questions, and removed me as a client without notice. That is not how a professional firm should treat its clients, it is how a firm prioritises billing over relationships.

I was onboarded in the middle of May and I was given early June as the date when my self-assessment would be done. I can wait longer but I have just had no communication since 13th June so I feel left in the dark here. So if it will take till August or September I need to be told, not ignored. It's been a pretty frustrating experience. I'm not a big client though - just a sole trader.